Aussie Pin-Ups of the Past

The ever fashionable Lady Melbourne just blogged about the publication of a new book called Our Girls, Aussie Pinups of the 40's and 50's. The book was launched this week at a party in Melbourne with a number of the original, and still gorgeous, pin up girls in attendance. The event even included a parade of genuine pinup girl style, compiled by Circa Vintage.

Reading about this new book, I was reminded of a thoroughly enjoyable SBS doco that the betrothed and I watched recently about Australian World War II pinups. The boy is such a huge documentary fan that he has our TIVO set to automatically tape every single one that airs, meaning that we are never bored on those lazy Sunday afternoons. It turns out the doco, Paper Dolls, was actually based on a PhD by Madeleine Hamilton, the author of Our Girls. So the similarities are perfectly explicable. The doco featured interviews with many of the pinups and was a fascinating insight into the social mores of the time, as well as trends in fashion and photography. Many of the pinups received hundreds of letters from Aussie boys at war, and some of those letters were truly heartbreaking ... I think many of the scribes felt better able to express their loneliness and fear to a stranger - who reminded them of the normalcy and happiness of home - than to their own friends and family.

If you are a history buff and haven't checked out the doco, it is well worthwhile.

I'll be looking out for Our Girls next time I'm at my local bookshop as I do love these images of gorgeous, natural looking women that remind me of a time before cosmetic enhancements, photo-shop and gym memberships revolutionised the pinup girl and it became something entirely different.