A Not So Hidden Mid-Century Print

When I watch a movie, I am watching more than the movie, especially if it is a period film.

I’m looking at the architecture, the clothing the actors are wearing and any pop culture items that reference the time when the movie is set.

I was doing just that the other night when I was watching “Hidden Figures.” If you haven’t seen it, please do. It’s the inspiring story of the African American women who calculated much of the mathematic equations for NASA before the days of computers.

The film focuses on three brilliant women in particular: Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). 

In one scene Mary Jackson and her husband are discussing if she should try to attend night classes at an all-white high school to receive the certification she would need to enter NASA’s engineering program.

I’m listening of course but I’m looking too, and, there, on what I think is Mary Jackson’s sofa, is a Mid-Century leaf print fabric. It looks like, I think, the same fabric that is on the drapes that I have listed in my etsy shop.

So I snap a photo of the TV screen with my phone and compare it to my drapes, and, yes, it is the same fabric.

I purchased those drapes at an auction, which is not my usual way of acquiring things. Now I know that they date to at least 1961, which is the year that the movie is set.

Now I only have to figure out how to get what I think would be a dream job: acquiring all those period touches for a movie.