Blog and Bird of Paradise

To begin, I just wanted to promote a blog I am helping to edit for the History of Art and Visual Culture department at the University of Birmingham - The Golovine. It's a great website for anyone interested in art, film and visual culture, whether you have any prior knowledge or not, it is well worth visiting!

It's updated regularly with reviews of art exhibitions, news of upcoming exhibitions, information about events occurring at the Barber Art Gallery, current research in the department, opportunities for History of Art graduates and more general news from the art world.

You can also check out and like the department on Facebook, Art History, Film and Visual Studies, University of Birmingham, which also links to interesting articles and websites regarding art and film related topics.

Now on to the Vintage!

I went Christmas shopping today, but after a few hours I couldn't help but purchase, with some of my savings, this amazing brown vintage hat on which was perched a jeweled avian friend resplendent with exuberant plumage.

Inside the hat I found this stamp, which is difficult to make out but it looks like it says 'opera'- I like to think it is a suggestion for where to wear it, similar to when you buy an ingredient and they suggest recipes you could create with it.

I was intrigued by the fact that the hat has travelled all the way from America and so I did a bit of research about the label and found out that Gimbels was an American Department store corporation which began in 1887, I also found this post about the store.

With regards to my outfit choice, I decided to wear my French Connection white coat with white fur trim and a recent purchase of mine, a late 1940s wool two piece from the amazing FabGabs shop on etsy, which was modeled by the beautiful Solanah from the always brilliant and inspirational blog- Vixen Vintage.

Yours, sorting out Christmas decorations and wrapping presents, 

Evalily Harlow xxx