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| photo courtesy of desktopretreat.blogspot.com |
The history of textiles is the history of the world...politically, socially, economically.So much of human history has been interwoven with fabrics—any one fabric can take you back to ancient civilizations, or even prehistoric times. This makes many of them difficult to quickly summarize. I noted one of the fabrics in the Fairchild’s that was particularly mind-boggling for me, frisé.
frisé [free-zay’] 1. Originally the finest grade of linen made in Friesland, The Netherlands. It was strong, stout, grained, and well-bleached. 2. A French term for curled. 3. A coarse ratiné fabric that is made with slub yarns in a plain weave ( See RATINÉ 1.) 4. A looped pile fabric usually of uncut loops that may have a pattern cut into them. This term sometimes is used for TERRY CLOTH or BOUCLÉ FABRIC. 5. A coarse, stout cotton or linen fabric that is made in a plain weave with a flat, wiry texture and a pronounced rep or rib. Made in imitation of the worsted or mohair pile fabric known as FRIEZE. All fabrics listed in 1.—5. are used for upholstery. 6. A cut pile carpet of twisted yarns in solid color or of varicolored yarns.You can see there are divergent histories here, along with terms that may not be familiar (they certainly weren’t all familiar to me). There are comments about usage, origins of the name, related fabrics. Not all fabrics have this much complexity in their definitions, but some have more.
Today, in honor of Mother’s Day, I'm celebrating my very first favorite style icon. I've talked of my mother before (Flowers for my mother, Style ideas from my parents) but I'm devoting this post to her style alone.
Mama would laugh and blush at the thought of this. My mother did not consider herself stylish; she wasn’t particularly interested in clothing, but she most definitely had a discernable style, and it’s a style that influences me.
Born in 1920, she was in her twenties in the 1940s, and 40s style suited her and remained a lifelong influence on her. She was big on navy blue, plaid, good basics, scarves, gloves and generally what I'd call handsome clothing. She wasn't the frilly type. On the other hand she rarely wore trousers but preferred dresses. She emphasized her waist. She knitted, sewed and tatted, and I don’t remember her ever wearing a commercially made sweater. I'm choosing to highlight my mother’s style in the 1940s and 50s, my two favorite decades for clothing and coincidentally when my mother was a young woman.
Have you ever noticed that people tend to like clothing from the era when their parents were young?
My mother in the 40s
There’s that waist emphasis and another simple and flattering dress
40s fern print rayon dress
Mama knitting
50s hand-knit cream wool sweater
Her ubiquitous white blouse, plaid skirt, and great shoes that (it must be noted) caused some havoc for her feet later
50s white cotton blouse
My parents, with my mother in the midst of creating something
40s navy gabardine suit
Mama in a plaid skirt, sporty jacket and gloves
50s rayon dress with plaid scarf and trim
I’ve always been convinced that every woman needs a classic coat
40s burgundy gabardine coat
...and a classic scarf
My mother in plaid again, leaning on my father’s MG. The jacket was most likely his.
50s plaid summer dress
My parents on a ferry in 1956. I love the flowered circle skirt!
50s fish print circle skirt
My mother, very soon to give birth to me, with my aunt Marie and brother John
Happy Mother’s Day to all the First Favorite Style Icons out there!
There’s vintage fashion for warm weather this month at denisebrain! Please have a look at my latest theme for a little inspiration:
On September 11, 2001, I sold this raspberry suit to a woman working in the Pentagon. A few days later I heard from her, apologizing for taking so long to pay, but she'd been very distracted by events. I don't even know how she remembered the suit at all.
I remember the reaction of the world to 9/11, particularly the raw, on-the-street reaction of ordinary people all over the world. To them, we were still an ideal. We were Hollywood, Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mantle, T-birds and T-bone Hawkins, Coca-Cola, Apple, Ella and Elvis, Martin Luther King, The Statue of Liberty, great teeming New York, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, golden waves of grain, cowboys and Indians, the railroad, good public schools and libraries, flight, baseball, front porches, The Blues, purple mountain majesty, Mustang cars and horses, Helen Keller, Star Wars, Marilyn Monroe, Broadway, jazz, rock-n-roll, hip-hop, sportswear, white hats and silver spurs, The Alamo, the circus, buffalo and Buffalo Bill, the Bill of Rights, beat poets, Janis Joplin, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, the gramophone and the light bulb, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Thoreau and Emerson, Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Michael Jordan, Kennedy, FDR, Oprah, Bob Hope, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, emancipation, Muhammad Ali, the Smithsonian, the moon. We were hope. We were, as John Gunther reminded us in the 1947 Inside U.S.A., “the craziest, most dangerous, least stable, most spectacular, least grownup, and most powerful and magnificent nation ever known.”
That was what was attacked, and what remains. That is what is worth preserving and improving upon forever.
It's a dark and stormy night in the big city.
Suddenly a woman screams!
Then there is the sound of running in the hall!
Where is the Maltese Falcon? And where did she get those killer shoes??
For the answers to these questions and more, who do you call? Who else but...
My July theme is up!
{click on image to view...and sound up!}
Little me, in pink as usual
I'm sure you would never know from looking at this blog, my store, my business card, etc., that I love the color pink! ; )
So why didn't I think of this before?!
Please visit my latest theme [click on image]:
...and watch for lots of great pink vintage finds in the upcoming weeks.
The denisebrain December theme is here! Please have a look (and listen) by clicking on the image.
Wishing you and yours a magical holiday season!
Care to take vintage clothing for a spin this month? Get inspired by my November theme, Dizzy.
Click on image to view, sound up.
are in this exhibit:
and these early 70s Fox & Fluevog shoes (on loan from my collection)
are in this exhibit:
Earth Day and I go way back—I remember being very excited about the very first one in 1970, and drew this poster for my father.
Fast forward to Earth Day 1999, when I decided to give the vintage clothing business a try. This is the first dress I sold.
You know that vintage clothing is generally better made and more interesting and beautiful than anything new, but today especially, remember it is recycling. That is one of the main reasons I love doing what I do.
Time out from the Théâtre to introduce my April theme, The Hunt for Vintage Charm! (Click on image to view)
Do you have New Years resolutions? Here’s what I have:
I also have a personal manifesto. You might call this my permanent resolution list—
What is giving you the resolve to wear vintage this year?
Catch some great vintage at denisebrain!
I'm always reeling in something great for you, so stop by denisebrain and get hooked!
Click image to view, and sound up please!
I have had a lovely and touching response to my recent blog about my mother, both on Blogger and on Facebook. One thing I didn't mention about her, although I hinted at it with the line "she was different from me in many ways" is that she really wasn't terribly into fashion. Conversely, my father (about whom I
) was very much a clotheshorse.
Since I have made a career of clothing, I guess I lean toward my father in that way, but both my parents influenced me greatly in my own style. Since I feel I am a bit unusual having parents that were of such a different era, I thought I'd share with you some of the style secrets of the Wilds household, some from my mother, some from my father, some both.
1. Invest in a few good things, rather than many inexpensive things.
2. Emphasize what is best about your appearance even if doing so runs counter to current trends.
Mama always tended to highlight her waist
3. Have some jewelry that matches your eyes.
My mother's sapphire blue ring, made "to match her eyes" by a grateful
man that my grandfather had assisted in finding work
4. Wear classic takes on current trends.
5. Tartans are good.
Papa in a tartan shirt
6. Honor the people who give you clothing or accessories by wearing their gifts when you meet with them.
7. Dresses/skirts are more comfortable and flattering than pants.
Mama with their beloved dog Cappy
8. Find a favorite fragrance and stick with it, likewise lip color. My mother's signatures were Woodhue Cologne by Faberge and Cherries in the Snow lipstick by Revlon. Timeless they are indeed, with both still available (Woodhue reissued at
and Cherries at most any drugstore).
9. Learn to take care of things yourself, including cleaning, mending and ironing. Enjoy these tasks as an investment in yourself and your loved ones.
Mama ironing
10. Natural fibers are greatly to be preferred to man-made.
My parents in sweaters
11. To get just what you want, learn to sew (knit, crochet) your own clothing.
My mother's Singer Featherweight machine...one of my most cherished possessions.
12. Get to know fabrics so you can make good decisions about what you like to wear, how to clean the fabric and what it is like to sew. (I can recommend The
series,
All About Wool
,
All About Silk
and
All About Cotton
. Although pricey, these are an invaluable starting place for understanding basic fabrics. These books include fabric swatches...a huge bonus!)
13. Always have a cleaned and pressed white shirt ready to go.
My father in a perfectly pressed white shirt
14. Wear gloves.
15. Have things altered or tailored to suit you (or learn to do it yourself), don't just accept shoddy fit.
16. "Handsome" clothing can be more flattering to a woman than something ultra-feminine and frilly.
Mama in a trenchcoat
17. Learn interesting ways to tie scarves. (Find some suggestions
.)
18. Even for casual occasions, dress with style.
Papa at a picnic...
...and with my brother at the beach
19. Dress appropriately, but individualistically. Don't be afraid to express yourself.
Papa in white, ca. 1930
20. 2nd hand clothing can be your best bet for quality, style and affordability. (I certainly took that advice to heart!)
I know a lot of people say this, but sorry, I really am the one who had the best mother ever—at least that's how it seems to me. She was different from me in many ways, and in so many ways I learned and got to be a better person because of her. Not a single day goes by that I don't think of her. I strive to do things as she would do them. Most every day I miss her and wish I had new times with her.
Marian was born September 28, 1920 in the small town of Grimes, Iowa. Her father was a banker during The Depression, and it had to have had quite an impact on Mama that her father worked to keep farmers in business, and keep their farms operating. Eventually he was let go for not foreclosing as expected by his overseers.
Mama at age 6
My mother always looked out for the less fortunate. She was the most open- and fair-minded person I have known personally. She did not apparently see race, class or gender as anything other than man-made obstacle or advantage, although she always looked after the underdog. Many mothers are naturally nurturing to their own children, but my mother had nurturing feelings—and took action on those feeling—for the entire world.
At Mama's memorial service in 1988, there were many young people of all races and walks of life who considered my mother their honorary mother. She counseled, she listened, she advised, she taught, she made people feel welcome and special. She found people who needed her, and they found her.
Mama baked bread. She baked literally dozens of loaves per week and gave away much of it to neighbors, friends, and fellow office workers. The entire neighborhood smelled like a bakery on Saturdays. When she went to work on Mondays, she carried two big shopping bags full of bread on the bus. (My mother didn't drive and was an intrepid mass transit user in Seattle where I grew up.)
Mama devised a recipe for bread that would offer as much protein as an egg in just one slice. She wanted to see this recipe be used to help feed people in need, as she figured it was about 7 cents per loaf to make. Her bread, and all her cooking, was unbelievably delicious.
Serving dinner to my father and his mother
My mother was adventuresome in her cooking, trying all kinds of new, good things. She remembered vividly the evening in the 1940s when she first ate garlic, and she was the first person to try many things at home. She read, watched and tried what Julia Child recommended. She was friends with the fish monger. She made a huge assortment of Christmas cookies each year, and made the most spectacular dinners any person could be privileged to eat. I created a cookbook of her recipes when she died, as I knew this aspect of my mother's life was most tangible and cherished, and would be greatly missed.
Serving food at a friend's wedding in about 1981
I learned to do so many practical things because my mother took the time to teach me to do them: I learned to cook of course, and to sew, and to garden. With her college degree in romance languages she helped me learn French, and as a top math and science student ...well I needed all the help I could get! My mother was extremely smart.
Knitting... (ca. 1950)
...and gardening (1961)
She didn't have fancy taste in many things, but she had refined taste in music and literature. She played cello through college. She was a devoted reader and history was her favorite subject. Lincoln and Jefferson were her favorite historical figures, and she read and re-read Churchill's writings. My mother avidly recycled, but before she let a single newspaper go she made sure she had read every word of it. She was unafraid to be political, and caucused for her candidates, went door-to-door for causes and talked to friends, as well as those in disagreement with her. She insisted I take issues to heart, to others and to the street. She was brave and strong in her convictions.
My mother didn't swat bees, but carried them out of the house by their wings. She once went a few days with a broken arm without going to a doctor, because "it just didn't hurt that much."
My mother loved to have fun too. She loved movies, games, laughing. Her laughter took over her entire body, with tears streaming down her reddening face. Even though she was older (40 when I was born) she was a lot of fun for my brother and me, always taking us to parades, the zoo, the park, movies—she put up with 7 showings of Mary Poppins for me. She always bought us balloons and cotton candy.
After my father died in 1974, my mother had to go back to work, and reentering the work force at the age of 54 could not have been easy. She not only found work at a law office, but became invaluable, a paralegal in all but title and salary. During the last year of her life, when she could no longer make it to work, office staff came to her home to get help managing the business. She didn't make a lot of money, but when I was choosing a college she said to go where I most wanted to go, and we would make it work. My mother said "money isn't the only currency."
On the last Mother's Day Mama was alive, we went to a garden center where I bought the annuals she picked out, later to put them in the dirt around her duplex. If it weren't for the shopping cart, she couldn't have walked, as she had some serious health issues. Still, as usual, she didn't complain at all, and spent the time telling strangers what great children she had. She said what she always said, "Mother's Day is the day that I am most thankful for having such wonderful children."
The feeling is mutual Mama! I love you so much.
Ready to make a splash?
I've think I've got enough umbrellas for everyone!
[click image to view]
(I think I'm obsessed with umbrellas!)
