WELCOME TO PLEASANTVILLE - "We're supposed to be at home, David. We're supposed to be in color!"

 

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Yesterday's blog about neighbourly love reminded me of a 1990's film called 'Pleasantville'.  Teen siblings get magically transported into a 1958 sitcom, where they find themselves in a very black and white world with old time values.  What they don't initially realise is that they bring with them a hint of colour, which over time changes the inhabitants of Pleasantville in many ways.  The siblings' biggest influence on this town was by way of introducing the locals to sex and books.

Pleasantville was literally in black and white.  This symbolizes the innocence of the 1950's and the strongly upheld idea of conformity.  Colour then became the symbol of knowledge and breaking away from the homogeneous ideals of the elders.  There was an unspoken message about racism and the townspeople's idea of everyone being the same, even though the entire town is Caucasian. 

Witherspoon & Maguire as siblings
transported back in time to 1958
smh.com.au


   

Pleasantville was a town where everyone was happy in their lives, nothing went horribly wrong and no one questioned anything.  The teen siblings found all of this naivete extremely stifling and frustrating.  Although Toby Maguire's character was more embracing of their predicament and tried to make the best of things.  But Reese Witherspoon's character was hell bent on getting back to their own time feeling the limitations of being a girl in the 1950's.

One of the most interesting aspects of this film was when the siblings discovered that all of the town's books were blank.  When they recounted the stories that were supposed to be in these books, the pages magically filled with words and colours.  The town's youth then become really excited about reading, as a whole new world had been opened up to them.  This euphoria was then extinguished by the burning of those books to prevent the people from changing too much.  The elders' strangle hold on the town became stronger. 



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  As the movie progressed, there was more and more colour injected into the town and its people.  As the inhabitants of Pleasantville finally shed their innocence, the siblings started to wonder if their own time was indeed better or not.  They saw some value to this strange and backwards society.

As I mentioned in my blog "Camelot Shmamelot", there was so much repression, ignorance and discrimination in the 1950's.  Why do we continue to look upon that time in history as Camelot, as the time of old fashioned values with all the goodness of white bread?!  It's a wonder...

You Can 'Rock Around The Clock' with these items...

Pleasantville [Blu-ray]

 



Vintage Clothing 50's "I Love Lucy" Style Blue Jacket



POLKA DOT Vtg 50s 60s CHIFFON PARTY DRESS S 34 navy white





Vintage looks so fabulous with its Patina

Today's blog is going to be a shameless plug for my friends' store called Patina.  They started modestly by working out of their home, revamping gorgeous chandeliers, designing lamps and faux finishing furniture and accessories and  much much more.  Over time, they were able to move to a shared retail space.  Now they proudly display their beautiful furniture items in a grand store that is over 3000 square feet in size.  I'm so proud of my friends who steadily and smartly grew their business. 

I must admit to being very surprised though, when their very classical, European furniture pieces started to disappear and in their place, came more modern and vintage pieces.  I see a lot of white metals like chrome and lots and lots of lucite.  Glass seems very popular as well as straight lined and simple shapes.  I wouldn't say that Patina's style is mid-century modern with teak furniture everywhere.  It's vintage and antique with a refined style that doesn't really fit neatly into one popular category.  The furniture and accessories are bold yet subtle, grand yet understated and always fresh in feel and mindset.  Patina is trendsetting, not trend following.  As vintage fashions are so desirable and enduring, our friends continue to realise their vision of styling interior spaces that are more and more vintage in feel.

If you would like more information about Patina, please email us at office@somelikeitvintage.com