pictures that are worth at least 1000 words

[kindkit]

This is relevant to all my interests:



I got it from Deviates Inc., a marvellous Tumblr of queer images (there's an RSS feed for it on DreamWidth created by yours truly; note that some images are NSFW). I traced the photo back through the intarwebs as far as BuzzFeed, but there doesn't seem to be any identifying information anywhere. Adding to my frustration, I can't see enough of the uniform to be sure of nationality, although the stand collar has me thinking Soviet dress uniform. Anyone have any ideas about nationality or date? (If it is Soviet, the kiss isn't necessarily an indication that the men are a couple--my understanding it was, perhaps still is, not unusual in Russia for men to kiss on the lips as an expression of friendship--but, hey, that also doesn't prove they're not a couple, right?)


While I'm posting images, have a couple of beautiful 1930s menswear advertisements by the artist Tom Purvis.





The tennis outfit in the latter image, although not actually cricketing whites, is close enough to make my heart beat faster. /my fetish, let me show you it

These are the fruits of an afternoon spent trying to figure out what a middle-class Englishman would have been wearing in 1946. (The answer, as near as I can tell, is "The same suit he was wearing in 1939, you fool, because cloth has been rationed since early in the war.")


ETA: Most disturbing picture I've yet found in my browse through a World Wars-centric Tumblr: three SS soldiers playing with a kitten. No, playing nicely with the kitten. One of them is holding a flower for it to play with.

ETA2: And this epitomizes my thoughts on War Horse.

Comments

[st_aurafina]

That is such a beautiful photo. Thank you for the tumblr link - I always need more vintage queeritude on there.

Cricket! Can I rec you Bodyline? It's an Aussie miniseries about the 1932/33 Ashes tour. From memory, I wouldn't call it homoerotic (though it has a lot of anguished cricketers weeping on each other's shoulders, so maybe) but it might make for some nice eye candy? It has a super young Hugo Weaving.

[kindkit]

Can I rec you Bodyline?

Ooh, you most certainy can. The internet fairies seem to have delivered it to me overnight, and I'm looking forward to watching the anguished!weeping!cricketers.

Perhaps watching the show will even help me make sense of cricket as a game, as opposed to just enjoying the outfits!

[tree_and_leaf]

The answer, as near as I can tell, is "The same suit he was wearing in 1939, you fool, because cloth has been rationed since early in the war.")

Or his demob suit. I mean, if he had a pre-war suit that fitted it would almost certainly be better quality, but if he'd joined the army at age 18 he might have filled out since.

Great pictures, thank you for sharing.

[kindkit]

Thanks! This particular character did join up at 19, but he spent most of his war in a POW camp, so there hasn't been much filling out. He probably wears his demob suit for everyday purposes and saves his prewar suits for best, such as the scene I'm writing.

[lemposoi]

Considering the kiss is on an open marketplace, I'd put my money on Soviet.

Nngh heavy coats. *salivates* I'm kind of with you about the tennis outfit, too, though I wouldn't say it goes as far as a fetish. Basically if Bertie Wooster would wear it, I'm for it.