I remember Sandy saying to me ‘Oh, you don’t wear your collection’ – like it was a no-no. Maybe we just have different perspectives on collecting. I thought it was rather ridiculous to just buy clothes and put them in a box. I used to wear everything.
Iris Apfel – American fashion icon.
This quote is from an article in Harper’s Bazaar titled The Collector’s Eye, Dec 2022/Jan 2023, by Allison S. Cohn. In the quote Apfel referrers to couture collector Sandy Schreier.
Here here! I agree that clothing is for wearing, not for hiding away in a closet. Although, there are pieces that just can’t be worn – for example I have a 1920s chiffon dress that is too fragile. I also have quite a few articles of clothing that belonged to my mother (vintage pieces that I remember her wearing when I was a child) and I wear many of them, but some are too big, too small, or just not my style. They have a different purpose – they are providing inspiration for my mother/daughter memoir (currently a work in progress).
Growing up in San Fransico I remember my father and I going to the movies together. On Saturday afternoons we’d head over to one of the city’s grand movie theaters – The Alhambra on Polk Street or the Metro on Union Street, just to name a couple. Later when I was in high school, my friends and I hit those theaters and others.
I have fond memories of that unique movie theater experience – the buttery popcorn smell swirling around the vast theater space, the rough texture on the wide cushy seats, the pinch of excitement I felt as the lights dimmed and the curtains raised. Those grand (single screen) theaters in SF and across the country have since either been sliced up into multiple shoebox size mini-theaters or (worse) turned into fitness centers. The movie theater experience is not the same.
Now the last grand movie theater in SF – the beloved Castro Theater – has a new partner and the plans are to replace the plush seating with tiers without seats to add standing room for concerts.
Here’s a more detailed explanation from the Art Deco Society of California:
New management (Another Planet Entertainment) has plans to remove the seats on the main floor and replace them with staggered tiers without seats or temporary seats which will not be conducive to movie going or for film festivals in the future. This would be a terrible loss as the Castro is the last remaining historic “Movie Palace” in San Francisco in which to have the magical experience of watching a film with a sloped floor and plush theater seating. Designed by Timothy Pflueger in 1922,it is an Architectural Treasure, inside and out.
The Castro Theatre, famous around the world, is the sole surviving single-screen movie palace in the city of San Francisco. The seats on the main ground floor are from the second period of significance in the landmark amendment, which covers the important LGBTQ history and programming period, from the 1976 to 2004 time frame. The balcony still has some original seats from 1922 and many others from the 1937 remodel. All the seats together in the theatre, the aisles and the sloped auditorium floor are among key character-defining features of this historic theatre.
The Castro Theater is known and loved for its many film festivals, including the annual Film Noir Festival.
Currently The Castro has landmark status for the just the outside of the building. Please consider signing the petition to “Save Our Seats” and expand the landmark status of The Castro to include the inside of the building.
Enough of the destruction of all that is stylish and good in the Bay Area! Please spread the word. Thank you.
There is more we can do – click here for information about other ways to help.
I didn’t just want to be someone who bought clothes. I wanted to learn about them. So, I collected them, wrote about them, and have had a life of helping to get exhibitions off the ground.
Christine Suppes – fashion collector and the author of the book Electric Fashion (Skira), which is a photo documentary of her couture collection. Photos by fashion photographer Frederic Aranda.
This quote is from the article, The Collector’s Eye, by Alison S. Cohn, in Harper’s Bazaar, Dec. 2022/Jan. 2023.
Suppes, a resident of Palo Alto, CA recently donated more than 500 pieces of her couture fashion collection to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Her donation includes pieces by Christian Lacroix, Yves Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga. (And you heard it here first, in January 2024 the de Young Museum, inspired by Suppes donation, will open a fashion exhibition featuring the legacy of some of the Bay Area’s most fashionable women both past and present.)
As a member of Costume Society of America, I have heard and read discussions about museums accepting fashion donations. Should they? What should they accept? How and where will they preserve the clothing? It goes hand in hand with the general discussion over whether or not fashion belongs in museums at all. The biggest and much debated question – is fashion art?
The truth is fashion exhibits bring in money – especially those that include popular designer names. I would venture so say that a collection of couture clothing would be welcomed at any museum.
When I was in Seattle a few years ago for a fashion history conference, I attended a fashion exhibit at The Museum of History and Industry. This regional-focused exhibit, called Seattle Style: Fashion/Function, highlighted vintage and modern clothing owned by local people mostly purchased from local department stores and boutiques. It was by no means a spectacle exhibit and that’s why I enjoyed it so much. The fashions on display gave us a peek into what the people of Seattle wore in sunny weather and in rain; to the theater; to the 1962 World’s Fair; or just to work and the grocery store. Regional style, dictated by weather, culture, and tradition, is a fascinating subject and as much as I enjoy “big fashion” and the impeccable crafting of couture, I’m also interested in everyday fashion, particularly from past eras.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming de Young fashion exhibit and learning how Bay Area style is perceived.
Well, we are at the final day of our brooch adventure. I have so many brooches we could continue for another twelve days. But we’ll wrap it up with this lovely embroidered bird brooch.
This unique piece belonged to my mother, but she gave it to me some time ago. I have always loved it and I know that she bought it at a shop called White Duck Workshop on College and Ashby in Berkeley. WDWS was a boutique that sold handmade clothing for women. Known for a certain California aesthetic of the 1970s, WDSH created dresses and skirts in patchwork and appliqué corduroy. As times changed, so did their style. I remember by the 1980s they’d dropped the folk patchwork look for the oversized power look of the day, but still keeping the handmade Berkeley aesthetic.
The bird and flowers are embroidered on silk and I think perhaps the fabric was part of a larger piece – a kimono? – and was made into a brooch. Or it could have been a button. Either way, I suspect the fabric is antique. I think my mother bought the brooch in the 1970s or 1980s. She didn’t wear it often and I don’t either, as it looks delicate. But when I do, I pin it to a rust colored sweater that was also my mother’s and one of my favorite sweaters to wear on cold days.
This brings us to the end of The Twelve Days of Brooches. I hope ODFL readers enjoyed the series. Next year we will do it again with another vintage collection.
Today we’re looking at a brooch from of my Lea Stein collection. I find these unique plastic brooches in London, usually at the Monday Antique Market in Covent Garden but they can be found in shops as well. I’m drawn to her pieces for their multi-dimensional quality, unusual textures and … her images make me smile.
Although there’s a bit of mystery surrounding Ms. Stein, we know that she is a French artist who in the 1960s, with her husband, came up with a way to layer and laminate thin sheets of plastic. This layering technique allows Ms. Stein to create texture by adding pieces of material, such as lace or metal, in between the layers. After cooling, the plastic is cut into all kinds of shapes from Art Deco women in hats (an early design) to owls, cats, and dogs. Animals seemed to be favored and today they are among the most collectible.
There are some copycats out there now, but a true Lea Stein is signed on the pinback.
My stylish fox gets a prominent place on the shoulder of a black A-line wool dress I like to wear to afternoon parties or sometimes I place him on the lapel of a coat. He gets a lot of attention whenever I take him out.
We’re on Day Ten of The Twelve Days of Brooches and today we have a vintage rhinestone flower brooch.
This brooch was given to me by my mother and I think perhaps it had belonged to her mother and all that makes it special to me, but there’s another reason it’s close to my heart.
This brooch was the inspiration behind a key thread in the middle grade novel that I wrote and have recently been revising. In fact, the brooch in the novel is an important clue to the mystery. Writers often use objects as inspiration or guides for their writing and when I was working on the scenes that included the flower brooch, I would place this one in front of me and sometimes stop and imagine it inside the story where it has a very full life on the Tube in London. It’s nothing special otherwise, it has no markings, but it’s well made and it has a lot of presence. I don’t wear it often, but sometimes I pin it to an evening bag for extra sparkle.
Only two more days to go. Come back tomorrow and see what’s next.
Hello to Day Eight and a copper brooch. I found this at an outdoor antique market in Philadelphia for $5. It’s not marked but I know from the design and the fact that it’s copper that it dates to the 1950s.
Although sparkly chunky pieces with colored rhinestones are the iconic jewelry look of the 1950s, a more subtle Arts & Crafts style was also popular and copper was the perfect metal for that. There were two companies at the time making copper jewelry – Francisco Rebajes of New York and Jerry Fels, founder of both Renoir of California and Matisse Ltd., based in Southern California. Rebajes sold his pieces out of his store in NYC and Fel sold his work to department stores. Some of Fel’s pieces were enameled, the most recognizable is the painter’s palette. After much success, both companies closed in 1964.
I really like the atomic shape of this brooch as well as the texture. It lives permanently on the lapel of my wool blazer.
It’s January 1, 2023. Here’s to a new year with more opportunities for creativity and growth!
The Twelve Days of Brooches continues tomorrow. Day Nine … what will it be?
It’s Day Six and we’re looking at a watch face brooch that I made.
When I was in college I had a small business making and selling jewelry (I called it Personal Fixtures). I worked with found objects, mostly vintage buttons and as we see here, watch faces. The watch faces came to me from a friend who collected all kinds of strange odds and ends. He gave me boxes of faces and parts and I made brooches out of them. They were popular with customers, but I had a big problem – adhesive. I just couldn’t find anything that would bind the smooth enamel surfaces or even the metal parts. I had the same issue with buttons. So eventually I gave up my jewelry making business, but I hung on to whatever I had left in stock.
I still love this business card.
I learned a lot running my own little business including the fact that wearing what you make is the best advertisement. I wore these brooches mostly on sweaters and coats. I remember sporting one to a job interview just after I graduated from college. It was a position at a university and the nice woman in HR went crazy for my brooch and ordered one for herself and one for her daughter. Plus, I got the job!
Welcome to Day Four of The Twelve Days of Brooches. Today we have a special vintage piece signed Boucher. As in – French born Marcel Boucher, jewelry designer for Cartier.
Mr. Boucher was moved from Paris to the US by Cartier in the 1930s. He later took a job with another jewelry company and then in 1937 he founded his own company. He created bold pieces of jewelry often of animals and birds. His “fantasy birds” of the 1940s are particularly sought after. Achieving much success, he continued designing and manufacturing until his death in 1965. After that his wife took over the business until she sold the company in 1972.
My charming bird dates sometime after 1955 and I’m not sure where I got him, but a good guess would be that he was a Christmas stocking stuffer from my mother. She continued to give me a Christmas stocking long into my adulthood and often tucked in one or two pieces of vintage jewelry.
Boucher Bird is just the guy to add a little whimsy to a summer tote bag.
OverDressed for Life 