Nana's Dress Goes to FIT

The spectacular beaded flapper dress here has recently been accepted into the study collection of The Museum at FIT. It bears no designer label, nor was it worn by a boldface name, but since it belonged to my Nana Tillie, we’re very excited by the news.

My grandmother was born in 1902. She was one of five sisters and grew up in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, where her family ran a kosher delicatessen. We have no photo of her wearing the striking black Art Deco-style dress, but we know she wore it in February 1925 to a cousin’s wedding in New York City. We do, however, have a photo of her taken only two months earlier at her own wedding, also in a flapper-style dress.

In trying to pinpoint the year of the dress, I lucked out and found a ridiculously detailed recap in a local Brooklyn newspaper about the wedding she attended.

“A neighborhood romance culminated last night in Miss Alberta Diana Spitz, daughter of …” 

The article details addresses, attendants, fabrics (white satin with flowing rosepoint lace, hand embroidered with pearls), and the floral composition of the bouquet and canopy (orange blossoms and orchids). Not bad advertising, come to think of it, for the bride’s father who was a florist. 

 “As Rabbi Wellerstein pronounced the couple man and wife two beautiful white carrier pigeons were released from the canopy and flew about the auditorium as a token of good luck.” And here I thought credit for that went to modern-day party planners. (The full newspaper clipping is at the end of the post.)

 

Nana Tillie in her wedding dress.

Back to the dress. Thanks to the exquisite care my mother (Tillie’s daughter) takes of everything in her charge, it has remained in superb condition for these many years. That is especially remarkable considering the weight of the beading on the lightweight silk.

Nana’s wedding dress, though the same vintage, did not fare as well and sits as a heap of rusted beads and evaporated chiffon. But remember, this is fact not fiction, so do not in any way take the fate of this garment as a symbol of her life or her marriage of more than 60 years. She was always sweet and loving, and well loved in return. When she died at age 102, Nana Tillie had produced, from her three daughters, a tally of about 50 grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

Luckily, she never got bored of going to weddings.

Here’s my mom looking smashing in the dress. She wore it to a costume party in the late 1980s.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Bonnie Cashin's Sweater Paintings

American sportswear designer Bonnie Cashin, is probably best known for the iconic bags she designed for Coach leather, from 1962 to 1974. As a pioneer of women’s sportswear, she was all about comfort and ease of movement to support the active lifestyle of the modern woman. Though her medium was clothing and accessories, her output was more art, sculpture, or design, than “fashion.” 

In a piece about her for the 2001 “The Lives They Lived” section of the the New York Times Magazine, Amy Spindler wrote:

Her clothes alone were so colorful that she used them, in open closets and exposed shelves, as her apartment's primary decor. That decor blended beautifully with pieces by the designers of the day she considered her peers, people who didn't make clothes at all -- the Eamses, George Nelson and Isamu Noguchi. She had little patience for the inbred fashion industry, which she felt was devoted to hobbling women with its fussy clothes.

In 1964, she designed cashmere sweaters for Scottish company, Ballantyne of Peebles. These paintings of sweater bodies, are in the archive of her work at UCLA. They could so easily hang on the walls of a modern art museum.

I love these color names.

Above: anthracite and Robin red.

Below: Bursom, seaweed, sundew, and coral

The Vested Gentress

Winking horses, yakking yaks, puppies, giraffes, frogs, and bunnies. Welcome to world of The Vested Gentress. Playful, hand-screened prints that instantly transport you to lawn parties were fresh berries and deviled eggs are always within easy reach. Think Lilly Pulitzer, but sillier and less saccharine; Vera, but sillier and less mod; Marimekko with imagery. But while those labels have storied pasts, very little is known about The Vested Gentress.


The label has developed quite a following, as ever more vintage fans discover (usually while looking for Lilly Pulitzer) these charming prints. Still, information about the company is so scarce, that I’ve yet to read anything other than what Lizzie Bramlett has had posted on the Vintage Fashion Guild site for some time now:

Vested Gentress was established in 1961 and was based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Their factory was located in Trappe, Pennsylvania, about twelve miles from Valley Forge. The company was known for whimsical screenprinted fabrics. These fabrics were made into dresses, slacks, and skirts. They also had a line of golf wear. The company closed in the late 1980s.

Time for a gin & tonic!


This winking horse, probably the best known "vg" print, is irresistible both coming and going.
















































Sources: Most items are/were for sale on Etsy and eBay. Other sources include Sparkles of Life, Looking 4 Lilly, RubyLemons.

Royal Wedding Dress, Tonga

Had enough of Kate’s dress yet? This is the 1976 Tongan royal wedding of Capt. M. Tuita and Princess Pilolevu. (They say knock-off dresses were worn by Tongan brides and grooms for the next two seasons.)

Here is a link for more vintage postcards from Tonga.

PSSSSSST!

If, in the year 1968, you were not a preteen girl fully immersed in the study of grooming products and all things mod, you are excused for not knowing about the amazing nonwater shampoo-substitute that came in a can.

Yes, PSSSSSST was a powder-based spray to be used when you just didn’t have time to wash your hair, and then roll it around a giant coffee can to dry it straight.

What I could not have known then, was how perfect it would be to immortalized a bit of PSSSSSST advertising (along with all things Beatles or ladybug) on yet another iconic fad of the day—a decoupaged lunch-box handbag.
I’ve read that, like numerous other products of days gone by, the dry shampoo has been re-introduced! "Between Shampoos- On Camping Trips- After Sports. Any time you can't use water. Psssssst is the convenient, quick fresher-upper for your hair."


Yup, that's Susan Dey, "washing" her hair. I found this image at Gold Country Girls.

My mom has sold her house and is moving to an apartment. I’ll be posting more nostalgia as the excavating and purging continues.

Design Research: Marimekko Mecca

The must-see design earlier this week at the Cooper Hewitt, was not on the walls, but on the staff and visitors. Vintage Marimekko was out in full force, as the National Design Museum celebrated this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Jane Thompson, and the publication of the new book Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes, by Thompson and Alexandra Lange.

Design Research was the legendary Cambridge, Massachusetts-based “General Store of Good Design” founded by architect Benjamin Thompson in 1953. D/R promoted simplicity, comfort, and affordable prices in home furnishings and accessories by importing well-crafted and designed products, chosen largely by Thompson himself, from around the world. Perhaps the most notable of such imports were the hand-printed fabrics of the Finnish company, Marimekko.

Design Research became the lifestyle emporium of a generation, supplying not only the décor of an American design revolution, but the wardrobe as well. What better garb for the enlightened, soon-to-be liberated D/R female shopper than a bold, colorful, loose-fitting Marimekko frock?

The evening opened with a film-in-progress by Caroline Van Valkenburgh, It Wasn't Just a Dress, about women and their treasured Marimekko dresses. It’s a fascinating look at the iconic dresses, and their legacy.

Following the film was a panel moderated by the book's designer, Michael Bierut “Game Change in the Design of Retailing.” The program can be viewed here.


Filmmaker, Caroline Van Valkenburgh, right and one of the film's subjects.


Jane Thompson
Co-author Alexandra Lange