Javits Center Home and Lifestyle Show - NY Now 8/18/13

It was an exciting day at the Jacob K. Javits Center in NYC today at the start of the Home and Lifestyle Show for NY Now, where colorful and covetable home accessories, fabrics, clothing, textiles, furniture and jewelry cried out to be purchased. I was glad that I wasn't a buyer, as I would have been overwhelmed in that giant space filled by vendors on multiple floors and would have been paralyzed by an inability to make a decision after about three hours. I don't know how they do it, as it's an assault on the senses, even in the nicest way. Eventually one is exhausted by the sights and colors, but as I was visiting a friend in her booth, I could wander around and look and marvel (and get ideas) with absolutely no pressure. Times being what they are, it's also possible to buy something as a single shopper at certain booths.

I was visiting Liz Glasgow, who was there with her company, The White Cabinet. Liz's mother, Hilda Glasgow, was a well-known fashion illustrator from the 1940s-1970s who died a few years ago. Liz, a professional photographer, has taken her mother's sketches and brilliantly turned them into a cottage industry. Notecards, prints, placemats, notepads, stamps, mirrors, gift wrap and wallpaper (!) are now available with Hilda's lovely ladies, with more items to come.

                                
  Liz with some of her notecards, unfortunately washed out by the lighting and my camera phone. Note the wonderful chandeliers - more on those further down.

Liz is partnered by a company called Kitchen Papers Hester & Cook, which produces wonderful paper goods. The displays and the selling area were most inviting and whimsical. I love Hilda's collection and included a pic of the Collegiate Collection (lower right), whose vintage graphics are a hit with me. 

And OMG, check out the lighting! I am coveting the spoon (and teacup!!) chandeliers, the industrial fabulousness of the glass insulators incorporated into the design, the keyplates, and the recycled goodness of it all. You don't have to live in an edgy loft - these designs coordinate well with modern, vintage and shabby chic decor. I definitely want one of these at least. Made in Tennessee, US of A.

Check out the Lego-inspired books by Mark's Tokyo Edge (top left). Hopefully you can click on the pics and see them better. I loved the little colorful lights by La Case de Cousin Paul, the crab glass lamps by Standard Specialty Company, the harem-like decor of pillows and lamps, the glass bottles and Christmas home accents in this picture.

Inlaid red & white furniture, signs for every occasion ("If you're waiting for a sign, this is it" - LOL). Colorful table linens, fake blossoms, coordinated clothing and home decor by Roberta Feynman ( I have one of her bags) and the colorful tree lights.

MORE tree lights, glass peacock lamp, fairy lights, more signs, and silk patchwork carpets ( I have one like this)

Eyeglasses bottle stoppers by Umbra, Xmas gnomes with knitted caps, a mirror with metal bubbles (like many pieces of jewelry I've seen) bags, embroidered bedding that looks eastern European, and novelty chandeliers.

Close -up on wonderful bags

Reminds me of Russian embroidered textiles

Cute idea for a beach house

Clothing & Home Decor by Roberta Freymann. Why not match your home?

Roberta Feynman has a lovely boutique on Lexington Avenue.

How fresh and cool is this look?

Uber-colorful tableware by Zak!

More Zak! at the front of the space, an enviable position.

Crystal accents by Kathryn McCoy. Loved the huge bowl!

Umbra's eyeglasses bottle stoppers

Pretty fairy lights - great for a kid's room or a party setting

Love these glass fish lights - what a luxurious nightlight, by Standard Specialty Company

Witty animal-inspired furniture

Crystal? glasses with intense concentrations of color

Halloween accents

Interesting novelty light fixtures

metal chain chandelier, and lots of colored glass chandeliers

Organic, elemental styled mirror with flattened circles - resembles some trendy jewelry items

Love the historical costume graphics

I covet this musical notes lamp

I'll just move in now, thank you

My FAVORITE booth!!! Pantone merchandise, from England.

Beautiful displays in an enormous space, expensive to set up. I hope that it was worth it for these vendors!

This fair is on through the 21st of August, so if you can get there, you won't regret it. Lots of great ideas for designers!

The End of an Era

Last week I heard that a long-standing source of vintage trimmings, beads and buttons was moving and downsizing - effectively, closing for good a source of impossible-to-find-nowadays embellishments that we always assumed would be available. A restaurant will fill this space (the rent was increased exorbitantly), just one of many on this street that was once filled with bead and glass gem stores. A few remain, but many are gone.

Ribbons and trims on the wall and in antique displays

The Tinsel Trading Company opened in 1933 in NYC's Garment District. I started shopping there in the 1970s as a teenager when I apprenticed at Ray Diffen's costume shop and had to buy fabrics and trimmings for the opera and Broadway show costumes that Ray's staff built. When the original owner died, his granddaughter, Marcia Ceppos, took over, and the shop grew and moved to two different locations over the next 20 years. It's now in an airy space on West 37th between 5th and 6th Avenues that Marcia has decorated in vintage style that perfectly frames her wares. She is still uncovering treasures that have been packed away, but the shop is downsizing and moving to the east 60s, so this is the last chance for anyone to see and buy most of these lovelies. It's my understanding that Marcia is limiting her stock to paper goods, which are indeed beautiful, but the beads and trimmings that she has sold are truly one of a kind. I only wish that I could buy all of it!

The costume shops and the Metropolitan Opera have been by to purchase as much as their budgets will allow, but no one today has enough spare $ to buy what their impulses and nostalgia crave!

                                                 Tinsel Trading has exquisite fake flowers!

A wall of ribbon and trim on sale

Millinery straw and more trim

All of these beauties must find new homes!

Over the last 20 years sources for costume designers in New York City and elsewhere have closed as Manhattan real estate prices have become unreasonable and older owners died, leaving no one to carry on the business, or children with no interest or acumen to keep it going. Fabric, button, notion and trimming shops that once filled every street in the Garment District have disappeared, replaced by restaurants, hotels, The New York Times, whatever. Yes, new businesses have sprouted up here and there, but the old places linger on, ghosts in the memories of anyone old enough who is still working in the business. The Drama Book Shop now resides in the space once occupied by Art-Max Fabrics on West 40th street, and the colorful stone floor survives. Did you know that 40th street between Broadway and 8th Avenue was once a block full of fabric and trim shops? There are only two left: Elegant Fabrics and Sposabella Lace.

It's getting harder for me to find the components that I use in the city these days, and last year I made a large purchase at Tinsel Trading when I saw that things were slowing down for them, so when I heard this news, I rushed over that very day to see what I could find and grab. There's actually quite a lot left, including some fixtures like antique shelves. I buy vintage glass cabochons and beads, some 100 years old, but most of my purchases date from the 1930s to mid-century. Now that I have some metalsmithing skills, I can make sterling silver, copper, brass and bronze bezel settings that truly showcase these beauties.

My most recent purchase from Tinsel. Someone cleared out the chandelier crystals, alas!

I wish Marcia & Co. good fortune and hope that her store will flourish in its new location, but I am filled with sadness that this business will be so diminished and that our lovely places to shop and meet and chat are ever-dwindling. Stepping through the door of Tinsel Trading Co. was a mini-vacation from the concrete and glass awfulness that this city can be.

Photo of the Week

Be so THANKFUL that we don't have to dress our little ones like this anymore! This poor, sweet little girl, imprisoned by her finery and that bonnet to end all bonnets. It's her best dress, immortalized for this photo, and she was carefully ironed and styled by her proud mama, but all I can hope for that's positive is that it was not summer when this photo was taken.

Bonnet ruffles lovingly starched and fluffed out totally mashing down her hair, that huge yoke on the dress that you couldn't eat in lest a drop of anything ruined it, the heavy pleats, the pantalettes just visible, the hugely long sleeves and those itchy-looking stockings...toddler girl, you were a good sport.

It's an antique photo to buy here.

Opera 1912-Style

I was looking through a program of my father's from the 1912-1913 Metropolitan Opera season. I'm not sure how he acquired it, but it's very well preserved and full of wonderful information about the years just before everything changed with the explosion of World War I.

The first Metropolitan Opera site was located at 1411 Broadway at 39th street, where it opened in 1883.  It was built by a group of wealthy businessmen who wanted their own theatre, the nouveau riche who had been rejected by society from owning boxes at the Academy of Music on East 14th street, where opera had been presented in New York City since 1854. Vanderbilts, Goulds and Morgans together raised funds for a larger opera house with three tiers of boxes, which was an instant success and caused the cancellation of the Academy of Music's season in 1886.

 39th and Broadway; Photo: Met Opera Archives

In 1892, the building was destroyed by fire and was immediately rebuilt, reopening in the fall of 1893. Another major renovation was completed in 1903. The theater's interior was extensively redesigned by the architects Carrère and Hastings. The familiar red and gold interior associated with the house dates from this time. The old Met had a seating capacity of 3,625 with an additional 224 standing room places. 

Photo Credit: American-Journal.org

Cover, Grand Opera Season, 1912-1913

Which operas were performed during the season? 

They opened with MANON LESCAUT in November 1912 and continued with La Boheme, Tannhauser, La Gioconda, Madama Butterfly, Gotterdammerung, Rigoletto, Konigskinder, Cav/Pag, Faust, Die Zauberflote, La Fanciulla Del West, Il Trovatore, Parsifal, Hansel und Gretel, Aida, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Il Segreto di Susanna, Die Walkure, Tosca, Orfeo et Eurice, Les Hugeunots, Tristan und Isolde, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Otello, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Siegfried, Manon, Das Rheingold, La Traviata, Le Donne Curiose, Cyrano, Lohengrin, Boris Godunov and Lucia di Lammermoor. That's 34 operas including a Ring cycle and some very large productions requiring a huge orchestra and chorus.

PARSIFAL, Good Friday Performance and cast. Its first performance was ten years earlier, premiering on Christmas Eve, 1903, in its first staged performance outside the Bayreuth Festival, over the objections of the Wagner family, which had tried to sue to stop the production.

Carl Jorn, who sang the role of PARSIFAL

Director................Anton Fuchs

                                            Set Designer............Leopold Rothaug [Debut]
                                            Set Designer............Burghart and Co. [Debut]
                                         Costume Designer........Blaschke and Cie [Debut]
                                               Lighting Designer.......Carl Lautenschläger

New Stage of the Metropolitan Opera, rebuilt for the new production of PARSIFAL. 

Magazine date February 6, 1904. Read about it here.

BORIS GODUNOV March 19, 1913, first production in America. Given in Italian, not Russian, and performed only four times.

Conducted by Arturo Toscanini

What an incredibly rich physical production in a romantic realist style that is considered out of date today. 

Adamo Didur, Polish bass, as BORIS (fantastic costume!)

Louise Homer as MARINA

Paul Althouse, making his house debut as DMITRI

Season Boxholders. I don't recognize many of these names but I'm sure that they included the wealthy and powerful of the day. I do note the name of William Salomon (Salomon Brothers much later became part of Citigroup), and you can read about his lost mansion on Fifth Avenue here.

McCreery's was a fine department store of the day - see their fur storage ad upper left.

Here's the seating plan for the Family Circle and Balcony sections.

This ad on the right caught my eye, for E. M. Gattle Designs. I love the way their ad is worded, with just enough friendliness mixed with hauteur. I wasn't familiar with their atelier, so I looked it up, and discovered that Gattle was a very exclusive jewelry design and manufacturing company with a list of illustrious customers at the turn of the last century. 

From Fashion-Glossary.com: 

Gattle refers to a jeweler founded by Emanuel Gattle in the latter part of the 19th century. E.M. Gattle was located on Broadway in the theatre district. In 1907, the company moved to the corner of 38th Street and Fifth Avenue and, later, to 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, next to the St. Regis Hotel. One of their notable customer was Enrico Caruso, who shopped Gattle stores for jewelries. However, he was not only a shopper of Gattle, he also allowed his name and photograph to be used in Gattle advertising. Gattle became successful until the time they closed their doors. 

              The firm closed in 1940, several years before the outbreak of World War II.

What I thought would be a quick perusal of this program turned into an hours-long research event, and I have only covered a few pages that I photographed recently. The HARDMAN piano ad in the upper left strikes a chord (heh) as we had a Hardman baby grand piano at home; Dad used it in his teaching studio for over 40 years and I donated it to a charter school after he died. Hardman pianos are now made in China. Anyway, I hope that this has been an interesting post - I learned a lot!

There's a Chase Bank at the site of the Old Met, and when I was in the Garment District regularly and used that bank every week I liked going down to the lower level to look at a mural behind the teller's cages that depicted operas and their characters. I used to wonder why, until I did some research and discovered the history of the location. It may still be there.

TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards, New York City

On Friday evening, I attended the TDF (Theatre Development Fund) Irene Sharaff Awards at the beautiful Hudson Theater in New York City, given annually to costume designers since 1993. Here's a history of this award, taken from the event program:

In 1993, TDF presented the first Lifetime Achievement Award for Costume Design. Donald Brooks (Designer and TDF Trustee) and Kenneth Yount (TDF Costume Collection Director) conceived of this award as a one-time only honor to be presented to Irene Sharaff [the famed costume designer of stage and screen]. At the time, Ms. Sharaff was very ill and died later the same year at age 83.

The following year, TDF decided to make this award an annual tradition as well as re-name it in Ms. Sharaff's honor. Along with the newly christened tdf/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, a second award was added: the tdf/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award.

The 12 member advisory board is made up of designers of theatre, television and film, teachers, authors, artisans, assistants and associates in order to caucus and choose the award honorees.

The tdf/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award was added to the evening in 1999 and the Memorial Tribute Award was included in 2000. The fifth and final award was created in 2004: The Robert L. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.

In brief, TDF/Irene Sharaff Award honorees are selected by the TDF Costume Collection's Advisory Committee and are presented through Theatre Development Fund's Costume Collection.

This year's honoree for Sustained Excellence, the great set and costume designer, Desmond Heeley, was previously honored in 1994 for Lifetime Achievement. His work for theatre, opera and ballet is instantly recognizable for its romantic and painterly style. Born in England in 1932, he began designing for the stage in 1947 and though he has been largely based in the US he has designed for ballet companies around the world, including Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, La Scala, Stuttgart, and Houston. His work has been seen in Stratford, Canada, and in theaters throughout the US, where he has lived and worked for decades. I am proud to call Desmond a friend and was thrilled to see him so honored by his colleagues. Also awarded that evening were costume designers David Toser and Daniel Lawson, jewelry maker Lawrence Vrba, and costume designer Martin Pakledinaz, who died last year and was remembered in film. 

I'm sorry for the not-great photos; in a major instance of bad timing I unthinkingly sent my excellent camera off for a new lens just days before this event and was forced to use my 8 year old backup digital camera, which was not up to the job.

*CLICK on the photos to enlarge*

Here is Desmond giving his acceptance speech. He has always reminded me of Father Christmas!

Photo onstage in front of the displays of design work of the winners, honored guests and presenters.

From left to right, to the best of my recall ability, unknown (sorry!), Mel Weingart of the Tobin Arts Fund,  actress Charlotte Moore, Designer Santo Loquasto, Victoria Bailey (TDF), Desmond Heeley, Lawrence Vrba, Daniel Lawson, David Toser, Kitty Leech (Costume Collection Advisory Committee), Stephen Cabral (Director, Costume Collection), and actress Christine Baranski, stepping in for Julianna Margulies, who had to leave and who presented Daniel Lawson's award; they both star in The Good Wife, Dan's current show.

Desmond, Dan Lawson and Lawrence (Larry) Vrba pose with their crystal awards for the photographer in front of displays of their craft. The stage was soon crammed with well-wishers and we did our best to admire the beautiful work - costumes on forms, sketches, models and photographs. More on that later!

Desmond smiles a bit wearily in front of one of his Queens (Elizabeth I, if it's not obvious), one of a series made for Tiffany's windows in the late 1980s. I remember these windows, filled with a queen apiece and an item of stunning, mammoth jewelry. I was thrilled to see that this queen survived in her golden glory. 

I'm so sorry that this isn't a better picture, but I assure you that this maquette is gorgeous to behold, and I especially love the touch of the red rose amid all of the gold and pearls. Isn't the background marvelous, with its banners flapping in the wind and the wonderfully crafted crown?

Desmond is in focus - that's all that matters! A life-sized queen designed by Martin Pakledinaz is behind us.

Here is a sketch of Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest, Desmond's most recent Broadway show (2011), for which he won a Tony Award. Desmond designs both scenery and costumes, so you will never get just a costume rendering from him. The background has been fully painted with incredible richness of brush. Doesn't that red jump out at you? The challenge is to find a fabric that can do justice to the majestic painting here.

What do you think?

Here is a lushly painted scenic sketch from Puccini's "Manon Lescaut", done for the Metropolitan Opera in 1980.

Quite different in every way is this Act 3 sketch from Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande", also for the Met, in 1971. This production is quite Symbolist in style but still romantic and mysterious. Sadly, it has been replaced, but it was gorgeous and made a huge impression on me as a young student designer.

"Don Pasquale", Metropolitan Opera, 1979. This sunny, lovely production was the opera in which Beverly Sills starred in her last role at the Met. There's no doom and gloom or tragic romance here, looking at the cheerful trellis and flower-bedecked proscenium, which is actually suggestive in it own way. The leading lady's name is ROSINA, and there are roses everywhere!

The Duenna", a three act comic opera by Linley and Sheridan, Center Stage, Baltimore, 1980. I wouldn't mind living inside this model, which so evocatively illustrates its Spanish setting. Lovely setting with the requisite doors and windows for 18th century comedies, pretty details and strong colors must have been magical to attend. Note the putti at the top of the proscenium, the ever-present flowers and witty candelabra decorating the side columns.

"Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead", Broadway, 1967. Sketch for John Wood as Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's play. I love seeing detailed notes and sub-drawings on costume sketches - further direction for the costume shop as well as the actors. Not everything can be apparent from a pretty sketch alone, and why put this valuable info on the back?

Note the mood of this somber play depicted in this single sketch, and the richness of the rendering of the legs in light and shadow. 

Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", Stratford Festival, Canada, 1989. I have only seen this play once and am not quite familiar with it, and can't read the character name, but I love its wildness, color and menace. The textures are rich, there is movement and energy and the commedia figures and masks leave no doubt as to where the play is set.

Manon Lescaut, title character, another doomed heroine. Metropolitan Opera. If you can see past the flash, you will note that this is white dress - but was white ever rendered with such depth? The white contrasts cleverly against the darkness of the drape and he suggestion of a chair, but you can see what kind of embellishment Desmond intended. I see layers of sheer over a white base fabric, with ruched fabric, flowers and lace and self-fabric surface decoration. There is green, tan, brown and gray in this white and cream gown; and the decor is suggested just enough for the viewer to know in an instant what is intended. The details would have been worked out with the costume shop in further discussion.

Shakespeare's "The Tempest", Stratford Festival, Ontario, 1982

Scenery and Costumes

Few plays are as difficult as "The Tempest" to pull off. The team must create a world imagined by a nobleman-turned-magician banished from his European court to an island where he creates a world that mirrors the one he left. The challenge is to present a world that is wild and (often) tropical that takes advantage of its exotic setting. It's a play using a number of themes including revenge and ultimately, forgiveness, but it requires the use of sophisticated theatrical illusion to illustrate Prospero's literal use of illusion and magic to restore himself and his daughter to their rightful place in their original society.

I saved these sketches for last as they are stunning not only as designs but as stage direction. A set and costume designer is often an uncredited stage director, and Desmond in these sketches has written out alongside his paintings explicit direction. 

This first sketch depicts the opening, the storm that Prospero conjures to throw his brother's ship off course that will bring him to his island. The sketch is titled simply "The Sea"and shows actors dressed in layers of china silk built on bamboo as they depict the waters of the storm. They are wearing torn Elizabethan ruffs as period accents and to underline the theatricality even as they depict a natural element. The sense of movement is palpable.

I cut off the character name, but it looks like Caliban is featured in the above sketch, again with detailed instructions, including a "fishlike smell!" Caliban looks to be a combination of beast and fish, with some feathers possibly thrown in as well. The character's misery is clear.

"The Dance of the Nymphs and Reapers, during the Masque. "Rye straw hats on the nymphs" and "The nymphs to have goblets of wine - shades and mosters to present the food in HUGE shells - each shell to have a little dry ice?" My favorite is the lower right figure and note - "chandeliers made of coral".

The ship of Antonio and company. Smoke, creaking sounds, wind. "Waves [actors] should be able to  cover the lower deck."

Next time, part two of this event, and pictures of the other honorees' work.