The Australian Home Journal was a magazine mostly about fashion for the average woman. Each cover featured 3-5 outfits and inside were full-size paper tissue patterns and instructions on how to make them up. There were also more outfits illustrated inside, amd you could buy them by mail order from the AHJ pattern service. The [...]

Here is a matching set I got recently. Lovely glossy black glass (AKA “French jet”) and a kind of stylised crown shape for the clip on earrings, and a big leaf-shaped brooch. They always get plenty of compliments. 1950s, judging from the design and also the clips – it’s unsigned. Navette-shaped stones were quite popular [...]

My current favourite handbag. It’s probably early mid1950s – early 1960s, and made of vinyl with lizard embossing, and brass fittings. Maker is Stylecraft Miami. It holds a lot more than most vintage bags and one of the inner pockets is just the right size for an iPhone. The bag is all black on the [...]