This weekend, we went to Stafford for my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. A lovely day was had by all on Saturday, celebrating the renewal of their vows. On Sunday, we did our usual quick trip around the car boot sale where I found a huge collection of vintage Marie France magazines. I had seen these last time we were there but decided not to buy any. Since then, I’d been thinking about them and how interesting they were. So, I bought 22 of them on Sunday!

This first one is no. 78, from the 15th May, 1946. I am absolutely convinced that the front cover has been created by Louis Shabner. Look at the eyes, the mouth, the pose… Not convinced? Check here and see what you think. Obviously, it could easily have been done by a copycat but to me it looks like many of the pinups he painted.

Whilst unfortunately I am unable to parle le francais, the pictures inside are fantastic to look at.

 

The title broadly translates as Dress of Holidays Merry Dresses. Merry! What a lovely word that I’d forgotten about.

I would quite happily wear all of these dresses…

 

The magazines contain a vast array of articles, ranging from ideas for summer dresses (as above) through to the wonders of television picture quality, ideas for children, dressmaking and knitting, star signs, stories – all illustrated or accompanied by photographs. I just love them!

 

Clearly, this was for ‘Ideas to keep the children quiet’. What every French mother wants. It gives her more time to create something chic such as this:

 

Love the colour scheme, but not too sure about the model’s pose…

 

I must, I must, I must improve my bust…

 

Slightly odd beauty adverts seemed to have been all the rage. Not sure many of these would sell the products nowadays!

 

I think I would buy every piece of furniture in this room:

 

Each issue has a different advert or feature in colour on the back page. This one seems to be advertising the new looks from ‘Jane Sylvain’. I’m more interested in the platform wedges the two models at the back appear to be wearing. I think Alexa Chung et al would wear the ones on the right!

 

The price on the front of this magazine is 10 Francs. I’ve found -via Wikipedia; admittedly, it might not be accurate – that in 1945 480 francs were equivalent to one English pound. I’m not particularly mathematically minded, so I figured out that the magazine cost 0.02 of a pence. Can that be right? I paid 50p for each one…

I have learned from looking in this magazine that the stylish women of France were likely to have a wide range of interests from film, television, fashion, beauty, crafts, theatre, books, holidays… a little bit like the women of today. We don’t change much, do we?