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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.

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.

Back with another installment of the “Fabric Junkie”! Instead of focusing on various fibers and weaves, we’re going to look just at jacquards. Remember, weave and fiber are two different properties of fabric, so when we talk about jacquard, we’re referring only to weave. Jacquard is a term that everybody has heard, but it doesn’t seem to be well understood. Simply put, a jacquard weave is one in which a raised pattern is woven into the fabric on the loom (as opposed to a fabric onto which a design is later stitched). In more technical terms, jacquards are woven on special looms (Jacquard looms, after their inventor, Joseph Marie Jacquard) that allow warp (lengthwise) threads to be individually and independently raised from the surface. The raised designs can be simple or pronounced, subtle or intricate.

While I’m not going into detail on the Jacquard loom and its history, anyone interested in fabrics may want to read up on it a bit. The Jacquard loom was invented in the early 1800s and utilized punched cards to separate and raise the warp threads, i.e., “program” the loom, much like early computers were programmed via punch cards. So, the Jacquard loom was a forerunner of our modern computer!

Some of the more well-known, easily recognizable jacquard weaves are brocade, which has a pronounced raised pattern, often in different colors and sometimes with metallic threads, on a contrasting background; damask, a subtle weave—generally tone-on-tone or a color on a coordinating shade—in which the differences in the luster of the threads delineate the pattern; and tapestry, a more complex weave in which weft threads are woven over the warp threads to create the design. Matelassé, popular but not seen as often, has a quilted effect. Dobby weaves are fashioned on specialized looms to produce repeating, small geometric patterns, such as the birds-eye weave.

Lamé brocade coat, 1920s, sold by Augusta Auctions

From Apron Factory to Paris Runways

Few fashion houses that have made their way to Paris runways have started as humbly as Akris. It’s the extraordinary story of a farmer’s daughter who started with one sewing machine and the wish to earn her own money.

Alice Schoch was born into a farmer’s family in 1896. Her aunt had an apron and blouse factory, which is where Alice learned to sew. Later on she also attended a young women’s school where she gained more theoretical knowledge. When her aunt died, she would have liked to take the factory over, but her brother, who had been fostered by the aunt, inherited it. So Alice saved money for a year to buy a sewing machine and then started to make aprons herself.

In 1921, at the age of 25, Alice married Albert Kriemler. When he was traveling across the country as a shoe cream salesman, he took his wife’s apron collection with him to sell. They proved to be a success, and soon Alice needed help to fill the orders. She established a small production space for eight seamstresses and two cutters on the ground floor of her house in St. Gallen. Albert would take orders on his travels and his wife and her seamstresses would sew the aprons the following week. In 1922, a few months after the birth of her first son, the company A. Kriemler-Schoch (Akris in short) was registered as a single ownership company. Production continued to grow and aprons of every kind were made, whether they were for housewives, factory workers or waitress’s white aprons trimmed with fine St. Gallen lace.

The “Fabric Junkie” has mentioned that she would at some point address how raw materials are turned into fabric. Which is a basic that every seller and buyer of vintage apparel should know. So, here we go:

The two main ways that fibers—synthetic or natural—are turned into fabric are by weaving or by knitting.

Woven fabrics are made by interweaving two sets of threads or yarns at right angles to each other. Think of when you made potholders when you were a kid—you used a square “loom,” and wove the fabric loops in a repeating under and over pattern. This is what a weaving machine does—on a much larger scale, of course! The lengthwise yarn or thread strands are called “warp,” the crosswise ones are the “weft.” The yarn or threads can be in single strands or more, and the fabric can be woven into different textures and patterns. The three basic weaves are plain, twill, and satin. Other types of weaves are variations of these. One of these is the jacquard weave, which is made on special looms to produce damasks, brocades, tapestries, and matelasse. Additionally, once a fabric comes off the loom, it can be finished or treated to achieve different effects.

Woven wool: