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We Goofed: Vera & Vera

  • While we've only heard from one reader who spotted our Vera Maxwell mistake in Alligators... we can't believe we made such a dumb mistake and we want to correct it. We confused two designers, both named Vera, and the woman we wanted to identify in our book is Vera Neumann (see page 182 in the hardback edition). Vera Maxwell was also a design legend, with a career spanning fifty years, but it is Neumann whose screen prints appeared on everything from dresses to napkins and tablecloths.

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« A Few Delicious Words About Vintage... | Main | Vintage Stitchery...and More »

More Readers' Vintage Adventures: The Hot Pink $1 Coat

Pink_lilli_ann_coatAs soon as we saw this photo, we knew we had to share the story about this coat's "rescue" by one of our favorite correspondents.

We first met Martha, who lives just north of San Francisco, at a book signing last summer. The event was memorable for the attentive audience and the setting: outdoors among towering redwoods.

Martha claims that Alligators, Old Mink & New Money and our website have helped her become a more savvy vintage observer. We love the compliment, but since this creative  woman makes her own stationery from wonderful vintage photographs, we're not sure she needed much help or inspiration.

Which brings us to this coat: A few weekends ago, Martha was digging for bargains at an annual rummage sale at a church in the very upscale community of Ross. By the time Martha got to St. John's Episcopal Church the organizers were anxious to move merchandise and the pricing was simple: a $1 a bag for everything you could fit in a bag.

As Martha notes, this wool knit coat, with a pink taffeta-like lining and a label reading Lilli Ann Paris San Francisco, "was the only item I could fit in the bag."  Ohhh, what an item.

Thanks for sharing, Martha. And Melissa will be in touch about next summer's St. John's sale.

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Comments

JoEllen

I was intrigued by the article about the pink coat by Lilli Ann/Paris San Francisco, because i have a vintage jacket by the same designer. It is black wook, and fitted the way jackets were done in the 30-40's. It also has a graceful and generous collar trimed i think by mink.

It is lined and lovely. I am not sure what to do with it.
-joEllen

Posted by: JoEllen | June 04, 2008 at 03:25 AM

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All About Hooti Couture...

  • Winter/Spring 2013 Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11-8.

    How the heck do you get to Brooklyn? It's easy. You'll find Hooti at:

    321 Flatbush Avenue (at Seventh Avenue)

    Closest neighborhoods: Park Slope, Prospect Heights

    Best subway lines: B & Q trains (exit at Seventh Avenue and you'll find Hooti across the street)

    Phone: 718-857-1977

Find Your Way to Hooti!

What Is Alligators...?

  • Alligators, Old Mink & New Money, One Woman's Adventures in Vintage Clothing was written by sisters Alison and Melissa Houtte and is available in the U.S. and Canada in both hardback (top; William Morrow/Harper Collins) and paperback (Avon Trade). You can also buy the UK edition (Orion Publishing) in hardback in England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Orion's paperback edition (below) is also now on sale.

    Orionpbcover_3

Alligators & the Media

  • Woman's Day, March 2007 issue; Heat magazine, UK Feb. 3-9, 2007, and many reviews and touts from 2005/2006, when our book was first published: People magazine ("charming memoir"); New York Post (3 1/2 star review); Women's Wear Daily; New York Times; OK magazine; TimeOut New York; All Things Considered, NPR (Jan. 15; you can hear it at npr.org); Glamour (British edition, "a must for all vintage die-hards"); InStyle, (British edition, "a charming journey"); Madison magazine (Australia); Body & Soul magazine; and Newsday, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Dallas Morning News, Miami New Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, The Scotsman (Glasgow, Scotland), Pacific Sun and Sacramento Bee

Amazon

Clothes Quotes

  • A batch of vintage classics, with thanks to Hester Hull of Birmingham, Michigan:

    “Nothing is thought rare which is not new, and follow’d; yet we know that what was worn some 20 years ago comes into grace again.”—Francis Beumont

    "The purse is the mirror of the soul.”—Anna Quindlen, 1987

    “When in doubt, wear red.”—Bill Blass, 1982

    “These gems have life in them: their colors speak, say what words fail of.”—George Eliot

    “And she always took the clothes created for her one step further by adding something of her own, some small personal detail which enhanced the whole.”—Givenchy on Audrey Hepburn

    “Large handbags to carry all the family’s ration books were also practical rather than fashionable accessories.”—Carol Harris in Women Under Fire in World War II

    “Skirts couldn’t get any shorter and remain legal.”—Amy Greene, 1970

    If you adore her, you must adorn her. There lies the secret of a happy marriage.”—Anne Fogarty, 1959

    Just make sure no one has exactly the same dress I do. I want all mine to be original and no fat little women hopping around in the same dress.”—Jacqueline Kennedy

    “When a man says he likes a woman in a skirt, I tell him to try one.”—Katharine Hepburn

    "A woman’s dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”—Sophia Loren

    “Each day Beryl would appear in the yard, looking as if she had stepped off the pages of Vogue. Silk shirt, perfectly cut jodhpurs, shining leather boots, little kid leather gloves. A broadbrimmed hat and leather whip tucked under her arm completed the ensemble. It was first class all the way with Beryl. That was all she knew. ‘ Tell them to bring the horses around, will you sweetie?’ she would say when she was ready.”—Mary S. Lovell in the biography of Beryl Markham (first woman to fly the Atlantic east to west), Straight on’ Til Morning

    “Just to flirt again---in a skirt again/ There’s no romance when you dance/ Cheek to cheek and pants to pants /Oh for an old fashioned dress!”—Irving Berlin.