Bunny Yeager

Years ago I dreamed of being a pin-up girl. I saw photos of Bettie Page, specifically those taken by Bunny Yeager, and was hooked.

These gorgeous photos of Bettie were taken by Bunny Yeager. Bettie is an inspiration to me, she was such a beautiful and fearless model. 

The wonderful photographer and pin-up model died Sunday at 85 years old. She had a knack for modeling as well. 

She made this daisy bikini. 

Bunny and Bettie

It's sad to see someone with so much talent, on both sides of the camera, go. The photos she took were beautiful, classy and sensuous. She was stunning as a model and was a classic beauty. I imagine being a female photographer in the 50s and 60s was a bit hard especially when sexuality was so repressed but thankfully she created lasting art so everyone, even people that weren't around in those decades, can enjoy it.

Are you a Bunny Yeager fan? Do you prefer her modeling work or her photography? 

Mullica Hill, New Jersey: An Antique Paradise

Yesterday I took a little day trip to Mullica Hill, New Jersey. For those of you that live in New Jersey or close to it you should take a day trip to Mullica Hill (just not on a Monday or Tuesday since most places are closed).

Jeremy and our friend Diane started off the day with lunch at the Blue Plate (http://www.blueplatenj.com/)

I was really happy we chose the Blue Plate to eat since there were lots of vegetarian options which is unfortunately rare for restaurants in southern New Jersey. I had the portobello ruben sandwich which was a nice treat since my mother is a ruben fiend and I was never able to have one but thanks to the Blue Plate I was finally able to taste a delectable ruben sandwich, which features coleslaw, russian dressing and pumpernickel bread, not the healthiest of choices but it was so good!

After lunch we went to the Old Mill Antique Mall(www.old-mill-antique-mall.com). As soon as I walked in I was overwhelmed with the hugeness of the shop, they have three floors of everything you could possibly imagine. I made a loud gasp out of excitement when I entered that amused Jeremy and Diane. If you are a depression glass collector than the Old Mill Antique Mall is the place for you, I've never seen so much depression glass in one place, especially the green glass which is my favorite.

There were also a lot of records to look through and there were so many good ones but I only bought this gem. 

Sorry about the awful backwards photobooth photo but I was in a hurry to listen to the album.

Mullica Hill, NJ is a lovely little town with a great main street full of antique shops so if you are an antique lover you must visit. Here are some more antique shops in the town. 

1)Kings Row Antiques Campus (https://www.facebook.com/KingsCourtAntiques/)  Only one of the shops was open yesterday but there was a lot of beautiful furniture and depression glass for sale. 

2)Retro Station (retrostationnj.com/) Tons of records, mid-century items and pop culture collectibles abound. 

3) Turners Treasures at the Warehouse (turnerstreasuresofmullicahill.com/) This shop is connected to a pizza place and it has two lovely floors filled with antiques and collectables including a huge selection of glassware. A worker on the ground floor and I had a lovely discussion about Bobby Darin for a good half hour. She saw him in concert and I'm very jealous. It's nice to meet people that share Bobby Darin love. 

It was warm yesterday and I was so excited to finally wear my late 60s romper that I bought from Glassboro Thrift Village (glassborothriftvillage.com) 

I purchased the white vinyl handbag from Twice Loved Treasures in Vineland, NJ (www.sjworks.org/view/group/1091)

I thought it was adorable and unfortunately it fits very little but I love how it looks. 

The owl necklace was passed down to me by my mother-in-law. It was Jeremy's grandmother's necklace.  I'm sad that I never got to meet his grandmother, he's told me that she was a fun and loving lady. The necklace is very special to me, I am honored to wear it. 

I love to wear my Dr. Scholls wooden exercise sandals in the summer. My Mom used to have a pair every summer when she was growing up and they are very sturdy shoes. My pair have lasted me for 10 years. 

Make sure you plan a visit to Mullica Hill, New Jersey if you are in the area. For those of you that don't live in the area, what are your favorite towns to shop for antiques? 

Movie Spotlight: Being There

Hopefully you all have movies that are important to you, that speak to your being or are like comfort food for you. I have many films like this and they tend to be "vintage" themselves or set in the past.

The first of these films that I want to share with all of you is "Being There" with Peter Sellers from 1979.  I'm kicking myself that I first saw this gem last year but I think I've made up for it by watching it millions of times (I'm not exaggerating that much) .

Peter Sellers spent most of the 1970s trying to get the novel  "Being There" made into a movie, Chance the Gardner was the role he wanted to play more than anything else. He said in a Rolling Stone interview ; “ …I just read the book every six months. I knew Chauncey Gardiner…”(The Strange World of Peter Sellers Glazer,Mitchell, Rolling Stone April 17, 1980).

From reading numerous biographies and interviews I really empathize with many of the thoughts and feelings Peter Sellers conveyed in interviews and the ones that came across in the biographies. He was a complex person whose personal life unfortunately sometimes gets a bad rap. 

Anyway, back to "Being There".  It's about Chance the Gardner, a man that is a complete blank slate, he mimics everything he sees on the television. He is forced out of the home that he's lived and gardened in since he was born and by chance is taken in by a wealthy family, able to appear on television and consult with the president. 

                                     

Since Chance is so fond of television there are a lot of clips of commercials, television shows and cartoons in "Being There". It's interesting to think about why they were put there. 

I don't want to give too many details away for those that haven't seen "Being There". If you have seen it and want to discuss it in the comments feel free to do so, I love a good film discussion.

Airbrushing over History

Photoshop has gotten a bad reputation recently, the program has been blamed for the post production manipulation of the female body. I'm not discounting the men here but the majority of protest comes from women that feel they are represented as plastic, photoshopped and ultimately unrealistic. All too often the same people that cite photoshop as the reason for the manipulation of the female form, praise the past as a time when women were "real"

To start, the term "real woman" is getting old, every woman is a real woman the last time I checked. Secondly, Photoshop debuted in 1990, airbrushing photos and manipulating the image of a person was practiced years before that. 

The dictator Stalin would airbrush enemies out of his photographs, so photo manipulation is nothing new and it definitely is used for something other than photographs of models. For this post though I'll just be focusing on the manipulation of the images of iconic stars of the past. 

Every single time people comment on photos of movie stars from the golden age of Hollywood there are always a group of people that wax nostalgic for the days when women could be "real" (they constantly use that word). I get frustrated with these people, if only they did a little bit of research, than they would know those women weren't born like that.

These glamour shots are generally what one thinks about when they hear "old Hollywood glamour" Both of the photos were taken by George Hurrell. He was under contract to MGM and then to Warner Brothers and his photos of stars, like the ones shown here of Veronica Lake (top) and Jean Harlow (bottom) have become synonymous with old Hollywood. 

Dramatic lighting with strong shadows can do a lot to hide any imperfections and chisel the face but there was still retouching, *gasp* even without photoshop. 

This is Joan Crawford and the photo was taken by George Hurrell and it's obviously been retouched.

From the 1920s until the 1960s Hollywood stars were subjected to the studio system. The stars were the property of the studio, if you were under contract to MGM that studio had to loan you out in order to work on a picture for another studio.

The MGM glamour factory is notorious for changing the appearance of their stars before they were presented before the public. The female stars were told to diet, fix their teeth, get plastic surgery, dye their hair, change their name and denounce their heritage.

Unlike today, these things weren't talked about much. Retouching and image manipulation were still as big as they are today but they weren't talked about as much. I'm not for or against retouching but I think there should be awareness that it is not just a recent problem. It's been around since the dawn of photography and it's not going anywhere. 

McCalls: July 1966

Last weekend I picked up the July 1966 issue of McCalls magazine and it has some great photos in it, including an Audrey Hepburn fashion spread.



This fashion editorial was called "Stars in Stripes" and it features celebrities in striped dresses. The dresses are smashing but the this issue came out in July, I can't imagine wearing any of these dresses in the stifling July heat.

This is Joey Heatherton and the dress was made by Sylvia de Gay for Robert Sloan

This is Elizabeth Ashley and the dress is by Gerald Pierce for Marberni. I adore the sleeves. 

Look how beautiful Ann-Margret looks in this dress from Don Simonelli. The back drop is super cool as well. 

This is Diahann Carroll in a dress by Mam'selle. I adore everything about this image, her dress and posing are just beautiful. 

This image makes me uncomfortable. Could you imagine wearing this in July? It's a great outfit but I think I would be reduced to a puddle of sweat in the summer heat. This is Joan Hackett in a dress by Mam'selle.

Natalie Wood in a dress by Crazy Horse. I love her styling!

Here are some photos for all the Audrey Hepburn fans. Here she is modeling Givenchy's designs for 1966. 

McCalls offered sewing patterns for all the outfits she modeled. If you are interested in sewing and vintage patterns you can search for them.

The yellow outfit is McCalls pattern 8348. The white ensemble is McCalls pattern 8336. The green dress is McCalls pattern 8340 and the red, white and blue ensemble with the hat is McCalls pattern 8346.

Old magazines are so much fun to look through, it's the closest you can get to going back in time. They're little print time capsules, you can learn a lot from looking at the ads and reading the articles so they're important to preserve and share.

Dating vintage.

This topic has been discussed to death in the vintage community but I feel the need to write yet another post about dating vintage. I've been trying to learn all I can about vintage clothing and since I mainly collect dresses those are going to be the examples in this post.

Some people think garments get the vintage seal of approval after 20 years and some people think 30. I'm going to stick with 30. The 1990s should not be considered vintage yet, I don't want to think I'm that old.

Being able to identify what decade a garment comes from is a good skill to have. I've gone into thrift stores, this usually only works in locally owned shops, where the seller is trying to pass off an 80s dress as authentic 40s and it's possible to negotiate a discount. Once I was in a store and the owner tried to sell me a cute polyester mini dress that screamed mid to late 60s, the owner was thoroughly convinced it was from the 50s. Sometimes mislabeling a garment seriously changes the price so it's essential for the vintage connoisseur to have a keen eye.

It's nice when you have a vintage piece that you know the history of. My Mommom gave me this 1950s gold dress 3 years ago and she told me that it was from the 50s and it was one of her favorites. Since I know when it's from I'll use that as an example.

Since there is no label one would assume that it was hand made but my Mommom did not make it. A label isn't the only clue you can use.

The zipper can tell you a lot. This dress has a metal zipper down the back. Metal zippers were phased out in the mid 60s. The sleeves are also an indicator, this dress has 3/4 sleeves which was a popular style in the 50s according to the Vintage Fashion Guild

From zippers we move to labels. Remember to look for the union label when looking for vintage. My favorite dress for the summer is this floral dress. When I went to look for the union label I noticed it was from Canada and I no nothing about Canadian union labels. So I checked The Vintage Fashion Guild again and the label I have was put in use in 1968

Remember to look everywhere for the union label. Modern clothes have all the tags in the same spot. Vintage garments may have tags in many different spots. This pink wool dress appeared to only have one label, but when I looked inside near the bottom of the dress I found the union label.

Fabric is another good clue for dating vintage. When you think 70s you think polyester, right? I have tons of vintage polyester, my closet is a fire hazard. This Bobbie Brooks dress dates from the late 60s to the very early 70s. It can't be from after 1971 since tags had to have garment care instructions from then on.

I hope this has been informative. I'm still learning how to be an expert when it comes to dating vintage clothing, I'm sorry there was only dresses in the post but that is the majority of my collection.  If anyone has anything to add or any corrections I'd love to hear them.

Vintage Surrealism

Last week I had the pleasure to work with Chris Crois Photography (https://www.facebook.com/crois6) the concept was surreal vintage. Chris, the photographer, is full of great ideas. Please visit and like his page to see more awesome photos. For those of you that have a Model Mayhem account visit his page, http://www.modelmayhem.com/3050171

He set up this fantastic set. That's my Mommom's rotary phone

Those are milk glass lamps. 

Yes, that is a real (dead) scorpion, I really love this shot, the gold paper reminds me of gold bars. 

I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of surrealism before writing this post so I consulted Wikipedia (of course). Like the Spanish Inquisition one of the key elements of surrealism is surprise. Surrealism
allowed artists to paint or photograph strange dream like images.

One of my favorite surrealist photographers other than Chris Crois Photography is Man Ray.

I love how she's posed. 

I love photographers that tell a story with their photos and have a surreal slant. Working with Chhris Crois Photography was a lot of fun, it it wasn't for this shoot I would have never gotten to play with a dehydrated scorpion. Chris also loves vintage clothing and antiques so we spent some time talking about our shared interest. A lot of his antique furniture can be seen in the photos, like the milk glass lamps. To see more photos from our shoot you can go to my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/obf0908)