WWII Vintage

As it was ANZAC Day last weekend I've dragged out what is most likely my oldest complete vintage outfit, a (68yo) WWII Australian 2nd AIF Army uniform. Put together from various thrifted sources about a decade ago, everything dates to the period except the hat and boots, which are later but virtually identical to the wartime ones. It's rare to find vintage WWII items like these cheaply nowadays.


WWII Australian Army Winter SD uniform:
- 1942 Wool Tunic & 1966 Army Slouch Hat [Op Shops]
- 1942 Wool Trousers, P-37 webb belt and gaiters [Disposal Stores]
- WWII badges, buttons and 1958 hobnail army boots [Secondhand shops]
Note: Boots were originally tan coloured, but have been blackened by someone since.

Clowns, hideous clowns

Old kitsch decorative art can be fun, but one thing I draw the line at is clowns. Case in point, these old prints at seen at the Wendouree Salvos recently *shudder*.



My thoughts on clowns as decoration is neatly summed up in this YouTube clip from "Poltergeist".

"Visit Ballarat, the City Beautiful"

In the 1990s the PTC released a series of 8 reproduction vintage Victorian Railways travel posters from the 1920s & 30s. I was commuting daily to Melbourne at the time and they featured prominently in the Ballarat and Spencer Street railway stations. In the early 2000s I tracked down a signed limited edition of the Ballarat poster, which now hangs on my wall at home.

Interestingly the original 1929 "Visit Ballarat" poster was painted by Percy Trompf, who had his training at the Ballarat Technical Art School, and went on to be a very successful commercial artist and art teacher.

The modern reproductions were done by Melbourne illustrator Fay Plamka in 1993, a founding member of Illustrators Australia, and now a well known Melbourne Court artist for the ABC and 7 Network. Here's the entire set from recent auctions on ebay: