Mystery Lovers
JV loves the look of Christie’s house-party world, where “bright young things,” butlers, French maids, bejeweled countesses, colonials, and Belgian detectives mingle in the Golden Age of Mystery. Silk lingerie is assumed. We picture teddies and slips and necktie-print pajamas with exotic kimonos. Let’s plot a few scenarios.
Henrietta Savernake portrays the classic steely yet passionate Christie heroine in The Hollow. A sculptress, she would wear the styles of the day with swagger. The sporty Ruby and Denim Camisole Set from Vannina Vesperini would suit her at the studio. With her lover, she might prefer Gilda & Pearl’s Jardin de la Lune Gown Set of embroidered netting.
In Sparkling Cyanide, young Iris Marle contemplates the presumed suicide of her glamorous older sister, Rosemary. She knows that Rosemary had been in love with the mysterious “Leopard”, someone who wore a beautiful animal-patterned robe. Rosemary herself might have opted for the Golden Hollywood Silk Pajamas from Gilda & Pearl with their slouchy jacket and trousers in leopard print. Iris is in love too, and lives to tell about it. As she recuperates from attempted murder, she could impress her beau in Emma Harris’s Rochelle Orchid Slip and Robe with its shimmering smokey lavender lace trim.
In Christie’s short story “The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife,” the detective Parker Pyne assists a neglected woman who answers his ad in the “Personals” of the TImes that asks, “Are you Happy?” She certainly becomes so when he suggests that she make her husband “sit up!” For that, we suggest the Alexandria Gold Silk Gown from Layalina.
Christie’s famous sleuth Hercule Poirot, like Sherlock Holmes, admired just one woman: the flamboyant Russian jewel thief, Countess Vera Rossakoff. She and Hercule meet in several stories. If they dated, this woman of the world would have shown off the fabulously lacy Assiyah black silk muslin gown and negligee from Layalina. Hercule would have sent her roses.
Big Ben just chimed. It’s getting late. Bring your book to bed and snuggle down in your Erte Silk Velvet Pajamas from Christine Vancouver. They’d look so good on the Orient Express. Perhaps JV would send you the matching robe air express to Venice.