Get to Know Vintage

Featured Item of the Week

There’s just something special about Vintage Lingerie …  The fabrics are amazing with the silkiest nylon, sheerest chiffons, and glamorous satins just to name a few.  This lovely ensemble from Purse Diva Vintage is soft, flowing and oh so girlie.  What a beautiful color and it’s made by Vanity Fair which were and still are well known for their quality lingerie.

 ~ Here are the details ~

1940s/50s Vintage VANITY FAIR Honeymoon Chiffon Peignoir Set Aqua Blue

Glorious! Vanity Fair nylon/tricot peignoir set. Both labeled a size 32. Color is a beautiful light blue/aqua. Robe with fabulous puffed sleeves, embroidery, and hook & eye closures. Gown has fabulous chiffon twist straps and an empire waist. Lovely floral embroidery throughout on both pieces. Silky smooth fabulous nylon. Exquisite!

$55.00 online at Purse Diva Vintage

Item of the Week contributed by Michelle Lockridge @ Isabella’s Vintage ~ an online vintage boutique…

“Lucky” Girl

One of my favorite fashion inspirations is Lucky Magazine. I have put: a subscription to Lucky Magazine, on my Christmas wish list for the past two years to no avail. Im not complaining mind you as the gift givers in my life never disappoint.  However, it would be a lie to say that I don’t notice the absence of a subscription to Lucky with the passing of the Holiday season.  For some reason I can’t or won’t afford myself this luxury. So, this year when I opened the card that indicated I would be receiving the magazine (for not one but two years!) my Christmas was truly complete.

I hate to admit it but I am not much of a reader so one of the things that I love about the magazine is the pictures and more pictures.   Images of contemporary fashion trends and buying information/suggestions are the basis of the periodical.  The penchant I have for identifying a trends historical roots comes to life as a I turn through the pages.  Of course any fashion magazine with great images provides me with the same indulgence.  Over my next few posts, i will be highlighting some of the great ideas and suggestions that I have learned from this American based magazine and others as well.

Check out Lucky website’s Street Style: New York to see how the editors are inspired by the style of woman on the streets of New York City:

Featured Item of the Week

Well it’s that time of the year where things start to slow down, the weather turns colder and sitting by the fireplace with a good cup of coffee or hot tea is a comfort.  It is also that time when you can concentrate on projects or hobbies you haven’t had time to work on.   If sewing is something that interests you why not pick up a vintage pattern and give it a try. 

You can stop by The Ornament Gal for many different styles and eras.  They even offer vintage doll patterns like this one above.   Look at all the adorable outfits that can be made with just this one pattern.  Be sure to check out their vintage pattern archives as well.

~ Here are the details ~

Doll Wardrobe for Revlon Doll…a glamor wardrobe for a Glamor doll. Each group of clothes on a sheet of tissue…Group 1 — Fun in the Sun…(playsuit, petticoat, skirt) Group 2 — Date dress…(dress, beret, petticoat, panties). Group 3 — Day at the Beach…(bathing suit, hat). Group 4 — Sleeping Beauty…(pajamas). Group 5 — Chic career girl…(coat, beret). Group 6 — Queen for a Day…(bridal dress, veil, petticoats, panties). Yardage and trimming suggestion given or make use of your own odds and ends of fabric.

This pattern is cut. All pieces and instruction sheets are present. The envelope has slight wear and yellowing.

$8.00 online at The Ornament Gal

Featured Item of the Week contributed by Michelle Lockridge @ Isabella’s Vintage

The Fashion Of Santa Claus

So here I sit wondering about the season’s fashion choices. Over the years it has become my nature to look at a contemporary style and see history in it. 1980’s fashion was filled with references to the 1940’s (padded shoulders, peplum jackets and dresses, the list goes on). The question I ask myself today is where did Santa’s fashion sense originate? I am reminded of visits to my own Great Uncle Nick’s home as a young child. Uncle Nick, born in 1888 and had quite an interesting collection of early 20th century Christmas decorations.

At this point I decide to call my sister Coletta to see if she remembers the skinny Santa Claus cut out that was always at the hearth of Uncle Nick’s house. This of course leads to a stroll down memory lane and the discovery that my mother’s tradition of filling our stockings (which were actually socks in my house) with oranges, nuts and hard candies had originated with the legend of Saint Nicholas dropping gold coins into the socks of poor young maidens without dowry money. The story goes that St. Nick thrusts the coins through the chimney and amazingly they land in the maiden’s stockings which were hung by the hearth to dry.

But I digress…

We see reference to the big guy’s apparel everywhere during the holiday season. Deep red apparel with white faux fur detailing, is there a sales clerk on the face of the planet that has not donned the pointed red furry cap with white fur pom, pom at least once this season? Some attribute the first contemporary image of Santa Claus to 1930’s commercial illustrator Haddon Sundblom hired by Coca-Cola to associate the larger than life figure with its product in the early 1930’s.

Sundblom’s illustration was actually based on the earlier Saturday Evening Post image of the big guy. The following image is Norman Rockwell’s first Post cover of Santa which appeared December 12, 1920:

We all know that today’s Santa Claus is based on the early good works of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children, a third century bishop that became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships. But how and where did a bishop’s religious vestments become a furry red and white costume with patent leather belt and boots to match??

According to The Saint Nicholas Center it was Washington Irving who in 1808 published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, who in fact began to etch out the essence of the legend as we have come to know him. The satire makes numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. Then in 1810 The New York Historical society’s John Pintard commissioned Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Saint Nicholas as seen below:

according to the Saint Nicholas Society: Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children’s treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, “Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I’ll serve you ever while I live.”

Of course the jolly elf image received a big boost in 1823 with the ever popular poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas more famously known as The Night Before Christmas. In it the author (of whom is not clear) expounds upon Washington Irving’s earlier jolly elf image.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf. . . .

and so the tradition really took root during the 19th century….

c.1848 c.1862 c.1869

and according to The Saint Nicholas society:

Santa was then portrayed by dozens of artists in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors. However by the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—had emerged from the work of N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that popularized and firmly established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture.

What ever you believe (or don’t) about Santa Claus I hope this trip through the legends historical progression has been as pleasurable for you to read as it was for me to write it.

Happy Holidays and may peace guide you in the coming year.

Anne Marie

Bring It Back Vintage

Technical assistance provided by The Ornament Gal

This week’s eVintage Society Featured Seller is
SPECIAL SOMETHINGS.

Her store is full of a variety of fun and fanciful vintage
including the 70s dresses  below. That Diane Von Furstenberg
wrap is to die for and there’s more in store!

eVintage Featured Seller is edited by Splendid Threads.

Australian pattern designer Enid Gilchrist

Enid GILCHRIST is one of the best-known and most-loved names in Australia. Through the years her patterns have made life easier and simpler for millions of mothers.

She began her training at Melbourne Technical College, where she studied dress design. During the years of World War II she worked as a designer for a pattern firm, and also collaborated with the Infant Welfare Department and the Kindergarten Union to put out patterns for babies and young children.

Enid Gilchrist pattern book available on vintagelingerie.com.au

Her designs were chosen to give special attention to comfort, health, allowance for growth, simple sewing and easy laundering - the features which remain distinctive marks of her patterns today. During that time she also taught dress design part-time at the Emily McPherson College and Footscray Technical College. She married Ray GILCHRIST in 1945; they have one son Neil.

pattern book available from ebay seller lauderfield

When she was designing a layette for her son, she realised that thousands of women must be in need of simple patterns such as she was making - and so she evolved a pattern-drafting method suitable for publication in magazines. She began working with the Argus, then in 1957 she joined New Idea; publishing a weekly article and continuing writing her popular sewing books.

Enid Gilchrist passed away in 2007.

reference “Sewing is simple with Enid Gilchrist 29 great designs for children”.

Contributed by Kay of vintagelingerie.com.au.

Technical assistance provided by The Ornament Gal.

This week’s featured seller is Swanky Selections.

Swanky Selections lives up to the name, offering decades
of party and daywear, menswear, accessories, and
much, much, more. The purses alone will make you swoon!