Things you considered glamorous when you were a gayling

Champagne remains glamorous to me. Even in my eldergay years.

Dialing a phone with a pencil.

My folks had a fondue pot and would often have that for dinner just for them. It was a grownup thing and therefore glamorous.

Also, my mom would make garlic toast (WonderBread) for just her and my dad and I thought that was special too.

I did not come from wealth.

I love this sort of thread though we’ve done it numerous times that most renowned of which is the one R2 alludes to.

Gold shag carpet that needed to be raked after vacuuming.

Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton hotels, Waldorf Astoria, the Plaza Hotel

Aruba, Bora Bora, Capri, Corfu, Cannes, St. Tropez.

The Oscars, The Tonys (less so for the Emmys and Grammys)

Bentley, Jaguar, Mazerati, Mercedes Benz, Ferrari, Lamborghini

Nantucket, Hilton Head, Kauai, Catalina , St. Barts.

Audrey Hepburn, Jacqueline Onassis, Cary Grant, Lauren Bacall, Kitty Carlisle

Sulka silk bathrobes and pajamas.

High-rise buildings, with a view just like Eva. Then I lived in one and couldn't get out fast enough.

an apartment facing Central Park

Bob Mackie's couture for Cher on "The Sonny and Cher Show."

Mommie Dearest- I didn’t know what camp was, just that I wanted to have her closet, fur hat, and drive.

Marble bathtubs

Glamorous? I didn't think about glamor when I was very young, although I was somewhat attracted to it... everything to do with Elizabeth Taylor- who rarely was on talk shows etc. She was ubiquitous in the tabloids by an enigma in actuality because she so rarely was interviewed in any public venue. Stuff like that I guess. I was also very big into tennis- and the Australian male tennis stars were my heros- and hot is that distinctive Australian every man mate way. I also was growing up in what most would consider glamorous circumstances, but I did not think it was anything special at the time.

Blackglama mink ads in the 1970s. Had an edge to go with the luxury.

Duran Duran in the 80s, bringing youth, cocaine and razor cheekbones to the glamor pantheon.

wearing a silk ascot.

Door handles in the middle of the door like in the Family Affair apartment. Step-down or step-up living room in apartments with a view.

Smoking, sadly.

Going out from 12 am to 4 am, 2 or 3 nights a week.

R13, which Australian tennis stars did you like? Pay Cash?

Pay = Pat

Air Conditioning

Champagne - you can have it. Instead of spending $70 or more per bottle I'll pay $10 or $12 for an equivalent sized bottle of Proseco. It's in essence sparkling wine same as Champagne - what makes the latter is it's only produced in a certain region of France.

Power windows

in the movies people had gold plated cigarette cases and lit their cigarettes with fancy lighters.

Yes both my parents smoked, yes we were poor, yes they used the disposable lighters from the 7-11.

I love you, R22.

mercedes benz 450 sl convertble and a penthouse was basically what I thought was glamorous 40 years ago.

Cigarette holders, with matching cases, and lighters.

Mink coats

Brocade turban hats for "between beauty parlor appointments"

Big wide leather belts.

R26, are you a fan of Miss Faye Dunaway?

Monocles

boutonnieres

Private planes.

Lunch at The Plaza and ski in Saint Moritz. Robber Baron mansions.

R21 - champagne is a method as well as a region. Prosecco is not in essence Champagne. However, Cava (Spain), Crémant (France), Franciacorta (Italy), and some new world bubblies ARE produced following the Champagne method.

Motorola RAZR v3 D&G

Are you in your twenties, R33? Are you 2hot2BBelieved?

Yes, I am in my twenties, r34 and no I'm not "2hot2BBelieved" whoever that is.

Marry me, r7!

Sonny and Cher seemed like the most glamorous stars to me in grade-school in the early 70s, when there show was a hit.

I guess I was a 20ish gayling when I walked into one of those charity shops that used to be around Manhattan and found a cache of very high end suits, and ties, and Sulka boxer shorts, all made for a tall skinny guy. I was thrilled it was all made for me, perfectly. I was a bit sad wondering who died but I was grateful. The thing is, I still have a few of the Sulka shorts, as apparently they are indestructible. Whatever kind of cotton could they be? I still have many ties from the 80's but that's no big deal.

Owning a colour tv.

Yes I meant "their."

flying (to Hawaii ,no less)

This is going to sound hilarious now but when I was young I thought a brass bed was the pinnacle of luxury.

2 story houses

Gin martinis, straight up served in an Art Deco cocktail lounge, preferably with a tinkling piano in the corner.

My father drank cheap vodka martinis, on the rocks, while watching television, which seemed crass to me.

As old as I am now, to this day, I still get a thrill when I walk into a nice bar, see a white-jacketed bartender, and hear the rattle of a cocktail shaker over the sound of a piano.

I didn't know what they were called then, but I now know that they're called vinyl palladian windows. A friend's parents built a home with one and it was in his bedroom. I had never seen anything so fabulous.

R3 "I did not come from wealth." Noooo...what?!

R6 MaSerati. I'm embarrassed for you.

White French Provincial furniture with gold accents. The Gabor Sisters. Rolls Royce motorcars. The French language.

Smoking cigarettes and sipping whiskey while talking philosophy in an NYC apartment.

Plastic slip covered furniture in living rooms you were never allowed to go into.

My grandmother had glass footed fruit cups and my gay brother loved to run around her house with them saying “I’m eating caviar!” And no, he did not know it was fish eggs.

Champale and Cold Duck

California sparkling like Chandon, Schramsberg (served at every WH state dinner since Nixon), and many more are $30 and under and far superior to any prosecco I've had.

Ice buckets

My friend and former roommate had a full length Beaver coat. He was a flamboyant dancer with a mean fist so nobody fucked with him. We lived in Chelsea in the mid 80s and he went everywhere with that coat once the weather dipped below 40 degrees. It was fabulous and trashy at the same time.

A penthouse with terrace.

Oh a trip to Hawaii, absolutely.

A canopy bed. I used to ogle them in the Sears catalog. I still want one. It seems so cozy.

Costumes by Travilla!!!

5.4.3.2.1......

until a tea room in some department store is mentioned that she frequented with her pig grandmother!!!

Mink stoles, back combed half up hair (Bardot} Gucci Slippers, and a make up vanity with little perfume bottles.

Who was that designer whose clothes were always being mentioned on game shows in the 60s. Something something of Beverly Hills.

Dicker and Dicker of Beverly Hills!!!!!

R61, you are just thinking of 2 dicks!

Avant-garde clothing by Commes des Garçons, shopping at Charivari on a trip to NYC.

....

On another Cher-related note, the way she opened her post Sonny and Cher show "Cher": a cappella, a wardrobe reveal, and a full song performance. The height of glamor.

Long gloves and long cigarette holders.

Towering updos

A couple of things that are now commonplace, but were considered luxuries in the mid-60s: power windows in cars and dishwashers in kitchens.

And one that I still consider glamorous: the Frigidaire Flair range (at link). That was something to be envied.

R69 as seen in Bewitched.

R69 r70

Dynasty

Bel Air, CA. New York, NY

[quote]as seen in Bewitched.

Hi, R70. Yes, the association with Bewitched was really cool. Here's a picture of Samantha and her Flair range (with the burner drawer pulled out and an oven door open).

A Don Loper original.

a phone in your car

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood

Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton

Anglophones from Montreal

Princess Grace of Monaco

Sailing

Crew

Lee Remick

Queen Elizabeth II Cruise ship

QE 2 was an ocean liner.

Marry me r77

Crystal glass decoration pieces

Fern bars

Recessed lighting

Canapes

Cruises

Las Vegas casinos

Our provincial local theatre

An Oscar.

Cadillacs

Bloomingdale's (the one in Tyson's Corner, VA - first branch in the DC area, opened in 1976. It was wildly glamorous by local standards.)

Georgetown

pâté

Cartier Tank watches

Gucci loafers with no socks, sweater worn with knotted sleeves over shoulders and a Lacoste shirt and Aramis cologne.

W126 and W140 Mercedes-Benz S Class sedan.

Tiffany lamps.

Cameo glass vases.

Wearing black clothes (instead of colorful clothing). Wearing a blazer-type jacket. Two-story houses, as posted above. Now, I wouldn't want a two-story house, though.

Michelle Pfeiffer (Elvira) on Scarface, sitting at her vanity, smoking cigarettes (Marlboro Lights, I think), drinking from a rocks (or lowball) glass, snorting an unlimited amount of coke, and painting her nails. In lingerie.

Inverness Capes and Deerstalkers

Dynasty. Push button phones. Caviar.

Bain de Soleil commercials

Travis Banton gowns for Dietrich and Colbert, Paris, smoking paraphernalia, Kay Francis, Hedy Lamarr, tuxedos

Chris-Craft

Somerset Collection (then called Somerset Mall

Petoskey

Mercedes wagon with Albion College sticker

Lessons: sailing, tennis, skiing

Parents vacationing in Europe while their teenage kids have wild parties

As a gayling of 9 or 10 in England, Dynasty was the most sexy and glamourous thing on my radar. The opening credits used to make me excited. All the tuxedos, jewels, furs,cars, open fires. In the late 80s I thought it looked like luxury.

Gloria Vanderbilt

All the kids on the playground talking about Farrah on the skateboard on last night's Charlies Angels. True story.

Dimmer switches! Dumb waiter Chandeliers Staircases that started in the middle of the entrance hall and branched into two Walk in wardrobes Basically Dynasty!

When I was a kid a vintage European telephone was the epitome of glamour in my eyes.

People in my area who had fancy cars drove the usual, Mercedes, BMW, etc. I lobbied pretty hard for my mother to buy one. It was also pretty cool to own a car brand that was seemingly entirely new.

Damm nothing matters anymore

Hostess pajamas. Fondue. Skiing. Cigarette cases. After-dinner mints. Cornish game hens. Hearts of palm.

Musically a big no-no but the look of a big honkin candelabra on a grand piano in a huge living/reception room (perhaps inspired by some Liberace tv appearance).

Pet lions and gyrocopters.

Traveling first class, private planes, four star hotels, four star restaurants.

After my grandmother passed away, my grandfather had her mink coat made into a jacket and a stole for my aunt and mom. My mom was given the stole. Think I wore the stole more than my mom and put it on when no one was looking. Though, I'm sure my mom knew because I probably didn't put it away properly in her closet. Oh the feel of wearing mink! Of course, I was too young to equate the killing of the mink.

Sloan Rangers.

1970s Cadillac Sedans

Anything by Bijan

Cartier Tank watches

Having your own in-ground swimming pool

Mimosas

Silk robes

Vanities with lighted mirrors

My parents bought their first Caddy it was exactly like this one. I thought it was the height of elegance.

Richard Gere and his Mercedes 450 SL

Anything I saw in GQ magazine from 1988 to 1991.

French perfume (I could identify several), military officers in uniform AND lesbian hippies (I was a contrarian), very beautiful and sexy turned out woman with CURVES such as Pam Grier, black and white American movies, French and Italian "art" cinema, the sleepy dusty old museums in NY, London and Paris, Jardin du Luxembourg, the entire city of Geneva, Stowe over other Vermont ski resorts, non-fancy Boy Scout camps, yacht clubs, my own Sunfish, old school and country club gymnasiums (and showers), Liza Minnelli.

Were late 70's Ford Thunderbirds your standard average sedan in 1978-79?

My parents had one, I was 2 years old, but I remember it seeming SO LUXURIOUS- Power everything...

Am I insane?

[quote] Push button phones

Push button transmissions

R114 Tbirds were definitely a mid level luxury car. My uncle had one, a 1976 model, and it was a luxury car in the 70s sense. It was basically a Lincoln Continental but without the price tag.

Driving a Truly Scrumptious car for just a few minutes.

My grandpa had an early 90s Ford Thunderbird where I was introduced to CDs and leather seats. A "Personal luxury car". I love that the name infers that it's luxurious but you're going to be driving yourself. RIP the Personal luxury car.

Mac II design by socialites Chessy Rayner and Mica Ertegun

Frank Lloyd Wright

Greene and Greene

Pasadena

Oxford students

A 6 CD player in the trunk of your car. Those gold metal mesh cigarette cases with the snap closure. Lounging by the pool with a cocktail. High rise apartments and condos. Houses or condos with an atrium. Now I don't like them at all because it's usually in a condo or townhouse with few windows.

Bathrooms with matching colored sink, tub, and bidet.

Android "Droid" phone with the red back.

Silk bathrobes! They seemed so luxurious and beautiful, on men and women, a private pleasure that would make one feel like one is living the life when home alone.

I could afford one now, but instead I have a thick plush robe for winter and a lightweight cotton robe for summer. The silk things aren't nearly as comfortable.

Armoires

The Rolling Stones - so colorful and magical, flying around in their own plane. They were the like the Rainbow Parade of the 1970’s.

Am I truly the first poster to say satin sheets?

Opera windows

I always thought the Chrysler LeBaron was the height of elegance.

Rich Corinthian leather...

r130 You were correct.

Black lacquer bedroom furniture

Chaise lounges

Oh my god R130- ME too!!!!!

And the Ford County Squire Wagon!!!! "Country Squire?"

And I LOVED the BMW 5 series circa 1985-1987 Ooh la la, baby!!!

tiki bars

Dressing screens.

the Continental Baths

cigarette holders

Stainless Steel Appliances

Playgirl centerfolds

R58 - GOWNS by Travilla!

R128 - even as a Gatling I had an aversion to synthetic fabrics - and so many of the ‘satin’ sheets I saw in stores or that people had - were horrible and synthetic...

Now real linen on the other hand - that was glamour! Had a friend who looked after a work colleague’s grandmother’s cat - and got to stay in the wealthy grandmother’s little cottage in a posh area. Real linen sheets. Old and remarkably soft now, thought they were so classy and tinged with glamour - tho that might have just been the whiff of old money...

SHIT.

GOWNS by TRAVILLA

And Furs by Christie Brothers

or if your nasty

DICKER AND DICKER OF Beverly Hills!!!!!!!!

There was also a jeweler on Price is Right from

VAN NUYS CALI-FORN-EE-A-

I aways pictured Van Nuys as SUPER elegant with orange trees in everyone's impeccable yards!!

Lilli Ann

I was a California suburban dweller, so the idea of a high rise apartment like on The Jefferson’s or Family Affair seemed like the ultimate to me.

Dressing up to have drinks and lunch with friends

Living in Los Angeles

St Tropez, Monaco, The French Riviera

My uncle took us to dinner one time in this building at the LAX airport, sometime in the 1970s. I was just a kid and I thought we were being very glamorous by going in there.

Revolving restaurants! There used to be one in San Francisco, on the top of one of the high-rise hotels. When I was a little gayling I went there with my grandmother and picked at a crab louis salad and sipped sparkling water while we admired the view, and felt like the last word in glamor and sophistication instead of the prissy little embarrassment I undoubtedly was.

I was also thrilled to have lunch at Seattle's Space Needle.

I used to think these Ferrero Rocher chocolate candy balls were glamorous. Now, I don't think they taste good. Nuts are stale, even when "fresh."

[quote]and felt like the last word in glamor and sophistication instead of the prissy little embarrassment I undoubtedly was

I love you R148.

r149

I'm ashamed to admit this, but those Hochtaler commercials made the wine seem so fabulous.

R151 , I am aware of that SNL skit involving Ferrero Rocher candy balls. Cecily Strong makes the candy look really delicious and tempting, but I will not be fooled.

Viennetta ice cream loaf looked very glamorous to me.

For the Green and Green fan

The church I went to in my Pasadena neighborhood growing up was in a Green and Green house.

We lived on the edge of the Arroyo Seco and there were craftsmen homes everywhere.

Bathhouses, glory holes, and cheap tricks.

Glass grapes on the coffee table .

Dining at The Rainbow Room

Cappio, Daddio! The thrill is the chill!

The Merv Griffin Show.

Beehive hairdos

I always wanted one.

Smoking jackets with ascots.

Ascots with shirts and sports jackets.

Morgan Fairchild

vesper martinis (h/t ian fleming)

Silk sheets

A person who owned a home off of Sunset.

A Mercedes Benz

Expensive restaurants

Fountainbleu Hotel, Miami

Thai Food

A sailboat moored in Marina Del Ray.

A home in the Hollywood Hills with a swimming pool.

The tiny upstair’s bar at The Rainbow.

Charmer’s Market

I want ALL THESE THINGS.

Viennetta always seemed elegant as fuck to childhood me. I figured rich people ate it.

Giant cross-hatched paned windows. Stone verandas. Window seats with white Priscilla curtains. Foyers the size of city blocks.Pretty much anything you'd find adorning a 20's or 30's film set. As these things become more expensive to produce today and more inaccessible to people who didn't inherit this stuff, they become more glamorous to me.

Those who try to pretend these old standards of luxury are outdated sound like they can't afford them. But that's okay, most people can't.

[quote] and felt like the last word in glamor and sophistication instead of the prissy little embarrassment I undoubtedly was

Au contraire R148!

I think you must've been quite glamorous, and undoubtedly remain so to this very day.

R69 R70 R71 in case you missed it.

Excuse me, where does the line form to join The R148 Fan Club?

Thanks, R179! I had missed that, actually.

R145 oh yes, I wanted either the Jeffersons’ apartment or Bob Newhart’s Chicago apartment. Very glamorous.

The bejeweled and befurred women who would purr, “Live from Miami Beach....it’s the Jackie Gleason Show!”

International coffees

Viennetta - an improbable name, as it's supposed to be Italian style, and it is an entirely corporate invention of the early 1980s. Nevertheless, it was indeed a bit elegant and quite tasty, and is still sold all over Europe.

Dobosh Torte from the Swiss Colony mail-order catalogue!

Because as a kid I was stuck in Suburban Hell with the worst cook in the world for a mother, and the stupid Swiss Colony catalogue that arrived free in the mail seemed like the last word in haute cuisine to a desperate gayling. Of course now I shudder to think what little box of hell you'd receive if you ordered cake by mail, but when I was a kid I desperately wanted enough money to send for some of that frou-frou crap.

Edith Head and her clothes. Especially 1964’s “What a Way To Go!”

These.

1950s graffiti: EDITH HEAD GIVES GOOD COSTUMES.

International Male Catalogue

then you stick a candle in it

R191, Even the Queen drinks Mateus!

Alexis Carrington fucking Colby Dexter!

Built-in countertop blenders.

Mr. Blackwell

Hanging my head in shame.

Me!

My grandmother’s Calgon, Jean Nate and “rose milk” moisturizer.

1962 Lincoln Continental

The original Fontainebleau.

the Fontainebleau

My parents' friends had one!

Anything from Harry and David.

This commercial.

My Grandparent's parties.

When I was a kid, my grandparents who lived down the hill, used to have glamorous parties. (in my mind, anyway). They had a nice house, but nothing over the top. Valets were hired to park all the many, many people that drove up that driveway. I've learned since they were waiters at his favorite restaurant. My buddy and I would sneak down to look at all the cars, mostly--and sneak some leftover drinks as any preteen/teen will do. Lots of Cadillacs, Mercedes, a few Austin Healys. A Jag or two. We were sort of obsessed by the one guy who owned an oil company. He had an honest to god DeLorean. Keep in mind that Back to The Future was recently released.

These parties happened every few weeks during the summer months. There was always a Shriner's, Mason's, Rotary, Fire Department something or other thing going on. The funny thing is, now that I look back--they weren't much older than I am now. Lots of liquor flowed, and there were always people in the pool by the end of the night. It's how I learned to smoke, drink and...other things. So many cars still there in the morning. Nothing like that ever happened at my house, but I've embraced how to entertain well from my grandparents.

Going to the theater in New York.

Evening clothes.

Debutante parties.

Prep school.

Tassel loafers.

Topsiders.

Crew races.

Straw boaters.

School ties.

The Dorset Hotel in New York.

The Ritz Carlton in Boston.

Brooks Brothers.

Raspberry water ice and almond macaroons in the Ritz Carlton dining room.

Dinner parties with sophisticated people in Cambridge, Mass.

Going for onion soup after the theater in New York.

Intermission at a hit Broadway show.

Melon balls with lemon.

High tea.

What is the cut off for gayling, because either we lived on different planets, or I was just NOT even close to cultured.

I still LOVE high tea.

Waikiki Beach

The spiral staircase of the 747

Brightly colored ribbon candy in a real glass candy dish!

Art Deco architecture, sculpture, murals.

Attending the opera at the Met.

The Blackout Cake at Windows on the World.

Seeing the original Sondheim musicals.

Radio City Music Hall.

The TWA terminal at Idlewild.

Roadshow movies.

Riding a limousine to an opening.

Trump Tower

Shrimp Cocktail

Restaurants with linen napkins and tablecloths

Having a powder room

Cadillacs

Belonging to a beach club

Women wearing a turban

Chicken

Being a stewardess on a 747, having an affair with dashing pilot in Milan or Paris.

Vitabath

Giorgio perfume commercial

Carpeted bathrooms

Mirrors that had changeable lighting

Touch lamps

Princess phones

Anything to do with lounging by a pool

Ladies accoutrements of a bygone era Examples: lorgnette, fan, parasol, stole with animal head *shudders at thought now*

Chanel No. 5

Baked Alaska

Chocolate mousse

Eggs Benedict

Always stared at these in cookbooks, as a child and asked why we couldn’t make these. Now I know why it would be a wasted effort unless you really loved that dish.

Sitting poolside and ordering a turkey club sandwich.

Chinese restaurant decor - fans, lacquered furniture, lanterns, etc. It all felt very exotic to my provincial Midwestern young self.

Having a husband like Terry Miller.

Velveeta

Harlequin inspired hostess pants. Worn with a scrunchy belt and ballet slippers

Drinks at the Jonathan Club

Whites ONLY Drinking fountains

My Grandmother's EVE cigarettes

My Granddad's Roquefort dressing and Johnny Walker red label

Meeting rich married men at the Baths in the 1970s and hoping I would be taken care of for life or at least get a better paying job. Never happened, but still.........

Blowing off Barry Manilow at said Baths.

Belonging to a tennis club.

Having a waiter bring a phone to the table when you received a call.

Walking into a restaurant without a reservation and being seated immediately.

Honest to God; Fantasy Island.

Glamorous stars, an exotic local, the clothes, Mr. Roarke's toast at the beginning of the show.

So very exciting!

Telly Savalas, who was considered a sex symbol in the 70s.

Dressing up and attending the opera.

Like R60, little perfume bottles. A kind lady neighbour had a box of them on her vanity and I would pretend I was presenting them to customers at a beauty counter. Yes, Mary! I also found the tie up espadrilles bohemian ladies wore in my childhood very chic. They have made a come back, of course.

Martini and rossi

Burger King

Pleather cat suits with gravity-defying gold belts - batgirl had a motorcycle/dressing room, but cat woman had so much more...

Feathered, layered hair on ladies in gold lame.

real toilet paper

Drinking.....smoking......Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

^ No reason for weird hyphenation of Elizabeth, sorry.

At Christmas: The bottles of Scotch and Whiskey that were packaged in the embossed gold leaf boxes. I used to arrange them under the tree and not let my parents use them until after the holidays. (5 years old and already a decorator.)

Same with the boxes of cigarettes wrapped in "holiday" cellophane.

R243 It does that when you type too many characters without a space.

Itdoesthatwhenyoutypetoomanycharacterswithoutaspace.Thisshouldreplicatethat.

An ice-skating nun holding a basket with wine bottles in it.

A real fireplace. In our house we only had a mantelpiece with one of those simulated flame inserts which lighted up when you plugged it in.

blathering while bathing

mai tai on the beach

fucking while training

blathering, boozing and bathing

Pan Am first class to Europe

link

escargot

Paper lantern

The PanAm logo. Used to be able to see it on a building from Park Avenue in New York, I miss it.

seashell baroque

Putting crushed ice in the bong.

Food.

Satin sheets.

chicken ala king in puff pastry shells

Tableside service, like Bananas Foster and Caesar's salad.

International air travel.

Little did I know it's a flying hell!

The Galloping Gourmet

Cruise vacations

Returning from the department store with hat boxes.

Living on a docked houseboat.

Cocktail parties in sky rise apartments with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Key parties.

Some woman from European royalty that was selling soap or hand cream. Seemed very glamorous - can't remember her name.

Sunglasses in one's hair.

4711

Cinzano Bianco

After Eight Dinner Mints

Shelly DeVoto. This outfit, living in her camper, she seemed so fun and glamorous.

Chocolate Liqueurs

People who pronounced "flavuh" like Lauren Bacall.

Chandeliers

[quote]People who pronounced "flavuh" like Lauren Bacall.

Wasn't that "flavah"?

My eldest sister got married in 1963 when I was 8 years old. In her first home (a duplex!) was an inflatable hassock of clear plastic on tapered wooden and brass legs that contained an arrangement of red plastic roses. I adored it! Years later found out that she hated it and only used it because it was a shower gift from a good neighbor (who got it with trading stamps). Had I but known! I could have finagled it off her!

[quote]Some woman from European royalty that was selling soap or hand cream. Seemed very glamorous - can't remember her name.

Do the name Rula Lenska ring a bell?

Signing for things in stores and in restaurants.

R267, was it Princess Marcella Borghese?

The hat boxes, yes! And then you would rip them open and toss the tops and tissue paper over your shoulder.

June, my aunt's friend. My aunt would have her cocktail parties and we kids could watch from the top of the staircase. June was beautiful: blonde Grecian curls down her back, lame caftan, and chandelier earrings. I was mesmerized.

Anna Maria Alberghetti

Oh yes, I remember my mother thought Anna Maria was the most beautiful girl. So I always paid attention to her whenever her movies were shown on TV. Come to think of it "Monday Night at the Movies" and all those TV network movie presentations were quite glamorous to me.

Where is June now, R279?

Here's 21yo Anna Maria in 1957. Ah the glorious 50s - such beauty, glamour, and classical elegance. Today we have whatserface, the one who dated Pete Davidson, singing about having her body touched and whatnot.

Calgon, take me away!

Princess Pignatelli and her ads for Camay!

I always wanted to sit in the Jeannie bottle.

I Dream of Jeannie

Ginger’s sparkly gown on Gillagan’s Island.

[quote]Some woman from European royalty that was selling soap or hand cream. Seemed very glamorous - can't remember her name.

Princess Marchella Borghese

Calvin Klein underwear

Princess Irene Galitzine's palazzo pyjamas

Twin sets or the dickie (sweaters under sweaters)paired with sharkskin pants.

Homes that had fully stocked bars with bar stools and booze on display and cool crystal highballs and lowballs.

Now I just think "alcoholic."

Green Goddess salad dressing

New York. Or Los Angeles. It depended on my mood.

[R117] Are those the Cadillacs at Cedar Point Amusement Park? I thought French Provincial furniture, the white with gold was glamorous, Cadillacs, smoking, drinking martinis, anything in Los Angeles, Las Vegas were the last word!

Bastardized French Provincial white with gold pinstripe was the ultimate “little princess” bedroom suite in the Sears catalog. Available with a 4 poster canopy bed, obviously.

The huge bouffant hairdos that most of the local suburban fraus had during my childhood. I thought they were drop-dead glam, even after it was a few days from the salon appointment and they were beginning to look off-center and frizzy.

God help me - TV dinners

TV dinners were better than my mother's horrible cooking, so I forgive myself for liking them as a child.

Day to evening make-up.

Bath robes

Princess Grace's headgear

Prewar architecture, though I didn't know it was called "prewar" at the time. I had a sense of what was tacky and parvenu (I read a lot, so yes, "parvenu") from an early age. The town adjacent to ours in NJ, with its splanches and split levels, was decidedly parvenu, compared to our 1919 Colonial.

Most kids could not wait to get their driver's license. I could not have cared less. I wanted a doorman. Yet, for some reason, I did not want to live on the Upper East Side. I wanted to live on Riverside Drive. I somehow thought I was supposed to live there instead of tacky ass New Jersey.

And do you, R302?

No, r303. Life did not work out that way, and I spent most of my life in DC. I did live on 75th near RSD for a while, but I mainly lived in the Village when I lived in NY.

Mildred Drysdale

A foot switch under the dining room table for the lady of the house to call a servant to the room.

You only see these in old grand homes these days.

It's MARGARET Drysdale, you obnoxious hillbilly!

Dining at the Carlyle restaurant.

Pic of butler button in dining room:

Estee Lauder's Swiss Age Controlling Skincare Program. I used to visit my friend's house and makeexcuses to use their bathroom so I could apply the Swiss Performing Extract. I must have been 10 at the time.

Turning left when entering an airliner. Having a favorite suite at a top hotel. A personal chauffeur. A yacht. Suits from Saville Row.

I AM LIVING FOR MS. R310.

LIVING.

I AM SURE YOUR FACE LOOKS DIVINE.

A 3-car garage (largest I'd seen at that time, lol)

Beachfront high-rise hotels

Egg cups

Dining with someone wealthy in a fancy restaurant or city club and a bill is *never* brought to the table. It just goes on account including the tip.

Buying automobiles over the telephone and the dealership sends a couple lackeys out with your new car because you buy all your family's cars there and have for years and years.

When I was a kid in the 70s my father's boss owned a Mercedes and one day when it wouldn't start the dealership sent a mechanic to his house to work on it. No tow truck for him.

A Mercedes convertible, driving around town with the top down.

Those are the most beautiful cars ever R316. And as you drive around town, you give discreet, gloved waves to certain people. As in, "Don't you wish you were me?"

The kind of car that makes Ali Wentworth need to stop off and buy a silk headscarf. She's so well bred.

NYC. I was convinced it was pretty much like this all the fucking time. Then I moved to the meat packing district in 1984... Somehow the redolent sidewalks, tranny hookers and jersey truckers conspired to exceed my expectations.

General Foods International Coffees - my mom would buy that for herself on really special occasions.

I also remember thinking the Alberto VO5 woman was extremely glamorous. There was one commercial where she'd say, "Visit me in London," and I'd beg my mom to take me to London to meet her.

I was GAY GAY GAY.

Dynasty! The original of course.

I am still LIVING for the little lady who stole his friend's mother's Swiss Performing Extract in her quest for eternal beauty!

THAT IS ELEGANCE, BITCHES. LEARN.

LIVING!!

I remember watching a commercial about "luxury" boxed chocolates when I was lad. I think they were Black Magic and the featured spokeswoman was Deborah Kerr. I loved her posh pronunciation of "montelimar". Am I imagining this ? I can't find anything on the Internet : odd given its ability to cough up the obscure references to pop culture.

[quote]I loved her posh pronunciation of "montelimar".

In Mis'sippi they say "Mallomar."

A foyer with a grand staircase

The Tates on Soap.

Wearing shoes to the dinner table.

You'll never guess where I'm calling you from!

The phone in the car

The phone on the plane

The phone on a ship

The phone brought to the restaurant table

The phone in the hotel bathroom

A brick-sized cell phone

Annabel’s, Régine’s, The GreenGo, Les Caves du Roy, Studio 54, Les Bains Douches

At around 12, while reading my mother's Redbook or Good Housekeeping (Mary!!) I saw a pictorial essay/recipe for A Light, Post Theater Supper. The hostess was in a gown! Her handsome husband was wearing a tuxedo with his bow tie untied! Not a clip on! She served scrambled eggs and toast points with caviar! Long stemmed strawberries! And champagne! They were eating at MIDNIGHT after seeing a Broadway show! I just about died from the classiness of it all.

I'm kind of dying now, r330!

[quote]the featured spokeswoman was Deborah Kerr. I loved her posh pronunciation of "montelimar". Am I imagining this?

Beatles fans will recall "Creme tangerine, montelimar" as the first line in "Savoy Truffle."

When we lived in the country, a neighbor lady occasionally drove us to school (parochial/private) in this!

Liquor in crystal decanters. Gold flecks in a popcorn ceiling. Paris cafe scenes with French poodles painted on the wall behind a home bar.

Having a bar in your home.

A complete Readers Digest Condensed Book collection - so much classier than my family’s odd book collections on gardening, spy shit, mystery and bowel health.

Oh! I skipped right to the end, and didn’t see r334 !

Imported Blueberry toilet paper. A smoker's cough. Large living room organs. Wall paper in the basement. Phone next to the bed. Automobile pillows. Skyscraper restaurants.

The kind of closet where the light turns on when you open the door

Clothes that matched your car

Our family being hosted in a ritzy restaurant and presented with a menu with NO PRICES!

I was impressed, appalled, and dizzy with the decadence of it all.

"You mean I get to order anything I want?!" I whispered to my mother.

Rigaud candles

French cuisine as prepared by Julia Child

Beufe Bourguignon

French Onion Soup

Coq au Vin

Bouillabaisse

Chocolate Mousse

Thing is my mother prepared all the same recipes, but we didn't have fancy names for them, they were just dinner.

My father owned a 3, 5 and 7 series BMW in the 90s. Plus a 12,000 sq ft house in the Beverly Hills of my country. I thought my life was going to eclipse that... alas, no.

Rhinestone necklaces. Stretch limousines. Sequined gowns. Home intercom systems. Swizzle sticks. Petits fours.

Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous

I rarely got to see this show but when I did my little gayling heart would flutter at all the 80s fabulousness.

My mother always bought a box of chocolates to offer to guests during the Xmas "visiting" season. She kept the wrapper on and told us it was for "company only."

When company arrived she'd take the wrapper off and proudly announce they were "Fanny Farmer" I thought they were glamorous.

At our house R347 it was the other way around--mom saved the good chocolate for us and served guests the cheapo chocs she bought at Bargain Harold's.

Well, r348, what can one expect from a mother who names her son "Enema Bag"?

Pier One Imports

That's Mr. Enemabag Jones to you, hon.

The Baroness on Sound of Music. Never understood why the Captain chose the plain looking governess over her.

Well, then, [R351], what can one expect from a mother who names her son "Mr. Enemabag Jones"?

I agree about the Baroness. So chic, would never wear clothes made from drapes and had the right idea about sending those annoying brats to boarding school.

Much better.

Now fuck off, you cunt.

Go ask your whore mother for some of her precious Fanny Farmer guests only white trash chocolate.

I'm not Son of Fanny Farmer Queen, MEBJ @ r355.

My apologies to R347 then.

You're the Fontainebleau whore who hung around the men's room to smell other guy's shit.

R340 That's full on Modrian.

Gout

Having an early dinner with my Aunt Virginia at the Brass Rail in NYC after a Wednesday matinee in the 1960s. She would have a ciggie and a Manhattan before perusing the menu. I always had the fried shrimp. Such sophistication!!

Watch it, R354. Some of the best people have worn dresses made from curtains.

indeed

Big hair, the bigger the more glamorous hair dos.

I had a babysitter in the 1970s and I swear everything in her house had the "Sears Best" logo on it. Even her toilet seats!

She also drove a black 1974 Buick Electra Limited sedan which was only a year old.

I was very jealous of it all.

Grey Poupon mustard

Vitabath

That 90s L’Oréal Plenitude commercial with Dayle Haddon where the dullness of her old skin peels off like a gray shadowy mask (early CGI?) and her fresh face is revealed underneath.

Late 90s Movado watch commercial.

Anything with Jackie Stewart.

I wasn't a huge race fan but his life looked so glamorous and exciting.

I still have this old Rolex advert.

Tab with a wedge of lime & Capri cigarettes!

My aunt had fake rubber grapes on the vine displayed in a cheap glass footed bowl. I thought they were so elegant and annoyed with my mother because she never did stuff like that.

Anybody who drove a Lincoln Continental was RICH in my book!

Martini and Rossi

Taking off your earring before you answer the phone.

Ladies named Bianca.

Smoking cigarettes. Really stupid. I began smoking sophomore year in high school. Quit when I was 25. Smoking and not coming out earlier are my regrets in life.

Filofax organizers.

My first job out of high school my boss had one and it looked so exciting to have a full schedule of meetings and things to do. His life was in that thing.

I bought one in 1991 and still have it to this day.

Triggered by R372. Just had a cig and it was sweeeeet.

I know this is weird but when I was a wee lad I thought that using commemorative stamps on an envelope was classier than using the regular issue. I'm a Canadian so the regular, run-of-the-mill stamp was H.R.H. The Queen.

The Young and The Restless's ELEGANT and DIM, LUSH LIGHTING!!!

That show looks like it was filmed in 1992 in 1975!!!! (Check out on Youtube)

FUCKING AMAZING.

I LIVE to light the LADIES!!!

R375: Ironically, many Americans - probably quite a few here at DL - would consider it the height of elegance to use stamps adorned with Her Majesty's portrait. If they were priced in "p", rather than "c", we'd be even more thrilled.

[quote] r376 The Young and The Restless's ELEGANT and DIM, LUSH LIGHTING!!! That show looks like it was filmed in 1992 in 1975!!!! (Check out on Youtube) FUCKING AMAZING.

I find the fucus a little grainy.

Bubble baths

[italic]Lose yourself in LUXURY...

Miss Lucy's tugboat. It had a bell.

My mom never made Jello parfaits.

I'm still bitter.

[quote]r364 I had a babysitter in the 1970s and I swear everything in her house had the "Sears Best" logo on it. Even her toilet seats!

Probably a kept woman - -

Gold flatware.

Pepperidge Farm cookies.

Giant salad spoon and fork near a turned bowl big enough to float a Vietnamese refugee family.

Tiny glass & metal salt and pepper shakers for your use only.

Big cars with opera windows.

I thought a Monte Carlo was next door to a Cadillac or a Lincoln Continental!

The fancier tract homes had a hacienda-inspired courtyard formed by short brick walls and lots of white wrought iron. Glitter rock -raked- completed the Klassyness.

R382, don’t be. They were gross. Looks did NOT match the flavor or texture. Plus they were fussy to make.

Clothing g made in Italy, the materials and construction was better and was usually more expensive.

When I'm stressed-out, enjoying a nice glass of Calgon.

A terry cloth towel used as a wig.

R394, now that you mention it ...

For women only: A towel wrapped around the head after washing the hair, accompanied by a towel wrapped around the body , armpits to mid-thigh. I thought this was glamorous because, although every attractive young woman in movies and on TV appeared in this getup sooner or later, glamorous actresses like Tina Louise and Elke Sommer had a particular propensity for it.

For some reason, eating dinner on a TV tray. Also, lying in bed, propped up on pillows, watching TV with a remote control.

A peacock chair.

[quote]r398 Don’t be [bitter]. They were gross. Looks did NOT match the flavor or texture. Plus they were fussy to make.

Thank you for that. You know, this might get therapeutic. I'm an adult now! I can afford to make FIFTY JELLO PARFAITS and throw a g-damn PARTY! I even have the skills to make the kind you chill SLANTED IN THE FRIDGE!!

I wonder what recipe I should choose. I'm sure it will call for CoolWhip.

^^ crap. i was replying to r391

[quote]A peacock chair.

Thanks R397, I always wondered what those chairs were called.

Oh dear me, YASS!

Any sort of parfait, darlings, not just the kind made of Jello!

When I was a kid a local cafeteria-style restaurant had little chocolate-vanilla parfaits out on the grab-it counter, and I thought they were the most delicious and elegant thing ever! I mean they were just instant pudding spooned into cheap-ass glasses or something, but I was such a piss-elegant little embarrassment that I thought they were the most elegant thing going in Suburban Hell. Well, maybe they were.

R22: Now of course you can hardly find a motor vehicle without power windows. I just quoted out a new Chevy Trax - power windows are standard. For all of $19K.

A full-length leather coat. When I was a teen I bought one and hated it. I may have worn it a couple of times and have no idea its ultimate fate.

R404 , Tony Soprano didn't like the "Full Leather Jacket" so much when Richie Aprile gave him a used one.

[quote]A full-length leather coat. When I was a teen I bought one and hated it. I may have worn it a couple of times and have no idea its ultimate fate.

I bought a cherry red leather coat from Wilsons Leather as a teen and I don't remember wearing it once. It was the most I had ever spent on an item of clothing in my life at that point. Sigh.

R397, I'll have you know, that my ex-BF recently filled me in on an Estate issue with his family, that centers on a PEACOCK CHAIR! No segment of his family is willing to give up custody of that damned, ratchedy-ass wicker chair! Generations of his family have been photographed, blazing up, serenely occupying that peacock chair.

BBC

A bar cart in the living room.

[quote]r407 I'll have you know, that my ex-BF recently filled me in on an Estate issue with his family, that centers on a PEACOCK CHAIR! No segment of his family is willing to give up custody

They ARE kind of a byegone item - -

R410, Back in the 70s, I also aspired to a Peacock Chair. They always had them at Pier 1. But it was never the time for me. I could elaborate on the differences between my BF and myself, but that would be another thread, But I love my ex-BF keeping me abreast of his family and their latest ins and outs.

[quote]r411 Back in the 70s, I also aspired to a Peacock Chair. They always had them at Pier 1. But it was never the time for me.

I think we ALL need to leave written directives that we're to be buried in one!

Crushed velour

Designer jeans with fancy stitching

Forever Krystle

Our dictionary had moiré fabric lining the inner cover.

This was also what one of Scarlett O'Hara's dresses was made out of, in the book.

Sold!

R92 Are you still here? Did you summer on Walloon Lake?! I must know!

White guys with big muscles

I hate to use a Trump picture, but this look from the 80s was what I aspired to.

I remember when I was a kid, and I took naps at my aunt's house, she had a mattress that was super firm and I was so jealous. My mattress at home was cheaper and softer.

So, when I bought a house, the first new piece of furniture I got was a mattress as firm as I could stand.

If I remember correctly, I had a sore back for awhile after sleeping on it but eventually got used to it.

I think they say now that those super firm mattresses aren't good for you. I don't know.

This is for you, R416.

Moire silk wallpaper! PINK moire silk wallpaper! Run out and slather your home with it today!

Going to an East Coast boarding school. Central Park West. Limos. Slinky silk dresses

Finger bowls. My mother was given a Waterford ashtray as a Christmas gift one year and since no one in my house smoked I took it over as my finger bowl. I used to agonize over what I wanted floating in the water. What goes better with Hamburger Helper — a lemon slice, a buttercup, or a mint leaf?

[quote]R421 Moire silk wallpaper! PINK moire silk wallpaper! Run out and slather your home with it today!

OMG... is that Barbara Cartland’s bedroom, or something??

I wonder if I can get that wallpaper up before my big Jello parfait party?? I know it’s going to be my entry into HIGH SOCIETY, and that moire wallpaper will CINCH it!!

R423 I hope you found a crystal champagne glass to drink your Kool Aid out of (pinky extended) while sneering at your family around the dinette set.

R385 Oh yes, at one time Pepperidge Farm were sort of the upscale cookies and cakes.

And Heath bars were marketed to adults, which intrigued me.

Whatever happened to Peak Freens, that very serious cookie? I took that seriously.

Feather boas. I thought all rich women wore them everywhere at all times.

My mother bought one of these coats, she loved it and wore it all winter. I thought she looked glamorous in it.

seriously?

Did you ever see the ads for Guerlain's Meteorites? I don't even wear makeup (now, ahem), but I wanted so badly to sample them, to pull them from my purse (never owned a purse) and powder my face with that strange assortment of shades.

Ooooooooooooooh.....!

Fishnet stockings.

Back when I was a little gayling I thought black fishnet stockings were the absolute height of feminine glamour! And not trashy or slutty or anything.

Fishnet stockings.

Back when I was a little gayling I thought black fishnet stockings were the absolute height of feminine glamour! And not trashy or slutty or anything.

R428, it wasn't just you as a gayling. Your mother *was* glamorous wearing a Blackglama mink.

Speaking of glamour: Have you ever felt chinchilla fur? I was in Saks Fifth Avenue once, wandering around near the fur salon. There was a chinchilla jacket on one of the mannequins. I brazenly walked over and ran my hand over the fur. Oh my God! It was like touching a cloud! To this day, it was the most luxurious piece of clothing I've ever felt. Maybe a bolt of purple silk velvet I once fondled in an upscale fabric store in Manhattan (a famous one ... what was the name? I can't remember) came close, but that wasn't clothing.

Chinchilla is luxuriously soft, but hardly flattering to anyone ... even Marilyn Monroe.

It’s flattering to me.

Playing bridge. Or Mahjong.

In 1975, some Italian friends of ours had a brand new house built.

We went to visit them shortly afterwards and they had such a unique set up.

In their ground-level living room, they had the "nice" furniture with the plastic covering all over it and a new color console television.

In the basement, they had what was basically a small apartment: a whole kitchen with appliances and a table and chairs, another console television, and a sofa and chairs around it like a living room. They did most of their regular living in this basement set up.

I guess this is/was common for some people, but it was the first time I had ever seen anything like it.

I thought it was a very "rich people" thing to have, having two different living quarters in your house.

Cocktails with paper umbrellas

This is the most delightful thread.

PuPu Platters there was nothing on the patter was exotic but the way it was served was.

In my house, flaming poopoo platters were something completely different.

Anything silky. Though I didn't come to gauge the difference between real silk, rayon, and nylon till later.

Lisa Douglas' farm wife wardrobe on Green Acres.

Being an Architect living in a high-rise with a portly male butler with a British accent like Mr. French in Family Affair. I was only 3 years old when it came out so it must have been on TV in repeats. Forgot all about it, don't remember any of the plots. But now that I think of it, I am living in a pretty nice condo in the sky, and I ended up being a designer. No butler, sigh.

My mother’s red lace dress and her bottle of Femme perfume. My father’s tux jackets: ivory, black, and midnight blue.

BOB MACKIE'S CREATIONS

[quote] I was such a piss-elegant little embarrassment

I love you, r402!

Concorde

New York retailers, all of them - and getting their catalogs in the mail

Opium

Woody Allen's vision of NYC and its people

Our neighbors' Oldsmobile and Buick convertibles

Sade, MTV's London Calling

Early 80s GQ, going to a GQ fashion show in 1981 at the Highland Park Village theater, and meeting Michael Schoeffling and the blonde one (Iannucci?)

My Village Voice subscription

Andy Warhol's Interview

Under Arrest (original location) and VVV Records

The New Romantic movement

Circa 1984 as a working class college freshman, I thought Camembert and water table crackers were fancy

Well, they are.

You were RIGHT.

Fashions by Ohrbach's

There should be a part two for this thread.

It should be about these things you thought were glamorous as a kid/young person, eventually acquired or experienced, and then were disappointed or not as enthused as you thought you'd be.

For me, this would be leasing a brand new Mercedes and then a brand new BMW. $500-$600 lease payments, and it impresses others, but I can honestly say I don't see myself doing it again.

Living in Greenwich Village before the 90s when it was the center of the universe for Gay life and culture. Plus it was the place for artists, musicians and actors to call home.

Now it's full of trust fund babies, lawyers and money men from Wall Street.

My friend’s mom had a hanging oil rain lamp in the entry way of their house. I thought it was so fancy.

^ circa 1978

R455 How interesting. I've never heard of rain lamps. Now I want one!

A peignoir. I’m still not quite sure what that is but it sounds glamorous.

R458

C'est ça, un peignoir...

A peignoir without marabou trim and matching stiletto slippers isn't worth flouncing in.

[quote] Circa 1984 as a working class college freshman, I thought Camembert and water table crackers were fancy

I thought those Carr's water crackers were somehow sophisticated. Now, I don't get it at all. They taste like paper to me (bland, flat texture). Communion wafers are more tasty.

Thanks, R459, but - R460, now THAT's how I sort of pictured a peignoir!

Don't forget the bed jacket, R462; best worn in the throes of nervous exhaustion while receiving one's peers from the Wives' Philanthropic League.

The nicer models have a hidden flask pocket.

That's lovely, R463. If it's silk, not synthetic, it's luxurious and elegant as well as glamorous.

This one is also quite nice, perhaps for winter wear (whereas the example at R463 is more summery).

I've never understood bed jackets. I've heard them referred to in early 20th century writing, but I've never seen one and don't understand their correct use. Were they used for lounging around the house? For receiving social calls while lying in bed (WTF)? For greeting one's husband at night, from the other twin bed? Were they considered sexy? If so, how could they be considered sexy?

Was there a men's equivalent?

The most glamorous accoutrement whilst one is wearing a bed jacket is an Academy Award!

I practically had to scream that I wanted a bed jacket before my dumb as a stump nephew got the hint.

Is there a difference between a peignoir and a caftan?

R469, I believe a peignoir is generally a rather fragile garment that practically wilts to the touch of a warm embrace. While a caftan can be a rather sturdy garment, such as worn by Elizabeth Taylor to encompass her generous proportions.

Them oil lamps are what you saw in dago houses. They used olive oil.

Thank you, R470. I don't plan on owning either one, but if I did I think I'd want a caftan because I'm sure if my Siberian Husky were to jump on me her claws would catch and rip the delicate fabric of a peignoir. This is why I can't have nice things.

R472, The courtesans of La Belle Époque wore peignoirs, and were known to awaken and take 'air baths', where they would sit before an open window, exposing their breasts to the cold morning air, which of course, enhanced the pertness of their bosoms. A manly man such as myself would prefer a hearty caftan, to sweep through my rooms with an air of confidence. When I was a youngster, though, I doubt I would make the distinction. When I read that the geishas of ancient Japan used nightingale dung to whiten their complexions, I was perplexed at locating a source.

If we still had Craigslist personals I'm sure you could find someone to…"supply"…you with dung, R473. There are guys who probably wouldn't even charge you.

I like your description of courtesans of yore and their titillating air baths. Personally, for indoor use I tend to favor a plaid Pendleton shirt and nothing else, å la Donald Duck. I'm sure if I were to wear either a caftan or peignoir I'd knock something over with it as I swooped through the house. I mean, both garments seem designed for swooping, or what's the point of owning one?

R474, I'm also one of those science nerds, besides all the other threads I visit. I leave the scat threads to Erna (blessed!). I know that nightingales are only native to the Old World. I've refrained from trying to acquire really dubious sorts of relics and fossils when they have no hope of being replenished. Silk, on the other hand, can be grown in many countries. I eventually ended up paying (I can't seem to spell the more correct term) for custom drapes made in silk. I will meet my maker all by myself.

[quote]For receiving social calls while lying in bed (WTF)?

It is exactly that, R465. A women would receive callers - typically other women, certainly never a man alone, except her physician or perhaps another professional acting in his professional capacity, such her lawyer (so she can disinherit her ungrateful children) - while she was in bed due to illness or post-natal confinement. It used to be quite common for people to take to their beds due to illness, perceived or real, for extended periods of time.

Hospital stays used to be much longer than they are today.

Women used to give birth at home and remained confined to their beds for some time thereafter.

During all of these experiences, naturally one would want to look one's best, and what could better serve that purpose than a pretty bed jacket?

french new wave cinema

^^ a womAn would receive callers ...

john phillip law

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

I still think they were the hottest movie couple of all time. Google-image them and thrill to the glitz and glamour!

r458 A peignoir. I’m still not quite sure what that is but it sounds glamorous.

A peignoir is simply a dressing gown, but when we Americans think of them, it's as part of a set with a matching negligee (lingerie style nightgown, sometimes short.) They were all the rage made in colorful synthetics from around the 1950s on. (Well, that's when they went mainstream, I think.)

peignoir on left, negligee on right

R476, a dip of the pegnoir to you! You describe bed jackets with such taste and elegance. They should use it on Wikipedia - hopefully that's not where you got it. But I love you.

[quote]r465 I've never understood bed jackets. I've heard them referred to in early 20th century writing, but I've never seen one and don't understand their correct use. Were they used for lounging around the house?

A bed jacket is cropped to waist length, so your upper body is warm while you're sitting up in bed reading, or talking on the phone or whatever. You could sleep in one if your arms or shoulders got cold outside the covers at night ... but they're really for that in between time when you're in bed, but not asleep.

Taking to one's bed: Doesn't that sound glamorous in itself? Something Princess Margaret would do.

Drssing for dinner. We were visiting my grandmother one summer,when I insisted upon wearing dress clothes to dinner.

The adults thought I was dressing to attend Wednesday night church services.

Lava lamps.

I had a tube of Lancaster Lait Bronzant — not to be confused with suntan lotion — that I carried around with me hoping it would be seen.

I used allowance money to buy it at a European airport (I think it was Zurich) after seeing Lancaster posters with naked women while waiting for my mother to shop. Between the naked women and the fact that airport shops were, in my mind, the domain of jetsetters, I just knew that it was infinitely superior to whatever the peasants like my family were using. Lancaster was for people like me.

(I’m making myself cringe so hard right now.)

As soon as we were back from vacation, the tube started going everywhere with me. I’d take it out to recess and put it on, offering to let the kids I liked smell it while shooing the others away. I even put it on my window-side arm at red lights hoping the car next to me would see. I was a mess.

There was also something called a "duster," which was not so glamorous. The large pockets were for holding your cigarettes and matches.

R488 love that story, and totally relate.

R488 - I thought Ambre Solaire was the height of sophistication and associated it with the Saint Tropez 'jet set' as a gayling in 1976.

I wouldn't be caught dead with a logo appearing on any of my clothing now, but as a young gayling I was often seen wearing Izod's alligators and Polo shirts while sporting the hot shoes of the day.

[quote]I wouldn't be caught dead with a logo appearing on any of my clothing now,

It's hard to unpick an embroidered logo from a shirt, but it can be done. Halfway through is when you start getting impatient and "jabby", and that's when it can all go to hell.

[quote]Them oil lamps are what you saw in dago houses. They used olive oil.

Bullshit you racist troll, I grew up in a all white middle class neighborhood, everyone had one. Obviously not high class but no different than how tacky most middle class whites decorate today. I remember seeing them at Sears in the lighting department. Across from the Lava Lamps. There used to be a lot of different designs. The kids bought the Lava Lamp, the parents bought the fancy Rain Lamp. In fact there was a mall in Los Angeles (which has no Italian neighborhood) that had a 2 story rain lamp in the center like a water fountain.

Having a soap addict mother All My Children along with Dallas and Dynasty informed my sense of sophistication. Also my grandmother, called everyone 'love' and I thought she was amazing so picked up that one. Remember that got a reaction at the Sunday dinner table...

Having a soap addict mother All My Children along with Dallas and Dynasty informed my sense of sophistication. Also my grandmother, called everyone 'love' and I thought she was amazing so picked up that one. Remember that got a reaction at the Sunday dinner table...

[quote]In fact there was a mall in Los Angeles (which has no Italian neighborhood) that had a 2 story rain lamp in the center like a water fountain.

That was at Topanga Plaza, one of the Valley's first true shopping malls. When I was a little kid I thought that rain fountain was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. A few years later you could buy little rain fountains that were a foot or so high, but I thought those were high kitsch at its zenith.

I always wanted a lorgnette. I tried taping an old pair of eyeglasses to a chopstick, but it wasn't an effective experiment.

Since I’m old, I thought watching cliff divers in Acapulco while drinking cocktails was jaunty elegance. I think the only thing flying off the cliffs in Acapulco now are the hacked bodies lift tossed by the drug cartels.

Commercial air travel. And no wonder!

^^^I guess we imprint on certain things as children that stay with us all our lives. For me, the iconic Boeing 707 is most beautiful jetliner ever built. It’s the symbol, to me, of air travel. Look at the slender body, knifing through the air like an arrow. Look at the sleek lines, the wide, swept-back wings, the four seemingly unobtrusive engines. It’s so much more stylish and elegant than the stubby airborne buses that fly around today. Of course, the 707, like all airliners of the time, crashed regularly. But it looked very glamorous as it went down.

I thought California was the most glamorous place imaginable. I actually told a babysitter that my parents were not my real parents, that I was adopted from California.

I always wanted to live in a big, beautiful mansion like the Clampetts.

Floor length curtains.

My mom only used cafe curtains.

At age 6, I tid them back with yarn in an attempt to improve things[bold] : o

Swimming pools, movie stars

As a kid the Beverly Hillbillies were the definitive of anything glamorous. If they drove Imperials (Mr. Drysdale) that was the best car. All you needed was three million dollars and off you went to the most glamorous town in the world, Beverly Hills, where you would buy a stately mansion and lead a truly glamorous life. I just never understood why they didn't buy a better car or clothes

When I wrote up my Christmas wish list in the 1970's I put everything I needed to decorate my bedroom in colors of orange and yellow. Down to my bedspread, shag carpeting and a cool lamp.

My mother said, "boys don't ask for those things" and she decorated my room in a western saloon style with signs that said "Beer 5 cents" and "No guns allowed".

I hated it and flounced for days.

New neighbors moved in across the street in the mid-'60s and they had a white Cadillac Fleetwood sedan with this blue brocade interior. I thought it was most elegant thing ever when the Mrs. took the neighborhood kids in it somewhere.

It even had power VENT windows -- front and rear! -- and airplane like footrests for the back seat passengers.

I thought that car was very glamorous and I always hoped I'd see someone we knew when riding in it so I could blithely wave at them from the backseat.

R507, was it like this one? You were right. It was glamorous. It still is.

Vintage Caddies were sumptuous with luxurious interiors and had useful gadgets and features.

Todays Cadillacs are crap.

Corvettes

Blonde finger waves.

Cars that were designed to be driven by a chauffeur.

My parents moved into a new house the neighbors has 2 Lincolns like this one. One in white the other in gold, I thought it was glamorous to have 2 Lincolns..

[quote] Things you considered glamorous when you were a gayling

Faye Dunaway

For some reason, glitter rock facades on bungalows looked glamorous. We lived in an old farmhouse with too much yard.

R515

The way FD enters in the Villa...

Women's white 1960s boots! I thought they were the absolute height of glamour when I was a little prisspot.

Bentleys, Concorde, and anything from Asprey

And with good reason, R518. Those white boots were everywhere. Every store. Every magazine. Every television commercial. Few fashion trends hit as big as that did.

Guess Jeans

Limousines

The Rainbow on Sunset was very glamorous.

A couch in a bedroom. Imagine getting out of bed and lounging on the sofa until you felt like breakfast. What a life!

When I was a kid and vacationed with my family, chauffeurs at airports holding up signs were very interesting to me and definitely the height.

I believe some of my early fantasies about things I didn’t yet fully understand related to these uniformed private transportation professionals.

But so funny. When I grew up, and finally had a driver waiting for me with a sign at the airport, my first AND last names were both misspelled. Perfect.

Ascots. Wore one with blue oxford shirt when I was 17,

[quote]r517 The way FD enters the villa...

Oh, no no NO! Surely, it's the way she enters her gallery opening in EYES OF LAURA MARS, complete with bitchy gay assistant fending off nosy reporters!

And expanding on that, R524, a bell that you could ring that would bring a crisply uniformed servant into your room with your breakfast tray. I'd love that now, coffee, toast, fruit salad and yogurt brought in on a tray with my mail and the day's newspaper. *sigh*

Wait. Someone thought Rene Auberjonois was glamorous?

studebaker avanti

A magnifying mirror on a vanity surrounded by a circle of lights. sugar cubes fountains street signs made of stone cufflinks balustrades sarsaparilla Drambuie Vail Buick 225 yew hedges window boxes with flowers Santa Barbara mission style

I had a thing for concept cars, less the girls. Besides the fact that I was a gayling, I literally couldn't figure out what they hell they had to do with a beautiful car.

I love reading about how all of us, as tasteful youths, made these desperate, makeshift attempts to glam up our dreary normal lives.

I'm now remembering how impressed I was by wall-to-wall shag carpeting. Any home that had it seemed quite sophisticated to me.

A friend's family sold their house which was on the same block as my family's house. They moved into an apartment complex. Today, I wonder why they did that. Was there some financial setback that caused it?

That was of no concern to me when I was 10. I saw their apartment and was overwhelmed with the perceived coolness of it all. Especially the turquoise appliances in the kitchen. We had a washer and dryer in the basement, but this apartment complex had the coolest laundry rooms. I loved the commercial dryers and the fact that for 10 cents you could spin around in one.

I desperately wanted my mother to sell our house and move into an apartment. She must have thought she had given birth to the stupidest child on earth.

Carrying a briefcase.

A neighbor, no idea what he did for a living, used to go to work every morning carrying a Gucci briefcase.

Carrying a briefcase.

A neighbor, no idea what he did for a living, used to go to work every morning carrying a Gucci briefcase.

The kindness of strangers.

When the mistress of the house is lying in bed and the cook comes in with the day's menu for her approval.

Also trays for those who prefer to breakfast in bed.

Having your meals brought up on a tray IS glamorous! Especially breakfast!

Unless, of course, Baby Jane is doing it.

I loved the credits of Eyes of Laura Mars.

So elegant, so 70's!!!!

I bet at the time those large credits in that font looked very au Courant!!!

Glamour!

After Eights.

Martini

Dixie Livingware

Breakfast At Tiffany's

PAN AM

Mother dear

Mother dear

What's "Mother dear"?

Multi-line Touch Tone Phones

Peggy Lee, especially this cover on an album my nan gave me!

My mom’s collection of Avon decanters and her sunken living room with powder blue shag carpet.

The 1960s glamour girls in furs and jewels in the opening of the Jackie Gleason show. “From Miami Beach....”. Can’t find a clip.

A dress uniform with a kilt.

An example

sterling silver flatware from Christofle

my grandmother's Vanden Plas Princess.

It even had sandwich tables in the back.

& a walnut dashboard.

Indoor plumbing

Electricity

Not getting an eviction notice every month

Some type of semi recognizable meat product for dinner once a week

Clothes that weren’t hand me downs or bought at Goodwill

Paying for groceries with actual money and not food stamps

Kids who got an allowance each week

A pizza that was ordered and delivered to your house

Wall-to-wall carpeting (in the 60s-70s)

A friend's mother had these displayed, and I would stand in front of the glass and try to decide which color I considered the fanciest.

I like those R563!

I couldn't quite figure out what R274 had described, but a little googling revealed this glorious ottoman. Behold the glamor!

Oh my dear sweet lord R565. Who thought up this? I'm an elder and never saw such a thing. I guess it's not the sort of "antique" that keeps well. It would be a heck of an item to own today, so campy!