There are summer days in which you may feel completely drained of your energies and longing for holidays or at least for a day of break. Yet, you don’t have any holidays left at work, maybe you can’t afford a holiday, you may not be healthy enough to travel, or you may be recovering from Covid, in isolation (there have been outbreaks of the Delta variant all over Europe) or waiting for your second dose of vaccine before deciding it is safe enough for you to go anywhere.
If that's the case, don’t despair, leave Instagram alone, and get inspired by holiday or summer pictures taken by a master of photography such as Norman Parkinson.
Don’t use them to cry about what you can’t do, but think how they can inspire you to create something, from a garment to an accessory, from a drawing to a painting or anything else you fancy.
If you like sports check out the dynamic "Speedboat", taken in Dubrovnik in 1937, or "Golfing at Le Touquet" taken in 1939, with the woman in the background wearing a sporty jacket with dark tipping details (of the sort Thom Browne would love…), two front pockets and wide lapels.
If you're in a travelling mood and hitching to get a plane, check out the super stylish "The art of Travel II" (1951) or "Gilded Summer" (published on Vogue 1965), that will have you longing for elegant yet functional travelling wardrobes.
If you want to learn how to create holiday pictures with striking landscapes and backgrounds, don’t forget the glamorous photograph of a sensual Apollonia van Ravenstein in a sculptural pose, wearing a silk white swimsuit at the Crane Beach Hotel in Barbados in 1973, or Pilar Crespi standing in a white suit on the 1,840 steps of Mihintale, Sri Lanka (1980) which lead to the burial place of the son of the Indian Emperor Asoka who brought Buddhism to the Singhalese in the third century BC.
Last but not least, use Parkinson’s British Vogue cover from July 1949 with a red lobster that seems to take centre stage on a bench in the South of France (this issue's theme was Sea and Country) to create your own summer still life.
Some of these images are currently part of an auction at Sotheby's, so you can leaf through them and maybe close your eyes and dream you are in a faraway country practicing a fun activity or sport, or simply relaxing while sipping a cocktail on the beach.
