Roadtrip Double-take

I thought I had my entire week planned out, thanks to a letter from the court system inviting me to sit for a week of jury duty.  But as it turned out, I was graciously thanked for showing up, but told my services would not be needed after all.

So what to do?  I settled on a trip to a flea market in South Carolina that I’ve heard so much about, but have never had the chance to visit.  It is held every Wednesday through the year, and it is too cold in winter and much too hot in summer, but as it turned out, yesterday was just right.  I’ll tell more about the market later in the week.

I’m fairly familiar with the northwestern corner of South Carolina, so after the flea market I drove to a few antique and junk shops in the area.  While driving down the road I did a double-take.  High on a hill was a Jantzen sign.

Over the years, there have been many garment and textile companies in the South, but Jantzen was founded in Portland, Oregon.  Founded in 1910, the company originally made knit woolens, and by 1918, they were making wool knit bathing suits.  The famous diving girl logo was added in 1920.

So how was it that I encountered a Jantzen facility in South Carolina?  As it turns out, this is a distribution center.  The Jantzen name and logo are now owned by Perry Ellis, International, and they still make bathing suits (but not in Portland, unfortunately).

The sign has neon lights, and I’d really love to see it at night.  Is there anyone in the Clemson, SC area who can tell us if they light it?

Looking

I’ve always been an opportunistic shopper.  I can take any errand or trip and turn it into a vintage treasure hunt.   Last week I had the good fortune to travel a bit west to the little town where my father was born and raised for a small family get-together.  That was delightful, and the party broke up in time for me to make a few stops on the way home.  It was one of those times when there was plenty to look at, especially in the way of interesting graphics.

I loved the girl in the advertising poster seen above.  It’s enough to make me want to use Campana’s Italian Balm.

The framed piece above is about two feet long.  The photos are from an excursion to Dartmouth River, Gaspe, Canada.

Here’s the ideal from about the same period of time.  I think the real woman in the cabin doorway more than holds her own against the idealized woman in the drawing.

Okay, I know it’s not fashion, but I could not resist photographing this cheery flock from the 1970s.  The artist is Japanese and I could not decipher the name.

I always notice pictures that contain dogs, but what I found to be interesting about this print was the subtitle of the work:

“Love me Love my dog.”  Having just had the anachronisms of Downton Abbey on my mind, I was really surprised to find that phrase on a print dated 1848.  But a bit of online reading revealed that  actually the phrase is quite old, being attributed to St. Bernard who died in 1153.  Of course, he said it in Latin.

Of course I loved this fourth grade health text book from 1935.  The frontpiece:

The little girl’s coat is so similar to a Pendleton coat in my collection, one that Pendleton reproduced last fall (and is now on sale for an amazing price).  But it also reminded me of a Hudson’s Bay blanket jacket.  I was pretty happy to run across the very thing just down the road a bit.

And I’ve got one more photo to end this little walk through the antique malls of western North Carolina.

This is a booth in an antiques, seriously, it is.

Ad Campaign – Lincoln, 1937

Certain fortunate people combine knowledge that comprehends the best with the means to purchase it.

We should all be so lucky!

The Fashion Walk of Fame

This statue is The Garment Worker, by Judith Weller, and from it you know you are in the Garment District of New York.  It sits next to the information booth of The Fashion Center BID (Business Improvement Center).  When this group was formed in 1992, I’m sure they had no idea that the Garment District would see so much change, with so many fashion related businesses closing and non-fashion business moving in.  But the area has an air of prosperity about it, and there is still plenty of interest to people like me who love fashion history and the industry.

The Fashion Center has an information booth, located on the corner of 7th and 39th.  If you are interested in sewing and want to visit the fabric and notion stores, they publish an invaluable guide to all the stores that includes an excellent map of the district.  I popped in to pick up a copy and to ask a few questions, and I’m sorry to report that the person staffing the booth barely looked up from her cell phone to point to where the guides were located.

It is fun to just stroll through the district, taking in all the little shops, some that have only zippers (in every color and size) or buttons or sequins.  I did not do any shopping, as all the time I spent walking around the Garment District was before business hours.  Still it was interesting to see what is left, and to imagine what this place must have been like only 20 or so years ago.  It was luck that our hotel was on the northern edge of the Garment District.  Here is the view of it from the hotel window, looking south.

Along 7th Avenue between 35th and 40th Streets is the Fashion Walk of Fame.  There are 28 plaques that celebrate some of the finest American designers, both of the present and the past.  They have been chosen by panels of fashion people since 2000, and among them are some of the most famous names in American fashion.  And scattered here and there are a few lesser known, but still important names.

Before looking at the plaques, see if you can guess the other 27 names of the inductees.  There are a few surprises.

Groovy 1960s Travel Album

Today, another find from the last Charlotte Metrolina show.  This is one of those things that you have no idea it exists, but the minute you spot it, you know it is exactly what you have been searching for.

It’s an album, covered in vinyl print, with plastic sleeves on the interior.  The seller said that an LP record album fits in the sleeves perfectly, so that was probably the intended purpose.  Today, it would make a nifty photo album or scrapbook for a European trip.

I’m pretty sure this album was made by the same company that made two other items I have in a similar, but seemingly a bit earlier, print.  A small photo book that I have in that print has a small sticker that reads KEK.  I’ve never been able to find out that the letters stand for.  I do believe the company was (is?) located in Europe, as the small photo book came from France, all the writing is in French or German, and for mass produced items, they sure are scarce here in the States.

And now for the close-ups:

If anyone happens to spot other pieces of either print, I would love to know about them, even if they are not for sale (but especially if they are!)

Retro Roadmap Get Together

Last Sunday I got to meet one of my favorite bloggers and internet friends, Beth Lennon of Retro Roadmap.  I first “met” Beth several years ago when she spotted a post I did on a Cherokee, NC motel, the Pink Motel.  Since then we’ve emailed back and forth and she has sent some really nifty gifts my way, including a vintage Pendleton 49er.  It seems as if Beth is one of those lovers of vintage who can’t pass up a good find when she knows someone who will appreciate the item.  I’m telling you, friends like Beth are good to have.

I was delighted to hear that she and husband Cliff would be traveling through my area and we arranged to have lunch at Rocky’s Soda and Grill in Brevard, NC.  Lunch was great – grilled pimento cheese and chips – but best of all was meeting Beth and spending a little time with her.

That’s Beth on the left.  And see that little bag I’m carrying?  Yes, she did come equipped with a gift, a Tammis Keefe hankie depicting Wannamaker’s in Philadelphia.

Here’s Beth enjoying her soda, and me managing to bomb the photo I’m taking!

And here is Beth photographing that great Southern delicacy, the grilled pimento cheese sandwich.

Thanks Beth and Cliff.  I really enjoyed meeting the two of you.

Something a Little Different

Regular readers might remember that my husband and I were away last week, off for a few days at the beautiful North Carolina coast.  This is not the usual fashion history post, but I never can resist looking for history wherever we happen to be.

We started out in Oriental, NC, an old fishing village now known more as a sailing town.  My father-in-law grew up here, but I’d never visited.  What an amazing little place!  There are only about 800 residents, and we saw more people getting around town on bikes than in cars.  So when in Rome…

We also visited Atlantic Beach.  It is at the very bottom of the Outer Banks, though it is not actually considered to be in the OB.  It is a place full of history, and great seafood.

We visited Fort Macon, which played a role in The Civil War, and even as late as WWII was used in our coastal defense.  It’s a wonderful old fort with new interpretive exhibits.

This is a denim fatigue uniform from WWII.  Even though the fort had been turned over to the state of North Carolina and was made a state park in 1936, because of German submarine activity in the waters off the east coast the fort was leased by the US Army and was used in the defense of the ports at Morehead City and Beaufort.

We stayed at a super 1960s motel, the Atlantis Lodge.  Even though the rooms have been updated and remodeled, we still got the feeling of being in a vintage motel.  Best of all, it was dog-friendly.  We didn’t take our Spooky, but there were plenty of friendly furry faces.

This is Chance, one of our neighbors.

And as promised some time ago, here is a photo of my Claire McCardell play set.  It was perfect for a day at the beach.

On the way home we stopped in Winston-Salem for a visit to the Old Salem Tavern.  It is located in the Salem part of town, which was established in the 1760s by Moravian settlers from Pennsylvania.  This part of town still has many of the 18th and early 19th century buildings, and many of them form a museum called Old Salem.  But other buildings in the village area are still dwellings and are used for restaurants.  It’s an interesting little time-warp in the shadow of the city of Winston.

This is not Williamsburg and there is no real attempt to make the visitor think he or she is in the 18th century, which makes the costumes of the museum interpreters seem a bit, well, odd.