Favours and Carnival Novelties
Favours and Carnival Novelties At special events throughout history there has always been the desire to augment festivities with novelties of all kinds, especially at special occasions like New Year and weddings. Toward the end of the 19th century as dances, balls, galas and the new concept of the smart restaurant proliferated on both sides [...]
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The cult of sunbathing
The cult of sunbathing Nowadays, despite health scares, most of us yearn to lounge on a beach in the summer, wear skimpy beachwear, dowse ourselves in delicious smelling oils and sprays and acquire a gorgeous dark tan designed to become the envy of our friends. But it is strange to think that sunbathing is a [...]
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The Boudoir Doll Craze
The ‘Boudoir’ Doll Craze By the mid 1920s Europe and America were immersed in a ‘doll craze’. All smart women had to have a ‘poupee’ doll and they were seen everywhere. They were not played with but were decorative or used as an accessory and took many different forms with a huge range of styles [...]
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Cocktails
Cocktails Cocktails became a huge fad in 1920s Europe as America languished in prohibition. For many, they were regarded as undoubtedly ‘America’s chief contribution to the pleasures of civilisation.’ To unravel the origins of the cocktail and individual cocktails requires wading through a bewildering concoction of myth, legend and misinformation. There are as many theories [...]
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The Fascination of Mah Jong
The Fascination of Mah Jong One of the more curious fads that took America and then Europe by storm in the 1920s was the Chinese game of Mah Jong the result of a long history of the West’s cultural assimilation of many aspects of Chinese culture. The rise of Mah Jong must be seen in [...]
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