Before Prozac, Paxil or Effexor, women treated their melancholia with kitchen appliances.

In the 1960s Westinghouse Corporation noticed that women across the nation were whiling away their hours in states of despondency bordering on catatonia. Young beautiful women were seen wandering through the woods in brightly colored pantsuits, aimlessly swishing their hair and staring listlessly at forest creatures. Were they on LSD? Had they turned into hippies?  Something had gone terribly wrong. What had compelled these seemingly normal women to turn into zombie-like extras from Night Of The Living Dead? And more importantly, how could society return them to the fold? Well, the geniuses at Westinghouse came up with a brilliant solution that was just crazy enough that it might work: mood altering refrigerators!

Here’s one woman’s miraculous transformation from the walking wounded to perky go-go dancing housewife. The Westinghouse cure… with a dose of bongo and Hammond organ.
 

 
All hail female geek culture from polyester past! Women and giant-ass computers… what more could you ask for? From Lawrence Harley “Larry” Luckham:

In the late ‘60’s I worked for Bell Labs for a few years managing a data center and developing an ultra high speed information retrieval system. It was the days of beehive hair on the women and big mainframe computers. One day I took a camera to work and shot the pictures below. I had a great staff, mostly women except for the programmers who were all men. For some reason only one of them was around for the pictures that day.

 
See more photos after the jump…
 

 
Fashion, tribalism and a sharp suit. BBC documentary “The Street Look” connects fashion to pop music and back again. We proclaim our allegiance to the music we love in the clothing we wear. I’ve run through the whole gamut. My girlfriend says I’ve got more shoes than any man she knows: from winklepickers to creepers to sandals and Pumas, to cowboy boots, Beatle boots and leopard skin loafers. I’ve always been a fashion shapeshifter and it’s always been in relationship to whatever new social/cultural scene I feel a passion for. I like to wear my colors. It’s a declaration of what I believe in. Suit up and get ready to rock and roll.

In the late 70s, I started a company called Shady Character. I sold skinny ties and wraparound shades to stores that in turn sold them to kids in towns like Laramie, Wyoming and Brownsville, Texas -  places where there wasn’t a punk or new wave scene but kids wanted to align themselves with the movement. I really wasn’t doing it for the money, much to the chagrin of my partners, I was doing it because I wanted to provide kids with a freak flag to fly, a uniform in the rock and roll army. A groovy pair of Italian wraparounds can change the world for a 17 year old in a town without pity.
 

 
Um, errrr, great gift for the sociopathic teen in your life?

T-shirt design by Los Angeles-based artist, Ben Tegel, and you can get ‘em here.

(via Beautiful Decay)

Portrait of Jean-Paul Gaultier by Pierre et Gilles
 
As posted at Jezebel recently, I was happy to be reminded of this incredible, yet unjustly obscure, music video for the “House couture” single “How To Do That” by French fashion designer (and former Eurotrash TV host), Jean-Paul Gaultier. Stored in my garage, I actually have an obsolete format 3/4” videotape of this piece that someone gave me when it came out in 1988. It’s on the director’s reel of Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The 12” record had a “laser etching” on the vinyl itself of scissors, needle and thread and Gaultier’s logo. The CD has multiple remixes of this song—which is awesome—over and over again (but this is the best mix by far). Featuring Naomi Campbell, Gaultier’s signature cone bras (that Madonna would later make famous) and a dusky gray/purple blazer with 17 buttons up the front and 12 on each sleeve whicht I sheepishly admit to owning at the time…

Hey, it was the 80s, what more do I really have to say?
 

 
Here’s a stylish limted edition print by Argentinean-based artist Maxim Dalton. You can order “Ten Great Years” for $55.99 here.

See close-ups of the print after the jump…
 

 
At the time this video was shot in 1977,  Ollie and Rowland were playing together in The Young Charlatans. Rowland later joined The Birthday Party. Ollie went on to work with many bands and eventually became a composer and producer of trance music. But here they are in their teens energized by punk and ready to detonate a punk rock explsosion Down Under. Such innocent faces, such deadly intent.
 

 
From the decade that fashion forgot, a men’s style catalog that reflects more innocent times with some questionable dress sense and a bizarre advert for “New Adam Scented & Flavored Genital Towelettes.”

The Ah Men Super Summer Catalog 1972 can be viewed here.
 

 
With thanks to Robert Conroy

More from the Ah Men Catalog after the jump…
 

 
New Threadless t-shirt called “Heartless” by Juan Carlos Bueno.

(via Laughing Squid)

 
I’m no tie expert here, but these ties from Etsy seller Cyberoptix TieLab are pretty incredible. Their prices are super reasonable for screenprinted silk and microfiber neckties.
 

 
See more ties from Cyberoptix TieLab after the jump…