A work of (t)art: London’s 90s Tart Cards

We Brits may be considered the stiff upper lip of the Western world, but we do have our kinky side that often comes out of the woodwork in surprisingly public mediums. During the 90s one of the icons of London, the red phone booth, also became synonymous with forbidden pleasures due to the tart cards plastered inside.

Tart cards were a form of advertising used by call girls, prostitutes, dominatrix and all manner of naughty ladies of the night. These cards touted all sorts of forbidden pleasures, from spanking to transsexuals, and ended up becoming an accidental art, which reflected the social state of London at the time.

Up until 1984, advertising in telephone boxes was illegal, as the boxes belonged to the Post Office and thus the Government. However, when British Telecom was privatised, a loophole was created, and prostitutes moved their cards from news agents to phone boxes, where their clients could immediately make contact.

The early cards were surprisingly modest, only suggesting the type of pleasure provided, with the occasional sketch of a female form/face. This began to change in the early 90s when colour was introduced, and there seemed to be a fad for day-glo cards. Saucy humour was much in evidence, yet the cards seemed to have an unspoken rule that nipples and genitalia should be concealed (which is still often the case today).

The charm of these early cards was the poor printing and artwork, showing how little money was invested in the advertising. Not to mention that many printers would not have accepted these jobs, which allowed small back-street print-shops the chance to rake in cash.

It was rare that the women would put up their own cards, and they often hired “carders” to do so. Placing 600 cards a day could earn you up to £200, big bucks for someone with enough stamina!

In September 2001 it was made a criminal offence to display tart cards in phone boxes, which could see you convicted for up to six months in jail or a £5000 fine. Of course, this only proved to slow the rate of cards, and cause the carders to become stealthier in their business. Today, Councils strive to remove the cards often within half an hour of them being placed, and with the age of the internet, this is proving vastly uneconomical for the women. 

Most of today’s cards also lack the wordplay and humour of their predecessors. They are usually glamorously tacky, featuring garish photoshopped women and eye-catching fonts.

While we do not condone prostitution we feel that this period of time was key in London’s sexual history, showing that typical British humour. Many feel the same, as there are many private collections as well as those of museums and libraries. Apparently the Wellcome Library includes one of the world’s largest collections of tart cards, which can be viewed upon request!

The stark graphics of the early tart cards was the inspiration behind our Oh You Tease retro set, which features a black and red print of bound women, whips, high heels and thigh high boots!

Oh You Tease

Lady Unmentionable: Where to find slips

Can you recommend any places to buy slips, I too suffer from the garter belt showing slightly through clothes ? X

- Lorraine (Via the Playful Promises Facebook)

For those not in the know, a slip is an undergarment worn between lingerie and clothing, helping clothing hang more smoothly, creating a desirable shape. The slip offers many benefits such as preventing certain fabrics irritating the skin, protecting finer fabrics from perspiration and also offering warmth to the wearer.

In the 1920’s slips were introduced as an alternative to corsets, fitting in with the looser fashion of the time as well as freeing up metal to be used for the production of essentials for World War l. Obviously the slip isn’t getting as much praise as it deserves; not only did it allow women a new form of freedom, but helped the war effort!

As Lorraine has mentioned, wearing a slip does wonders for smoothing down what I call "garter bumps" when wearing tight-fitting clothing. Not only that but it's a sexy little piece of lingerie in itself!

Playful Promises currently offers a few slips on sale, including gorgeous silk chemises in jade and lilac, which both come with matching panties. If you'd also like a little bit of a quirky update to the traditional slip, why not go for the Lyla Playsuit in Black or Blush?

If that doesn't tickle your fancy, slips and teddies are available from a variety of retailers on the internet, some of our favourites include Kiss Me Deadly and Ayten Gasson!

Also, if you happen to be popping by the Playful Promises Boxpark boutique make sure you also visit Brick Lane with its cute vintage shops and grab yourself an authentically vintage bargain!

Tailoring the '20s: Boardwalk Empire

I'm a huge fan of epic American tv shows; you know, the ones EVERYONE is talking about. I've obsessed over LOST, I've shunned Heroes, I drooled over Spartacus: Blood and Sand (don't judge me), and of course I've spent hours and hours of my life watching Mad Men. But you know, I'm sick of hearing about the latter. Although brilliant, and full of Jon Hamm, Mad Men is not the ONLY good retro show full of jaw-dropping costumes.

In fact, when it comes to costumes, Mad Men is surely beaten by Boardwalk Empire. There, I said it.

Set in the boom town of Atlantic City, NJ during the prohibition, Boardwalk Empire is as rich a story-line as it is visual. Just finished up with it's second season, with another in production, this Martin Scorsese produced show is BIG budget. The pilot alone cost $30million dollars, and no expense was spared on the clothing.

Costume is a key aspect of the show - in the 1920's clothing was the most important factor for showing social status, as it had been for centuries beforehand. Like many of the personas in Boardwalk Empire, the lead character, Nucky, (played by Steve Buscemi) is based on a real person who was known for being a snappy dresser.

"The wardrobe is incredible, you just put on the clothes and walk on the set and see everyone else in character - you feel like you are there," says Buscemi

 

In this interview with Esquire costume designer John Dunn discusses how he brought out the male characters by tailoring alone.

 

Dunn and his team immersed themselves in the year 1920, contacting vintage clothing dealers, researching tailoring of the period, to ensure complete authenticity. Using real vintage suits just wouldn't cut it; as with most 20's clothing, what has survived is usually too ragged, the cost of restoring the clothing too high. The suits had to be tailored from scratch, using only the fabrics of the era.

Boardwalk Empire is not for the faint-hearted; it delves into the gangster underworld of the prohibition, and in a Scorsese-produced show, you know it isn't going to be all happiness and rainbows. As characters get beaten, murdered and more, multiples of the same suit had to be created, further ruling out authentic pieces.

Accessories and some dresses, on the other hand, are mostly vintage. The team scoured the country looking for original pieces - stockings, coats, gloves, pins.

 The rise of character Jimmy is shown through his clothing - previously the drab khaki of a returning soldier, to a full suit meaning business

 

The most surprising thing about the costumes of Boardwalk Empire is how colourful they are. We are so used to seeing the 20's in black and white, who knew what colours would be in vogue at the time? Using references to colour in magazines along with sketches and swatches of fabric used by tailors, it was obvious that this was an era where manufacturers experimented with dye.

Different characters living in different cities were dressed in different ways. The seaside summer of Atlantic City (the shows key location) has a brighter palette than the elegant, cutting-edge tailoring of the New Yorkers (I'm particularly in love with Arnold Rothstein's wardrobe) or the old-world darker colours of the Chicago-based Italians.

 

The female characters, too, were instantly recognizable by their costume, which also tells the story of the women's part in the prohibition. The dour old-fashioned button-ups of the Temperance League (whose slogan was "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Not Touch Ours") contrasts against the decadent beading and elaborate patterns of the early flappers. The main female character, Margaret Schroeder, transforms from struggling immigrant to more exquisite locations and thus, dresses. In one scene she wears a green silk evening dress recreated from a sketch by Coco Chanel.

During this era fashion also reflected the changing status of women in society. Going from a corsetted silhouette to rectangular shapes just skimming the body, perfect for showing off beading and decoration. Light fabrics were used to lay thin layers against the body, and women were just starting to wear bras and knickers rather than bloomers.

For the first time in history, clothing started to look like its modern-day counterpart - a 1920's dress could easily look the part on today's fashionista. But what makes these fashions so beautiful is the hand-crafted detail, something which we rarely see now. Dunn points out, "The 1920's was a transition into modern clothes, but with all the embellishments of the past" - and that's exactly why I love it.

 

And just how cute is this image of the Boardwalk Empire girls, shot by Ellen Von Unwerth for Vanity Fair! Perfect for Summer inspiration!

How The Artist used costume to bring the 20s alive

It’s no secret that I’m a big silent movie fan. Give me Chaplin over a modern romantic comedy any day!

So, imagine my delight when film of the year, The Artist, won 5 of the biggies at The Oscars! This modern day silent movie took everyone by surprise, even more so when it began to win big time at each award. It seems there is hope for the audience of the 21^st century, so used to talkies, big effects and Hollywood drama; the silence has proven that it is not a completely alien concept.

I could go on and on about silent films, but I’ll spare you, and focus on the part that has got all the fashionistas’ attention: Costume.

One of the 5 awards it took away on Oscar night was costume design, and there is no wonder why!

Channelling the golden era, costume designer Mark Bridges obviously did his research. Picking and choosing elements from popular styles and silver screen sirens, there must have been a whole host of inspiring designs from the 1920s. Just look at this amazing backless dress worn by Clara Bow:

When looking through the fabulous costumes worn by silent film stars, there is a definite theme running through the pieces: texture. Before the advent of glorious Technicolour, costume designers had to find another way of springing their actors out from the screen, ensuring they didn’t blend into the background. This, too, was the struggle for Bridges; although The Artist was originally filmed in colour, he had to use patterns, crystals, fur, feathers and more to ensure the characters remained the focus when desaturated.

It wasn’t only texture that the team used to really bring out their characters, but they also had some clever tricks up their sleeves for using costume to add narrative. As the rise of talkies begins to dampen George Valentin’s star-studded career, so we see a change in his looks. The actor that played him, the gorgeous Jean Dujardin, suggested to costume designer Mark Bridges that the costumes should just be “a little bigger to reflect that somehow George is less of a man than he was.” They did just that, tailoring the size and style of his suits; from a well fitted tuxedo portraying wealth, grace and success, to a dishevelled loose-fitting suit.

With this attention to detail, the costume worked alongside the narrative, acting talent and cinematography to make a success of a film which could have so easily missed the mark, had any of these things had been less than perfect.  

We also can’t help loving Uggie the dog’s Oscar outfit.

Love Bomb: What Katie Did

Playful Promises and What Katie Did modelled by Tessa Kuragi and Jessica Louise Abidde. Photo by Anna Swiczeniuk, MUA by Cheyenne Raymond.

First on the bill for the Big Love-in is vintage-style brand What Katie Did, specialising in 1940s and 50s style lingerie and corsetry, leading the way in the recent retro trend.

Founded by Katie Halford in 1999, What Katie Did initially began by selling just stockings, particularly the fully-fashioned stockings that have remained popular to this day. Katie’s love affair with 1940s and 50s fashion started in her mid-teens and led her on a hunt for the perfect vintage wardrobe. She soon found that while vintage clothing was easy to come by, underwear was deeming tricky.

Sticking as close to authenticity as possible, What Katie Did’s glamorous bullet bras, delicious shape wear and beautiful stockings are all designed based on vintage patterns, only slightly adapted for the modern woman. Authentic fabrics and old-fashioned production methods are employed to ensure retrophiles are not left disappointed.

Choosing a favourite item from the vast collection is far, far too difficult, but I have to say, I am a sucker for her corsets!

Cabaret Lace Morticia Corset

This addition to the Morticia corset range is perfect for a romantic, sophisticated look. I love the use of lace contrasted against the pink, and the (even more!) slimming effect of the black waistband detail.

Leather Gina Corset

For the times when I’m feeling a little less sophisticated, this leather corset is perfect for a naughty Bettie Page look!

Keep your eyes peeled on the What Katie Did blog for their Lovebomb giveaway of a Cabaret Torsolette (featured above) and Kate knickers, available in black or vintage peach, plus a pair of retro seamed stockings in the winners choice of colour! If that's not enough they are offering 10 runners up prizes of their new 80 denier black hosiery with contrasting red seam (tights or stockings, your choice!), to add a bit of sauce to february. Make sure you sign up to the What Katie Did mailing list to be entered.