I've been waiting almost 10 years to see the quilt above. Seriously.
When I was still teaching I had a kid whose mother worked at Lark Books in Asheville. It was the early days of the VFG Label Resource, and I was telling her about that project when she mentioned a quilt made of vintage labels that was hanging in the lobby or stairwell of the Lark offices. But she seemed to think that the quilt had been removed. You know how it is when you see something everyday; after a while you stop noticing it.
She could see that I was excited to see the quilt, so she promised to track it down and then I could visit her at her office so I could see it. Well, the quilt really was gone, and she was never able to locate it.
Last month while visiting Kate Mathews of Folkwear Patterns, I happened to mention the quilt, as she used to be co-owner of Lark. She remembered it, but did not know what had happened to it. It belonged to a guy named Chris Kluge, whose family owned the label company that made the labels. She promised to track it down.
As it turned out, the quilt had been returned to Chris. A few weeks later she sent Chris's email, and the rest is history. Here, in Chris's own charming words, is the story behind this remarkable quilt:
"It was created in the latter 1970's by my best friend's mother.... full name Laura Margaret Sherrill Hobson (aka "Midge" and "Midget", for her diminuitive size ) Midge Hobson was born near Asheville, NC and moved to New York City in the 40's as an Arthur Murrey Dance Instructor... where she attempted to teach a semi-clumsy returning Navy veteran to dance.... He was hopeless as a dancer, and hopelessly in love (as was she) so they married... She spent most of the rest of her life in New Jersey, raising two boys with her husband, Russ Hobson Jr. (an inventor and successful entrepreneur. .a story unto himself for certain..) They retired back to NC (near Old Fort) in the early 70's.
Midge Hobson was aware of my family's history in the label business*, and, after showing her some old sample books (from 20's and 30's), she expressed an interest in using some for a quilt she was currently making. I happily gave her the books to peruse... and you see the result!! I was very surprised to receive the quilt after Mrs. Hobson's death in the 80's.
* The Label Business..... My paternal great grandfather was one of five brothers who, with their father, ran a narrow fabrics weaving mill in Krefeld, Germany (probably began in 1860's or so) They wove jacquard design trim for corset borders, and other apparel and design-related markets.... This business was called Gebruder Kluge ("Kluge Brothers")
Around the mid 1880s, Herr Papa Kluge sent four of his sons to establish new markets for their German manufactured goods... one to Sweden, one to Italy, one to United States, and one to Russia (and one Kluge stayed at home, wee-wee- etc... 
My great grandfather, Adolf Kluge, established German Artistic Weaving Company in New York City (somewhere around 32nd St.), at first only importing narrow fabrics woven in Germany.. .But, when tarrifs were put on same, he bought looms (again, in a loft around 32nd Street), to manufacture within the US. Family lore has a sheriff padlocking that location at one time(s) or another.
Adolf Kluge then bought riverside property in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey (from a black powder contractor to Dupont Powder Works... Smith Powder Works) With a water-driven turbine, he proceeded to build and expand on that site, eventually claiming to be "The World's Largest Manufactuer of Woven Labels" (I have an old salescard that says so.... so it MUST be true, eh?)
Eventually over hundred looms were weaving narrow fabrics, coinciding with the booming "ready-to-wear" garment needs of new immigrants, and his business thrived. (Side note... One of Adolf's Brothers, Emile, came over to help with the business.... Emile thought he could do better, so he split off from his Brother Adolf, and established his OWN US-based label company... "E.H.Kluge" of course, the brothers never spoke again.... (Emile's company was big success, until crash in 1929 wiped him out.)
With the outbreak of German hostilities in Europe, German-Artistic Company thought it prudent to become Artistic Weaving Company. ( which it remained until the 1970's.) Adolf Kluge died in 1920, leaving his label business to his sons, Albert and Willard. Albert bought his brother (my paternal grandfather) out in the early 30's. Albert Kluge built a label mill in Pittsboro, North Carolina ("Chatham Mills") and it was still cranking out labels into the mid 1990's. When Albert died in 1957, my Father, Willard Kluge Jr, inherited the company. At that time the basic shuttle-style jacquard looms in use were not too different from looms of 100 years ago.
Loom technology changed dramatically. Highspeed broadlooms, running polyester warps and figure yarns, were converted to narrow-fabric capability by having electrically-heated wires cut and fuse. What had been used to weave broad goods could now crank out labels... AND, cause millions of people, myself among them, to cut out those nasty fused-edge neck labels
Which is a handy segueway back to those older labels Mrs. Hobson used for her magnificent quilt.... Being of such older vintage, they are mostly rayon and cotton (some might even be silk, which is what was used before Dupont invented Rayon.. in 20's.) The German Artistic Weaving company that was begun over 100 years ago in a loft in NYC ended in mid 1990s... sold to another North Carolina- based label company, which went bankrupt within two years.
The evolution and brief history of woven labels in the US is typical of many industries..... from small, family-owned endeavors, building customers, expanding into new markets, consolidating with similar businesses.... and, as all labor-intensive business have, fleeing to cheaper labor markets..... first labels..... then shirts....... then computers... then... finance? Stay tuned!!
Interesting how Mrs. Hobson's handsewn quilt has outlasted the businesses that inspired her marvelous efforts!"
What a story! My thanks to Chris for taking the time to write this all out and for sending photos. If you want to see what Chris is up to, visit his website, Chriskluge.com. He is a marionette maker, though I don't see any on his site that look like him. As I hear it he bears a striking resemblence to George Clooney!
Tommorow: thoughts about vintage labels.
I'm always looking for postcards of hikers in the Western North Carolina Mountains, so I was delighted to find the one above. It's the earliest one I've ever come across - dated 1912. The Grove Park Inn sits about half way up Sunset Mountain, and though I'm not familiar with the trail these guests are taking, you can see it is quite steep, though probably well traveled.
The skirts of the ladies seem to be trailing the ground, and just keeping the hats on straight must have been a real feat. Add to it the fact that these women were wearing corsets. One wonders at all that this was considered to be a fun activity!
The photo below was taken around the same time at Bodenbach, Germany. I wasn't familiar with Bodenbach, but through the miracle that is Wikipedia, I can tell you it is in western Germany, in an area know for their superb hiking. I'm not sure what it is - maybe the sturdy cotton skirts, or maybe the lack of color - but don't these two look so much more practical than the Grove Park ladies?
But even with the big hat balancing act and the long skirts and the corsets, I'm more than a little envious of these women and their out-of-doors activity. The weather here has been so cold, so snowy, so wet, that's it's really put a dent in the amount of walking I get to do. And just forget hiking, because what trails are not covered in snow are knee deep in mud. How many days till spring?
The two young women above don't fit into our modern day idea of the 1920s Flapper, but it is possible that the term has its roots in the appearance of the miss on the right.
In the 30 or so years that I've been studying the history of fashion I must have read a dozen or more different explanations of where the word actually originated. Probably the most common is the galoshes theory. It was said the the rebellious young things of the early 1920s took to wearing their galoshes unbuckled, and so the rubber shoes flapped back and forth as the girls walked about.
That may be true, but the term was in common use in the USA by 1920, when a film starring Olive Thomas entitled The Flapper was released. And it seems that the word was used even earlier in the UK; originally it was used to mean a young prostitute, but later, by the end of the 9th century, just to mean any high spirited teenage girl. In particular, a girl young enough that her hair was not yet worn "up."
One of the many theories is that girls in the 1910s tended to wear big floppy bows in their long hair, and that these bows flapped when the girls walked. So, they were referred to as flappers. And these young teens of 1915 grew up to be the wild young things of 1920 - the flappers as we know them.
Just for fun, two more tennis players of the 1910s, Minnie Glass and Ray Yingling:
I recently got this great little promotional book from Bobbie Brooks. You younger readers probably know Bobbie Brooks only as a Walmart brand, or maybe as just one of the many cheap lines that thrift stores are so full of. But during the 1960s, Bobbie Brooks was big stuff.
The company was formed in 1957, and the owners took a scientific appproach to merchandising. They came up with an organized plan of choosing which garments to manufacture. This plan utilized a consumer board made up of 600 of junior-sized teens and young women, their targeted consumers. So in effect, the clothes were those chosen by the potential wearers. By the time this booklet was published by the company in 1964, Bobbie Brooks was one of the largest clothing makers in the US. So I suppose they felt qualified to give out wardrobe advice. Actually, the advice in this booklet is quite good. There's nothing earth shattering in it, but how can you argue with "Fit is everything" or "Look for the signs of quality." Most of all I love the diagrams I've included here that explain some clothing terms. I do love an Italian roll collar, but honestly the Peter Pan and the Bermuda were more in the Bobbie Brooks style. And I guess that's why the company went into decline by the end of the 1960s. These were good girl clothes, and we all know what way she went. The company was eventually bought by Garan, who signed a deal with Walmart to sell Bobbie Brooks. No longer was it a mid-priced junior line. And most recently, the label was spotted at the Dollar General Store. Looks like the end of the line for another great American brand. Trivia: What 1982 rock song references Bobbie Brooks?
The Courreges handbag above was a recent lucky thrift store find. (People who claim that they live in such a backwater that there is no good designer vintage to be found might want to rethink that belief, as I found this in a back-of-beyond little town.) The bag has put me into a mod mood. Courreges was one of the French masters of the look, and he continued to use vestiges of it even after the fashion world had moved to a softer, more romantic feeling.
So even though this bag would be right at home in a 1966 wardrobe, it was probably made several years later. I've been pouring over my late 60s and early 70s magazines, and the best I can tell, Courreges really got into using this logo in 1972. He put it on jackets and jumpers made from the same crinkled vinyl, and on tight sweaters. And if anyone does know when this was made - if you have an ad or editorial copy showing this or a similar bag - please let me know.
Shopping alert: There is a pink one, though a shoulder bag and not a handbag, on ebay right now. At the present time it is cheap.
As I said, the bag got me to thinking about modness, so when I went looking to my large stack of unread books, I gravitated toward Edie, An American Biography by Jean Stein with George Plimpton. Jean started collecting information in 1972, soon after Edie Sedgwick's death and it took 10 years to interview all the people involved and to edit the interviews. It was a bestseller when it was released in 1982. And no wonder, as it is so engrossing. I'm telling you, 1965 in New York City was not the same as 1965 in small town North Carolina!
If you love the 60s, then you have to read Edie, and when you finish it, get Popism by Andy Warhol. You'll thank me for this later.
I really love old road maps, and here is part of one of my favorites. It's from the late 40s and is from Esso. Remember when you could get free road maps at the service station? Remember when there were Esso stations in the US? That was some time ago.
This is not the main map; this is a Pictorial Guide to Happy Motoring in North Carolina on the back of the map. I think it is really interesting how the things they chose to illustrate in the late 40s would mostly be found on a tourist's list of must-sees today. There are a few changes - the tower on the top of Mount Mitchell had been replaced, and the sterotyped Indians are fading fast. But people still come here for the natural scenery of the waterfalls and mountain vistas. Hiking and golf are huge.
I'm always a bit amused with how these vintage maps and even guidebooks point out the industries. I mean, can you imagine driving through Valdese and someone saying, "This is where they made mother's stockings." Or looking for the textile factories in Shelby? I grew up in Canton, which is not on this map but is located just west of Asheville. Our claim to fame was that at one time our Champion Papers factory was the largest paper mill in the world. And we didn't even make the map!
Photo copyright and courtesy of french72
I'll finish up the series on Beacon blankets and robes by giving a bit of the history of the company. But first, I've got to say a word or two about the robe above. It really is a special one, made from the ombre weave fabric. It's a man's robe, as evidenced by the buttons. And it is from the 1930s. The ombre was introduced in 1926, and the 1940s and later robes usually don't have buttons. See more photos on the ebay sales page.
The Beacon Manufacturing Company was located in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and originally they made reprocessed yarn. In 1904, the comapny was bought by the Charles D. Owen family, who really began the blanket and fabric company. In 1923 they went in search of a location in the South in which to locate their spinning operation. They settled on Swannanoa, a farming community about ten miles east of Asheville, North Carolina. Ten years later they began the move to take the entire operation to North Carolina. At the time Beacon was the largest blanket maker in the world.
So why did Beacon leave Massachusetts for the South? The simple answer is that it was cheaper to do business here than in the North. They would be closer to the source of their raw material - cotton, so that saved transportation costs. Also, wages were much lower in the South. Labor unions were almost unheard of, and jobs were so hard to come by that workers often developed a strong loyalty to the company and to the owners. This was not just true at Beacon - this was true in mill towns all over the South. In the early days of the 20th century many Northern entrepreneurs started or moved industries south and they were gratefully welcomed into most communities.
Before 1932 Beacon used images of American Indians at looms weaving blankets in their advertising. In 1930s the Federal Trade Commission and the Navajo Indian tribe filed a complaint, saying the advertising was misleading and injurious to Indian weavers. The company was ordered to stop using Indian images, and they had to make clear that the blankets were not woven by Native Americans.
During WWII Beacon converted to making wool and wool/cotton blend blankets for the war effort. So many of the workers left to join the military that the jobs were filled by the women of the community, Rosie the Riveter style.
After the war Beacon reverted back to cotton. In the 1950s, however, the company began adding rayon to the cotton. At the same time, the ombre weaves were discontinued, as they could not be woven on newly installed machinery. By the time the plant closed in 2002, they were making blankets of acrylic.
It's hard to over-stress how important a factory like Beacon was to a little community like Swannanoa. It employeed over 2000 people, there was a mill village and a company store. The factory was the very heart of the community. When the closed factory building burned in 2003, people said it was the end of an era. But actually, the end had been some time in coming. Over the previous ten years the company had changed hands and had downsized several times. Still, it was a shock to see such a fixture of the community go up in smoke.
Today it's more about Beacon Blankets and the lovely robes made from the blanket cloth. If the original Beacon company were to open today, their big selling point would be that they were "green." That's because the blankets and cloth were made from the waste cotton from other processes. They were even able to reprocess their own waste. Because of the nature of blankets - you want a thick, fluffy product - ordinary cotton processing machines were not used. Beacon ordered special machinery from Europe, and then refit it to suit their purpose.
I'll write about the history of Beacon tomorrow, but today's topic is the product - that warm and fuzzy cotton blanket cloth. From the beginning, Beacon used jacquard looms that permitted the weavers to use up to four colors. They began to develop designs that were influenced by the American Indian blankets of the West. They even used Indian images in their advertising, a practice that they were forced to stop after being sued by the FTC and the Navajo Indian Nation in the 1930s!
Many of the designs were influenced by the Art Deco movement. Stylized themes and geometric shapes were commonly used. To increase the richness of the colors, a ombre process was developed that seemed to add shading and dimension to the designs.
The fabric actually had two distinctly different sides, due to the weaving process used. The strongest side was called the patternization, and the reverse of the cloth was called the colorization. Here is the robe I showed yesterday. The patternization is on the right, and the colorization is on the left.
The Beacon factory made the blankets and fabric from start to finish, and they even had a wholesale division that sold their products directly to department and dry goods stores. They also made fabric for other companies such as Montgomery Ward and JC Penney. Beacon did not make the robes; they provided the makers of them with the fabric and labels that read "Genuine Beacon Fabric" or "Made of Beacon Blanket." The label from my well-worn robe:
Home sewers could buy the robing fabric, and Beacon even made kits that included everything the sewer would need to make the robe. The robing fabric was made in the deco prints and also in plaids. By the 1950s rayon was added to the fabric, and in the early 1960s Beacon stopped making the robing.
The blankets might have a simple "Beacon" label, or they might not be labeled at all. A removable paper label was sometimes used, so I imagine there are lots of unlabeled Beacons out there. By using the illustrations in the book I was able to determine that a blanket I bought at a flea market is a Beacon:
And here is one that is labeled "Beacon':
Tomorrow, the history of Beacon Manufacturing, and thoughts on the Southern mill experience.
I really love learning about the local textile industries here in the Carolinas, and one that has been on my research list for a long time is Beacon. But unlike some of the other topics I've looked into, Beacon is well documented, and there is in fact, a book for Beacon collectors.
For the most part, I'm not too crazy for books that are aimed at the collector. There are some notable exceptions, but somehow most collector books miss the mark. They are either poorly researched or poorly written, often the photos are amateurish and the content is badly organized. There is often no index. So I had seen the Beacon book, but did not buy it because I had better uses for the $49.95 the book retails for. But I stumbled onto a copy at a local thrift store and so decided to take a chance.
I'll say this, it is not as bad as I expected, as there is a lot of good information. The complete contents of several company catalogs are printed, which is a real help in identifying the patterns and in dating items. There is a complete company history, so the reader does get an idea of how the Beacon company grew and developed. But the topic is handled a bit too reverently for my taste. I mean, those factory owners might possibly been able to walk on water.
Also, there is no index. Why would you print a resource book without an index is a mystery to me, but this seems to be a trademark of this particular publishing company.
And the photos, while pretty and colorful, are not captioned in a way that provide any information to the reader. There are photos of stacks of pretty blankets, but no information about the blankets themselves.
I guess if I were a Beacon collector, the book would be of value, for the catalog reprints if nothing else. But as a person with just a passing interest in the subject, I'll probably be passing this book along to someone who needs it. I did not intend for this post to turn into a book review. I wanted to write about Beacon, but my thoughts about the book just got in the way, and I had to let them out.
I'll post about Beacon tomorrow. In the meantime you can admire my one and only Beacon robe, shown above. And if you are a blanket collector and are interested in the book, get in touch.
PS: I decided not to link to Amazon where you can buy the book because I'd not let any of my friends spend $37.96 on this book. Sorry, that's just the way it is.
from a 1949 Montgomery Ward catalog
A few days ago I was looking at a vintage magazine and a wrapper from some 1920s vanity item fluttered out. The wrapper was so beautiful that it's no wonder it was saved. It was black with orange and white print, with metallic gold accents. It just made me stop and think about orange for a while.
Unlike blue or red, orange is one of those colors that goes in and out of fashion. In the 1920s, orange was really having a moment. Black was fashionable, and orange was a perfect accent color. Many of the little vanity item of the period are in orange or black and orange.
I found this little gem several years ago in a local antique store. It was a real bargain simply because the guy selling it had no clue as to what it was. He commented that it was pretty, but what the heck was it? So I unscrewed the top and pushed up the feathery puff. It still had the smell of the perfumed powder. You can see how the bottom comes off so powder can be poured into the tube.
The bottom reads " Brevete PLI S.G.D.G. Made in France".
Look at the nifty little thing I received in the mail yesterday. This was from my friend Tiffany of Pinky-A-GoGo, who knows my penchant for all things small and die-cut. She found this and it reminded her of the great hangtags I'm collecting. The Flex-O-Lace Elastic Shoe Laces, with the box dated 1948, must have been a real timesaver for the Man-on-the-Go!
Thanks so much, Tiff!
I also have the winner of As Seen in Vogue. The winner is:
MS, of The Spectrum Vintage!
And because so many great people entered, I have a second place prize, two chick-lit novels with a vintage twist. A dress to Die For, by Dolores Johnson, and Savannah Blues, by Mary Kay Andrews. The winner of these books is:
Steph at Tart Deco!
So MS and Steph, I'll need a mailing address, and congratulations!
Again, many thinks for posting and entering. I was really happy to so so many first time posters. I assume you people are just shy, but please don't be strangers. I like blog comments almost as much as I like chocolate (not really, but I had to compare it to something!)
I recently came across a book I'd read in a college class, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920"s. The book was written in 1931, which meant that the author, Frederick Lewis Allen, must have had a sharp memory of the happenings, but not the advantage of much hindsight. The book was a big hit, and even today, almost 80 years later, it continues to sell. It's truly amazing how the book has stood the test of time - how right Allen "got it."
Probably the most interesting chapter to me was the one entitled "The Revolution in Manners and Morals." Allen writes at length about how women's dress, women getting the right to vote, the automobile, and the movies all changed American's way of viewing the world. In this chapter he explains that it became fashionable to be daring and shocking with one's speech. Women began to use swear words, and men began to use them in mixed company. There was a lot of frank talk about sex, and by the end of the decade, everyone was just weary of it all.
I suppose this shocking behavior would seem to be pretty mild by comparison to today's standards. And I guess there is some truth to the idea that every generation likes to shock the previous one. I know that was part of the plan in the 70s when I was coming of age. Still, if someone were to write a new Only Yesterday, about the 2000s, one thing that surely would have to be included would be the way our society seems to have embraced rudeness.
I got to thinking about this after hearing a piece on NPR's Talk of the Nation, about the editor of a political site who was shocked to read the comments left about the obituary of a retired journalist. It seems as if that the obit mentioned that the journalist (who was not exactly a household name, but who had a groundbreaking career) had worked on the Obama campaign. People who had never heard of Howell were celebrating her death.
And this is just one example which has gotten attention because the editor of the site has brought attention to it through an editorial and media appearances. In the comments left on the NPR site, there were many more examples cited by readers.
So, what has happened that lets us as a society think we can write whatever mean/cruel/stupid/thoughtless thing pops into our heads? There are probably dozens of reasons, but several that have occurred to me:
The anonymity of the internet. People who post anonymously that they hope that a sick politian will die, would most likely never do so under their real name. They'd not say it at work where they were not sure of the reaction of others. They might say it at home, or among friends. Which leads to..
The blurring of private and public. Some people just don't seem to know the difference. They are so used to broadcasting every last detail of their lives on Facebook or on their cellphones that they forget that the world is watching and listening. Like the guy in the thrift store last week who was having a very public cellphone argument with his mother about who used up the last bit of toilet paper.
A growing lack of respect. I started teaching in 1976. When I left the classroom in 2005, there was a much larger percentage of children and their parents who had no respect for the school, for me, for their education as a whole. I see this same attitude in postings on the internet. Increasingly, people do not respect the other person's opinion. It's all about "me". I get emails almost daily from people wanting help with this or that label, or asking about something they have in their collection or for sale. I welcome these questions, especially when a dialogue about the object results.
But lately I'm getting lots of question emails, and after I take the time to answer, I never hear another word from the questioner. Last month I received two emails from the same museum about an object I have, and what did I know about it. Remarkably, neither research assistant has even acknowledged my reply. I mean, would it ever occur to you to ask for someone's help and then not even say a simple "Thank you"?
And then there was the sweetheart of an eBay bidder who, after ignoring three invoices over the course of 8 days, replied to an email asking him to contact me: "Clam down. People have a life You know. I have purchased over 2,000 of these items off Ebay and of course paid for every one of them." (Yes, the email said clam, not calm)
What in a person would let them think that was the proper way to respond to a person to whom they owe money? Imagine him ignoring 3 bills from the electric company and then telling the guy who came to turn off his lights, "Calm down, I have a life and don't have time to pay my bills."
I could go on, but I'll bring this lecture to a close. I'm not saying we don't have the right to say what we think. I'm just saying you should think before posting/emailing/speaking. The Constitution guarantees the right of free speech, but just because you can say it does not always mean you should. You know, the Golden Rule really does work.
Saturday I took the entire day to visit all the antique stores that I love so much in Asheville. It had been almost two months since I had taken a day for a bit of therapy shopping so I felt I was overdue.
A bit of a surprise: There are actually 3 new antique stores along my regular route. A sign of economic recovery? I certainly hope so because some of my favorites had been struggling, with empty booth spaces. But Saturday, it looked like a scene from 2006. There were lots of shoppers out, and most looked like they were buying. That's excellent news.
I know a lot of people like to keep their buying sources a secret, and I can sure understand that, especially if they are buying to resell. But the way I see it, I want lots of buyers to visit my favorite stores because I want them to make money and to remain open!
So what did I see that I did not buy? The cute shoes above, though I may purchase them next time around if they are still there. And the pink basket purse below. Someone is going to get a great deal on it. There was a nice selection of 30s and 40s hats, but none of them really fit my needs. And most unusual, three pairs of Esso coveralls.
The most exciting purchase of the day was a Paris themed border print skirt. Cute, yes?
I want to thank everyone who has posted in the past 2 days. The total of posts and links is now $67! And even better, my friend Hollis at Past Perfect Vintage has pledged to match my donation dollar for dollar, with her donation going to Doctors without Borders. So now each of your posts are worth $2!
There are two more days in this fund raising effort, so please post generously!
Hollis at Pastperfect Vintage posted this link to the White House link to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
For my contribution, I'm decided to donate a dollar for every blog response that is posted here between 1/13/10 and this Wednesday, 1/20/10. At this time my donation is up to $40, and if you want to see it go higher, all you have to do is post here or on any blog post here between now and Wednesday night. I'll throw in another dollar for each link to the blog from other sites, but post and let me know about the links. And each post and link is an entry in my book giveaway!
My donation will be made to the Salvation Army, a group that has hit the ground running in Haiti, and a group with which I've had personal experience when my MIL's house was flooded by Hurricanes Frances and Ivan in 2004.
I only do one giveaway a year, and this one is over due. But it is well worth the wait! It's a copy of As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising by Daniel Delis Hill.
Actually I think the title is not comprehensive enough. I'd have sub-titled it "A century of American Fashion with Illustrations Coming from Vogue Advertising". Because this is a very good decade by decade guide to fashion in the 20th Century, with the trends being illustrated by ads from Vogue.
So even if you are not lucky to win this one, if you want a good overview of 20th Century fashion in a very readable format, you might consider purchasing this one.
Okay, the rules:
To enter, simply leave a comment in this or any other Vintage Traveler post between Wednesday, January 13 and Wednesday January 20th. You get one entry for every post you make to this blog with the next week.
Also, I'll give you an extra entry for mentioning the giveaway and linking to this blog on Twitter, your blog, facebook, whereever you spread vintage cheer. Just make sure I know you have made the link.
Today's post was inspired by Mod Betty at Retro Roadmap. Last week she discovered that the S.S. United States is docked on the Delaware River at Philadelphia. The ship is actually for sale. Wouldn't it be fantastic if some enterprising cruise ship line were to buy it and put it back into action?
Of course, I'm just dreaming. Modern cruise ships are a far cry from the United States. Go to Betty's site and look at the photos she took of the ship. Wow, is that an actual deck? And surely they wouldn't let people just promanade around, would they? If you have been on a modern cruise ship, you will get my sarcasm, as they have no places to promanade, and very little outside deck space that isn't covered in entertainment.
On the latest floating resort, the Oasis of the Sea, the rooms actually have balconies that open to the inside of the ship. You get a great view of the 6000 other passengers' rooms. And with all the entertainment on board, and the casinos, I'm wondering why it was necessary to put Las Vegas on the ocean when Las Vegas is doing fine in the middle of the desert. Why can't a cruise ship just be relaxing transportation?
I really ought to post some warm photos today, as I'm sure that many of us are getting a bit weary of winter weather. But I thought these were so beautiful that I had to share them.
Despite the extreme cold, the local ski slopes are doing very well with fresh snow every day. The local news has been up there interviewing the skiers, none of whom resemble the woman in my photos in the least. First of all, today's skiers, at least the ones around here, are not wearing the latest shade of lipstick. The sleek hood has been replaced with toboggan; the fitted jacket with a bulky parka.
I'm sure the women enjoying the slopes in 2010 are a bit warmer than our 1940s sister, but I can assure you, they don't look half as elegant!
If you were sewing in the late 1970s, then you were probably as emamoured with Folkwear as I was. This small pattern company was founded by three women in 1976, and from the beginning did not produce your run-of-the-mill patterns. No, Folkwear made patterns for the world traveler in all of us: the Syrian Dress, the Nepali Blouse, the Tibetan Panel Coat, the Bolivian Milkmaid's Blouse. And as the company grew, the owners added historic styles gleaned from their collections of vintage clothing.
I was recently surprised to learn that the company is now located, literally in my backyard, in Barnardsville, NC. And when I emailed the owner, Kate Mathews, last week, she graciously invited me up for a visit. (Actually I invited myself, and she was nice enough to say yes!)
Kate came to own Folkwear by way of Lark books, which she and her ex-husband had founded in Asheville. Lark bought Folkwear in 1998, and Kate managed it. In 2002 she bought the company, and most likely saved it from disappearing , as Lark was sold to a major book distributing company which had no interest in the independent pattern business.
When Kate bought the company, she also got many of the original garments on which the Folkwear designs are based. A good example is this dress:
The original 1940s dress is on the left, and a sample made from the Folkwear pattern is on the right. Here is the catalog description for this design:
Above illustration copyright Folkwear
I really should have taken a back view photo, as the gathering around the dropped waistline is just beautiful in both dresses. Note: See all those books behind the dresses? That just a part of Kate's clothing history library.
I really don't know a lot about ethnic clothing, but I do know quality work, and so seeing some of the originals on which the patterns were based was a real treat. And then there are the sample room. Racks and racks of great clothing made from the patterns. It was interesting seeing how different sewers interpreted the designs in totally diffferent ways.
And that's what sewing is all about really, isn't it?
The newest release to the Folkwear line will be a 1917 hat, the Metropolitian. The samples were out, getting ready to be photographed for the website.
If you sew, you really should visit the Folkwear site. Be sure to browse the photo gallery and be inspired by garments sewn by Folkwear pattern users. You can order Folkwear patterns from the site, or check to see if they are sold in a store near you.
For years I've been looking for a reasonably priced copy of the 1939 WPA guide to North Carolina. I finally broke down and bought the 1988 re-release, and now I'm mad at myself for not getting it earlier. This book is going to get a lot of use, so it's better that I not have the original to wear out.
What's so special about an old out-of-date guidebook? Lots! It's like a moment in history, when road trips were still new and most people had never explored their own state. The work on this book started in 1935, and it was finally published in 1939. It was part of the Works Progress Administration, and a guidebook was planned for each state. According to the intro to the new edition, NC's guide was one of the most successful, with many out of work and under-employed people hired to do the leg-work and research.
I'm not sure if there ended up being a guide for every state, and I'm sure that the quality of the work varies from guide to guide, but If you'd love a glimpse of early tourism in the USA, I suggest that you seek out the guide for your state. I also suggest that you find a 1930s road map as well, as roads have changed, and route numbers have changed.
A week ago I got the chance to try out the book. I had an unexpected doggie rescue delivery to Hickory, NC. It was on a Sunday, so most stores would be closed, so instead of shopping my way home, I decided to take the old road - the slow road - Highway 70, which would take me back home almost the entire way.
The nice thing about the guide is that it is arranged in road tours, and you can pick up the tour in any town. It measures distance using the car's odometer, and it was surprising how accurate the measures were.
From Hickory I traveled west on the two lane highway 70. The first town I stopped in was Valdese. "Valdese was settled in 1893 by a colony of 50 families from the Cottian Alps of northern Italy... The early buildings, some of which are visible from the mian highway, suggest Italian farmhouses." Pretty little town, great dry cleaners sign:
From Valdese, I went to Morganton. I was really surprised by a lot of things here. First, the town is built around a square, with the courthouse in the middle. Nothing odd about that, but the Burke County courthouse was built in 1833, quite an old building for this area. It was even occupied by Union forces during the Civil War, where they had a big bonfire to burn all the official documents housed in the courthouse.
Just before this courthouse was built, there was a sensational murder case tried in the previous courthouse, that of Frankie Silver. Seems like Frankie's man Charlie done her wrong, and he then disappeared. When his hacked up body was found under the floor of their cabin, she was arrested, tried and convicted of murder. Despite her family's efforts to help her escape in a wagon of hay, she was recaptured, taken back to Morganton and hanged. Some people think the story may be the basis of the song, Frankie and Johnny.
This is the 1929 Alva Theater:
and just around the corner is the 1951 Mimosa:
And right beside the Mimosa is a large modern movie complex. I imagine there was some objection to building the new theater complex downtown, right across the street from the historic courthouse, but the effect seems to be that people are attracted to the downtown area. Morganton does not suffer from the emptiness you find in many modern downtowns. There are restaurants and shops and...people. Even on a Sunday afternoon.
Next stop was the little town of Marion. By this time the shadows were getting long and I was in a bit of a hurry to get across the Black Mountains before dusk, but I had to take some quick shots of this old motel and cottage complex in Pleasant Garden, just west of Marion. It's for sale:
This was most likely the old Pleasant Garden Motor Court, which is listed in a 1956 guidebook I have.
Last stop: Old Fort. There really was a fort here. "This is the site of Davidson's Fort, an early shelter for pioneer settlers and friendly Catawba Indians. Built in 1757 for protection against the Cherokee, for nearly a quarter of a century the stockade was the farthest western outpost of the advancing whites..."
At Old Fort, highway 70 was obliterated by I-40, but you can rejoin it at the top of the mountain near Ridgecrest. That will have to wait for another time, as the slow road made what is usually a trip of an hour and a half last for an entire afternoon. And I'm ready to do it again!
It is so cold here that all I can think of today is a warm ocean breeze. It may in January in NC, but it is June in my dreams. This illustration is from a 1923 ad for Cadet Hosery: "Silvery sands. The blue green wonder of curling waves. The indescribable fascination of dainty ankles clad in Cadet Silk Hosery..." Ah, for the good old days when women wore hosery at the beach.
Anyway, I just wanted to share the warmest feeling image I could find, and this was it. You may be seeing more of the same this week, as the temperatures here are not predicted to get above freezing all week. That is almost unheard of here, even in this coldest corner of the South.
Has anyone besides me noticed how many blog give-aways there have been recently? Not that I'm complaining - I love free stuff. And after I won the Pendleton 49er I thought I'd used up my scoring mo-jo for a while, but instead I won a sweet little gift from Deals Go Green:
They are called people towels, and they are for carrying with you to use instead of paper towels. I love the idea, and besides, I hate getting cough in a place there the towel dispenser is empty. Now that worry is history! Get your own set: peopletowels.com.
My current favorite give-away is from Julie at Vintage Goddess. It's for a mystery novel that features a Fortuny gown! I'm being nice to let you know about this one, so you need to enter!
And finally, a big thank you to Joan of Catbooks1940s. Joan and I have been on-line friends for just forever, and she's one of the best vintage sellers on the net.
She sent this most lovely of Christmas gifts:
You are looking at the beginnings of a new collection. Well, not exactly new, it's just that I've only recently admitted that I collect hangtags. A hangtag is something that you know you can't throw away, but you don't quite know what to do with it.
So once thay started mounting up, I decided to make a filing system for them; to treat them like the other bits of informative paper that I find to be useful. And hangtags really are useful. Several years ago, in the early days of the eBay chat boards, someone posted a photo of a Swirl hangtag. On it was a fact that I couldn't believe - the company had been based in Easley, SC. This small town was only an hour and a half away from me, and it led me to visit the town and to research the company. And that led to my website, which led to this journal.
So see how important a hangtag can be?!
Here are some favorites. Who can resist an American Tourister tag shaped like a suitcase, a Kleinerts tag shaped like a bathing cap, and a Mazet kitten wearing a sweater with replacement button eyes?
My mother was the costumer at the local community college when I was a child. They paid quite poorly at first, and her being a single mother meant that we couldn't afford baby sitters. So it came that I spent a lot of time up at the theater. This started my interest in vintage clothing. When I became a teenager, I started shopping the thrift stores only to find that there were not a lot of vintage clothes for tall women like myself. One day, when I was shopping, I walked past a bin of patterns and the idea came to me - If there are vintage dresses in this store then certainly there must be some vintage patterns in this bin. I purchased my first 5 patterns and with my darling mothers help, began making my own brand-new-with-no-stains-or-rips-in-the-color-that-I-preferred vintage dresses that fit me. Those first 5 have grown into a collection of about 2500.
Just the thing for that New Years party:
Who needs a recipe book for cocktails as long as you have your Cocktail Mixer? This handy little dial-a-drink dates to 1943. I just hope the bartender stays sober, otherwise he'll never be able to work the thing!
Most of these drinks I've never even heard of. So I'll be ready if anyone ever asks for a Highstepper or a Taxi. How about a Hiawatha or a Snag-tooth Nell?
For some reason, these dials were quite popular during the 1940s. They covered a variety of topics - everything from facts about the planets to first aid. I always thought they were for children - a fun way to present facts. I guess this one is for the child in the over 21 set!
I'd love to thank everyone who reads The Vintage Traveler, and especially those of you who take the time to post comments or send emails. Those of you who blog know how exciting it is when a discussion springs from a post. Even though I've been blogging since 2006, I still cannot predict which topics will spur readers into posting.
I want to encourage you to post your thoughts, not just here, but on other blogs that you read. If other bloggers are like me, one of the things that keeps them posting is having interesting interactions with readers. I consider reader comments to be an very important extension of the original post, and without reader comments, the post remains one-dimensional.
I'm not talking about what I call cheerleader posts. I don't need 37 people posting saying "OMG you are so cute." But I do need thoughtful sharing of information and an occasional pat on the back. And most of all, I welcome your personal stories about the great old companies and places I find intriguing. I really cannot believe how much I've learned over the years from the posts that have been made here.
So thank you, and enjoy the Holiday!
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