Anaïs in 1930s underwear

I have finished my short story version of Anaïs Nin, adapted from my novel in progress, Nights in Paris. I managed to send it off EARLY for a competition, which is incredibly organised for me! I am very happy with the story but, sadly, that doesn’t mean the judges will like it! Now I am in the process of incorporating the new bits of the story into the original chapter version.

I did buy the soundtrack of Henry and June, and it has been even more inspiring than I thought it would be! The music is wonderful; I listen to it all the time, as soon as I hear it I am transported back to 1931. I also feel inspired to listen to more Satie and Debussy. I’ve found a fantastic website where you can buy vintage clothing from 1890-1930, and there are gorgeous photographs of marvellous coresets with intricate lace and beading. I also discovered the word “charmeuse” on the website, which is a soft, silky fabric: what a beautiful word! I had real difficulty trying to decide what to call June’s knickers — obviously not knickers — and settled on “drawers”, but I’m still not entirely convinced.

I researched the jewellery of the era, too; not to make it obvious when reading the story (I hate it when writers add so many unnecessary details, as if to show off how much research they’ve done) but just to add a background authenticity. I’ve always been like that, spending days of research on a detail that might end up as only a single word. I don’t know if that makes me incredibly anal or fanatically precise — is there a difference?! Anyway, I can confirm that in the early ’30s, cameos were definitely out, and pearls were still all the rage!