My First McCardell

Once in a while in the vintage game, you find something you were meant to find. You have that psychic pull to your favorite resell store, or a friend of a friend calls you and tells you to come over. It happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I went early to a vintage sale, and found my very first Claire McCardell dress. Just a simple cotton dress, I thought, with a cool bustle feature and an interesting abstract fish print. Still, a great find! The hubby and I did a photo shoot that weekend, and I included this dress, even though it's not in season. Resort cruise wear from a good label is always in season, right? A few days later, I received a 1949 Vogue magazine in the mail from an Ebay purchase. Old Vogues are a great way to learn more about the fashions from our favorite eras, albeit the expensive ones. Thumbing through, a picture of a plate caught my eye. It was my fish print! Credited to pottery by Picasso.

A quick search later, I learned that Claire McCardell and other designers had collaborated on a line of resort wear using textiles from the "Modern Masters Print" series. A fashion student on Ebay let me know that the artists were Picasso, Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger, Raoul Dufy and Joan Miro. The dress I had found was phtographed for an article in the November 14, 1955 issue of Life magazine, shot alongside Picasso in his studio. So it's listed. It would never fit me in this lifetime unless a time machine can take me back twenty years. It's a great story, though, and a good way to start a blog about vintage fashion, and costume jewelry, and maybe even some cooking. Stay tuned!