And now, something completely different. This 1982 annual is for the British "girls magazine" Judy, and a what an odd thing it is. Mostly comic strip short stories, but I was surprised at how dark and judgemental they are, especially for a magazine aimed at 10-12 year olds! Not just mean-girl-at-school-gets-her-come-uppence, but actual death and hell-fire. There's a healthy dose of the supernatural, and the same plot twists get used multiple times. I didn't read this as a kid, and looking at this sampler-set, I suspect I would have eaten it up.
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This collection of knitting and crochet patterns is a little different, as instead of being published by a yarn manufacturing company, it's from a soap company - to be specific, Lux Soap, which wants you to use Lux to wash all your woollens. There are several stylistic differences between this book and the ones published by Patons and Baldwins which are roughly the same age. This book looks a little more slick, with larger print, and the models look more like professional models and a little less like locals the photographer calls on when needed. It would be interesting to know what the process was for sourcing knitting patterns at this time - did "ladies magazines" and advertising booklets like this have their own designers, did they source from yarn companies, was there a pool of independent designers? Because if not published by a yarn company, there doesn't seem to be any consistency as to whether a patterns specifies a brand of yarn or not. It makes sense for Lux not to specify one brand of yarn in its patterns, as it is trying to convince you that it is perfect to clean all yarn brands and types. However, it does contain a mixture of patterns with no specific brand and with branded yarn recommendations. So how did they get the patterns? Are they reprinting with permission from other sources? Soliciting? Is there an agent for knitting pattern creators? It's the little mysteries like this that are part of my fascination with vintage magazines. Being essentially a branded booklet, there are few ads, and those are for Lux soap, with the exception of the final page which has an ad for Clark's and Coate's threads. "Anchor" stranded embroidery cotton has been around for a long time! 52 pages (including the cover pages) with 15 photographs (plus 2 on the covers) - compare the models here with those in the 'Lacy Jumpers' patterns from 1933 to see what I mean about the professionalism of the models. Only a few ads, but there are several "helpful hints" that really want you to use Lux. Also, the individual styles don't carry names, which is a change from what we've seen so far. Also, there are some lovely hats to be seen on the models.
I really don't know what to say about that colour name. Different times, sure but... sigh. No, today I don't have words. You can assume I'm not ok with it, and fill in the emotional maelstrom yourselves. And yes, I did consider *-censoring the word. |
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Anwyn is a hack with a scanner and a love of vintage magazines. ArchivesCategories
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