40 not out!

I am pondering this as a second dress for Burgh Island, though it's a bit 'fronty'

Well, this week I turned 40. Funny sort of age, 40 - definitely not ‘young’ but I don’t feel over the hill just yet. This is one of those times when as much as I love vintage fashion, I’m glad I don’t live in the past because things were much more prescriptive about what was ‘age appropriate’. I recall an article in a 1920s magazine disparaging women in their late 30s playing tennis (apparently a gentle bit of gardening is more suitable!), and don’t even get me started on the clothes... It seems as though the older you got, the more colour was drained from your wardrobe, the more fun details were removed, and the less interesting everything became, until you ended up with a choice of navy, grey or brown and boringly box-shaped. Bah to that. BAH, I say!



I got a beautiful book on vintage fashion from my workmates (more on that soon). My big present is that Mr Robot is going to take me to Burgh Island! Yes, in April we’re going to stay in the hotel where the likes of Agatha Christie, Noel Coward, George Formby, Josephine Baker and Nancy Cunard stayed. Heaven! We’re going for two nights but I only have one 1930s-style evening dress, and they like you to dress formally for dinner. Would wearing one twice be a faux pas? This could be the only time in my life when I need two, so I’m not sure whether it’s worth the expense of buying another.

I also got another pleasant surprise on my birthday: Ripper Street is getting a third series. Hurrah! It’s screening first on Amazon’s on-demand service but will be coming to the BBC later on. The BBC is also making a new version of Poldark. I love Poldark! I once got a pile of the books out of the library and spent a whole weekend in bed reading them. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, they centre on 18th century Cornish mine owner Ross Poldark, his rivals the Warleggans, the woman he loves and the one he marries. All good stuff, and as Aidan Turner will be donning the breeches to play Ross, it should fill the crumpet-shaped gap in the schedule left by Ripper Street while we wait for The Musketeers and Peaky Blinders to return.

If you’ve read much of Crinoline Robot, you’ll know I try to keep this blog relevant, so I don’t write about the modern crime dramas I watch. However, I have very much enjoyed Scandinavian crime series Wallander, The Killing and The Bridge on BBC4 in recent years. Now BBC4 has a Swedish drama coming up that is both crime AND vintage. I know I won’t be able to resist it. The show is called Crimes of Passion, and is set in the 1950s. I’ve seen it likened to Mad Men, which I presume is the visual style, and The Killing, which probably refers to the subject matter. It’s done as six 90-minute episodes, so should make for a meaty night’s viewing, though they haven’t released the exact screening dates yet.

It’s been a good week