Inspiration: the family archives.

Loads of photographs ahead! My mother was cleaning out her office earlier this week, and when she came across a bunch of my great-aunt's photo albums she asked if I wanted to have a look at them. I was excited to find loads of pictures, not only from her childhood but also from her parents! Some of these photographs were pretty good quality, and show some interesting details on clothing, so I decided to make a blog post about them. Without further ado:

Lovely ladies! This photograph comes from the oldest of the albums. It's quite fragile and a lot of the pictures have faded (including a series taken on a boat to Dover) but some of them are still clear. I love the details in the outfit on the lady on the left!

The women's clothing and the multiple men in uniforms lead me to believe that these pictures were taken around WWI. There's no exact date on them, but I really wonder what happened to the men in these photographs.

Was this at the beginning or at the end of the war? How many of them have returned home?

I love how some of the shots are more relaxed and candid, as opposed to stiff portraits.

More dapper gents! See how they all wear their suit in a slightly different way.

The album also included a picture of this lady in a beautiful evening gown. It looks incredibly comfortable as well!

 

This is my great-grandmother when she was young, if I'm not mistaken. Even if she isn't, she looks an awful lot like other pictures I've seen of her! Digging the sleeves and collar on the dress on the left, and the buttons and doggie on the right.

Here she is again, on her wedding day. If my timeline is correct, this is somewhere in the 1930s. I like the dropped waistline and uneven hem she's wearing!

My great-grandfather was a refugee from Catalonia, he left Spain right before the Civil War started and worked as a waiter in Paris and Antwerp. My great-grandmother had a store selling shirts in the center of Antwerp. My great-aunt later told me it wasn't a very happy marriage, since he really wanted to marry my great-grandmother's younger sister, but their parents thought the oldest one had to marry first.

  

This is my great-aunt as a child. She was sent to live with family outside the city because of her health, and always told us stories about how she was a massive tomboy and got in trouble all the time. I also found a letter she got from a few friends, telling about a secret club and a fight with another boy.

My great-aunt and her (headless) sister, my grandmother. I want a grown up version of the coat she's wearing here, seriously. These pictures are all taken around the mid-1940s.

The girls are growing up! The girl on the ground is (again) my great-aunt (they were her photo albums, remember) and now I'm sort of mad at her for not keeping her old dresses.

This girl was called Marleen according to the caption next to the picture. I don't know who she is, but I love her outfit!

Sick of full skirts yet? I'm not! I especially like the number on the left. Polka dots and a nice shirt!

These are probably some of my favourites of the bunch. It's a girl's 18th birthday party, probably around 1956. I love the handmade decorations, the birthday girl's dress (looks like taffeta!) and all the dance moves!

This is my grandmother, with a head this time. I like the simplicity of the blouse she's wearing, the structural collar makes it look so cool!

Here she is again, on her wedding day. I don't have a full-length picture of her dress, sadly enough. Also, it's insane how much my dad looks like his father. I don't really remember seeing old pictures of my grandfather before!

This is a beautiful picture of my great-aunt at the wedding. That collar is all kinds of amazing!

And can we say bombshell? 

I'm going to end this post with a bunch of baby pictures of my dad. At least I think they're all my dad, the people in my family tend to look quite similar, especially as babies! I have a feeling I'm going to get a phone call about that last one...