Be Kind, Thrift and Rewind

When I began to upcycle this men’s shirt, I had a totally different design I was planning on doing from the Cut-Up Couture book. After cutting off the sleeves I completely changed my mind. I was faced with either totally taking in the sides of the shirt (the arm holes were just too large) or doing something completely different. I chose to do this tank top I found in the book. I felt proud of myself for having done enough upcycling now that even if I didn’t do this design I could have figured out another way to alter the shirt.

I liked the idea of this tank with this cotton vintage slip. It is one of the reasons I decided to make the tank. It is a Koko Yamase design from her book Cut-Up Couture. The mix of vintage and the more avant- garde look of the button plackets, that were changed into neckline straps seemed appealing to me. I mean, why not? That is what makes fashion fun, finding new twists to looks and being unique. I usually don’t wear all white, so the little blue flowers also appealed to me, to help soften the look of the total white. Eventually I will most likely tea dye this vintage slip a soft brown with black tea. I wanted to wear it for a while in white, to try it out. I was concerned that I needed to find a way to wear the slip as a skirt, and for it not to look dowdy or matronly. I also have a vintage black long sleeve cotton blouse. I think I may try it with that, as an alternative way to wear it. The black blouse would make a nice jacket with a white tank underneath, and perhaps a black thin belt.

The cotton vintage slip was a gift. It has a soft brown ribbon running through the white lace. It had a slit in the top side and a string holding the waist. I repaired it by sewing up the side opening, then lifting the hem a bit by folding over the top, than I ran elastic through the top. This gives me the option to wear it as a skirt as well as a slip. I prefer for things to be more multi- functional if possible.

Those brown shoes are a pair of Dansko shoes. They were a birthday present from my family. Unfortunately they never broke in since my bunion is too messed up. My big toe is misaligned and well, it isn’t good. I finally scheduled surgery in August, so I will be on the road to hopefully a better right foot soon! I am so relieved that this is finally being taken care of! I plan to do another outfit post or two before the surgery, or at least prepare one!!

I have a few other upcycling projects I have done recently or am in the process of working on. I will try to get to posting these soon too. It is a joy to get a chance to work on these things. It is rewarding to alter upcycle, mend and reuse either vintage or thrifted items!

The Thought Provoking Photography of Deborah Turbeville

July 20, 2015

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When I first began to look at several of Deborah Turbeville’s photographs at a time, I felt as if I was transforming into her world, stepping alongside her and she was leading me into a journey. It was a gentle shift of focus, and it had a lingering effect. In my eyes, I see that she embraced what the Japanese refer to as “waba sabi.” In the book Waba-Sabi for Artists, Designer, Poets & Philosophers, the Waba-Sabi state of mind is described as “Acceptance of the inevitable. Waba-sabi is an aesthetic appreciation of the evanescence of life. The luxuriant tree of summer is now only branches under a winter sky. All that remains of a splendid mansion is a crumbled foundation overgrown with weeds and moss. Waba-sabi images force us to contemplate our own mortality, and they evoke an existential loneliness and tender sadness. They also stir a mingled bittersweet comfort, since we know all existence shares the same fate (1).” These are the kind of emotions that her photographs bring to the surface. Turbeville also expressed that she felt anxiety in herself, and that “you can see the future on the women’s faces, in their apprehension.” She also “literally manipulated her negatives, scratching them, tearing them, scattering dust on them and otherwise distressing them- to make the finished images redolent of decay. She employed faded color, black-and-white and sepia tones; prints were often deliberately overexposed, rendering her subjects spectral (2).”

Born into a wealthy family in New England in 1932, Turbeville lived in somewhat isolated manner and was encouraged to be unique. Her family had a summer home in Ogunquit, Maine and she later described it as “very sorry, very sinister, very beautiful.” It was the experience of visiting this summer home, the wind swept coastal areas, and backgrounds that she saw, that later became her inspiration for her photographs.

When Turbeville began her exploration into fashion photography she shocked many people. Her work was counter culture to what had been set up as precedence in the world of fashion. Her pictures weren’t bright, shiny and focused on the model and what she was wearing. Turbeville had a different focus, therefore her photographs were darker, containing moodiness, and she used backgrounds that she felt would convey what she wanted to, which was a whole new realm of fashion photography. In 1977, Turbeville told the Times “I can’t deny that I design the background. A woman in my pictures doesn’t just sit there. In what kind of a mood would a woman be, wearing whatever? I go into a woman’s private world, where you never go.” In 2009, Women’s Wear Daily wrote that Turbeville was becoming famous for transforming fashion photography into an avant-garde art.” In 2011, Turbeville told The New Yorker “Fashion takes itself more seriously than I do. I’m not really a fashion photographer.”

Laird Borrelli- Persson wrote for Vogue “Deborah Turbeville’s photographs are as evocative as a lingering trace of fragrance. Not the clear, bright burst of summer floral, but something moody and mysterious that captures the essence of the decaying bloom and the light soft-focus haze of memory.”

In 1975 Turbeville shocked the fashion world by photographing five women “in a condemned New York bathhouse.” The photo was part of a shoot for Vogue, and became famous.

Deborah Turbeville began her journey into photography on her own in the 1960’s. Until 1966, she was completely self-taught. She had worked a sample model for designer Claire McCardell, following that she became a fashion editor at Mademoiselle and Harper’s Bazaar Magazines. Vogue quotes that ” as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazzar, she pushed the sittings she styled to be more than simply straight fashion pictures. (For example, despite her background as a model, she made efforts to cast decidedly non-model types.) After a while, the editor in Chief told Turbeville she was “just too much for this magazine,” and let her go.” The irony of that was that later on they were eager to have her photographs in their magazine!

During her work at Harper’s Bazaar she had met influential people and worked with photographer Richard Avedon. Soon after her departure from Harper’s Bazaar she showed her photographs to him. He was teaching some advanced photography classes with art director Marvin Israel at the time. He felt that her work was advanced and she joined their classes. During her studies with Avedon, he conveyed to her that he believed she would succeed as a photographer.

During the 1980’s Turbeville traveled to Europe numerous times to work on advertising campaigns for designers such as Valentino, Emanuel Ungaro and Comme des Garcon. Her work was frequently published by Italian Vogue, Casa Vogue, the New York Times Magazine and W Magazine. She had an apartment in New York and a home in Sao Miguel de Allende in Mexico. She also spent considerable time in St. Petersburg, Russia and Paris, France.

In 1982, Turbeville won an American Book Award for her series of photographs for “Unseen Versailles.” Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the editor of Doubleday at the time, had commissioned her to document the abandoned sections of the backrooms of Versailles. To add a bit of “autumnal aspect” to the settings Turbeville brought in bags of dead leaves and scattered them about the rooms. Turbeville created several other books of her photographs. Casa No Name is a book with photos of her home in the highlands of Mexico. Studio St. Petersburg was created due to her love of this city and her travels there in Russia.

Turbeville died in of lung cancer on October 25, 2013, in New York, at the age of 81.

Deborah Turbeville

Wabi-Sabi for Artist, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren pg. 54

2. New York Times, para.9. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/fashion/deborah-turbeville-fashion-photographer-dies-at-81.html?_r=0

Vintage Floral Vases and Head Vases

July 15, 2015

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These vases have been in my home for many, many years. The one with the lady with the full skirt, and basket of flowers, was in my family’s kitchen window when I was a teenager. She always looked so blissfully peaceful looking out over us, from above the kitchen sink. All of these vases are from the 1940’s or 1950’s, with the exception of the Dresden vase which maybe older.

The little square vase, with gold leaf painted trim and a different floral spray in each square’s side view is a Dresden vase. Most Dresden vases were destroyed during the bombing of Dresden, Germany in 1945. The floral spray is common of Meissen Dresden vases of the time. Mine says merely “H Dresden” on the bottom; therefore it is difficult to tell who made it for sure. I was given this vase many years ago by a friend of a friend. The elderly gentleman that gave it to me was moving into a home. His wife had died and he was alone, with no children to give their artistic treasures to. He asked me to take something and “enjoy” it. I have been joying it for over thirty years now and consider it one of my most valuable, treasured items. I attached a drawing and watercolor of this vase that I did years ago.

The hand vase I found around thirty years ago at some flea market. I am not sure if it is from the 1940’s or 1950’s. It is great for holding rings even if it doesn’t have a flower in the vase.

The head vase with the woman with the pearl necklace and earring I bought when I was in my twenties. I like how the woman’s face on the vase looks so calm and happy, plus her cheeks are so shiny! The vase is from the 1950’s. I had more vases like this before 1994, which is when my daughter and I moved to Colorado many years ago. Now she is there and I am here in Brooklyn, NY.

The lamb vase is from the 1940’s. It was my father’s when he was a small child. My grandmother told him that if he behaved well at the dental office, she would buy it for him afterwards. He was five at the time.

The picture of the lady walking her dog is not a vase, however it is in the same vein of antique, or vintage pieces. Years ago she had a parasol, which eventually fell apart so I discarded it. She is lovely, with her little dog.

When we moved out West way back then we sent most of our things via UPS, so we didn’t take much. Life gets so much more complicated and one ages, saves things and has children, or in my case a child. After that there are boxes of pictures, one collects more things as one gets older. Finally a few years ago I just stopped adding new houseware items to my collection. I just keep and treasure what I have, since there is really no more room for more at least at this point!

There are many vendors selling vintage and antique vases on Etsy or EBay. I found this one particular vendor who has a great collection of head vases at the moment. Her shop is: VintageDreamPlaza on Etsy. Gabriella Rossetti has been selling on Etsy since 2012 on Etsy. Here is a link to her site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageDreamPlaza?ref=shopsection_shophome_leftnav

I hope you enjoyed this post about vintage vases. I have some lovely pieces of other vintage houseware items I have collected through the years. Perhaps I can get to those in another post!

VintageDreamPlaza

Esther Williams, Vintage Swim Wear and Aquatic Fun

July 8, 2015

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Esther Williams was a competitive swimmer and actress in the 1940’s through the 1950’s. As a teenager, she enjoyed going to the local pool so much that she took a job working counting towels to earn the entry fee. The male lifeguards took to giving her lessons and taught her the butterfly, which at the time was a “male only” stroke. (1) In 1940, she was part of the Olympic team going to Tokyo when WWII broke out, which cancelled the competitions and her dreams of international fame.

At the time the sport news took a lot of pictures of female swimmers and Esther was beautiful, tall and very athletic. Billy Rose spotted her and brought her to the audition for his Aquacade. Johnny Weissmuller, and Olympic gold medal swimmer and Tarzan star chose her out of seventy five women who had auditioned. That was the beginning of Williams’ career in synchronized swimming.

The Aquacade was a choreographed musical, and cast in its spectacular show were hundreds of swimmers, with diving scenes, lots of singing and all kinds of special effects with water and props for water sports. Williams was the featured Aquabelle female star, along with the Aquadonis male lead, Johnny Weissmueller.

After that show was over, MGM made Williams an offer and she signed a contract to do films. She asked for two clauses in her contract. One was that she be given a pass to swim in The Beverly Hills Hotel pool, so that she could swim daily, and two that she “not appear on camera for nine months, to allow for acting, singing, dancing, and dictions lessons.” (2) Her film debut was with Mickey Rooney in 1942, in Andy Hardy’s Double life.

By 1944 MGM came up with new subgenre, aqua musicals. They built Williams a $250,000 swimming pool. “It had underwater windows, colored fountains and hydraulic lifts. (3) In 1944 Williams was cast as the leading actress with Red Skelton in Mr. Coed. Halfway through the filming, the name of the movie was changed to Bathing Beauty, which left Skelton as the supporting lead. The movie was the second most successful film of 1944, with Gone with the Wind in the lead. In the 1949 movie Neptune’s Daughter, Williams co-starred with Ricardo Montalban. Together they sang “Baby its Cold Outside.” The song won the Academy Award for the Best Original Song at the 22^nd Academy Award.” (4)

By the mid 1940’s, the MGM musicals were well known, and popular worldwide. Between the early 1940’s and the late 1950’s Esther was in 26 films, most of which were for MGM, except for the last few. She was a box office hit; once she spotted fourteen magazines on the same day at a newsstand with her photo on the cover. In 1952, Williams starred in Million Dollar Mermaid, which ended up becoming her nickname for the remainder of the time she was at MGM. In 1960, Williams was in an aqua-special, Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens. In 1966, she was “inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.” (5)

Williams was married four times. Her first husband, Leonard Kovner, she met while she was in college. They divorced in 1944. She had three children with her second husband, Ben Gage, whom she married in 1945. She was quoted as saying “There I was, diving off platforms with Ben in Neptune’s Daughter, going underwater in silver lame with Kim in Pagan Love Song and learning how to water ski with Susie in Easy to Love…and somehow I stayed a size 10 through it all.” (6) Her third husband, Fernando Lamas, preferred that she not appear in movies after their marriage. They remained together until his death in 1982. She later married Edward Bell in 1994.

Esther Williams also had a mind for business. If you like vintage inspired swimwear you could actually buy an Esther Williams designed swimsuit. She was quoted as saying “I put you in a suit that contains you and you will swim in it. I don’t want you in two Dixie cups and a fish line.”(7) One can buy Esther Williams paper dolls on her website, which is: http://esther-williams.com/

Her name was used as a namesake for a line of swimming pools and swimming pool accessories, along with Johnny Weissmueller, whom she began her career with. She became involved in teaching parents how to teach their children to swim, with her video line Swim, Baby, Swim. She also co-wrote, along with author Digby Diehl, her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid. She met her fourth husband, Edward Bell, when he called her to schedule her appearance “as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics (8).

Williams died at ninety one of natural causes. The Hollywood Walk of Fame bears a star at 1560 Vine Street, for her contribution to the film industry. She was an inspiration to many; and the whole sport of swimming became more popular as a recreation due to her love for the water.

When I was a child I used to love Esther Williams movies. I found the synchronized swimming scenes thrilling. As an adult I still enjoy them, plus I like the spunky, playful character that Esther often played in her movies. She often had the men in her life, in the movies, wondering where on earth they stood. Perhaps it was her quest to play hard to get. In Easy to Love she tried, and eventually succeeded in getting her manager to realize he was in love with her. Or in Neptune’s Daughter, perhaps she was possibly aiming to give herself time to figure out how she felt about the fella. She had originally thought that the Cuban soccer player, played by actor Richardo Montalban, was chasing her sister. Either way, she was charming, entertaining, stunning, and incredibly strong as a female athlete.

If you like vintage swim wear, Hawaiian shirts, dead stock and vintage sunglasses, and vintage wear I inserted a few pictures of summer-beach wear from David Owen’s Vintage Clothing shop. He has a lovely collection of vintage wear. The items are all further down the chain from mass produced items, as well as having a unique look.

The pictures of aquatic animals are from the New York Metro Transit System. They are at the Houston Street stop on the number 1 train, the downtown side. I took them awhile back and saved them for this post.

Whatever water sport you enjoy, I hope you enjoyed this post and are having a good time this summer. My favorite water sport here, in the city, is kayaking on the Hudson. It is free and sponsored by the Downtown Boathouse. I did go to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn recently for a swim and a stroll.