It's Black and White.

Often, simple and spare is best.

 for a red letter day .....perhaps.......



black. white. it's all right.



handmade necklace: 




 ivory poet shirt: 






shiny shiny shiny shoes of leather:




 Black Spring O Lators , 9.5





Colorblock mini dress

 

60s summer shirt

 

vintage Zildjian tshirt:



black fleck tweed 50s jacket 



 



Cole Haan tassel loafers: 






50s preppy cotton shirt

 Here'a a few new things in the funkomavintage shop.......not black and white...but still....pretty nice!






more...


 


 








 


wow!!

 

Swingin' with Stripes and Plaid in Bright colors..

The 60s...started out like the 50s that they had just left....but soon...young men and women started to dress very spiffy....brighter colors... (no more man in the gray flannel suit)...wild prints...and Mod happened.



Bright yellow jacket, big check pattern pants, bright green pants in the background...Bright blue suede loafers. The gal in the big wicker pair with her foot on a hot pink pillow...Look at the stripe jumpsuit!
a natty black scarf knotted around dude's neck...


and then....a Japanese group on a Capitol album. 60s. Bright colors.


(pics from The Trad)

here's a few 60s vintage men's clothes at funkomavintage.

Mod 60s jacket,  amazing suit jacket made of light weight rustic textured wool mustard yellow  with bright blue skinny stripes.

button down shirt of bright blue plaid.

bright turquoise and green 60s western shirt.

Stewart plaid wool shirt.

60s Arrow green cotton shirt.

50s/60s Pirates in Jamaica yellow shirt.

60s pale yellow wool sweater.

Bright yellow 60s vintage shirt.

The Pansy told me so....

 the first late winter flowers are poking up and smiling.....so it's time to get out and get the peas planted.......right now,  the primroses, the earliest pansies and the first daffs and narcissus are poking up their green sword leaves ...to taunt us.
Time to quit dreaming....time to get those flabby muscles in gear, girl. Garden 2013 is calling!!

Some good stuff to wear for the last few weeks of winter....

30s shadow plaid shirt, with a striped vintage thermal underneath....

The Garden year begins in February...most of the vegetable seeds have been bought...and time to start them inside to put outside in May or so...

Heavy cotton plaid shirt....

A Ragg marled wool henley sweater....

and hey Captain....yeah you....Captain Bubbles!!  Vintage OshKosh work jacket in blue denim, blue corduroy collar and lined in red quilted nylon.

A couple pairs of vintage made in USA Levis....

Latte Harris Tweed herringbone jacket.....I love that smarty pants touch of a flip of a vintage purple and gold silk scarf....

Love a great pair of leather loafers..... funkomavintage vintage shoes here....I only pick shoes that are in great condition...

It ain't a Cowichan, hipster.

 Words matter. what you call something matters. Otherwise, you will enter The Twilight Zone, and live in an Orwell or Huxley dystopian novel.
If you want credibility as a seller of vintage, then you have to know what you are selling...or at the very least, not purposely misrepresent an item. Just because Hannah Hipster in LA calls her chunky sweater a Cowichan, doesn't make it so...unless Hannah can prooove it.
War is not Peace. And a Mary Maxim sweater is not a Cowichan. And never will be......A Cowichan is a special type of sweater, using a certain kind of wool, and knit by a member of the Cowichan band. Some Cowichans might use a Mary Maxim pattern....but if it ain't done by a Cowichan, it ain't a Cowichan!

 

So, I love Mary Maxim graphical sweaters...they always tell a story...and they are hand knit. I can't knit, so I admire those who do. I can't walk a tightrope, so I admire those who do.........You get my drift.

Mary Maxim produced charts for knitters to follow while knitting...these became very popular in the 50s and 60s.They are not Cowichan sweaters which are made by members of First Nation tribes... the Cowichan band of Coast Salish. 

When you misidentify a bulky patterned sweater as a Cowichan, without provenance or  proof, or an attached label, then you are wrong, and showing disrespect to a Nation.
Here's what wikipedia has to say............but you can find out more truth of  Cowichan heritage by a simple online search.
"Most knitters collect designs, some of which are passed on through families and friends. Some families have proprietary designs, although this is relatively rare Designs are incorporated only for their artistic appeal; there is no meaning or implication to them.The popularity of Indian-patterned sweaters prompted the Mary Maxim Company, then headquartered in Sifton, Manitoba, to produce graphed commercial patterns, beginning in the 1940s.Ironically, the knitters soon began to collect and use these charts themselves. They continue to retain favourite designs and to make modifications of them. There are, for example, many variations on the eagle theme. Knitters will also create custom patterns, often with no traditional associations. Despite the diversity of patterns, however, experienced knitters and dealers can often identify the maker of a sweater through the particularqualities of design and knitting style that form a kind of personal signature.^"


There are also Brown Buffalo Canadian sweaters...but back to Mary Maxim...
Welcome to Mary Maxim…
...the largest mail order merchandiser of exclusive needlework and craft kits in North America now offering secure internet ordering on the world wide web. Mary Maxim began with hand knit designs in the early 1950s. Influenced by the beautiful wildlife in North America, Mary Maxim designed bulky outdoor zippered jackets to knit using the first easy-to-follow graph-style charts created. 

Here is a real Cowichan....from vintage clothing seller FastEddiesRetroRags, with
the original "Genuine Cowichan Indian Knit" label-




 Here's a Mary Maxim pattern from vintage seller, AlwaysMoreRoom

 



and another.....Mary Maxim from vintage seller, TheJavaShop

 




 LOOOOOONg before the World started in with the UGLY sweater fad of recent years....I have had a love/hate with sweaters. OH yes. When I lived in California I didn't spend much time thinking about sweaters....but in Washington...I wear sweaters all 12 months of the year!!

I hate sweaters.....I love sweaters.........
I hate them because 99.99999% of them are ugly. Like face-thru-a-windshield ugly.
I love them because they can be sexy and have rhinestones.

I look at racks and boxes of sweaters and I think:"I can't believe someone has a job designing this crap."

Therefore, I buy really ugly and really weird sweaters and cut them up or shrink them to make other things from them. It's transformative. It's like Sweater Karma where you go Up the levels of enlightenment....I am a goddess....I control Sweater Lives.

Favorite Label Friday January 25, 2013

Oh yes. I do. I do buy things just to have that label. Not a fancy-schmancy label...tho, I don't hold it against a label or a thing if some nose-in-the-air has their name on something....
I love this one!
Truth and Soul.

Sooooo 70s. Peace. Love. Truth. Soul. Big sun and the Moon and the Stars. Look at that font...bubbly and fun. In between listening to The Carpenters and Sly and the Family Stone, us flower children and hippies were busy saving the world and making it better for all of the peoples. We got sold out by Ronald Reagan and the Republicans for the last 30 or so years...but Good Times, Equal Rights and saving the planet for our survival is now Back in style, Back in the knick of Time.

And the sweater is so fantastic! Styled like it's 30s, but made in the 70s in that neato blend known as Space Dye of the time, or simply, heathered, or multicolors.....
this one blends rust and green yarns in this Purl stitch  turtleneck, with 30s style deep ribbed cuffs and waistband.

Here's another 70s style...this is from the "FUN" 70s...party, disco, and slinky sexy dresses. This gathered ruched number recalls the glam gowns of the 30s also. Yup, the 70s was the 30s and 40s done all over again...with a groovy twist, in modern fibers for easy care.

Hey look.......Easy Street Fashions!
Getting yourself to Easy Street was a real big deal in the 30s and the 40s as you can imagine...The Depression, Prohibition, and the threat of looming war....and then...war. Dreams delayed, and soldiers fighting overseas.

The vintage 70s long empire dress with wide straps....and a deep neckline, has a sexy gathered bodice and is reminiscent of the 40s glam gowns.
So very....1970s Halston and the Disco.

The 70s colors repeated the earthy colors of the 30s too.....brown, moss green, shades of orange......rust, peach, pumpkin and earth tones of tan, khaki and caramel....

These 2 skirts ....both in earthy autumn tones, are from the same company, but the labels changed with the times...starting out more traditional, with a very charming logo...then later, it got more whimsical with a swirly font..... I find this interesting because, Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, in a conservative locale.... and the older label, here, reflects the timeless classic style, with is simple font and spare yet detailed logo of high rise buildings with their high rise windows!

this wool skirt is charming with perma pleats...The wool blend plaid is a rich blend of coffee brown, rust, tan, camel and pumpkin. Shaded ombre rainbow plaid...not boring!


But later on in the 70s, teals, blues and dark browns came into style...and the label changed....Simple yet fun...and still traditional, and also cheaper to make, with much less detail than the earlier 70s Copley Square Ltd label.

Another change....the earlier 70s skirt has a red, white and blue UNION label, while the late 70s skirt doesn't. As Unions came under attack, and US jobs moved overseas, Americans lost good benefits, good wages, and still kept on producing excellent quality goods as much as they were allowed to by the bean counters and CEOs.

A classic with its charming perma pleats...The wool blend plaid is a rich blend of coffee brown, rust, tan, camel and dark teal.


Later 70s clothes are often darker colors and jewel tones....turquoise, teal, purple, burgundy, berry, and ruby.
Here's a delicious purple velvet blazer....The label is College Town, a venerable Massachusetts label that started making college girl clothes in the 50s when post-war "girls" started entering college in big numbers.

I see a logo with Hearts and Arrows....follow your heart...follow your dreams!