An awesome way to pass the time on the train to work!

Hi, When you are sitting on a long and monotonous train journey and you are bored of your phone and your tablet how about giving your old grey matter a workout. This game, that I sometimes play, I find gives my brain a bit of a workout. Basically think of a date or a year and try and think what happened on that date or year in history. It's amazing what you can remember. A definite mind work out!

How critical adultery and affairs to modern society

Hi. I am going slightly off track tonight as I am going to be looking how adultery is tolerated now as comparison to the past. This subject is quite close to my heart because my ex and a close friend had been seeing each other for over a year. It's all been a sordid mess. She has since left her children to be with him. Her extended family have been rather self righteous and pious about the whole thing saying that if two people are meant to be together then people should accept that. They believe in time we will all be happy in our own way. I can't begin to tell you how angry this attitude makes me feel but when I detach myself from their unbelievable spin it makes me wonder how modern society deals with such betrayal to spouses and their families. Many religions now as in the past condemn adultery so much so that even in this day and age a person could lose their life over such selfish actions. I think that is an extreme course of action to take against someone who has committed such an act. However, I have spoken to a couple of churches with regards to this and what has happened to me. One pastor said that the church is for bad people to repent. That had me fuming because I felt that you can go and commit moral crimes and go to church and be forgiven. No, I don't buy it. Another pastor had more empathy and basically said that the actions of those who do such things are morally wrong. Plain and simple and that there cannot be any justification no matter how much they profess to being 'in love.' On the social front it is a little more interesting. Apart from her family being self righteous about the whole situation (mainly because it is one of their own that has done this) alot of people are appalled. So much so that they have suffered a great deal of verbal abuse and the obligatory cold shoulder from so many people. Which makes me think that although the church says it is wrong it is interesting to see how the man on the street reacts and in this situation, people have been disgusted. It goes to show that you do not have to be religious to know when something is fundamentally wrong. Now as in the past, adultery and affairs, really are not tolerated. There are four books on this subject that I recommend on Amazon: The Vision, The Pious Whore, The Pariah and The Seeds of an Affair.

The history of fashion design

Hello all. This is a short post today. I just want to ask what were the origins of fashion design and what were their influences? A bit of generic question, I know. However, if you ask this question now, there are so many answers to it such as cultural and historical influences. Also branding has a strong influence too. Obviously to be seen in certain brands gives some form of status to the individual. For example if you are seen carrying a Mulberry handbag and wearing a Rolex watch you are giving off a pretty powerful signals i'e I am wealthy! If you go further down the line certain brands almost have a class association. Anyway I am going to go away and look into this further. .....I am still in the process of researching the birth of fashion marketing.

The science of fashion marketing

If there are any fashionistas out there who have any interest in history have you ever stop to think how fashion was marketed when it first became a commodity? If we start with now, we have a plethora of companies that can market to us morning, noon and night on so many devices such as our laptops, tablets and smartphones. The reason why I ask this question is that the other night I fancied doing a bit of online shopping for some new clothes. So I went to my favourite stores such as ASOS, Topshop and boohoo. I managed to find what I wanted and ordered it. Then I started thinking when I was in my teens the internet wasn't even around then. We relied on TV, magazines and our peer groups to let us know what was in and what was out. Our sphere of influence was that much smaller. My parents generation, which would have been the late 50s and early 60s, would also have had magazines and TV as well as the cinema as their form of influence but probably on a smaller scale. However, if we go back somewhat further to our grandparents generation say to the 1920s and 1930s there really wasn't any TV for the masses. Obviously there were magazines but the main influence would have been the Cinema and the movie stars of that time. Their influence would have been more powerful than today's movie stars. Going back even further to the turn of the 20th century how would fashion, as a commodity, be marketed? Interesting thought. It seems like the development of fashion marketing is a science. Watch this space!

Introduction

Hello to all history lovers out there. I am a fan of history, this might be due to the fact that I took a degree in it! However, more importantly, it is fascinating how history is not something that is in the past but something that is all around us now. It can be in architecture, literature and even design such as clothing. What do you think?