The Glam-ma Makeover

Apparently the “Glam-ma” (ie glamorous grandma) and the “glam-ma makeover” are well established trends that I somehow missed.  So much for keeping my finger on the pulse of popular culture.  There are teams of plastic surgeons ready to reverse all the visible signs of aging—like the hip shelf and menopot that most women get.  In fact, one surgeon in my neck of the woods has trademarked her bundle of procedures as the “GMommy Makeover.”  Here are the options—a butt lift, thigh restructuring, arm restructuring, a tummy tuck, a face lift, a brow lift, a neck lift, a lip lift, and more.  Some I’ve never heard of.  According to one plastic surgeon, body surgeries on women over 70 have gone up 30% recently, twice as fast as for women between 50-69.

If you don’t want to take to the knife, makeup experts have lined up to give advice on how to glam up with products.  British former model Lisa Elridge has several popular YouTube videos on how to do it.  For the woman above, she used 14 different products and seven separate tools.  I’m too lazy (or frightened?) to add up how much that must have cost.

All this is aimed at women with extra time and money on their hands.  One woman interviewed on ABC News admitted that in the past she might have invested in music lessons for her children.  Now that they are grown up, she can use her spare money on herself.

I’m not a grandma and might never be, so that alone might exempt me from the trend.  In the meantime, I’m trying to boost my “wrinkle positivity.”  In the words of gerontologist Lynn Yaeger, “Who says wrinkles are ugly and curves unattractive?  The multi-billion dollar skin care and weight loss industries. [And lets add plastic surgeons to the list.] You can’t make money off satisfaction, but shame and fear create markets that advertisers and marketers exploit.” Maybe we can just say no.

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The Simpsons—A Life in Fashion

Magazine advertisement, 1949

It’s too bad that the name “Simpsons” now brings cartoons to mind.  In mid century America, it denoted a power couple in the world of clothing—fashion designer Adele Simpson (1903-1995) and her husband, textile designer Wesley Simpson (1902-1975).  They briefly formed a company together in the 1940s and then went their separate ways. 

Wesley Simpson achieved fame with his artist-designed textiles, used by top American names in fashion.  The dress above was created by Adrian using a textile designed by Salvador Dali. 

Wesley Simpson’s work with top designers was widely advertised in American  magazines in the late 1940s.  The ad at the top shows that he also continued to collaborate with his famous wife.  The small print reads that Adele Simpson’s “charming dress for daylight dining” is made up “in a wonderful new Cotton Taffeta from the Wesley Simpson Custom Fabrics collection.”  I think I would be more inclined to wear it than the Adrian/Dali confection.  What about you?

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A Night at the Opera, 1960s

Found photo

Birds of a feather…  The two women on the right look remarkably similar, with their helmet hair, pearls, fur wraps, and stiff a-line evening gowns.  I’m just imagining that this is opening night at the opera, but it could be some other fancy event.  I used to own one of those tiny clutch bags, sent to me by an aunt who didn’t know me well.  I don’t think I ever used it.

The fur wraps captured my attention here.  Do they have a special name?  They are not quite a jacket but larger than a stole or scarf.  I’m drawn to their practicality, since they would stay on your shoulders and keep your hands free. 

Did women wear them on the street?  Or were they just for dress-up events?  Any ideas are welcome. 

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Book Review: Empresses of Seventh Avenue by Nancy MacDonell

When did the United States establish a foothold in global fashion?  Nancy MacDonell argues that it was during the Second World War, when the New York fashion industry was shut off from the influence of Paris.  By the time the war was over, a number of American designers had made a name for themselves in the US and began to achieve global recognition.  Claire McCardell is the main example of this new direction.  The book also shows the army of advocates needed to cement a new direction. She examines department store directors Marjorie Griswold and Dorothy Shaver; fashion journalists Virginia Pope and Lois Long; the publicist Eleanor Lambert; as well as magazine editor Diana Vreeland and her photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe.  Together they all created the “American Look,” casual sportswear which eventually took the world by storm.

I loved this book for its detailed examination of all the moving parts of the fashion industry, from a designer’s first choice of fabric to a dress’s arrival in the department store.  Although she chooses Claire McCardell as her main example, a careful reader can discover many other important figures in clothing design.  It is also a reminder that our fashion choices are mediated through many middlemen—or rather middlewomen—who filter what we see.  MacDonell documents a unique moment in American fashion history when the whole edifice of the New York fashion industry was dominated by women—the empresses of Seventh Avenue. 

Nonetheless, this book has a narrow focus that gives pride of place to the consequences of the Second World War.  Distinctive American design trends began long before then, as Rebecca Arnold’s book The American Look has shown.  Although MacDonell acknowledges this, she gives it little credit.  Moreover, American fashion did not originate in New York alone.  What about California?  Blue jeans came from there and West Coast women were wearing separates long before McCardell supposedly invented them.  A powerful argument could be made for the fact that America’s signature—sportswear—originated in California and not New York.

But don’t let my West Coast chauvinism stop you from reading this lively and informative book.  Just remember that there is more to the fashion world than New York and Paris.   

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Zelda Wynn Valdes, Designer to the Stars

Even though I read a lot of books on the history of American fashion, I often run across names I don’t know.  The recent excellent book Empresses of Seventh Avenue by Nancy MacDonnell (review to come soon) listed a famous Black designer who was new to me.  Zelda Wynn Valdes (1901-2001) had a storied career.  She learned to sew from family members, including a stint in her uncle’s tailoring shop in White Plains, New York.  After working her way up in a number of dressmaking establishments, in 1948 she and her sister opened up their own studio in Harlem.  As her success grew, she moved the store to Midtown Manhattan, naming it Chez Zelda.

Wynn Valdes quickly became the designer of choice for Black entertainers.  The photo above shows her fitting Eartha Kitt.  Other famous clients included Ella Fitzgerald, Dorothy Dandridge, and Marion Anderson.  Her clientele extended beyond the Black community, including Mae West and Gloria Vanderbilt.   Beginning in 1970, she started working with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and continued even after she closed her store. Best known for her skintight dresses, she is said to have had a hand in designing the Playboy Bunny outfit.  Read more about her career here and here.

There aren’t many photos of Wynn Valdes as an older woman, at least not pictures with a fixed date attached.  In the top photo, taken in 1952, she was about 51 years old. Her own outfit surprised me.  Unlike many designers depicted in their workplace, she is quite dressed up.  Those sky-high heels make me suspect that the session was posed. The second photo is undated, but apparently she liked tight fitting clothes for herself, too.

The New York Times published an obituary of Zelda Wynn Valdes in its “Overlooked” series of Black men and women who didn’t received the attention they deserved when they died.  It goes to show that we all have a lot to learn.

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Meeting of Minds, Clash of Styles–1969

This photo is by James Jowers (1939-2009), a photographer best known for his street scenes of New York City.   Many depict the Lower East Side of Manhattan, still a poor area in the late 1960s filled with unrenovated tenements.  The woman on the steps probably lived in the shabby building behind her.  However, the area was also home to a number of garment outlets and was a place to find nice clothing cheaply if you were willing to spend the time.  That might have been the goal of the woman on the left.

Their clothes speak volumes.  From her profile, the woman on the left is not so young.  She also wears a hat, a marker of the older set by the late sixties.  However, her clothes have something of a hippie vibe. Note the crochet trimmed sweater and the long necklaces, looking a little like love beads.  The other woman’s clothes make no nod to the fashions of the time.  The shirt waist dress could have been decades old.  Her sensible shoes with short socks reveal a woman interested in practicality over style. 

What did they find to talk about?  Were they neighbors discussing local affairs? Or was the woman on the steps scolding her companion for occupying a neighborhood resting spot? 

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A Short History of the Fur Scarf

The fur scarf, or boa, is an interesting object with its own style trajectory.   Most often it is made up of pieces of several animals linked together to look like a whole one…or two or three.  Furriers added artificial claws, along with an artificial head with a “jaw” that acted like a clamp.  The scarves had the advantage of using less fur than a coat or stole.  In addition, the jaw clamp meant that they could be arranged in different ways.  I wonder who first came up with this idea.

This 1920s stock photo of Governor Al Smith and his wife, Catherine, features a modest racoon scarf.  It was a budget option, but also a youthful choice in that decade of racoon coats.

In the fashion photo above from the early 1930s, it is obvious that the only thing better than one fur scarf was two.

By the forties, my research has turned up more pictures of fur scarves on older women than younger ones.  See the contrast between mother and daughter on the left.  The drawing on the right comes from a collection of clothing designs for the not-so-young.  Among other things, the word “slenderizing” is a clue.

In the following decade, fur scarves had definitely moved into the old lady category.  The woman on the right in the picture above is Edith Wilson, the wife of former President Wilson, having a chat with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.  Wilson had been wearing fur scarves for decades.

Stoles replaced scarves as the glamorous accessory of choice by the 1960s.

In that youth obsessed decade, fur scarves were a rare sight unless you were out to make a point. With a flair for the dramatic, actress Angela Landsberry proved that more could be more in this 1964 photo. Do you think she had discovered a trove of old fur scarves in a thrift store?

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A Vinegar Valentine for Valentine’s Day

Suffrage and Valentine’s Day, what a combination!  Given the length of her skirt, this Vinegar Valentine is from the early 1910s, when the issue of women’s suffrage was making its way through the states before national ratification.  Here’s the warning:  Be careful, men, of the advocate/Of woman’s rights in the single state./If you marry one,/Your trouble’s begun—/You’ll count for less than half your weight!

The image of the woman here was a standard part of  the anti-suffrage campaign.  She is old—note the wrinkles—has a big nose and wears clunky shoes.  She hardly looks like appealing marriage material.  And if a man were foolish enough to make the choice, he’d be “back to the background.”

I have never sent cards or gifts on Valentine’s Day, but I do use it as a good excuse to drink champagne!

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At the Train Station

Found photo from the collection of Todd Higgins

I know that people used to dress up to fly on airplanes, but I didn’t realize that the custom also applied to train travel. According to the smart people on the website Mid Century in Color, this photo was taken at the downtown Minneapolis station. The woman in yellow is being shown off for a long trip, eventually ending up in Norway. Although the background is gloomy, it must be Spring judging from her bright yellow outfit. Combined with her flowered hat, it looks like something she bought for an Easter Parade. Is Norway ready for her?

Our traveler’s friends are not nearly so colorful, although they are also quite well dressed. They wear hats, gloves, and jewelry. I even spy at least one pair of high heels–no dowdy shoes here. Although most of the hats fit close to the head, there is a wide variety of styles–boaters, berets, cloche, with a dish hat in the back. Even the little dog comes with headgear.

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Remembering Claire Shaeffer

It isn’t often that I get to meet someone who is a celebrity in my world. For me, it’s not a actor or author, but rather the sewing expert, Claire Shaeffer. This remarkable teacher, writer, and collector of couture died last week. Read an appreciative obituary here. Not only did I take two of her sewing workshops in Palm Springs, but I also got to interview her once in her beautiful Palm Springs home.

People came to Claire’s workshops from all around the world. In the two my sister and I attended, there were people from New Zealand, the UK, Canada, and Germany. I was lucky since I lived just an hour and a half away. Moreover, two of my aunts lived nearby. One time my mother also came, turning the educational trip into a mini family reunion.

The workshops introduced members to couture sewing techniques. The first one centered on methods used in Chanel’s signature cardigan jackets. The second focused on the designer Yves Saint Laurent. Claire also shared examples from her extensive collection, at times loosening the lining to show what was inside. For a slideshow on Chanel jackets, she even invited my mother and two aunts to enjoy her beautiful photos of examples from around the world.

Some experts hoard their hard earned knowledge. Claire was just the opposite. Everything she taught in her workshops she made available in her many books, DVDs, and magazine articles. Her Vogue patterns were lessons in themselves. Always tech savvy, in her eighties she even started a YouTube channel to share what she knew. Long before her death, she had arranged to have her couture collection sent to Syracuse University, a school with a strong program in fashion design. Her family has asked for donations to the school in lieu of flowers.

Rest in peace, Claire Shaeffer. It was an honor to know you.

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