Autumn in Rotterdam

 On the staircase of Huis Sonneveld (photo by Myrtle Beauregard)

 

Last Saturday I visited Rotterdam with my friends from Club Interbellum. Marinka, who organised the trip, invited us to her cosy home for coffee and cake first. Then we set out for a lovely autumn walk. We crossed the river Maas underground via the Maastunnel, that featured some old escalators.

 

 

Photo's above by Frank de Koning

We had lunch at a resteaurant that served excellent meatballs and continued our walk.

 

Eventhough Rotterdam was bombed during WWII and the city centre is almost entirely modern, there are some beautiful buildings left.

The pictures below were taken ond the shores of a pond in a little park. My friend Myrtle already had my blog in mind whilst taking pictures of me :)

 

Photo's above by Myrtle Beauregard

Photo by Frank de Koning

 

I was wearing an autumnal color combo: copperbrown blouse and dark green skirt.
The blouse is actually a dress and I've worn it a such.

The fabric is cut on the bias so it is very flowy. Love the art deco influence in the pattern. The darker pieces are actually the back of the same fabric!

 

Then we visited the 'temporary fashion museum' which is a bit too conceptual for my taste but we did have a lot of fun trying on extremely high heels. Some historical garments were for sale, so you could touch them and even try them on. Unfortunately prices were to high for us as we are so used to snap up bargains ;).

Poor Myrtle fell in love with this terribly expensive dress.

Afterwards we went to Huis Sonneveld. As it was built in 1932-33 in a modernistic/minimalistic style, the family that came to live there had to leave almost everything behind in their old home in order not to disturb the design with clutter.

This was the study room of the two daughters of the house. As it was allowed tot touch most things and sit on things here I'm with Martine and Myrtle on the couch in the girls' room.

 

Some pictures of the girls who lived in the house.

Mirrors make for great selfie moments ;)

 

I was wearing a tweed coat from the early to mid 1930's. It hase some amazing details like the stitching in the collar and the wooden buttons. It was hardly worn, the was even a spare button sewn into the hem. A good thing as buttons like these are almost impossible to replace.

 

 

When I got the coat I got the hat for free, because they both have Scandinvian labels, were found together and might have belonged together.

 

With hats like these it is always difficult to give a date because these styles were populare in the 30's but also in the early 50's.

 

 

 

 

Adjoined to the master bedroom is a dressing room with lots of space for clothes! The mirrors give an alround view of my outfit.

 

 

Such an amazingly birght color for the master bathroom, with bath AND shower an a seperate toilet behind a door. Eventhough this house may look minimalistic it had many luxurious, and for the time modern, comforts.

Myrtle's dress matched the bathroom :)

 

A guest bedroom that looks a bit too much like a hospital for my taste.

 

We had some drinks and bitterballen to end the day. But I'll not end this post without a little P.S.:

 

 

On tis picture I'm holding a bathing suit. Though the pond looked perfect for a stylish dive it was way tot cold to go swimming. Hennie had found a lot of bathingsuits at a flea market a while ago and sold several of them. I was so happy to get two blue woolen numbers! Tnak you Hennie for letting go of them!

The one I'm holding is hard to date could be anything from the late 30's to early 50's I guess. Love the color and the little embroidery on the hip.

 

 

 

The label reads Tribosa, fabricated in The Netherlands. Tribosa was a factory producing knitwear located in Den Bosch. The fact that 'Nederlands' is spelled with an -s instead of -sch may mean it is from after the war when the spelling was officially changed. Other brands did use this spelling already in the 30's, so can't be sure.

 

The second bathing suit is most probably from the second half of the 30's. Love the nautical style.

 

 

Swimming in wool can be tricky, so I tried these out in the bathtub the next day. They worked, did not sag that is!

 

Almost sad it is autumn instead of summer as I'm so looking forward to wearing them!