Sunday 3 November 2019

Sjöden Böden

In the comment thread following the previous post, we got talking about the possibility of a fashion magazine devoted to our style of dress — American/British Vague. 

This reminded me of a daft thing some of us in our household did a couple of years back — since we enjoy looking at the Boden and Gudrun Sjöden catalogues, we made our own spoof catalogue for an imagined ladies' clothing firm called Sjöden Böden. 

I went back and looked out the photos we took.  


FROM THE SUMMER SPICE COLLECTION






FROM THE SPRING GARDEN COLLECTION





FROM THE FROZEN NORTH WINTER COLLECTION



















I raided the archives of the same cast of characters for my Diary of an English Lady blog (see, eg this post from the blog), using the photos they took from a (spoof) Christmas murder mystery radio play they did one year, called Lord Bonchley's Christmas Party — I especially liked the decadent female nightclub singer called Débris Bonbon. 
And then there are the Group W prison breakout stories . . .

21 comments:

Elin said...

I love it! You really got the Gudrun Sjödén look down! I laughed so much. Here in Sweden her clothes are often connected with the stereotype of "kulturtant", an older woman who likes going to cultural events and wear colorful clothes. Some might find her a bit silly and a bit too comfortably middle class but I tend to like "kulturtanter", many of them are keeping up with their times and are deeply involved in different political issues and issues of justice and I dearly hope I will to be like that some day. I already dress like a baby "kulturtant" so I will fit right in.

Helen said...

Brilliant! Thank you x

Pen Wilcock said...

Hi Elin — glad you liked it! We had a lot of fun making that.

Hi Helen — Waving! x

greta said...

hilarious and so much fun. now i'll have to check out the actual catalogs for comparison. bet i like yours better!

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

xx

Sandra Ann said...

These are brilliant you are a fun and talented family xx

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

Thank you! x

greta said...

btw, you looked smashing in benedictine black and white, holding up a lantern!

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

xx

Bean said...

ha ha, that made my day,

Bean

Rebecca said...

Oh, what fun! Such creativity!

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

We like clothes catalogues — it's like having magazines, but free. We always have several in our bathroom.

Mairin said...


I loved, loved, loved these pics! Mairin.

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

Hi, Mairin! Waving! x

Rapunzel said...

Absolutely Delighted!!!!!!!

Rapunzel said...

Let us all know if you ever decide to take on Magnolia Pearl.

Pen Wilcock said...

Ha ha! Magnolia Pearl! That would be brilliant. I'm not sure we have enough frills and furbelows to do that.

Rapunzel said...

During the workday I need to look maternal, trustworthy and harmless (read Zzzzzz)

In an effort to keep my spirit up and avoid old-lady-stodginess I made a vow a year ago that henceforth all my not-for-work clothing will be fun. I combine thrifting, home sewing and some custom sewn (by farm wives) to avoid 'the fashion industry'. Wearing colorful layers of dresses and jumpers/pinnies and aprons and bloomers and petticoats and knitted shawls makes my heart sing and feeds my inner child

Your 'catalog' is immensely inspiring for my goal, thank you one and all!

Pen Wilcock said...

I think we were following the "Ha ha, pile 'em all on" philosophy. The white thing wrapped round my head in the black-and-white clothing pic is a bra. And I think Fi's glorious red skirt is a sheet. Everything else was a muddle of towels and shawls and anything we could find. How clothes began . . . x

Rapunzel said...

Gosh,the fun of it all! we love your family from afar!

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

xx