New recent work...a preview!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Javits Center Home and Lifestyle Show - NY Now 8/18/13
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!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
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.
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!
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.
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.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Photo of the Week
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.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
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.
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.
Set Designer............Burghart and Co. [Debut]
Costume Designer........Blaschke and Cie [Debut]
Lighting Designer.......Carl Lautenschläger
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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