Hello friends,
I know I haven’t been present online very much lately, and I want to get personal for a minute so you don’t think I’ve abandoned you. The past two years have been pretty rough, mostly because of severe perimenopause symptoms and because I can’t take hormone replacement therapy due to a person risk and a family history of breast cancer. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been physically exhausted and struggling emotionally. I don’t want you to think I’ve disappeared–it’s just another transition to a different life stage that I’m managing as well as I can, some days better than others. So I’m still here, I promise, and spring patterns are in the works. I’ve just been more silent on social media as a result of these challenges.
But let’s move to the fun part, shall we? I feel like we all need a little diversion, especially in the middle of the stressful lead-up to the holidays. I’m not a fan of the stress and the emphasis on consumerism, so I’m going to skip any sort of gift guide and share a few books and podcasts that I’ve enjoyed lately. Hopefully they’ll give you a little respite and pleasure.
I can’t remember where I came across this book, but long after finishing, it keeps coming back to my mind. I highly recommend it. Journalist Julie Satow profiles three women who were hugely influential and powerful influences in the fashion industry, each of them in a different way. Here’s the description from the publisher about When Women Ran Fifth Avenue.
“In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband’s department store as a housewife and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II–before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies–becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store and inspired a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers as well as decades of copycats.”
I loved the section about Bendel’s especially, since it was such a big part of the retail landscape in NYC until it closed. I wish stores like it still existed today!
Claire McCardell was truly one of the most influential American designers, and her influence continues to be under-recognized despite her many accomplishments. I think of her like an American Coco Chanel, introducing the world to practical yet fashionable women’s clothing using available fabrics not previously considered for women’s clothing like denim and mattress ticking when other fabrics were restricted by war shortages. She made ballet flats, wrap dresses, and leggings part of our wardrobes, and her independent thinking gave us pockets and comfortable silhouettes instead of more traditional restrictive clothing. Her refreshingly practical perspective made American sportswear a viable option at a time when the fashion industry studiously copied everything coming out of Paris. I find her fearless independence really inspiring, and this account of her struggles and successes is both fascinating and inspiring. I think you’ll enjoy Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free.
These two books blend together in my mind, since these women must have crossed paths and (in my imagination, at least) influenced each other in their independence and bravery. Two books to get you thinking, for sure!
If you’re like me and enjoy a good blog or audio book when you sew, you might appreciate the Dressed podcast. Hosted by two fashion historians, each episode is an interesting deep dive into a designer or an era. I especially enjoyed the recent discussions on Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velasquez (I recently bought the book, too!).
So with that, I hope you have a more relaxing lead-up to the holidays! And if you have any additional recommendations, please feel free to share!