Nicole Jenkins, of Circa Vintage, recently brought my attention to a recent photo shoot by Ben Watts and the original Teddy boys. In the 50s and 60s, the Teddy boys took their name from a nickname for “Edward” and were throw-backs to the Edwardian era in their wardrobe choices. They wore pocket watches, waistcoats and other trappings of dandyism. Of course, anachronism is periodically shattered by the odd tattoo or piercing.

You can view more photos from Ben Watts, here, and order limited edition Giclee prints as well if you click here.

If their heyday was today, I can’t help think the lads would have been on the forefront of the Steampunk style and culture. Of course, they are minus the Jules Verne antique-futuristic mechanical gear that separates Steampunk from historical re-enactment, but perhaps that would have just been a matter of time.  Instead of being solely influenced by a fashion era of another century, a style’s influence on each subsequent decade seems to sometimes simmer slowly instead of being a radical change, even if it was just simmering along the fringe.

Robert Talbott was founded by Robert and Audrey Talbott in the 1950s. Audrey, prior to her marriage to Robert, was a clothing buyer. As a hobby, she created bowties for Robert and his friends. With her skill and Robert’s dream to manufacture a true quality product, Robert Talbott the company was born. By 1955, the business was a success and they were traveling the world for silk.

In 1958, the first Robert Talbott store opened in Carmel, New York with a second opening in Pebble Beach in 1968. 24 years later, in 1992, a Madison Avenue showcase store was opened. Dress shirts were added to the Robert Talbott line in 1990, which had been exclusively ties up until this point. Casual shirts and outerwear followed.

Today, Audrey Talbott has shifted her focus to high quality ladieswear and her eponymous line is featured at many boutiques throughout the country.

A woven SILK tie…square bottomed and skinny. Robert Talbott for Jacobson’s from the 80s…

This bio that I wrote appears in the Vintage Fashion Guild label resource. If you are a trivia junkie or a fashion lover, you should check it out.

Style expert Brett Fahlgren, who you may know from E! and GQ, has style tips for you at  Gillette Career Advantage.  If you are looking to put your best foot forward during and interview or an initial probation period, it is best to err on the side of tried and true rather than taking extreme risks, at least until you check a place out. While you might tend to dress on the more adventurous side, or you may be working with a strict budget and cannot afford a new wardrobe, in either case, there is something in your closet that you can use. Editing your wardrobe may take a little time, and if you have old favorites, a little courage. Fahlgren writes, “A good rule of thumb: if you think a shirt might look too loud or busy or looks bad on you, chances are it does.”

In applying Fahlgren’s tips, the first thing you want to make sure you have is two pairs of shoes. Minimally, you want a pair of black and a pair of brown lace up dress shoes. If you are buying new or “shopping in your closet,” choose a classic style. I would also suggest making sure at least one brown and one black belt are handy. This way, you can change the colors of your accessories based on the color of your suit, or if a more casual environment, your shirt and trousers. Speaking of trousers, a pant with a flat front, rather than a pleat, flatters most men.   If you are nervous about shirt choices to pair with suits, go for traditional white or light blue.  Experiment with subtle stripes, such as pinstripes, or a small check pattern when you gain fashion confidence.

Do you have an interview coming up?  If so, from all of us at VintageGent.com: Congratulations!  I would love for you to comment and let me know how it went.  Do you wish you had done anything differently with your first impression, or do you have additional words of wisdom for readers?

You can not go anywhere and not hear about the untimely death of Michael Jackson.  Many will wistfully remember his early days at Motown, and recall perhaps wearing a single glove to school.   The later years of his career were obscured by public relation nightmares, that seem to have affected his reputation in the United States more so than the rest of the world.  His lie served as a cautionary tale about lost childhoods, and also the loneliness that lurks at the top.

A little known fact about Michael Jackson is that he was also a shoe designer.  He shares a US Patent for gravity defying loafers with Michael Bush and Dennis Thompson. You may recall incredible dance moves, where he tilted so far forward that you attributed it to his unworldly sense of balance and his slim frame. Actually, the moves were attributed to a special hinge that was an integral part of the shoe. There was a small slot in the stage where they could hook on, or maybe several spots. Since he choreographed things to a “T,” it definitely was not a problem finding the mark.   The move was popularized in his early 90s Smooth Criminal video and subsequent performances.

There was an earlier patent that was for a personnel restraint tract which someone would attach work cleats too.  This was something that was used for developing what was underneath the stage.

This little known trivia about his life may be one of those things, when the dust settles, and the jokes end, that he may be remembered as an innovator for.

Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson.

Though many products do not require labeling‚ if a company chooses to label‚ they must adhere to the guidelines issued by the FTC.  First and foremost if a product is labeled or advertised as Made in USA‚ either expressly or implied‚ it must be “all or virtually all” made in the USA. “ ‘All or virtually all’ means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is‚ the product should contain no — or negligible — foreign content.”3  This definition
seems simple enough but wait.   Read on….

I did some more research on what “negligible foreign materials meant, and that took me back to the FTC wesbite HERE

In this analysis, raw materials(18) are neither automatically included nor automatically excluded in the evaluation of whether a product is all or virtually all made in the United States. Instead, whether a product whose other parts and processing are of U.S. origin would not be considered all or virtually all made in the United States because the product incorporated imported raw materials depends (as would be the case with any other input) on what percentage of the cost of the product the raw materials constitute and how far removed from the finished product the raw materials are.(19) Thus, were the gold in a gold ring, or the clay used to make a ceramic tile, imported, an unqualified “Made in USA” claim for the ring or tile would likely be inappropriate.(20) This is both because of the significant value the gold and the clay are likely to represent relative to the finished product and because the gold and the clay are only one step back from the finished articles and are integral components of those articles. By contrast, were the plastic in the plastic case of a clock radio that was otherwise all or virtually all made in the United States found to have been made from imported petroleum, the petroleum is far enough removed from, and an insignificant enough input into, the finished product that it would nonetheless likely be appropriate to label the clock radio with an unqualified U.S. origin claim.

So, when you see something with the Made in the USA label, you can be assured that it has for all intents and purposes, been made in America. There are, from time to time, violations in which the Federal Trade Commission monitors. In 1999, Abercrombie & Fitch was noted for its failure to list the country of origin for a wool product advertised in their catalog, and sold it in their store.

Historical Fact: Garments that were labeled Made in the USA beginning in 1996 must comply with FTC regulations. A variation on the label is a “Assembled in the USA” label which means the item was manufactured in the United States using parts of a foreign source, or a large amount of foreign materials.

Made in Usa, Japan  label:  There is also some confusion over a label that states “Made in Usa, Japan.”   There is in fact a province or area called Usa in Japan.  These garments started appearing in the United States in the 60s, imported from Japan.   Usa is a real place that has been there for centuries but it has caused confusion.

When you are out and about, watch those labels. It will probably make you more conscious of just who is making your clothing, or exactly what is going into them, if you are attempting to support as many American made products as possible.

“Our intent is definitely a continuation of the business,” Nicolas Topiol, Lacroix’s chief executive officer, said in an interview before meeting with the firm’s 125 employees. “But the crisis has definitely hit us below the knees.”

Topiol said orders for the fall-winter season sank 35 percent, with many retail buyers skipping Paris Fashion Week altogether.

Lacroix won wide acclaim in March for his chic take on Parisian style, from tapered peacoats to draped jersey dresses, but the venue — a shabby parking garage in the Marais district — spoke to the firm’s financial constrictions.

Topiol declined to say how much creditors are owed — principally suppliers and general service providers — but said losses have ballooned to about 10 million euros, or about $14 million at current exchange, on revenues that have shriveled to about 30 million euros, or $42 million.

In my opinion, sometimes the fashion houses need a shake up. If I had a fashion line that had no choice but to appear in a parking garage, I would have ditched the live fashion show altogether. I would have invested in a few hip backdrops and would have staged an exclusive web only pod casted fashion show. With the right smoke and mirrors, no one would have known it wasn’t at a posh location.  The show would have had additional staying power as people watched it many hours after the actual event was to take place.  In fact, there could have been no live event at all.  The other alternative was to make it look like the parking garage was avant gard and went with a theme.

Many designers have found new life with creating items for mass market stores, such as Vera Wang and Isaac Mizrahi. Should Lacroix go back to his roots of design and try his hand at designing something that could be mass produced?  Do you think Lacroix should stay as it is, but scale back?  Do you think the greates hits of the Spring 2009 fashion show was too little too late?  If people aren’t buying, I always say either you are not promoting yourself, you have started to ignore the original people whose interest you built your business on the backs of, or you are mismanaging the wallet.

The latest news is that a Swiss group of investors is looking to purchase Lacroix?  Will the name alone be a good investment?  Will Lacroix go the way of many other designers and just be a name slapped onto items of various origins, or will the new structure be the same old business, but with better watch dogs?

What do you think?

According to the Vintage Fashion Guild Label Resource:

“Some see his couture accomplishments eclipsed by his reputation as “The License Man.” After all, the Cardin moniker is affixed to more than 500 licenses. Caroline Rennolds Milbank states in her book, Couture, “Today, Cardin’s diversification overshadows his work in couture. His current reputation rests more on the variety of his endeavours…as well as on his undaunted efforts to dress (or somehow effect) every human being in the world.”

So what does one do with so much clothing? There has to be a way to know what to look for, with Cardin items existing from the couture on down to discount and from the 40s to months from now. As far as strictly the eye of the vintage lover, it is important to note that Mr. Cardin had a hand in design up until the very early 70s. In particular, this Creation Pierre Cardin label from a silk tie that is shown at the bottom of the photo is a good example of one of the Cardin labels to look for, though there are other earlier ones as well.   After that, Mr. Cardin was more of a figurehead and a marketer.  Other people designed items, if indeed they were not produced elsewhere, or even sold under other names, and just affixed with a Cardin label.

Whenever I am in a blue mood, I sometimes wander to the Lileks.com site and look at the gallery concerning the rise and fall of Dorcus Menswear.

Visitors are given a preperative preamble:

The brand is long forgotten; the name itself has not been uttered by a fashion critic for decades. The days when doors opened at the mention of these two simple syllables are gone, long gone. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised; this company never had the glamour or prestige of a Saint-Laurent, a Givenchy. It never sought the adulation of the fickle scribes, the playboy set. It simply wanted to make interesting clothes for everyday people.

In a broad, generous definition of “interesting,” one can certainly say they succeeded.

Dorcus abandoned the goal of putting men in dresses in the 1960s, but triumphed in the application of extremely large plaids. The question arises: When does a plaid stop being a plaid?

Barney Dorcus’ drive to create clothing was born of his halitosis and predisposition to sweat profusely. It all started when Dorcus purchased a surplus of army gasmasks and used the lightweight fabric to create SWETZ-ALOT fabric. Since the fabric kept gases out, it was sure to keep B.O. odor at bay. The suits flew off the shelves. It may have been that Dorcus would have been in the annals of fashion history with his product.  That was of course until son Raoul Dorcus had been given the reins and decided that the company should go in another direction all together, and his own personal style of tall socks with shorts, ghastly plaids (which almost sunk the company), and the male skirts that the world was not ready for caused the company to gradually dwindle.

Have fun flipping through the pages of a dream gone a little bit sideways.

I shouldn’t say just women. Some punk rockers adopted wearing black nail polish for men on occasion.  Then again, the Max Factor corporation probably didn’t have that quite in their vision.  Nor did they probably imagine I would use some in the ninth grade to write my initials on the back of my scientific calculator so none of my classmates would accidentally walk away with it.  I think it was some sort of color between pink and plum. Plum colored eyeshadow was big then. So was the Clarion computer.  Well, that might not have been “big” but it was something that you could turn the dials of at the store if you were bored.

I met a man who was repulsed by the use of nail polish on his lady’s hands and discouraged her from using them. I never understood what the aversion was, unless her nails were so rediculously long and had such ornamentation that it was almost like a handicap, preventing her from tending to her daily life for fear of marring them. However, they weren’t like that. Hmmm….

In the past decade or so, the practice of women wearing nail polish has ebbed and flowed. The new trend has been having makers look for more ways to create nail polish without formaldehyde and other not so appealing ingredients that vintage ladies had to live with.  It may be okay at Maaco, but not on the human body.  The Olan brand, at left in cosmopolitan red, is one such offering on the Hello Gorgeous! website that lets a gal browse from the comfort of home (or I should also say “person who wants to put their initials on their calculator regardless of gender”).  I think Rita Hayworth, the original red nail trendsetter, and Uma Thurman, who influenced women again in the 90s, would have approved of the hue.

Q.  Name the company that first treat wool gabardine to be water repellant.

A. It was Sanyo, a Japanese clothier with a history dating to the 1940s.  Sanyo Shokai extended the business by opening New York in 1978 to reach a North American audience.

In some places, fall seems to be taking a pass and winter feels like it is just around the corner.  It may seem a little premature according to the calendar, but my woolens are already unpacked and it is time to think about overcoats.  If you are looking to buy new so that you don’t ruin your antique or vintage overcoat in the wind and snow, the Sanyo Fashion House is making some very well made and luxurious mens wool coats.

In fact, not only was the company a trailblazer in the beginning, but it is continuing to make innovations.  The buttons on the coats are affixed by a special state of the art sewing machine that simulates the back and forth sewing movement of something sewn. It is certainly more stable, but might even fool you into believing no machine was involved. They also have a special windbreaker  interlining, at left, that is usually only reserved for police winter uniforms.  It retains heat as well as protects against the elements.

On their site, their coats are available for purchase, or you can find a local retailer to see them in person.