right around the corner..........I love this time of year...the hot is hottest...a run thru the sprinklers or a jump in the pool is the best! Soon enough, the weather will cool and then get cold, and the gray rainy days will come...and maybe some snow.
The apples are ripening, the tomatoes have produced and been sliced in thick slabs and plopped with mayonnaise or sprinkled with salt and savored.
I designed some fabric apples last fall, and gave them real branch and twig stems and wired leaves....I'll get going with that again next week..and the fabric pumpkins too. Those are fun to make...and I'm working on a tomato pattern too. Lucky me, that heirloom tomatoes come in lots of colors and patterns, so an orange stripe tomato will look normal now that folks are getting pretty used to them at the farmer's market.
This week I listed some fall dresses in harvest tones, lots of boots (so many already sold!) and I dug out the tweeds. Basic jackets and pleated skirts aren't boring when paired with vintage millinery flowers and sparkly rhinestone vintage pins from Granny.
(hey, that's me!)
I really had fun styling these pieces ....worn with leather sandals now, and fun Converse tennies, and later as the days get cooler, with patterned textured tights and leggings and boots.
I think we all know that Levi Strauss got the ol' American denim jeans thing going in about 1873...and it is more popular today than ever. There is a revival going on right now all over the globe in American fashion.......When you think America.......denim jeans, denim jackets and denim ...denim...denim...everything......is as American as the old Stars and Stripes waving in the sunshine.
If dyed well, it fades, and that fade is half the beauty of denim. The other half of the beauty of denim is the way it wears to show your wrinkles, your holes, scuffs, folds and tears...the way the threads are twill woven.....one of blue and one of white. Pre-ripped and bleached out...not my preference. I like to see what a real person does to a real pair of denim jeans or a jacket. That's authentic. All else is a fake.
Denim jackets are everywhere again, and quite nifty......Want real vintage? I have 3 right now in my etsy shop.
We know this one ...The ever-popular 2 pocket indigo 70505.
Everyone and their sister copies this classic Levi cowboy or trucker jacket.
And a classic Lee 101J.....more indigo denim.........indigo is a vegetable blue dye that is a gorgeous color though most contemporary denim is dyed with a chemical blue, but still... why...it will fade to beauty all time. Lee Industries began in 1889, designed this type of 2 pocket jacket ...the 101J in 1946 just after WWII ended.
And....a Rare denim jacket with pleated front and 101 branded snaps. Note the patch pockets, sans flaps and snaps....Cute ! This was sold by Montgomery Ward, but I don't know yet who made it....This style was a hold-over copy from the Levi's original design with pleats on the front. Just when this Montgomery Ward jacket was made, late 50s to early 60s, Levi's dropped the pleats forever.
Denim was always the fabric of worker's clothes. It meant...you worked for a living, brother. If a rich guy donned a pair, he was pretending to be Marie Antoinette....play-acting like they could get a blister.
In the 50s, the youth and the outlaws of yesteryear wore denim because they were counter-culture, Man. This In-Your-Face rejection of slacks and ties continued through the 60s...and the 70s...and then...Majick! That which was counter-culture was co-opted and adopted by the main culture and now everyone wears denim all the time. It's just casual.
Here's some pix of Hollywood stars! also so American...can you guess the jacket and the star? I bet you can!!
answer: John Wayne in Levi's
answer: Elvis in Levis, and Barbara Stanwyck in something Edith Head cooked up for the movie Roustabout.
answer: Paul Newman in a Lee Storm Rider (like a 101J) jacket
answer: Steve McQueen in a Lee 101J jacket also.
And just because this movie rules for many reasons.....Dennis Hopper and James Dean in Lee jeans....Rebel Without A Cause.
Trad style, heritage brands, Ivy League style, Preppy....it's coming back around.
I don't think this time the ascendancy of "rich boy" sartorialism has to do with the adulation of The Rich, like it was in the 80s...
And we know how trying to act like we was Rich has ended....Now we're all poor. But when I say...We, I mean, Not me. I don't act rich ...I abhor logo anything, unless that logo is on a pair of worker jeans, or a classic American style.
This time, like the first time when these clothes began, this quality, the traditional brands and the understated style, are meant to last a long time....They are dependable. And that is a conservative value everyone agrees on, I'm sure.
And ...trad style looks cool because it doesn't have to try hard ;-)
Like Cool Ray sunglasses...cool.
Since white people with money are funniest when they pretend to be down with the 'hood....I gift you this video.....
Finally tired of cheap Fast Fashion, perhaps Americans are ready for clothes that are classic, always look good, are made of quality fabrics that are sturdy, zippers and buttons that work well over the long haul.
The classics never go out of style.....So making them the basics of your wardrobe is an idea that is back in style! They're not boring...and most of their charm comes from the fabric that good quality clothes are made from....Excellent fabric looks better and is simply all-around a choice you'll never regret.......
And rotten clothes...bad fit, cheap lack of quality...trendy goofiness....Our closets tell the tales.
The first clothes I remember are jeans, and the second I remember is a sailor shirt in big red gingham. Then there was the black and white saddle shoes...the plaid skirts and Peter Pan blouses my mom bought for me as a little girl. I loved them, but I adorned them with lace tablecloths, gaudy rhinestone jewelry and velvet curtains. Why clothes are so important to me, I don't really know.....Maybe it's that I'm extremely sensitive to touch, sound, smell and feel...not to mention...mood.
The most important thing in my wardrobe always has been and probably always will be... is Levis. The best. And originated in San Francisco.
So, denim. The kids today are calling it Double Denim, which is incredibly stupid. Don't try to fancy me up..It's a Canadian Tuxedo, or a Texan Tuxedo if you're Canadian, G.W. Bush. It's kinda silly unless you are actually working. I love denim as an accent or base for any kind of ensemble.
Classic denim wrap skirt by that American prep/sportswear designer Calvin Klein......we all remember the Brooke Shields kiddie p0rn commercials......."Nothing comes between me and my Calvins" ....and of course...in Back To The Future, Marty's mom thinks Marty's name is Calvin Klein because it's written on his underwear.....And the Kermit the Frog parody of a Calvin Klein ad.
Coming to my etsy shop...very very soon, like tomorrow (If not already there.....)
Ralph Lauren linen skirt.....he deserves at least a whole post just for his design credo....always a personal fave...
Fun fab 80s Chestnut brown leather boots...back when even middle-brow stores carried a good quality leather boot....Don't even think about getting something like this at Payless or WalMart......though this pair has no brand stamp anymore, they are a really nice pair of boots.
Penny Loafers ! always nifty, and never worn with socks...Ha. just saying... These are by Bass, the style is Weejuns. Someone needs to stick a penny in those coin holders!!
I remember when I was handed 2 pennies as a kid and told to put them in my shoes....so..........
I put them inside my penny loafers where my feet went. The old folks got a good laugh at an earnest little kid that day! Bass is another late 1800's American company that was old East Coast...in the same n'hood as LLBean (the East Coast was a shoe makin' American powerhouse)...tho these are made somewhere...the quality is super and the leather is sooooo soft.
and JPPatches...well, you just gotta see this for yerself....
Off we toddled to Fern Hill in south Tacoma to see Mr Patches. JP lived at the town dump, Gertrude wore a dress tho a man (even the kids knew that!) and well, for Mark, the rest is history...
So the Fern Hill car show was sweet... a few cars, some vendors...and JP PATCHES !! we couldn't get too close....he has many many fans! But we did wanna see him...he's quite old and may not be with us much longer...and he meant a lot to Mark, and I have grown to love him...JP And Mark (ha ha) in the years of growing moss here in PNW. JP is a little hard to see...but he's next to the blue balloon.....just to the left of bald head man...
And again.........
Fern Hill is very cute.......Look there's Sonics Man...more of him later........
Mark, Tigger and a tiny little Berkeley car...
Tressie's Dream Car......Yes it's True ! I wish I drove a suicide door mid 60s Lincoln Continental.....
Hey, this car show was turning out to be pretty neat!
Sonics Man is real pissed off that Howard "Shithead" Schulz took the Sonics basketball team from Seattle to OklaFuckinHoma!
Sonics Man suggests we all boycott Starbucks to protest.....Sonics Man, consider it done! No M&T shall ever have a Starbucks beverage unless someone gives us one for free!
Look at this awesome old bus !!
I took a picture of this little girl because she was really rocking that hat ! and she wasn't dressed like a 'ho...She looks adorable!! Totally appropriate little girl clothes.....she's not a lame Vogue-reading bonehead...she's adorable and well dressed !!
And almost lastly, I took this picture of the Dreaded City Mangler approved Parking Meter...being loaded into a city car...I made the City crew laugh when I took a picture and asked them not to tell City Mangler that I was taking pictures to blog about this stupid meter thing...and say once again...Parking Meters in Tacoma is a Stupid Fucking Idea.
At Fern Hill elementary school is this darling art...It's Chicken Making Music with old locking hardware......What the heck does it mean?? I don't know, but I had a fun time walking thru the heavy chains, and playing with all the locks on the artwork........
Check it out. It's in Fern Hill at 90-something and Park Avenue in South Tacoma....Good luck finding it ...I always forget where it is and I've lived here for 30 years....It appears out of the mist as I'm just driving aimlessly around the n'hood....It appears by Magic just like Brigadoon.......but without Gene Kelly and tap dancing.....
