Random Vintage Fact of the Day!

Random Vintage Fact of the Day!

While researching different tie styles I stumbled upon a fact that now makes one of my childhood ditties make so much more sense!

Yankee Doodle
"Yankee Doodle went to town a riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni!"

All this time I was envisioning the feather in his cap turning into a macaroni noodle... but what it actually means is this: A macaroni was a member of a group of young Englishmen who returned from Europe and brought with them new ideas about fashion from Italy.



Now pasta isn't completely out of the story - the macaronis did get their name from the noodle that was popular in Italy, but very new to the English at that time.

In mid-18th century these gentlemen were thought of as outlandish, effeminate and to be exceeding the boundaries of fashion, they were actually a precursor to the English Dandy, who took back men's fashion with more masculinity than the Macaroni. 




These gents were responsible for bringing back the cravat in the late 18th century, which lead to our modern necktie. 

Who knew!?!



Full lyrics to Yankee Doodle

"Kids Version Yankee Doodle"

Yankee Doodle went to town

A-riding on a pony,

Stuck a feather in his cap

And called it macaroni'.

Chorus:

Yankee Doodle keep it up,

Yankee Doodle dandy,

Mind the music and the step,

And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp,

Along with Captain Gooding,

And there we saw the men and boys

As thick as hasty pudding.

Chorus

There was Captain Washington,

Upon a slapping stallion,

Giving orders to his men-

I guess there were a million.

Chorus

Mood Board - Mad Men Style - For the Guys

I love a man in sharp vintage pieces! This is my ode to the Mad Men out there. Which piece would you or your man look good in? It's so hard to pick a favorite!

Spring 2012 Sneak Peeks - Vintage Jewelry, Men's and Women's Fashions

I've been a busy bee this past weekend - cleaning vintage pieces, inventorying them and taking photos to prep for online sales. Take a sneak peek at what's coming to the shop and to shows with me this spring!!

If you're interested in any of these items before they hit the shop online shop floor (Etsy) just leave me a comment with your email address and the item you like. I'll send you costs and instructions for purchasing the item!

J.C. Petersen Co. - Vintage Mensware - A History

I love vintage fashion and I think that coming across beautiful, unique pieces that were actually created in the Midwest is quite the treat! I'm lucky to work in downtown St. Louis on Washington Ave, which was once the thriving hub of the garment district. You can still seen the fade worn painted signs on the sides of buildings touting shoe companies, clothiers and hat manufactures as you drive toward my office building, heading East. It brings a sense of nostalgia to my every day and always makes me curious when I locate a piece that was made here in St. Louis if it was perhaps sewn just up the street or maybe even in the very building where I work!

As I find pieces I always try to do a little bit of research on them before I post them online or put them out for sale at events, as I think knowing the item or garment's history is part of loving the piece. One of the coolest pieces I pulled while at Donnaland's warehouse was a men's sports coat. I grabbed it first because the pattern excited me and secondly, because of the stunning condition it seemed to be in. Yes, it was wrinkly and smelly, but all the buttons were there, the seems intact, the lining perfect and the shape had potential!

After taking it home, cleaning it and getting it back into form I started doing research on the maker - J.C. Petersen Co. Clothier out of Boone, IA. The first thing I thought was "Really, they had high end mensware designers in Boone?!?" I know Boone, IA from my day job. It's where I spent every other birthday for 6 years while the city hosted The Farm Progress Show - one of the largest farm trade shows and events in the U.S. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the most  unique piece, with the best print, I had pulled was designed and manufactured in Boone.

There's not a lot of information out there on the company, but I was able to scrounge up a bio on the man who created the company. JC Petersen was born in Germany in 1868. He's a classic example of the huge immigration movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the age of 16 he boarded a boat in Hamburg and set off for New York. Once he arrived in the U.S. he headed West to make his destiny and ended up in Iowa. Petersen started out as a farmer. He worked and went to school in Iowa in order to learn English and more about the America. He's first recorded as a resident of Boone in 1893, where he became a clerk at a local clothing store. He worked for a number of years in the shop, putting aside his earnings in order to one day strike out on his own.

Petersen put that dream into motion in 1897 when he started Petersen & Samson. Unfortunately Samson died rather young, leaving Petersen running the business on his own. In 1902 he shortened the business name to just JC Petersen Co and hired new business partners. Together they launched a large department store that specialized in men's clothing and furnishings.The business remained thriving until the 1950s roughly. The family still has some of the mensware pieces from the shop and JC's great-great-grandson sells vintage mensware as The Houndstooth Kid!

I believe the sports coat I have to be from about the 1920s based on the tag and pattern. I hope to have it up on Etsy soon, but for now, it's a bit of history for you!

Vintage Clothing Picking - The Cleaning Process

The "Before" Picture

Cleaning vintage clothing is a much debated topic. I recently participated in a discussion among other vintage lovers and sellers about the best way to clean vintage items and the tips and tricks they use. After getting my large collection of clothing from the Donnaland warehouse I knew I needed to really clean these pieces. They were in storage for more than 20 years, they were dirty, grimy and smelly... I debated going to a dry cleaner, but figured that would up my costs significantly for the number of pieces I had and since I'm still growing my market base, it wasn't a cost I was comfortable passing along. So I asked around and got some advice and here is my tale! I went this route - but I recommend  you test items yourself and create a process that works well for you.

The Dirty Bath Water Soak Process

Step 1 - Pre-Soak
Many of the items I bought had pretty heavy dirt, so I purposely decided to do a presoak on them. I filled a bathtub with hot water and OxiClean and submerged a large number of items in the tub.

First lesson - Test bright colors for bleeding! The first item I put in the tub was a bright red vintage full-length coat. I just so happened to put several other coats on top of it as I was filling the tub and to my horror - the water started to turn blood red! I quickly removed the leaking culprit, drained the tub, rinsed all the other coats until no more pink came out and then refilled the tub. Same experience two tubs later with a purple jumpsuit, which got a private soaking in the sink.

The "After" Photos

Second lesson - Only soak/wash lingerie with other lingerie. The only color leaking piece I missed was a brown dress with flowers and it was less of a leak and more of a transfer. After finishing up the wash I discovered that several of the pretty slips I had put in the tub had flowers imprinted on them, so I sadly lost those. The rest of the slips, bras, camis, nighties and bustiers all got their own special bath.

Step 2 - Delicate Wash
After soaking in the tub for about an hour or two, I drained the tub, turned on the shower and rinsed all the clothes for about 5-10 minutes. Then I transferred it all to a bin and took it down to the washer. Now, I have a new washer with lots of fancy settings, I would have hesitated to do this in my old washer, just an FYI. My new washer does not have an agitator, so I felt safe to put the items in on delicate, slow spin and with an extra rinse cycle. I saw no damage from the washing and the clothes all smelled tons better. I used regular detergent with stain removal and color safe features and Clorox2 with color shield, as several of the pieces had some staining.

After photo women's coat, blouse and skirt.

After photo - clothes in action!

Step 3 - Delicate, Low-Heat Dry
I put all of the items in the dryer for at least a cycle. This allowed much of the wrinkles to come out and softened fabrics, that hadn't be in a good environment for over 20 years, into wearable clothing. I did however remove the coats and men's sports jackets after one cycle, even though they were still a little damp. I didn't want them to shrink or damage the lining, so I let them air dry for two days in order to make sure they kept their shape.

It's a lot of work, but I think the end results speak for themselves!

Vintage Clothing Picking - An Experience!

For as long as I can remember liking vintage things in the St. Louis region, I have continuously interacted with, in one shape or another, Donna Knott from Donnaland Vintage Variety. It started when I found her shop in University City, next to The Pageant (the shop is no longer there). I bought one of my favorite little purses that was made out of vintage pulp fiction novel covers and mesh - super cool! Then I discovered that Donna put on estate sales. I went to two before I started selling vintage myself and bought gorgeous costume jewelry pieces for me. Then I got into selling vintage and I started going to more sales, where I picked up beautiful hats, a few great coats and some wonderful dead stock jewelry.

At one of these sales I mentioned wishing I had gotten there earlier for a chance to get more vintage clothing and Donna said six epic words, "You should come to my warehouse." This was the first I've heard of the warehouse and instantly my vintage picking brain started to fixate on the idea. A chance to go into Donna's warehouse?!?!?

Well a few months went by and I figured it was just an off-hand remark, because I hadn't heard back from her after leaving my card. Then, as typical in St. Louis, a "it's a small world" incident occurred. At one of my basement sales in December I met a woman named Kim who does resale and vintage who really thought I should get to know a lady named Janet. Janet also sells a lot of vintage clothing and just so happens to be in one of my teams on Etsy. I looked her up on Etsy and found her linking an invitation to go to the Donnaland warehouse of all things! It turns out, Janet is Donna's sister! I introduced myself via Etsy, sent Donna an email and the rest is history. On one of the first days she's made her warehouse open to the public - I had an appointment!

I spent 3 1/2 hours digging through industrial sized boxes of vintage clothes. Donna purchased over 155 bales, yes bales!, of vintage clothing, each weighing around 1,000 lbs. As she and her team breaks them apart and sorts them they get put into general category boxes and you have to dig through them to find your pieces. There's a fair amount of stained, damage pieces, but there are also loads of treasures! I  ended up with 34 pieces, spending $200 on dresses, women and men's coats, men's sports coats and shirts, and women's skirts. I didn't even make it through five whole boxes... Nor did I manage to get to women's blouses... So I think that just means another trip is necessary once I acquire some more seed monies! 

 Just check out the photos! Now for the hard part, soaking, washing and pressing...
  

A Little Something for the Guys

I don't often pick up too many items specifically for the guys - but I was asked by a friend if I could keep a look out for a few items and my cute boy was willing to model a couple of the hats that actually fit his rather large noggin (grins).

Here's what I found:

The Fedora:

A little history lesson - The term fedora was in use as early as 1891, but it wasn't a men's hat, but a women's fashion statement!

The 20th century version that we all know and love came into use in about 1919 as a men's middle-class clothing accessory. Its popularity soared, and eventually it eclipsed the similar-looking Homburg by the 1920s and really hit a peak in the 1950s when gangster movies became popular and movie stars brought the fashion new life.

The 1960s saw an end to the trend of men wearing fedoras when the style became more long hair, free-movement and casual.

It wasn't until the 1980s when pop stars like Michael Jackson came along that the fedora was made popular again.

Now fedoras are hip again, especially vintage throwbacks like the one C is sporting!

The next men's hat style I focused on was the flat cap.

The Flat Cap:

 This particular hat style can be traced back to the 14th century in Northern England, parts of Southern Italy, and in Scotland and Ireland. When Irish and English immigrants came to the United States, they brought the flat cap with them. This style of cap is also referred to in some parts of the UK as a cheesecutter cap because of its wedge shape, not too unlike our cheeseheads up north!

Flat caps tend to be made of wool, which started as an Act of Parliament in 1571 to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade. The act decreed that on Sundays and holidays, all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and persons of degree, were to wear caps of wool. The Bill was not repealed until 1597, though by this time, the flat cap had become firmly entrenched in English psyche as a recognized mark of a non-noble subject.

 Flat caps were almost universally worn in the 19th century by working class men throughout Britain and Ireland, and versions in finer cloth were also considered to be suitable casual countryside wear for upper-class English men (hence the contemporary alternative name golf cap). Flat caps were worn by fashionable young men in the 1920s.

Oddly enough the hat style has stayed popular due to Irish and Scottish decedents in cities like Boston and New York, bringing the style a whole new life!

I'll be posting these hats to my Etsy shop soon - wouldn't your guy look fine in one of these!!