Happy February!

Well, well, one month of 2011 gone already! I’d like to welcome you to February with this picture from my calendar. It is the cover of the ‘Late January’ 1918 issue of British Vogue, the ‘Lingerie Number’. The illustration is by Alice de Warenne Little.

I love the qualifier, ‘late’ – as opposed to the extremely early publishing we are more accustomed to today: our January magazines are more likely to be on the newsstands in mid December of the previous year. In fact, just yesterday I passed a convenience store that had tossed a huge pile of ‘old’ magazines in a box outside its front door. In an unaccustomed exhibition of scumbaggery I nipped the top one off the stack to take home: the Jan/Feb issue of Australian Harper’s Bazaar. Still current but yet considered old news – how bizarre!

But February is a delightful month: not only is there Valentine’s Day to celebrate (if you’re so inclined to submit to gross commercialisation); Groundhog Day (tomorrow); Chinese New Year (the day after, on the New Moon); and Waitangi Day in New Zealand on Sunday, but it is also my birthday this month. Happy birthday to meeee! Enjoy your month.