VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

Wartime Fashion of Great Britain

Happy Veteran’s Day!

In honor, I would like to show you this fashion show of 1940s fashions in Great Britain. The show was at Weardale Railway War on the Line weekend. The Weardale is a heritege/historic railway with many supporters. There was a 1940s dance held at Stanhope Station, and the fashion show was part of the weekend as well. The fashion show takes you back in time to see what people were wearing everyday, not just in high fashion.  The models are dressed from head to toe in historically accurate clothing. Also of special interest is the appearance of a RAF (Royal Airforce Uniform) as well.  Many CC41 labels appear in the garments, which was part of wartime rationing.  As fabric was also rationed, coupons had to be presented to purchase them.

I hope you enjoyed this fashion show, and also take the time today to thank a veteran. If you are staying home, call someone up.  Everyone has a relative, someone from work, or someone you see at church who has served in one form or another.  They do not get thanked enough and today is the day to start doing it from here on out when you see a vet.

Thank a Vet at the Mall

My grandfather served in WWII. He started wearing a hat recently that says “World War II Vet.” It is the first time in his life, or at least for a long time, that people have come up and thanked him. Most times these days, people think of Veteran’s day as the day for the sale at the mall. Some people write long rants about it. I am deciding to use it as a day to think of my grandfather, a lifelong carpenter, and will look at the sale as serendipitious to add a tool to my repertoire so he can teach me a few things I need to know.

For Sears Veterans Day Sale, which runs ovember 9th through November 11th, there will be plenty of sweaters on sale. Deep discounts of up to 60% off for him and her on outerwear and sweaters is an enticing deal.  Many people will rant and rave on how it is just not apropriate to think of Veteran’s Day as the day the sale is at the mall.  I just look it as serindipitous.  It gives me a chance to buy my grandfather something I normally couldn’t splurge for.  He is going to visit the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C., and I am going to use the opportunity to buy him a nice zip sweater for the trip.  They have a clothing line called US Army 1st Infantry Division. I wonder how he feels about that. (A sweater from the line is pictured. It appears to have insignia on the sleeve.)

Also, since we really don’t have a “main street” where people are walking down and meeting eachother, the mall gives plenty of chances to thank a vet who may be out shopping that weekend with their family.  Some vets make it a point to wear insignia or a hat like my grandfather, so please use your shopping time as an opportunity to thank as many as possible.

Charlie Brown Christmas Trees

Whenever one of the trees in the yard grew a little lopsided, we called it a Charlie Brown tree.  Of course, we would never cut them down for the holidays.  They were the wrong species on top of that.

I was alerted by One of a Kind Wisconsin that this year, Charlie Brown Christmas trees were being sold.  Michelle found it in Mill’s Farm & Fleet 2008 Trim & Gift Catalog.  I also found that 18″ versions are available at Sears. A 24″ version is available at a costume supply website I also found here. They can’t beat the $9.99 price at Mill’s Farm, but then I do not know the size and have not investigated the shipping costs from each place.

If you are looking for a nostalgic tree, and want something small, it is sure to bring back memories of the long running Christmas special.  You might also want to have a traditional tree, and then put this one on a hall table or such.

The Adventure Look is Back

I have long sung the praises of 5.11 Tactical Pants, like they use in the millitary and police forces. They are great for when you are on a motorcycle and want to arrive looking more business casual.

There are two other things I forgot to mention. They are great for shutterbugs because of all the pockets.  Plenty of room for extra memory cards, or film if you are old school. Also, with the Indiana Jones-inspired collection Ralph Lauren introduced recently, the safari and adventure look may come back in a big way. Remember multipocket pants from the last time the look came around? Buy tactical pants in shades of khaki and olive and you are a little ahead of the trend!

Auction Watch – 1930s Levis

The  item that closed at the highest price on ebay recently was a Levi’s Buckleback sold by seller  gsalebuyer.   The jacket is listed in the Depression through WWII era category, which is accurate.   The jeans of the time had buckle backs and so did many jackets.  The jackets of the 1930s had only one single breast pocket, which is a big tip off if you are not sure just how old a jacket is.   The items that were made before WWII are getting harder and harder to find as most other utilitarian clothing.  At the time you just didn’t wear denim unless you were working. It was just not an apropriate fashion statement, and so old jeans were hardly treated with kid gloves.  They just were worn until they wore out, and even in storage, denim that has already been compromise from excessive wear, soiling, damage, and the elements, can further deteriorate.

Levis from the 1950s and earlier are highly, highly collectible.  Jeans from before 1971, indicated by all capitals in the Levi’s red tab, are also sought.  Some newer styles are sought after by certain people for the nostalgia factor or because they miss the fit of a particular discontinued style or cut.

The buyer picked this up for a mere $3,600 (US).

I Think I Heard a Crash…

I think there is one quote that is most apropriate when talking about my adventures with computers:

“Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show ‘em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp…”

- King of Swamp Castle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The first computer rolled off a moving truck and came home with a big dent and water damage.  The second one had a major hard drive crash due to a couple really nasty viruses plus the modem card exploded.  I reverted the whole thing back to the last day that I had backed up the system and then exactly a year later, the same thing happened again.

According to Storagepipe Solutions, 1 in 12 computers will experience a hard drive crash.  I don’t think I was polled for those statistics. As you can see, I had one crash very literally and one crash twice figuritively.  To most people, lightning doesn’t strike with such tenaciousness.  Also, it happens to also be that sometimes when you go to rely on your backed up material, it is not always there or hadn’t updated properly.  There is not really a way to know for sure.  It is not like bread where you can poke your head in to check the progress of it or know that it is done aside from the timer.  More often than not, however, it is just not knowing how to do it properly.

Online Backup and Email Archiving is the way to go for some folks, especially if the information is critical, the programs disks no longer exist, and a myriad of other reasons.  In fact, the computer may even not exist in a usable state, like in my history. In fact, there are a few individuals I know that have vast collections or are in the curatorial field who no longer have records of many items because the sole hard drive that a particular lot number was on had a major crash.  The photos and historical documentation is gone forever, or at least the database that matched the item and the documents is gone, leaving a mess for someone.  They would have to go through numbered boxes where the numbers no longer mean a thing.   I think I am going to be wise and do it sooner than later before history…especially yours…is lost!

Uncovered Gem: The Barretts of Wimpole Street

I love the movies of the 1930s.  There were some pretty psychological stories before the studio codes went into effect.  One of the more mainstream films that I had never seen was the Barretts of Wimpole Street.  The story of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning didn’t immediately appeal to me in the first few scenes, as I thought it was going to be a maudlin love story (or a chick flick).  Norma Shearer is supposed to be deathly sick and looks beautiful and perfectly made up…that is one of the suspensions of disbelief one must have in watching older films.  As the film went on I became very enthralled.

The story is not just about Elizabeth and Robert but it is more about how a controlling person can crush someone, and even snuff the life out of someone one professes to love.   One really pulls for Elizabeth, Robert, and Henrietta.  In real life, Mr. Barrett forbid his twelve children to marry. In the film, he doesn’t quite get redeemed in the end.  That may have been a whole other movie and not the purpose of the tale. Here are two clips. The first features Norma Shearer as Elizabeth, Charles Laughton as Mr. Barrett, and Frederic March as Robert Browning. The second also feature Maureen O’Hara.

The movie also serves as a step back in time to fashons that suggest the 1840s in London as an added bonus.

Avoid The Markup

In the past, I have sung the praises of buying eyeglasses from Zenni Optical because their prices were very reasonable. They had some styles that would suit if you wanted to save your authentic vintage glasses for special occasions and didn’t want to risk damaging them doing every day activities.

I recently learned there was a little bit of controversy.  The prices are low because their is no middleman, and they do not do large scale advertising. That is ingenuity and not an issue. What is troubling to some people is that the frames are made at a factory in China, and some people choose to opt out of buying items from overseas when they can, unless, of course it is an item native to the area.   I will point out to you that many of the high end glasses, particularly plastic frames, or those that you buy at your optometrist, are most likely made in China as well, save for a few designers. They just have a much higher mark up to cover the costs of the layers in between from getting them from factory to store.

So, the question remains:  what is more important in your eyeglass purchase?  If you are looking to only buy frames made in the United States, then Zenni glasses are not for you.   If you probably were not going to purchase a pair of designer frames and on your next trip to the optometrist you notice that every frame you select seems to be made in China anyhow, you might as well save a significant amount of money and buy direct from Zenni, and have access to a wider variety of styles, starting from $8.00.