California Design 1930-1965

I’d love to be able to say that these are MY photos and I was the one who got to see this exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, but the lucky museum-goer was Mod Betty, the writer and keeper of Retro Roadmap, a site devoted to mid 20th century wonderfulness.  She has kindly agreed to let me share some of her trip with you, and you can head over to her site for a few more photos.

The show includes over 300 objects of mid 20th modern design,  including clothing, furniture, and graphic design.  Looking at this I’m simply amazed.  I mean, I grew up with this sort of design and simply took it as the way the world looked, and here we are now seeing that the Wonder Bread wrapper was a work of art!

I know that this looks like a corner of Don and Megan Draper’s apartment, but it is actually a tableau at the exhibit.  I’ve got to wonder how much of the current interest in Mid-century Modern is attributable to Mad Man.  Or perhaps Matthew Weiner thought about the resurgent interest in the early 1960s and realized people were hungry for a view into that lifestyle.

All the clothes (but not the accessories) in the exhibit were made in California.  I don’t have the information on that dress or jumpsit, but isn’t it something?  The jeans are 1930s Levis and it and the satin rodeo shirt are borrowed from the Levis Archive.   The flowered swimsuit is from Cole of California, and the color-blocked one is a 1928 suit from Catalina.

On the left is the famous 1940s “Swoon Suit” designed by Margit Fellegi of Cole of California.  It was designed with strings that the wearer could adjust to the correct size, and so no elastic nor zipper was necessary, thus saving rubber and metal for the war effort.

The dress and suit are by Rudi Gernreich.

Patio clothes!  Left to right:  De De Johnson playsuit with skirt, Louella Ballerio playsuit with skirt, Levi Strauss bra and pants, Cole of California by Margit Fellegi bathing suit with skirt, Joseph Zukin of California playsuit.

Swimsuits, left to right:  Rudi Gernreich, Mary Ann DeWeese lobster suits, Cabana set, unknown, and another stunner from  Cole of California by Margit Fellegi.

And this one is not clothing but I had to include it.  I love this idea for displaying record album covers.  The thrifts are full of covers with outstanding graphics, so this would be fairly easy to duplicate.

If you are in southern California, get your act together and go see this before it ends on June 3, 2012.  And a big thanks to Betty for the use of her outstanding photos.

Photos copyright Beth Lennon.