The Mitford Sisters
Dedicated to the most scandalous bunch of sisters of the 20th century. Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Nancy the Novelist, Deborah the Duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur.
You can find my non-Mitford related posts at therealhousewivesofwesteros.tumblr.com
Jessica Mitford in Spain, 1937
“ I was completely, deeply committed; I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off Esmond all weekend. I had watched the Scotts succumb to his extraordinary charm, like trees slowly falling before the wind. Although Esmond was the youngest person in the party, he had seemed like a star around which everything revolved. A wind, a star, he represented to me all that was bright, attractive and powerful, and I did wonder what he thought of me. There had been one slight indication; one night the party at Cousin Dorothy’s had played a primitive sort of parlor game, then popular, in which each guest gave the others marks for various qualities — beauty, sense of humor, intelligence, sex appeal and so forth. The scores were added and announced, and the papers kept anonymous. Terrified of being discovered, I had gone down in my dressing gown after everyone else was asleep to salvage the crumpled sheets from the wastebasket. I discarded two neatly penned papers as Scott products; another, in a spidery and old-fashioned hand, must be Cousin Dorothy’s; and I recognized my own. That left an untidy penciled scrawl, in which I had got straight “10’s” — the top mark. This must be Esmond’s paper. Other than that I had no clue. ”
“ After agricultural shows, Marks & Spencer is the place to go shopping, and then Paris. Nothing in between seems to be much good. ”
Mitford manor house gutted by fire
A POSH manor house built by the Mitford family has been badly damaged after a blaze broke out in the drawing room.
(Source: thesun.co.uk)
Jessica Mitford, 1942
No, but Nancy, really. Why so beaut.? I’m distracted.
The final outcome from a recent editorial design project. You had to choose a subject you were interested in and inform the reader about it. I chose the Mitford Sisters - because almost every person I’ve ever mentioned them to had no idea who they were but then went on to become just as obsessed with them as I am. I’m not going to go too much into who they were here (the wikipedia page provides a good introduction) but basically they were six sisters from an aristocratic family who all had these incredible, ridiculous, interesting lives - though not always interesting for the right reasons. Nancy Mitford you might have heard of because of her wonderful (and hilarious) novels but there was also Diana (well known fascist and wife of Oswald Mosely), Jessica (communist, investigative journalist and all-round badass), Unity (Nazi and friend/lover of Hitler), Deborah (the only Mitford still living and the current Duchess of Devonshire) and Pam (the only ‘ordinary’ sister who lived quietly and came out as lesbian later in life).
I wanted to keep the design classic and simple but with a grungy edge. When you say “1940s aristocrats” people tend to think prim; staid; boring. But with the Mitfords that couldn’t be further from the truth - they were the rebels of their day. I took cues from the punk movement and riot grrl zines, taking the prim and proper formal portraits of the girls and “vandalising” them with the bright pink paint. I think it gives it a nice streak of anarchy.
Decca and the Dectones
