I found a set of photos showing early 1940s women modeling sportswear. There is no indication of the company that made the garments, but they are all top-notch. This playsuit and skirt, with the bias cut fabric is one of my favorites. The stripes work so well with the pleated shorts. No wonder these sets are currently highly sought out by the vintage-wearing set.
What happens when someone tweets a clever phrase, it is sent to a maker of tee shirt who uses the phrase without considering the source, and the tee shirt is then worn by a famous singer in a concert?
That’s Snow Ball and me in back and Rachel is rowing and the girl lying down is Claudia. Rachel’s sister took the picture.
There’s no date, but the all-girl group might indicate that it was taken during WWII. It could be a few years later, and they just left the guys at home. At any rate, it looks like a relaxing afternoon.
And now, on to the news…
As I write this the 2017 British Open (golf) is winding down, so it’s appropriate to first share a link to an article about the club where the contest is being held this year. Unlike most golf clubs that banned women members (some as late as 2015) Royal Birkdale admitted women from its beginning in 1889. The reason why makes perfect sense.
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan have decided to stop the importation of used clothing by 2019 in order to encourage domestic production of clothing. But in this world, nothing is ever simple.
One of my favorite children’s books, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler turns 50 this year. If you don’t know this book, read it. The story is about Claudia and Jamie who run off to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then get involved in a mystery involving a work of art. I read this one every year with my small-town fifth graders who loved this delightful (though a bit out-dated) view of life in the big city.
We had Made in America week at the White House, and no products with the Trump labels were on display. Spokesperson Sean Spicer managed to partially blame the “decline of newspapers”. Some of the companies, such as Campbellsville Apparel Company, are highly dependent on US military contracts and others are things most of us would not be spending money on, such as DitchWitch. Here’s the complete list.
Here’s a rare example of an older photograph with the kind of information one wishes came with all old pictures. Written on the reverse:
Margaret Graham & Bessie Roher (?) about 1897 or ’98 on the tennis (grass) court at Wood Lawn. R. Niles Graham – Pease collection.
Woodlawn had been the estate of Texas governor Elisha Marshall Pease, the grandfather of Margaret Graham and her brother Niles Graham. Niles was a prominent businessman in Austin, Texas, and after he died his papers along with those of his grandfather were donated to the Texas State Library and Archive. I’m not sure why this photo was not included. How did it end up in the vast market of used stuff?
And now for some more modern news…
Amelia Earhart is back in the news due to the discovery of a photograph that might be her and Fred Noonan in the company of Japanese sailors. Of more interest to me is this article about her clothing line. I knew about it, but I’m pretty sure the existence of sewing patterns by Earhart is news to me.
This has nothing to do with clothing, nor of textiles. But it is of interest to anyone who values history and cultural heritage. I’d like to be able to say I was shocked by this, but unfortunately, I’m beginning to think I’m shock-proof. Please don’t shop at Hobby Lobby.
Judging by the length of the skirts, this is probably 1926 or 27. That mid-knee length on the younger woman is about as short as it got in the Twenties. Her whole outfit is great, but I especially love the rolled stockings. Or maybe it’s the polka dot headband that I love best. It’s hard to decide.
As so many companies out-source the manufacturing of goods, the companies themselves often don’t have a clue as to conditions in the factories that make their goods. That’s a pretty valid reason for reshoring clothing and shoe manufacturing, especially when it allows companies like American Giant to keep a close eye on the entire process. And yes, this does come at a price to consumers.
Remember Dexter shoes? They were made in Dexter, Maine until the company closed (due to foreign competition) in 2001. Now a new shoe company has opened in Dexter, and again, American-made comes at a price.
Is there any way to reduce all the waste we are producing? Can we limit the amount of garbage in the world through the products we buy? How about these shoes?
Leather goods maker Mark Cross has a long and interesting history. Established in 1845 as a maker of horse accessories, the company was bought by the Murphy family in 1875. The company eventually fell to Gerald Murphy who, along with his wife Sara, was part of the 1920s American ex-pats in Paris set that included Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Cole Porter. And probably best known of all Mark Cross facts is that Grace Kelly carried her nightie to James Stewart’s apartment in the 1954 film, Rear Window. Eventually the company closed, only to now be revived. Their biggest success is a bag called the Kelly, modeled after the case Grace carried in the movie.
People keep posting photos of their visits to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Georgia O’keefe: Living Modern exhibition. I loved this article about the exhibition in The New Yorker.
For those of you wondering when I’d go on another rant about social media, the time has come. And for those of you who don’t want to come here to read anything political, then you need to stop and call it a read.
Some of you probably know that I get the great majority of my Vintage Miscellany links from my Twitter feed. For years I’ve found Twitter to be the best source of fashion history and fashion issues articles. But lately (since the election, to be honest) I’ve found myself really hating Twitter. Part of it is my own fault. I started following organizations with which I agree. That led to checking the trending hashtags to see what Trump was shouting from his bully megaphone. That led to reading the comments, which led to a lots of despair about the current status of the human race.
Then, last week, Damon Linker spelled it all out for me in an articled titled “Twitter is Destroying America.” One line in particular made sense, “Twitter is a place, finally, that all-too-often transforms otherwise thoughtful people into a furious mob.”
It is, actually, more than just twitter, as a commenter pointed out. Facebook is no better, and have you ever read the comments of practically any newspaper article? The idea of being able to say anything we want, in a manner that confronts anyone who does not agree with us is now taken as one of our fundamental rights. It’s the First Amendment on amphetamines.
I’ve done a lot of thinking (not a good thing, actually) about our current situation in the USA, and I know why it produces so much anxiety in me. I had a very anxious youth, with the Vietnam War hanging over our heads, and not knowing which of the young men in my high school class would end up there, perhaps as casualties. When I met my husband in 1972, he was still mourning the loss of a childhood friend who had died in Vietnam. And then when it looked like the war was finally going to end, the whole Watergate mess became public. It dragged on while the country’s business was put on hold. No wonder I have this déjà vu feeling whenever I open my Twitter feed.
But what is really disappointing is how many of my own generation seem to have forgotten what the 1960s and early 70s were really like. When you chant “Make America Great Again” are you thinking about Watergate, or Kent State, or Mỹ Lai, or Medgar Evers?
As Stephen Sills put it, “Nobody’s right, if everybody’s wrong.” It’s time to rethink all the online shouting, of “Hooray for our side.”
In case you think “fat shaming” is a new thing, here’s proof that it’s over 100 years old.
The interesting thing about this photo is the woman on the left. Yes, I think she looks like a man too, but I’m sure that is due to the low quality of this print. In any case, she is not wearing stockings, which at the time this photo was taken, the late nineteenth century, was a big no-no, at least in the USA. Such a rebel!
And now for some news. Since I was gone most of the past two weeks, I’m most grateful to reader Nann for supplying me with quite a few very interesting articles.
The Association of Dress Historians has put the first issue of The Journal of Dress History online and it is free to view.
When I visited Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of President James Monroe, nine years ago, I was struck by how un-presidential the house was. As it turns out, I was right.
Here’s a little something for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. It looks like these little flag-wavers are off to a patriotic parade or party, but they don’t look too happy about it, do they? I’m guessing they are too hot with the stockings, and on the older girl, long sleeves. Still, how could one not be happy with a fantastic hat like that?
And now for some news…
Will innovation carry the future? Well, of course it will. All nationalistic desires aside, it’s time to face the future without the rose-colored glasses.
For one thing, life was not always great in the past. We need to study all material culture, not just the cheery ads showing the prosperous middle class White family enjoying the pleasures of the postwar boom.
And yes, we are appalled at the working conditions and low pay in Asian factories, but we tend to forget that these conditions were once common in American factories.
Yes, clothing production can return to the USA, but do we really want people working in factories like the ones in which my aunts labored in the 1940s through the 1970s, getting paid minimum wage and risking brown lung disease and other dangers? The answer on so many levels is that we are going to have to buy less, but pay more for what we buy.
April, 1946, Lansing, Michigan. Sailor boyfriend/brother/husband’s cap duly appropriated. Fun ensues.
And now for the news…
There were two overwhelming themes in the past two weeks in fashion news. One was the opening of Rei Kawakubo: Art of the In-Between at the Met. The best of the dozens of articles: The Atlantic, Freize.com, and for a look at the work behind the exhibition, Vogue.
Another common theme was the complexity of the manufacturing system, and how it allows all kinds of problems to be masked. First, we need to completely lay to rest the idea that production in the USA means that workers are safe. Yes, we do have laws and protections, but this article at Racked shows just how easily these laws are circumvented.
“How can brand-name clothing companies, highly valued in the market for their ability to control all manner of production challenges, not know where their products are being made?” The problems intensify as the sewing factories are further removed from the brand.
This last article has nothing to do with clothing, but as a collector, I found the story of this looter and destroyer of history to be highly disturbing.
