Date Night - Playbills Vintage Style

A few months ago, I was in an antique shop and noticed a bunch of playbills.   You can quite imagine lovely ladies dressed up in flowing gowns and matching gloves with their arms wrapped around their handsomely dressed partner.   

Within this stack of playbills, were plays with Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, and many other great stars of the day!  I have subsequently sold these playbills but did keep the Katherine Hepburn 1939 Philadelphia Story playbill.  These playbills spanned the time of the late 30's to the early 50's.  I thought I might share some of the ads from within some of these playbills.

This ad was very interesting to me.  I just love the idea of wearing a "fresh" flower and gardenia's have an elegant ebb and flow about them.  I was very much taken with this ad when I first saw it and then I proceeded to Etsy to see if I might find a present day substitute.

Here is a gardenia I bought from Etsy from FlowerSculptures.   I am sure you will see it in an upcoming post.  It is so well done and beautiful in person.

Source: Etsy Seller FlowerSculptures

Isn't this an interesting Fashion ad?  I thought it was interesting how some of the playbills talked about the latest fashion.  After reading about this ad, I wanted to know more about Queen Elizabeth's parasol and how it stirred up a flurry of copies.  I looked to see if I could find a photograph of her with her parasol.

Ceil Beaton was commissioned to take these photographs of the Queen in July 1939.

Image source:  Opera gloves

The only current image I could locate of the umbrella.  I believe it is apart of "The Royal Collection".  This umbrella appears to be around today, isn't this interesting?   You can really check out the details with the "magnify" icon.  This parasol was set in diamonds and sapphires.

Here is a link to the dress and parasol from 1938.  

A Bette Davis playbill.

Lovely sketches

Fancy a trip to the Cotton Club to see Duke Ellington after the play?

Look at all the action happening at the Stock Club..

Or maybe a trip to "old Hawaii"?

I'd love to have "tea" with these well dressed ladies.  Look at those hats!

Some more lovely ladies to have an afternoon luncheon with:

Who Needs Practicality?

Yes, I went back and bought the princess coat I mentioned here.  This was a coat that lingered and swirled about in my fashion thoughts.  Have you ever gone back and bought a vintage item?


The reason I didn't originally buy it is because of practicality. I've been trying to be a bit more practical with my clothing lately.  But, you know when you really find something that fits well and is just too beautiful, a symbol of 50s glamour, and reasonably priced you just gotta throw practicality to the wind.    I just might be sporting my new velvet princess coat to Target this winter:)      All I had is my phone camera so I couldn't get in the details of this coat I would have liked too.   I'll certainly be blogging more about this coat in the future.  It was (is) such a dream to wear.  This is what vintage is all about ladies, loving what you wear.

Below are just a few images from my phone camera as I was just so excited to share my very favorite vintage store.  I told the lady who worked there how lucky she was to be able to hear the stories and play dress up:)    I just love it!  The store is called Paris and it is located in Royal Oak.  I have some better photographs from my first visit on my non-phone camera that I will post in a future post.  The thing about Michigan is that vintage is pretty reasonably priced in the shops.  I've gotten some great things at reasonable prices.  I've always had a fondness for Royal Oak, even as a teenager.  It's a little oasis where you feel people can really express themselves.  There's a fun edginess about the place and there are also a lot of great places to eat.

                                      

Boy, I wanted this dress but it was too small. One day Mr. Mort, I'll find one that fits!  They said this one wouldn't even fit on the mannequin, I'm thinking it was for a teenage girl.  I would have bought it if it would have fit as Mr. Mort keeps eluding me.  I first heard about Mr. Mort when I saw an amazing dress and ad at CoutureAllure.   You all know how I just love to match ads to the real version.

 I am telling you I would have bought this dress below if someone else would not have beat me to it.  It also had a matching ad, totally up my alley.

Image Source: Couture Allure.

Back to the shop:

A Lilli Ann coat in white.  This was more of a swing coat and I prefer the princess coats and we all know white can be a difficult color but still very nice to see!

After a trip to pick up my dreamy velvet princess coat, I stopped into a chocolate shop with my son.

How cute are these chocolate shoes?  A total vintage vibe too!   They even had milk and dark chocolate polka dot shoes, my kinda chocolate.   They had them in small and also some large chunks of chocolate shaped as shoes that looked like they'd actually fit my feet.  They totally look like a 30s shoe! Isn't it funny how once you get a grasp on vintage fashion, you see it....?

Yep, chocolate, a grand coffee with whipped cream, and a velvet princess coat, what more could I ask for?  

Vogue 1949 Ready for Part II?

In my post here, I spoke about a bound volume of Vogue that I have from 1949.  I do have others so look to the future for more great fashion!  Browsing through 1949, there is certainly a lot of great fashion.  Below are some more images from this bound edition.  There is an article on Adrian in Africa and I just had to smile about a small Swirl article.

On with the show....

When I originally scanned this ad, I had no idea it was an Adrian gown.  Isn't it just amazing?  I'd love to dance around in this gown.

Just love Adrian!  Actually, considering all the different styles and dresses you see in ads there really isn't that much that you see today.  

I find it interesting that Eisenberg was also in the beauty market.  I'd love to smell one of their fragrances but I have yet to see an Eisenberg perfume for sale.  Here is a lipstick they once also sold...

Gotta have a Lilli Ann Ad!

Love this fabric.  Looking through these fashion magazines you also get a sense of the print style and fabrics used to make these beautiful dresses.

Love this dress with the matching hat.  It appears Dan River is a maker of fabric.  A good search tool for you vintage seamstresses.

Need a nice summer bag?

Jacques Fath casual, you really don't see this too often.

Check out this Swirl ad from 1949!  Normally you see them from the mid-50s.  I really like these styles.  

This expose is so funny! Read the fine print.  This lady is wearing a Swirl wrap dress.  The article talks about how she "only" has a household staff of one and she has to "share" the household work so she is wearing a Swirl.  I must admit this is a great Swirl dress!