Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dating clothing and Zips

Posted in Fashion history, Uncategorized by

It’s rare that I’ll just use this blog to link to another blog post, BUT I wrote this piece for Queens of Vintage (linked below) that I think a lot of my readers here might be interested in reading.

Dating Vintage clothing through zips.

http://www.queensofvintage.com/how-to-date-vintage-clothing-by-looking-at-zips/

 
http://www.queensofvintage.com/how-to-date-vintage-clothing-by-looking-at-zips/

If you have any further questions do ask away! : )

Horrockses and Margaret Meades

Posted in Fashion history, Horrockses, Uncategorized by

A few weeks ago I received a rather exciting email regarding Horrockses, and I suppose this blog posts as both a plea for anyone who owns/ has owned certain dresses and also providing some more information on the brand.

Horrockses during the 40s and 50s employed a large number of different designers to create their printed textiles, some such as Eduardo Paolozzi created only a few desings, whilst others, such as Pat Albeck and Graham Sutherland created huge numbers of designs for the company. Some designers, Albeck is a great example, have a very distinctive illustrative style which can be quickly recognised. Although others output and style was more varied. I know that some of the print designers worked on commissions for the fashion designers at the company (a lobster print created for John Tullis by Pat Albeck is a particular favourite of mine).

A typically Albeck design.

Although I have come across a large number of print designers for Horrockses  a chance search on twitter a few weeks ago turned up researchers gold.

One of the most special Horrockses I have is one printed with “Elizabeth Regina 1953”. Tht tweet related to this very print. The print was designed by Margaret Meades who worked freelance for Horrockses. Her designs weere mostly used in the early years of Horrockses fashions (late forties early fifties). 

Margaret trained at  Manchester College of Art where on graduating she continued to lecture for many years. Margaret was also a member of the Society of Industrial Artists.




Here are a few more of Margaret’s designs which were kindly sent to me by her daughter. It would be great if anyone has the original dresses, so that they can be compared to her designs.

The print above has to be my favourite by Meades, and is also very familiar, I feel sure I have seen this one before!


If you would like to find out more about Margaret Meades do visit the website

http://highlandpaintingandprints.co.uk/index.html

Also! If you have orignal dresses that feature any of the prints i have shown please do send me pics.

liztregenza@hotmail.com

A quick note: All of these designs were sold to Horrockses, but they were not necessarily produced. As I explained in my post for Unmaking things Horrockses always overpurchased on textile designs to retain their design prestige.

You can read my post on Horrockses and marketing here

Thoughts on collecting

Posted in Uncategorized by

My blog post today is on a topic which is particularly close to my heart, and has popped up a few times in recent weeks. That of collecting.
Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders on the chaos of memories. 
Walter Benjamin

I am, undeniably a collector. Now, my collecting habits focus primarily around collecting vintage clothing, but over the years I have collected many things. I think it probably started around aged 6 for me with Spice Girls memorabilia (I may have collected other things first, but this is the first thing I have a distinct memory of collecting), after this I collected things such as barbies, teeny weeny families, beanie babies, flower fairies, Swarovski crystal ornaments, bus tickets (yes…honestly), buttons, gig tickets, pocket ashtrays (strange as I’m no a smoker, but was briefly obsessed with), butterfly wing compacts, mid century shot glasses and of course vintage clothing.
Collecting is closely tied to the personal perception of “self” and how one would like oneself to be viewed. The following quotation exemplifies this and comes from the piece that gave me the get-up-and-go to get writing on this topic again;
“The histories of collections share a life story with their owner. Each object, in a group and as a singular entity, becomes a physical repository for memory, time and place. “(1)
I have a very bad memory (owing in part to dyspraxia/dyslexia) and find that being able to visualise things helps me to remember them. Therefore by collecting objects relating to particular events I find it easier to remember what happened. The collected items takes on a new meaning therefore becoming a physical living representation of an event.

 

The black dress at one of my friends 21st birthday parties in 2011
This black dress is probably the best example. I call this my “dress of memories”. Purchased in Brighton in 2008 this dress dates to 1960/61 and was worn by the original owner to her engagement party. After I purchased it I have worn it on a number of occasions. The night I met my first (ish) boyfriend, my Grandfathers funeral, a wedding, two 21st birthday parties, a halloween party and on the exhibition poster for Little Black Dress at Portsmouth city museum (before the dress featured in the exhibition for six months). Not only is this dress caught up with my own memories therefore, but that of the previous owner too, and quite possibly the memories of others…especially considering it was on public display for six months.

The black dress at my friends sisters 21st birthday party in 2008

 

 Wearing the black dress on the exhibition poster for LBD in 2010

 

The black dress in 2012
When you begin to think more about your collection you start to ask yourself why did I collect things like this? The answers you provide for yourself often have layered meanings. I know for me, this is particularly true. Objects come to represent people or memories, they become talking points, valued for both their sentimental and/or monetary value.
Collecting can be a dangerous game, of which I am only too aware. Collecting beautiful objects can act as a defense mechanism. As a dear friend of mine once said, “only people can love you, clothes can’t.” Filling your life with objects when you feel lonely yourself, will only ever act as a temporary substitution. I know I’ve done this before, and I think to some extent this is the curse of being an only child, loneliness led to a necessity to fill my life with something other than people, hence why I collected thing that in a lot of respects had humanistic characteristics (dolls, soft toys, ornaments etc.). This is possibly my “emotive” reason for collecting. But for others this emotive spur can be quite different. I know of people who have lost everything through fire (or going further back) through war damage, and this led them to hoard and collect items, due to their memory of having nothing/ loosing everything.
Collecting though does not necessarily have to be a physical pursuit. It can be a mental one too.  As I like to think of it,  collecting knowledge. This is how I view the academic process, and it acts as a motivating factor in encouraging me to continue studying and learning.
 One of my real passions in life is the study of dress collections, and both why and how people have collected dress, in relation to the museum and private collections.
How do collections of dress that were once worn alter in their meaning once they enter the museum?
What made museums acquire fashionable dress?
Before it became fashionable to wear vintage clothing for what reasons where people buying it?
How can those outside museums display/ use their fashion collections?
In the past did people wear collect historical dress with a knowing connoisseurship, or did they simply treat it as “old clothes”?
This (as you might be able to tell) is the beginning of a series of blog posts focusing on aspects of collecting fashion. I don’t think I could really do this topic justice in 1000 words. So coming up over the next few weeks will be posts on some of the most interesting and enigmatic collectors of dress. From private dress collections to insights into dress collected by museums.
There will be posts to come about the Messel family, Talbot Hughes, Doris Langley Moore, Cecil Willet Cunnington, Roger Burton and a few of my dear friends too ; )

If you want to read more about the notions of collecting I must recommend Susan Pearce who has written a whole host of books on the subject, and is, quite frankly, the authority on collecting.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/On-Collecting-Investigation-European-Tradition/dp/0415075610/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361104196&sr=8-2

(1) Lauren Fried, Collecting things. 2013. Accessed via: http://unmakingthings.rca.ac.uk/2013/collecting-things/