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Our blog features our picks of the freshest vintage items, member news and articles. We have also created a growing series of articles on some classic designers.
The Vintage Fashion Guild™ (VFG) is an international organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of vintage fashion.
The Vintage Fashion Guild™ (VFG) is an international community of people with expertise in vintage fashion. VFG members enjoy a wealth of resources, avenues for promoting their shops and specialties, and camaraderie with others who share a common interest and passion.
A noteworthy event of 20th century American fashion was the emergence of the film costume designer as an influence on everyday fashion. Prior to the 30s, Hollywood imported European fashion designers to bring some much needed style and class to their offerings after the excesses of the 20s. When the Paris designers returned home, Hollywood designers came in to their own designing both period epics and modern fashion features.
Due to the success of both the film industry and the untiring efforts of the studio publicity departments, many costume designers became house hold names and used this recognition when they made the shift to fashion design. They were certainly helped in the USA by the absence of French and English fashion during the war years. By the time their houses closed in the 50s and 60s, the influence of film designers on retail fashion had begun to fade. Today even most fashionistas can’t name a film costume designer. And yet in their day designers such as Howard Greer, Adrian, Irene, Helen Rose, Edith Head and Travis Banton were as well known in the US and even internationally as many Couture designers.
The greatest of them all was possibly Adrian, whose work in film and fashion influenced much of American fashion in the 1940s. His fashion work commands serious attention to this day. Greer was an earlier star, but his work went on for years, and was seen as recently as 2005 when Sarah Jessica Parker wore a black and pink Greer dress to the CFDA awards. Both Irene’s and Helen Rose’s work continues to be highly collectible. Banton and Head, while influential, never attempted their own wholesale houses.
Adrian Howard Greer Irene Helen Rose
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American Fashion: The Life and Times of Adrian, Mainbocher, McCardell, Norell, & Trigeré Edited Sarah Tomerlin Lee, The Fashion Institute of Technology. Quadrangle/the New York Times Book Co. 1975. California Couture, Maureen Reilly, Schiffer Publishing, USA, 2000. Costume Design in The Movies, Elizabeth Leese, BCW Publishing LTD, Isle of Wight, 1976 Designing Male, Howard Greer The Fashion Book, Phaidon Press Ltd. 1998 London, New York Hollywood and History Costume Design in Film, Edward Maeder, Thames and Hudson & Los Angels County Museum of Art, 1987 Hollywood Costume, Dale McConathy with Diana Vreeland, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York 1976 Hollywood Costume Design, David Chierchetti, Harmony Books, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1976 In Vogue, Georgina Howell, Schocken Books, Conde Nast, 1976 Just Make Then Beautiful, Helen Rose, Dennis-Landman Publisher 1976 Those Glorious Glamour Years, Margaret J. Bailey, Citadel Press, 1982 New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style, Caroline Rennolds Milbank, Harry N. Abrams, Inc Publishers NY. 1989
The Vintage Fashion Guild offers sincere thanks to the following contributors:
Linda Ames of Vintage Textile, www.vintagetextile.com Lizzie Bramlett of www.fuzzylizzie.com Deborah Burke of www.antiquedress.com, Antique and Vintage Dress Gallery Couture Allure Vintage Fashion Bret Fowler of Main off 5th, Stroudsburg, PA Janet Schwarz of www.woodlandfarmantiques.com www.designertrend.com www.noirboudoir.com
Costumes by Adrian
Joan Crawford & Norma Shearer costumed for 'The Women', 1939