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Archive for April, 2021

The Unexpected Brooch: A Needlework Tale

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 28, 2021| 6 Comments »

I have mentioned before on ODFL that in fall 2018 I ventured to Seoul, South Korea on a textiles tour. Our busy two week schedule included several workshops in traditional Korean crafts.

One such workshop was Korean embroidery, taught by a young and very talented embroiderer in her studio. I had never done any embroidery before but, on a sunny Saturday afternoon five of us sat around a small table and got to work. First we drew a flower design onto a swatch of red silk fabric. Then we stretched the fabric not on a round embroidery hoop, but instead a square wood frame. Stretch tight and keep in place with thumbtacks – that was sort of tricky.

We had two hours to finish and that wasn’t enough time for me; I am quite slow when learning something new and by the end of the workshop my eyes were sore and I was ready to call it a day. I stuffed the fabric into my bag, thinking that probably that was the end of embroidery for me. However, the next year I took an embroidery class at San Francisco School of Needlework & Design, which helped to ease my feelings of inadequacy when it comes to needlework.

Fast forward to Pandemic 2020 and one day while sorting through my fabric stash I came across the unfinished embroidery piece. I spontaneously decided to finish what I had started and in no time, I was done. I made a button out of it and added a pinback, which turned it into a brooch. I wear it on a coat I had made and the red nicely picks up the coat’s red accent stitching.

What a surprise to create something out of what I had (mistakenly) dismissed.

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Fashionable Quote of the Week by Beverly Cleary

Posted in Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 26, 2021| 3 Comments »

Beverly Cleary, circa 1935.

… I unpacked my meager wardrobe: two woolen dresses, one brown serge and the other navy blue, the fabric cut from bolts of cloth that had lain for years on shelves in my grandfather’s general merchandise store … A skirt from a remnant, another that I had made from a pair of my father’s old gray pants. I had cut them off at the pockets, ripped the seams, washed and turned the fabric, which was perfectly good on the wrong side, and made myself a four-gored skirt to wear with a pink sweater I had knitted. A couple of cotton dresses; a bathing suit; a badly made skirt and jacket left over from high school; my precious bias-cut cream-colored satin formal, which made me feel like I was slinking around like Jean Harlow in the movies …

Beverly Cleary (1916-1921), American children’s literature author.

This quote is from Ms. Cleary’s memoir, My Own Two Feet (Morrow Junior Books, 1995).

I truly enjoy sartorial detail like this in a memoir.

At the height of the Depression, 1934, Ms. Cleary moved from her small hometown in Oregon to Ontario, CA to attend Chaffey Junior College. In those days, most people didn’t have big wardrobes. Nor did they toss away clothing like it was a used Starbucks cup. Clothing was kept and mended, altered, and refashioned. My great grandmother, who was a whiz at the sewing machine, made all of her daughters’ clothing, and anticipating future alterations, she always allowed for generous seams and hems.

Ms. Cleary’s sewing talents and thrift would be much appreciated today as we struggle to fight climate change while trying to find a path to sustainable fashion. I think one place to start is with this old goodie: Make do and mend!

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Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing is Featured in the New York Post

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , on April 20, 2021| 5 Comments »

Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing. Photo: Richard Aiello.

Helen Uffner is well-known around NYC and Hollywood for having the best old duds. She runs her own business renting period clothing and accessories for theater productions, films, television, magazine editorials, and book covers. 

I met Helen over hats in 2013 at the reception opening for the Milliner’s Guild exhibition. When I mentioned that I write about fashion and have a fondness for vintage, she generously invited my partner and me to her warehouse.

We stayed in touch and I remember that in 2018 Helen had to move her collection of fabulous vintage/antique clothing to a new space. That was no easy feat! Now she faces another eviction as her warehouse is getting knocked down for a residential high-rise. Still, she presses on.

Read more about Helen and how important she is to costumers from coast to coast:

https://nypost.com/2021/04/12/helen-uffners-private-vintage-collection-outfits-hollywood/

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Fashionable Quote of the Week by Lazaro Hernandez

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 19, 2021| 2 Comments »

Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels.com

We had this vast archive of fabrics from the past decade, and we really tapped into that – and in a strange way it forced us to be more creative.

Lazaro Hernandez, American fashion designer and co-founder of the womenswear brand Proenza Schouler.

Pandemic Year 2020 was challenging for fashion designers as they faced disruptions in the industry’s supply chain – mills were shut, materials were moving slowly or not at all, and manufacturing of just about everything across the globe was at a standstill. So for new collections, designers got creative and sorted through stacks of unused fabrics from past years.

According to a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation less than one percent of the fabric produced by the fashion industry was recycled into new garments. But in 2020, out of necessity, there was a shift. Fingers crossed this shift will stick.

Milliner Behida Dolic once told me that she was grateful for having to be thrifty because it made her more creative and resourceful. Spoons became tools and every bit of fabric was put to use, including extra bits of leftover felt which she used as decoration on her fabulous one-of-a-kind hats.

What’s in your fabric collection? Make it your next project.

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Fashionable Quote of the Week from Pudge & Prejudice

Posted in Arts, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , on April 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Here’s the whole outfit: a pair of thick, black tights, with the feet cut off and rolled up to the middle of my calf. The footie part of the sock was hidden inside my shoes – a pair of black dress shoes Mom had bought from a bargain bin for two dollars, not realizing they were boys’. My father’s cadet blue cashmere sweater, too small for his latest girth, but long enough to hit me just above the knees, then hiked up a little thanks to a wide, black belt that gave the illusion that my waist was at least two inches smaller.

Elyse Nebbitt, fictional character in the YA novel, Pudge & Prejudice by A. K. Pittman (Wander Publishers).

As a budding children’s literature writer myself, I read picture books, middle grade novels (that’s what I write), and occasionally young adult novels. This one intrigued me because it’s another spin on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, reset in 1984. Interesting, because I have heard that currently publishers are turning down anything set in that decade. I suppose what saved this manuscript from the “no thanks” pile is the Jane Austen element. Plus the author has written a couple of other novels, so she already has a platform.

This passage reminded me that in the 1980s I also sported my father’s cashmere navy blue sweater. But I didn’t use it as a dress. I paired it with a longish skirt, wide belt, and boots. Oversized was a definite look in those days. I still wear that sweater!

The 1980s was when everyone really experimented with their style – mixing vintage with new, clashing colors and prints, using accessories in unusual ways. Such fun!

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Fashionable Quote of the Week by Gary Kemp

Posted in Arts, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , on April 5, 2021| 3 Comments »

Spandau Ballet, circa 1980s.

I’m disappointed at the homogenization of looks. You don’t see young kids coming up with many ideas of their own. They can create their identity on their Facebook page or their Instagram site. They don’t need to create it on the street. They don’t need to find their tribe by going out in a uniform and going to a club. They can do that on the Internet.

Gary Kemp – founding member of the 1980s British pop music band Spandau Ballet.

This quote is from an article in WWD, May 2015 – the same year a documentary on Spandau Ballet, Soul Boys of the Western World, was released.

Turns out that the fellas of Spandau Ballet were quite the fashion trendsetters. Gary Kemp in particular enjoyed exploring sartorial expression. Inspired by his father who was a teddy boy, Mr. Kemp followed underground fashions of the day, his favorite being Glam Rock a la David Bowie. Later, on the 1983 True Tour, he and the band revived the teddy boy look with long jackets and western ties.

Along with Mr. Kemp, I am disappointed that modern teenagers are complete blank pages when it comes to style. Just like their parents, it’s sweats, t-shirts, shorts, t-shirts and oh yeah, sweats. Since the pandemic, not even jeans make the cut. When I was in high school I was experimenting with all kinds of silhouettes, colors, layering. I was adding vintage to new and sporting jewelry galore. It’s the time for exploration. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on that.

A few years ago I interviewed a teen girl on her style and what she was describing was pretty dull. She explained that she didn’t want to stand out. I’ve heard adults say that too. Just by wearing a dress, or a blazer, or a hat (anything other than sweats and a t-shirt) I stand out every time I leave my house. To be honest sometimes I wish I didn’t, but what I wear is what I wear and if it stands out in the mass of athleisure, then so be it.

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