Monday, 13 October 2008

More on Dress Discipline

Not much time today but as dress discipline in its various forms features so majorly in the INSTITUTIONALISED series, what with the nurses in their uniforms and their unfortunate charges in theirs and of course not forgetting the various flavours of school uniform that some of our young ladies find themselves placed in at home or at the hands of a governess I thought you might like to check out this little site if the discussion of dress discipline and the imposition of humiliating punishment uniforms appeals to you.

Link removed ( the links to the dress discipline bulletin-board I have been discussing no longer work - it has been taken down)

And don't just settle back to read the stuff...contribute. (Well you can't now, see above - but you can still post your thoughts here if such stuff is your bag)

Saturday, 11 October 2008

Dress Discipline

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Thursday, 9 October 2008

Yet More Gymslips I'm Afraid - I LOVE 'EM!

Yet once again I find myself forced to apologise for the sparsity of posts. As you probably know, from the outset I have undertaken to try to post at least once each weekday. But in recent weeks, what with the treatment I have had to my eyes and the complications thereof and then the banking crisis with the attendant insane shuffling around of bank accounts and out of blind panic (treated with a liberal dose of alcoholic bingeing) things have gone somewhat awry. When I have managed to post something it has of necessity been very short and sharp (and hopefully sweet) and part of a consequence of that is that the site has notably been gradually going off track of late. The aim as stated was always to discuss the INSTITUTIONALISED series, the things such as images, films, TV shows and books that have influenced me in writing it, the ideas I've had and others that have recently come to me and that I am developing at present - and also to provide a platform for you good readers to contribute your own ideas and feedback. In addition I try to keep track of the type of thing that visitors have come to this site searching for (those of you that arrive as a result of a Google, or other search engine, keyword search) and then try to provide either the relevant content (if it is relevant to the stated aims) or a link to it. But what with the various distractions I have had the tendency has been to provide content as quickly as possible and easiest way was to work around those keyword searches.

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This was something I had intended to address this week, to get this site back on track but again things have gone somewhat awry - I am behind with the writing of volume 2 of INSTITUTIONALISED, there is still the stress of all this banking nonsense and somebody, who shall remain nameless, sent me a link to a marvellous source of vintage pictures - a vein that could take weeks to mine to exhaustion and that I really should leave alone because of the time I'm spending on it, but it's just so damn addictive!! On top of all that I spent most of yesterday traipsing round various hair clinics receiving quotes for a transplant - just a little to either side at the front you understand, I'm still pretty much well thatched otherwise (honest). So far this week I've only managed one post and that pretty much consisted of a series of links to the various albums I've been building up. Of these, only Betty Bow 1973 has been much visited and I think probably because people are mixing up the name with that of Betty Page . The first is a British women's workwear and uniform manufacturer, the second is a famous vintage burlesque star (click on her name to visit her site) and muse of the great John Willie (AKA John AS Coutts, of which more we must wait for another time - as influential as his work was on me in my formative years).
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As for today, once again I am somewhat short of time so for the moment and the completeness and bracket and because people still come to this site having typed in gymslip is a keyword) I'm posting up a few more vintage pictures. And then at some later point I am going to place all the gymslip pictures I have together in a single album and supply any link to it from the sidebar. Later today or tomorrow I will endeavour to get the site back on track with some stuff actually directly pertaining to my writing and influences, with a couple of nice illustrative images I've come across, possibly a snippet from volume 2 or volume 3 and a story outline that I've sketched out and that will form part of the body of volume 2.
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Mind you, isn't it nice to see a bottle green one - so near-perfect for a girl's first arrival at the institution (think INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1). Of course the shoes would never do - and where the hell has her tie gone? That Should warrant a caning straightaway, don't you think? Far too slovenly - and her skirt is creased.
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Finally, I just couldn't resist this little pic of what so easily could be a nice little summer dress with a bit of imagination (perhaps in a nice bottle green or royal blue gingham check) - nothing like the type of thing that the uniforms I envisage the girl's wearing in the institution are based upon of course, but quite lovely in its way nonetheless. Girlish enough to be an acceptable for a young lady under the tutelage of a stern governess I should think - and brief enough as to invite frequent slaps across the back of her thighs and equally frequent visits to the caning horse.
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Thanks for your patience and best wishes - Garth (soon to be immensely hirsute - a rock god in the making I shouldn't wonder).

Monday, 6 October 2008

More New Links

Hi Folks
I've just added a couple more nice blogs to the blog list:
http://spankingdelights.blogspot.com/


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And to the Women's Workwear and Uniform Catalog Scans Collection I've added:

(Links in sidebar on right or click on company name).

I have now also added an album of my collection of Hardcastle's art from scans of Janus and web downloads (click the top illustration or check out the link in the side bar). Some of these I have posted before but now they can be found all together in one place.


Actually that pic has made me come over fee;ing so cruel that I couldn't resist posting this other one (right) Just how a girl in an institution should look.

Sunday, 5 October 2008

Women's WorkWear and Uniforms - New Resource Links Added

As most will by now know, I rarely post anything much at the weekend. However, I have been adding more of my scanned uniform and nylon overall catalog images to my albums and have now decided to arrange them by manufacturer. There are only three albums present at the moment but I will be extending the collection in between bouts of writing, when I get bored and have plans for a couple of albums of corsellete (as these undergarments are something mentioned many times in INSTITUTIONALISED volume 1) and corset pics at some point. The album links may now be found in the side bar to the right just below 'messages'. If there is sufficient interest I will arrange other topics that have been covered in a similar manner to create easily navigable pages of illustrations by Paula Meadows and Hardcastle for example or popular search subjects such as enemas, caning pics etc.

Friday, 3 October 2008

Women's Workwear and Uniforms Catalogue Scan Collection Album Started

Today I've made a start on creating a series of new photo albums in which I am planning to eventually deposit my entire collection of women's work-wear and uniform catalog scans of which I've spoken previously. In creating theses albums I am attempting to endow this blog with something more of the feeling of a full-blown web site. The resolution will be kept relatively low to save bandwidth but I will be more than happy to provide the full size image of any picture for anybody interested. Just e-mail me with the request. Similarly should anyone out there have any relevant photos, drawings, scans etc then please feel free to contribute - just send them to me by e-mail and I will add them to the album and / or the blog. They don't have to be directly relevant to the goings-on in the book / books but it would be really great if folks would send in their impression of how they imagine the girls and staff etc to look or indeed how they would like them to look (there are one or two changes mooted for volume 2, in particular in the schoolroom - and then there are the prison uniforms for the girls held in that particular section).

Part of the reason for providing this resource is to share around my collection (for those interested in such things) and thus ensure its survival and partly it is to illustrate some of the terms used in the INSTITUTIONALISED series. In particular I've noted that to the American audience, and perhaps to others, the term ‘overalls’ probably conjures up an image of bib and braces dungarees and denim even as pertains to women. In the book I have a definite, if perhaps somewhat dated, image in mind when I use the terms – dress style overall, frock overall or nylon overall -as descriptive terms applied to the green and white striped uniforms that the young ladies incarcerated in the institution are obliged to wear. Some of the pictures will also help illustrate certain aspects of the staff uniforms that some may not be familiar with such as Petersham ribbon or tippet as pertaining to part of a nurse's uniform.

There is not that much there at the moment but I plan that this resource will grow over time, and hopefully quite rapidly, and will cover a range of uniforms across a swathe of time from the 1950s to the near present.

Thursday, 2 October 2008

New Link Added

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