Dark Academia 2 - the conversation continues..

[highlandcoo]

Hello again to everyone from the last thread and welcome to anyone who enjoys talking about this aesthetic .. and if you have photos to share even better!

We've been discussing woollen jumpers, tweed skirts and jackets (with and without elbow patches), flannel trousers, fair isle tank tops, leather boots, culottes, berets and many other appealing garments, and more recently novels, poetry, libraries in general and even home decor with a DA vibe. Plus tortoiseshell spectacles and lorgnettes. I don't think we've touched on DA hairstyles yet although I've been giving that some thought ..

A DA quote I came across the other day: "I declare after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library." (P&P of course)

If curling up in a wing-backed armchair in front of a log fire, with candles flickering, sipping tea from a china mug while reading your Jane Austen or Bronte novel sounds appealing, this thread might be for you. Or if you just like the clothes - that works too.

Our first thread below:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/4861009-dark-academia-anyone-who-loves-this-style?page=39&reply=129785046

Posting that indenture has prompted me to actually proofread my transcription (long overdue) and discover I'd skipped a whole clause, among other errors:

He shall do no damage to his said Master nor see to be done of others, but that he to his power shall let, or forthwith give warning to his said Master of the same.

Fascinating what they considered necessary to include!

The National Archives at Kew are one of my favourite places in the world. It's absolutely mind blowing what they have, and under supervision you can ask to see some extraordinary stuff. I'm very lucky to live nearby.

<–envy

I'm near to the National Archives, too. Fantastic place.

Oh heavens...yes. People selling things without providing the size/measurements/details.
I asked for the French size of a Lanvin blouse on Ebay, and was just told it would fit me, then 'it's large', then I was told off for being 'fussy'!

Waves at fellow SW Londoners.

I think my favourite trawl was through the conversations of German officers incarcerated at Trent Park during WWII, which were recorded by a team of “secret listeners”. From the fighter pilots discussing how much they’d like to fly spitfires, to the complaints about British dentists, to the stunned reaction to being shown footage of the liberation of concentration camps: “this is the only thing about the 1000 year Reich that will last 1000 years”, one memorably commented.

Oh wow, @Mirabai that is amazing. I read a book recently about that but actually getting to see the real transcripts 🤩

Which book was it? The Helen Fry? Or Sonke Neitzel?

This was some time ago so there are probably more books around now.

@Mirabai were you part of the Trent Park team that has been working on the papers?

PwC used to own Latimer House, which was part of the same network during WWII. A feature of training courses there was that sometimes you'd get a tour of the cellars, which were allegedly used for interrogations. And Rudolf Hess is supposed to have been stashed there for a while - I've taught a monumentally dull course in what was supposed to have been his bedroom.

No I was part of a group that did some research for the Jewish Museum and Imperial War Museum. It was focused on the Jewish “listeners” at Trent Park. The original listeners to the bugged conversations were British military who spoke German, but it was soon realised they needed native German speakers. They brought in German Jewish refugees, some of whom were in the Pioneer Corps.

Oh good lord. I watched the documentary "Spying on Hitler's Army" enthralled, Mirabai. Did your work feed into that at all?

There's a certain poetic justice in the Germans' testimony being captured for posterity by Jewish refugees... but surely it must have been traumatic for them, too?

No the documentary was mainly based, afaik, on a book by Sonke Neitzel - published in English as: “Tapping Hitler’s Generals”. The documentary came out around the same time as I was involved the research. Neitzel focuses on the Generals’ conversations whereas we were focused more on the Jewish refugees’ experience.

I think traumatic and also very hard work. They were in soundproof, windowless booths for long shifts.

Definitely traumatic and hard, but they were doing something to defeat Hitler that literally nobody else could do. Did your research look at any of their post-war experience, or was it solely focused on WWII?

The research was exclusively focused WWII, the Pioneer Corps and the secret listeners. However, the people I interviewed personally, who were in their 90s, obviously I got to hear of their post-war experiences.

I'm in STEM but I'm teaching about historical techniques as an end of term relaxing seminar this week so I'm walking round campus with a mid century cardboard suitcase with some bits of obsolete kit that the technicians were going to throw out, my wool coat and fair isle beret. I feel I've got this nailed.

Tomorrow's clothes. I'm touring a marine research station. Stripey cashmere cardi with long pink/clay coloured merino one over it, and wide legged grey trousers. I wish I'd got a beret as it's absolutely fecking freezing here! The short cardigan has much nicer colours IRL, including same colour as long one.

This has sparked a memory that my rented bedroom at one time was reputedly "the one in which Madame Stravinsky slept" (or perhaps it was Madame Rachmaninoff, I forget).

I bet we have an excellent collection between us.

Think someone's scored Good Queen Bess just since this thread started?

My first London flat was once home to Diana Dors!!!!

🙌

Topically for today, when very small I slept in "the guest lodge where Henry Kissinger stayed."

I had never heard of him, was very unimpressed, and deeply disappointed we were in a boring, square-cornered cottage instead of the exciting round huts which made up the remainder of the rest camp.

My 'style' is all fingerless gloves and multiple jumpers at the moment. I've given up my quest for a knit vest, as I feel I've now passed the point of thin shirt sleeves in my day-to-day.

Anyone got their eye on any DA-appropriate Christmas/holiday presents?

Haha, same here. I feel I may be approaching hobbit rather than dark academia.

Is there a hobbit style because I think that is my aesthetic too!

@AlmondButterToast I think we are pioneering hobbitcore right now.