Here is what’s fresh in our members’ shops this week. From 1930s era through recent vintage, VFG members do not disappoint this week (do they ever?).
Just click on any of these items to go to that item for sale, and see all the vintage items new in our members’ shops HERE.
I have to say right from the start that if you like any vintage slip very much then you should go right ahead and buy it, irrespective of the advice given out by people like me. However, below you will find seven useful things to look out for when you are buying a vintage slip that will hopefully give you the buyer’s advantage. Even if you don’t find a slip that has all seven of these purchasing tips, just a few will put you ahead of the game and have you buying like a pro. If you are planning to purchase a vintage slip for your favourite 1940s fashion dress then following these simple and effective tips will really pay dividends and you’ll know that your slip is not only truly authentic vintage but of the highest quality too.
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Head’s up, because Fresh Vintage is here! This week we have sandals fit for a goddess, the greatest pocket ever, and much more!
Just click on any of these items to go to that item for sale, and see all the vintage items new in our members’ shops HERE.
If you’re looking for fresh vintage from VFG members you’ve come to the right place! Click on any of the items shown here for more details, and see all the fresh finds HERE.
see Kamehameha
Fashion-related shows are held regularly at Zurich’s Museum für Gestaltung. Thanks to the Swiss Textile Collection, I was able to see the latest one in a private (only for our group) guided after-hours tour with the curator, Andres Janser.
Hubert was a prolific designer but seems to have been forgotten a bit. He appears to have been well known in the 1950s, when he was designing for major Hollywood films as well as commercial ventures in Switzerland, and he was frequently mentioned in fashion magazines.
So, who was René Hubert? He was born in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, which is near St. Gallen; a career as an embroidery designer in one of the many lace/embroidery companies of St. Gallen was what he trained for first. He never trained as a tailor or dressmaker, but he had an eye for design. In the 1920s, he went to Paris for further training, where he was introduced to the music hall scene and started designing costumes for shows. By sheer good fortune, he landed the job of designing costumes for the 1924 Gloria Swanson movie, Madame Sans-Gène, which was filmed in Europe. Unfortunately, this silent film has not survived, but there are photos, some of which were in the museum show. Hubert began costuming Gloria Swanson (in real life as well as for movies) and many other stars in Hollywood films. He came back to Europe in between Hollywood engagements and worked on stage musicals and film in London (science fiction costumes for Things to Come —very reminiscent of Star Trek—and Fire over England), Paris, and Berlin. In 1939, he designed clothes for a fashion revue at the Swiss national exhibition, then spent the 1940s in Hollywood working for 20th Century Fox, dressing Marlene Dietrich in The Flame of New Orleans and Vivien Leigh in That Hamilton Woman, among others.
He returned to Switzerland in the 1950s and designed clothes for the Jelmoli department store, fabrics and clothes for Stoffel (about which I recently wrote), and his own range of hankies and scarves. René Hubert went back to film costuming for a few more films, not least because he wanted to try his hand with the new colour film processes, and with Cinemascope. He costumed a historical epic in Cinemascope, and he also worked on Anastasia with Ingrid Bergman. (Fun fact: Balenciaga’s atelier in Paris was used for costume fittings—but of course this was kept secret.) He received Oscar nominations for best costume for Désirée and The Visit. And if that wasn’t a full career already, from 1951 to 1966 Hubert also worked for Swissair! During the introduction of jet aircraft, he was in charge of cabin interior design and three uniform collections. The famous “Swissair blue” of these uniforms is also credited to Hubert. He designed everything, including a fur hat for cold destinations (which wasn’t made) and a light “tropical dress” for warm destinations—which was made.
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This week’s fresh vintage from VFG members can be seen HERE, and as always there is a range of items, from a dramatic 1920s art deco shawl to a 1990s butter-soft leather skirt. Click on any item to view.
This week vintage Hermes and Kenzo have popped up HERE, along with plenty of unlabeled but great vintage fashion items. You can find these in the “Fresh Vintage” thread in the VFG forums. A sample from each member who participated this week is posted below. These images are clickable for details.
Anna Modeller was founded in 1958 in Torshälla, Sweden by Titti Wrange and her husband Bobbo and later established itself in Åhus in 1960. As children, her sister Lisa Larson, a famous ceramics designer, and Titti loved to draw clothes. Both wanted to be fashion designers, but only one of them realized her childhood dream.
Titti initially started making hats which became a huge success. After having her first child, she realized that there were no fun baby clothes so she created her own collection which became an even greater success and continued to be for many years.
While at the maternity ward, expecting her second son Jens, Titti brought rag sock yarn and a crochet hook to have something to do. She knit a whole cardigan in heather gray and edged in black, like a jacket. She wore it while visiting another prominent fashion designer, Katja of Sweden. At Katja’s home, Titti met people from the Olsson’s fashion house in Malmö who loved her work and started selling it, resulting in a large order.
Anna Modeller outgrew the place in Torshälla and needed a larger house to continue operations. In 1960, Titti and Bobbo moved to a large yellow villa in Åhus to be closer to both their partner and friend, Katja of Sweden, and to the sea. Full production of Titti’s collections was up and running in a couple of days thanks to some of her employees moving with her.
Anna Modeller became one of Sweden’s most successful fashion companies with shows in New York, Paris, and London. They built a factory that was completed in the early 1970s and at its peak, employed about 70 women. The US craze for stripes and fresh designs lasted throughout the decade but the recession came and with it, the US began backing up their own clothing designers. At the same time, the textile industry in Sweden found it increasingly difficult to cope with competition from low-wage countries. Anna Modeller produced their clothes in Sweden until the last textile factory closed down. In the 80s, they moved production first to Finland and then to Portugal. Anna Modeller stopped making children’s clothing in the 80s due to large chains entering the industry with cheaper clothing and customers not wanting to buy more expensive albeit quality pieces. By then, her women’s clothing had become a trendsetter. Through the years, Titti won many awards for her innovative clothes.
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Taking a closer look at an ivory silk damask evening dress by Worth in a set designed by Jean Cocteau (photo, denisebrain)
I’ve never been to France, but I’ve had the feeling of traveling through both time and space to the Paris of 1944-46. The occasion was a visit to the permanent exhibition of the Théâtre de la Mode at the Maryhill Museum of Art near the town of Goldendale, Washington.
The museum stands quite alone, a grand chateau situated on a precipice overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
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Zelda Wynn Valdes designed show-stopping evening gowns for performers including Josephine Baker, Mae West, Ella Fitzgerald, Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt, and Marian Anderson. She was the first African American to own a clothing boutique in Manhattan—the year was 1948. In the 1950s, she helped raise the profiles of Black designers as a founder and president of the New York Chapter of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers. Valdes is probably best known for manufacturing the Playboy Bunny costume. In 1970 she began costuming for the new Dance Theatre of Harlem, and continued until her death in 2001, at the age of ninety-six.
Written by denisebrain
May we get fresh with you?
The Vintage Fashion Guild’s Fresh Vintage is a weekly show of new listings in VFG seller-members’ shops. You can click on any of these to see the item for sale, and you can view all the fresh vintage HERE.
The Vintage Fashion Guild’s Fresh Vintage this week includes exceptional sewing patterns, menswear, shoes, and more. You can click on any of these to see the item for sale, and you can view all the fresh vintage HERE.
Pure joy: that’s the effect of seeing a Stephen Burrows anything on Pat Cleveland. But especially these patchwork pieces from 1971-73. Here she is in all her glory, and details of a related ensemble in the FIDM Museum collection. Burrows cofounded the O Boutique in NYC in 1968 which, despite the countercultural luminaries that frequented it, closed a year later. In 1970, the president of Henri Bendel gave Burrows a space in the workroom of Bendel’s Studio (their in-house manufacturing spot); studio manager Pat Tennant became an important mentor to Burrows. Stephen Burrows World opened in the summer of 1970 on Bendel’s third floor: disco music thumped as the audience watched a fashion show that indicated new directions for studded leather garments, midi-skirts, clingy sweaters, and Burrows’s now infamous Day-Glo bright jersey knits. That these pieces were shown on ethnically diverse male and female models impressed all of fashiondom…
Fluid, flirty, and flat-out sexy: that’s the stuff that landed Burrows a prestigious Coty award in 1973—oh, and he won more of those in 1974 and 1977. His most high-profile moment was when he knocked the literal socks off of French couturiers at the “Battle of Versailles” in 1973. Burrows was one of five American designers invited to challenge five French stalwarts, including peak-level YSL. Black models Bethann Hardison and Cleveland SLAYED…and BAM! American fashion ascendancy. This spectacle couldn’t have become as spectacular without the energy Burrows and his cadre served.
Written by Leigh Wishner @patternplayusa on Instagram, and Registrar/Museum Coordinator at FIDM Museum.
What’s new in vintage? The Vintage Fashion Guild’s Fresh Vintage of course! You can click on any of these to see the item for sale, and you can view all the fresh vintage HERE.
May we get fresh with you? The Vintage Fashion Guild’s Fresh Vintage this week includes a Miss Hawaii Kamehameha sarong swimsuit, 1960s checkered cigarette pants, a smorgasbord of vintage Indian block-printed items and a bevy of lacy slips, among other things. You can click on any of these to see the item for sale, and you can view all the fresh vintage HERE.
VFG member Kerry Taylor is presenting another auction of outstanding vintage and antique fashion on June 15, 2021. Entitled Vintage, Antique Textiles & Passion for Fashion, just window shopping the auction catalogue is a fashion history education and an almost overwhelming sight! Of the many items this writer bookmarked is a beefeater-style tunic from the Carnaby Street boutique-era with the rare Colin Wild label.
Many thanks to Kerry, who kindly granted us permission to add the label to our Label Resource, and to reprint the catalogue description of this item.
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Colin Wild was the epitome of cool during the Swinging Sixties and a well-known face on London’s trendy Carnaby St. During the 1960s ‘movers and shakers’ flocked to Carnaby St. for the coolest fashions.
In 1963 Colin Wild became the enigmatic business associate of boutique owner Danny Benjamin, who founded the Carnaby St. Cavern in the early sixties. Danny recalls meeting Colin for the first time:
One day in 1963 a tall, slim man came into the shop. He didn’t want to buy anything, but just called in for a chat. He was an amazing-looking man, with the brightest ginger hair, who looked like a character from a Victorian story book. His name was Colin Wild and he told me he was a window dresser for a large local store. I was still struggling to pay off the debts from my Colindale disaster, but I realised that Colin could well be the partner I so needed . . . A great salesman, a complete extrovert, and always the centre of attention, everyone loved him. Years later he became such a sensation while dancing on ‘Top Of The Pops’ that jealous DJs tried, and finally succeeded, in getting rid of him . . . I couldn’t afford to employ him, but neither could I just let him go’ (From: https://sixtiescity.net/Fashion/CC/cc1.htm).
In XS All Areas: The Status Quo Autobiography by Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt recalls Carnaby St. Cavern:
It was probably the most fashionable clothes store in the world at the time and all the bands went there. It was always the same guy you went to see, too. His name was Colin and he had this shock of red hair and wore even more way-out gear than his customers . . . He rigged everybody out in those days. However, there could be pros and cons to this. On the plus side you got to wear some of the newest, most fashionable threads in the world. On the downside, you’d go to a photo session and put on a bright yellow shirt you’d bought from Colin at the Cavern the day before, and the photographer would go, ‘No, you can’t wear that, Jimi Hendrix was in here last week wearing the same thing’. You’d sigh and put on another one and he’d go, ‘No, I did that with Andy Fairweather Low yesterday’.
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