Vintage Miscellany – January 6, 2019

There has been a lot of talk this past week about what people choose to wear, so let’s join in the chorus by analyzing this couple’s attire. She wins on basis of appropriateness. Her neat breeches topped with boots or leggings are perfect for the snow. Both have the layering thing down pat, but where the heck are his gloves?  Another view of them is at the bottom of the post.

•   The new Congress was sworn in and clothes mattered. From a veteran’s shorts that showed his new legs, to a feminist white pants suit, to an ultra-femme bisexual look, to Native touches and looks that showed off the wearer’s ethnicity, the 116th Congress is not your grandpa’s government.
•  The International Tennis Hall of Fame has posted an online gallery, showing off their tennis clothing collection.
•   We are to be treated to a TV mini-series on designer Halston.
•   Dress reformer Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was  the first and only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.
•    To kids of the Sixties, it will always be a Nehru jacket.
•    This one is not so much about clothing, as it is about bad history in general. However, the main issue of bad history and false research applies to many disciplines. I see a lot of problems with TV “documentaries” when images are chosen to illustrate fashion.
•    It’s time for us to decide whether or not our historical artifacts are worth preserving.
•   Exhibition Lab: Sargent and Fashion is an experiment by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in which visitors get to give input on a future exhibition. Boston readers, if you go, let me know what you think.

Thanks to Janey for the great photos.

Vintage Miscellany – December 23, 2018

I’m really glad this photo was dated on the back, otherwise I would have spent agonizing hours trying to detect a solid clue. As it looks to me, this could have been made anytime between 1940 and 1965.  As an older woman, it might be accepted that she’d still be wearing this hair style in the mid 1960s. I know this for certain because my own grandmother and her sisters wore a very similar style at that time.

The clothes are not fashionable, and if not for the good fit and the lack of a front fly closure, they could even been borrowed from a man in her life.  So, what’s your guess? The answer will be revealed at the end of the post.

And on to the news…

•   Prada has pulled a monkey figure with big red lips from their stores. Some claimed that the figures were “black face” but I saw more of the Black stereotype so often drawn in the Jim Crow years.
•    The Women’s Tennis Association has decided that compression suits and leggings, most famously worn by Serena Williams, will be allowed.
•    A red coat and the right pair of sunglasses speak volumes.
•    “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.”
•    The Washington Post published a nice piece about Claire McCardell.
•    Archaeologists uncovered a 500 year old skeleton still wearing his boots.
•    I love that The New York Times published a piece on Carrickmacross lace.
•    A tale of five brides and one dress.
•    The Fashion History Museum is currently raising funds to help pay for a circa 1912 Paul Poiret evening coat. I have personally seen this garment, and can tell you it belongs in the museum. Every little bit helps!
•  Conservators at the Historic Royal Palaces show us how they mounted a jacket belonging to Queen Victoria.

 

And the year of my photo? 1943.

Vintage Miscellany – December 2, 2018

Weather people are saying we have a chance of snow here in the Southern Mountains later in the week.  I’ll probably look something like this when we go searching for the perfect tree.

And now for the news…

• When economics trump religious tradition, one is buried in wool.
• In local news, there were “Southern Belles” in the Asheville Christmas parade, and some observers were not having it.
•  If you are a fan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, here’s a story about the costumer, Donna Zakowska.
•  Glamour magazine, in existence since 1939, will cease its print edition next year.  I haven’t been a reader for years, but that magazine was so important to me in my formative years.
•   “The artificial divide that exists between fine art and textiles (or applied/decorative arts, or craft) is a gendered issue.”
•   BBC has an interesting slideshow and video on the oldest active silk velvet manufacturer in Italy
•   This gives a whole new meaning to shopping as entertainment.
•   Glasgow University has a farm with sheep, and now you can buy their yarn.
•   The Cornell Costume Collection is presenting a new exhibition titled Women Empowered: Fashions from the Frontline. Opens December 6, 2018.
•   Researchers at Indiana University, Bloomington, have compiled a database of 642 women artists. “A Space of Their Own will become something of a virtual museum.”

Vintage Miscellany – November 12, 2018

Today is the day that in the US we celebrate the armed services veteran. In the rest of the world, yesterday was Remembrance Day, in which we stop and remember the horrific losses of war, and especially of WWI. But in the US, we have Memorial Day in May. Maybe if we switched the two days it would be less confusing to our friends in other countries.

And now for the news…

•  There is what sounds like a textile lovers dream exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum of Art – The Fabric of India. It then travels to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida.
•   Did this hat belong to Abraham Lincoln?
•   Halloween is in the past, but this is still a pretty good ghost story.
•   One of the big problems in publishing a book on art – or fashion – is the cost of image fees.  An undesired side effect is that writers then come to rely on images from institutions that offer them at no cost, and we start to see the same objects over and over.
•  John F. Kennedy’s Harvard sweater recently sold at auction for $34, 140.
•   “80 percent of objects sold on the Internet under the Hermès names are fakes.”
•   If you missed out on Marc Jacob’s “grunge” collection for Perry Ellis in 1992, great news! He’s reproducing much of it, and the clothes “based on ‘found crap'” will be for sale soon.
• #ClothingofConflict
• Thanks to Lynn at American Age Fashion for the wonderful photograph.

Vintage Miscellany – October 21, 2018

We just got back from a road trip to southern Pennsylvania, by way of the Shenandoah Valley. The good thing about that route north is that one is never more than a few highway exits from a historic site or natural sight. One of our stops was at the Natural Bridge, which is actually both historic and natural. I’d been wanting to see the Natural Bridge ever since my cousin Nancy (above) visited it on a trip with our Aunt Adore and Uncle Corky in 1962.

Being gone for a while is absolutely the best thing one can do to revive interest in the world. So much to see! I put the news on hold (a big relief) and just soaked in the experiences. But the news was here waiting for me, and I do have a bit to share.

• •   A lot has been said about how the antiques and collectibles market is rapidly aging, but there are younger people who are changing the way old stuff is acquired.
  •   A prize artifact was recovered from the ashes after the fire at the National Museum in Brazil.
  •   “Every button tells a story.”
  •    Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn have left Project Runway for a new program on Amazon. And Tim will have a fashion mini-series, American Style, on CNN. It starts in January.
  •    When giving back is the right thing to do: Colombian edition  Nazi loot edition.
  •   Jonathan schools us on the history of women’s pockets.
  •  Remember how mercilessly  ridiculed Princess Eugenie was for that poorly chosen hat she wore at the wedding of William and Catherine? Well, she’s had the last laugh by wearing the most stunning wedding ensemble I’ve seen in a very long time.
  •  Melania Trump went to Africa and she wore a “safari” ensemble, complete with pith helmet. Many were outraged, naturally, but I just thought it was funny. It’s a kind of 1940s cinema look, sort of like what Abbott and Costello wore in Africa Screams. What I found interesting was her reaction to the criticism.  “I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear,” was her response. She should know by now that wearing clothes IS part of what human beings do.
  •   “Trash Fashion” is a thing, and it’s stupid.
  •   Art teacher plans to wear the same dress to school for 100 days.
  •    Outdoor clothing company Patagonia is giving all 1500 of its US employees a paid vacation day on November 6 so they can vote.
  • The Sears catalog was a space of equality in the Jim Crow era (even though no black models were used). Thanks to Cornelia for the link.
  • 

Vintage Miscellany – September 23, 2018

Three young women, sisters, or maybe friends, wearing the casual outfits of the late 1910s and early 1920s. The girl on the right sports a middy with skirt (and could that be a wristwatch on her arm?), while the girl on the left is wearing a slightly more grown-up blouse with a banded bottom. The middle girl is wearing a knit sweater, which looks like it might be layered over another top. I hope they were as happy as they look.

And now for the news…

•   The National Museum of Brazil burned, and the cultural artifacts of a nation were destroyed. It could happen here.
•    The news came out earlier this month that the FBI had recovered a pair of Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz that were stolen in 2005. Details about the recovery are sparse, but the Smithsonian blog tells the fascinating story of how their conservators authenticated the shoes.
• Jennifer Daley of the Association of Dress Historians, has compiled a list of online sources for fashion history research.
• Burberry has announced they will no longer destroy unsold goods, and now other companies need to follow suit.
•  Here’s a great story of how an exhibition led to the rediscovery of a dress belonging to Queen Alexandra.
•   The Junto blog has just finished up a series of articles on colonial era dress.
•   H&M is launching a line of clothing with prints from William Morris. Normally this would upset me (no fan of H&M) but they have promoted the connection instead of merely stealing his designs like happens so often.
•   Henri Bendel is closing, and it is really not a surprise.  If you are in New York City before it closes in January, be sure to go by, if for no other reason than to climb to the second floor and revel in the Lalique windows.
•  The word is out: Trump’s trade war is working… to the benefit of handbag counterfeiters in China.

Vintage Miscellany – September 2, 2018

Do we really have just one more day of summer? Is it reasonable to assume that Labor Day automatically brings autumn to us? If you live in the southern half of the USA, you are probably like me, and scoff at such nonsense. Yesterday I passed through the Piedmont of North Carolina, within sight of Pilot Mountain, seen above, and I can tell you that the 91* of yesterday does not automatically disappear just because tomorrow is the first Monday of September.

I keep a pile of photos just so every other Sunday morning I can go through them to find one to illustrate the Vintage Miscellany. Not only did I see Pilot Mountain yesterday, but a book I’m reading mentioned it as well. The book is The Road to Salem, by the great Moravian historian and archivist, Adelaide Fries. Ms. Fries made it her life’s work to gather (and transcribe, as most of the works were in German) the many records of the Moravians. It is because of her work that so much is known about the early history of the Carolina backwoods.

And now for the news…

• You don’t live in a vacuum, so you know that Aretha Franklin has died. Of all the millions of words written about Franklin over the past weeks, none are better than Robin Givhan’s.
•  Marilyn Kirschner has written an in-depth report on the just released Bill Cunningham memoir.
•  The Abraham Lincoln Library Foundation is in financial trouble and made be forced to sell part of their collection.
•   The Art of the Late Bloomer, 18th century paper artist Mary Delany proved life begins whenever you want it to.
•   I officially no longer know the definition of “cool”.
•   There was a time when “made in China” did not mean “goods produced cheaply”. Can the Chinese silk industry recapture that luster?
•   A textile stitched by recovering WWI British soldiers was found in a couple’s home, and they have no idea how it arrived there. Big credit to the couple for doing such careful research on the piece.
• Is the Chinese government quietly stealing back art and antiquities stolen from China? It’s a fascinating theory.
• One thing is certain, the white tennis dress is dead (except at Wimbledon of course) and many clubs no longer have a dress code. It was a bit shocking when the French banned Serena William’s so-called catsuit from being worn in the future, saying that it was disrespectful. I’m not buying it, and Serena herself pretty much stayed out of the talk, talk, talk, and went on to completely slay with her tutu-inspired dress at the US Open.