A border of polka dots patterns colors from a Yahoo search for polka dots
INTRODUCTION
As much as I love plaid and check patterns, polka dots patterns will always bring great joy to my heart. For example, I will smile or even laugh whenever I see them or think about them. Therefore when I see clothes or home decor in polka dots, I find it irresistible to buy them.
Marilyn Monroe in a polka dots pattern two piece bathing suit
APPEAL
I was very curious to learn about the history of my beloved pattern since the only thing I knew about polka was a dance named the polka.
As a matter of fact, I wondered if there was any correlation between the two, the dance and the pattern.
Therefore, an online search should answer my question. But even before an answer to its history, I got side tracked.
It is undeniable that it has been very popular. Although one critic insisted that the pattern was childish, polka dots clearly have a much wider appeal than just to children.
The pose of Marilyn Monroe above in a two piece polka dots pattern bathing suit attests to the most outstanding quality of this pattern. That is its appeal to adults not just children. Similar to it is the appeal of the photo below of Victoria Silvstedt. Even more so, her polka dots bikini barely covers her.
MORE (OR LESS)
Strutting her stuff: Victoria Silvstedt, who has worked with top designers including Chanel, Christian Dior and Valentino, looked incredible in the bandeau bikini which did little to contain her assets.
“Strutting her stuff: Victoria Silvstedt, who has worked with top designers including Chanel, Christian Dior and Valentino, looked incredible in the bandeau bikini which did little to contain her assets.”
Quote from The Daily Mail
MUSIC
Let’s Have A Party Polka – Walter Ostanek, Brian Sklar and Western Senators – Polkarama! from Youtube.
HISTORY OF THE POLKA DOT PATTERN
The woman festooning polka dot hair scarves resembles ‘Rosie the Riveter. Is this a call for all women to wear polka dots?A History Pt. 1History Pt. 2History Pt. 3History Pt. 4History Pt. 5History Pt. 6
From PBS NewsHour: “At the Hirshhorn Museum, visitors are lining up to experience Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s world of whimsy, color, shapes and a peek into the beyond. Jeffrey Brown tells us why this new exhibit is currently the toughest ticket in Washington, D.C.”
CONCLUSION
A Simple polka dot pattern of yellow and Red from Wiki
“The nine decades of artist Yayoi Kusama’s life have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo, in a career in which she has continuously innovated and re-invented her style.” YouTube
Buffalo Check which is also known as Lumberjack Plaid is a mate to tartan plaid. Similar to the Royal Stewart tartan plaid, the former is equally as popular. Just about anything that looks good in Royal Stewart looks great in this pattern, too.
Whichever you call it, it is one of my favorites and a very popular pattern. Getty image.
HISTORY
Historically, this pattern could include clothing, then bedding, now handbags and other items. Here’s a great story from Tartan Authority describing its history.
It’s Origin Part 1History Part 2History Part 3Bee & Willow sheets available at Bed Bath & Beyond
MORE OF THIS PATTERN
Continuing on from its Indian blanket trading history, it became a pattern for a man’s shirt. This design has been popularized on many items. Here is a sampling of its use in bedding above and then in a woman’s handbag below.
Royal Stewart Plaid Kilt from the Scottish Kilt Shop
12538 Basque Pl Woodbridge VA 22192 USA
INTRODUCTION
My plaid passion began sometime in my youth although I can’t say exactly when. But plaid has been a favorite pattern of mine as far back as I can remember.
My earliest memory may have just been the pattern itself. But there is no question that I soon developed a taste for anything with it.
I had clothes, a jacket and tartan plaid sheets and towels. My mother even had a plaid bathrobe.
But it was not until I was an adult that I learned about the Scottish plaids that represented the clans. They proudly wore the tartan and it was not just for decoration.
I later learned that there are many different tartan plaids as well as plaids that are unrelated to Scottish clans.
The Vermont Country Store is where you can get all kinds of plaid sheets and other bedding to your heart’s content
There are two types of plaid that I love. They are tartans plaid and lumberjack plaid aka buffalo check. The former come from the clans that wove this fabric and made their garments from these ancestral patterns.
This toddler’s dress is in the Royal Stewart Dress plaid. It is by George and available on Poshmark.
Their history is described here in this post. In addition, images above focuses on bedding and clothes in the Royal Stewart tartan plaid while images for lumberjack plaid aka buffalo check are on the next blog post.
CONTINUE
My plaid passion has never worn out. In fact to this day, I have found a new object for my love of plaid, handbags. I don’t think I ever owned a plaid one. But that is about to change. Searching online, I have discovered an abundance of plaid handbags. This actually includes those made out of wool and cotton. Then there are my outstanding favorites, patent leather plaid.
This is an outstanding example of a patent leather plaid handbag found on poshmark.
Although the above handbag is not in a traditional plaid, it is still beautiful. Here is a tote that is in a traditional Stewart plaid.
This tote was found on Etsy and is decorated in Stewart plaid.
It is a well known fact in the fashion industry that haute couture can only be afforded by the very wealthy. Thanks to the world of ‘knock-off’ fashion, the extraordinary becomes affordable. Therefore, this blog post provides some really surprising financial examples of this in the handbag industry.
Anne Hathaway’s famous blue sweater that Meryl Streep lectures her about in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
As Meryl Streep deliberately explains to Ann Hathaway in, ‘The Devil Wears Prada‘, the extraordinary births the ordinary. Meryl Streep describes the origins of a shabby blue sweater that Anne Hathaway is wearing. Its history is from glamorous haute cuttiere. Anne Hathaway is totally oblivious to this. At this stage in the movie, Anne has no idea that the the ordinary is inspired by the extraordinary.
WILD ABOUT HANDBAGS
Although I am not devotee of high fashion clothing, I am wild about handbags. Therefore I have been studying the world of glamour in this industry. One of my favorite companies is Rebag. I have been introduced to luxury handbags through their social media and website. This adds to the knowledge I already have to what I consider affordable quality handbags including Coach, Dooney and Bourke, and Kate Spade.
Luxury Gingham bag on left and two less expensive bags to its right
HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS
Since I have only been able to encounter handbags in the hundreds in person, I can only surmise the difference in the cost of those in the thousands.
My favorite Coach vintage bag is called the Willis bag. Because it is a classic, variations of it have been made over many decades. A recent version, in green, and two original designs are pictured below.
They are all high quality Coach products but their age can impact the price by several hundred dollars. Due to its rarity, the vintage Willis is about twice the cost of the new one.
Three Coach Willis bags are pictured here. The green one is the latest version. Photo from Coach. The two on the right are classic version. Photos from Etsy.
THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS
I had no idea that there were handbags that were more expensive than new automobile or even a house. Even those designer bags have imitators or want-to-be handbags. The designer bags include the Hermes Birkin bags which are six and seven figures. Their inspired versions cost a few hundred retail like the totes from Coach and Kate Spade.
Three pink totes ranging from nearly a $1 million Hermes Birkin Bag, a five figure Prada bag to a Coach tote on sale for about $100.
WHIMSICAL
Both very expensive and less expensive handbag companies make whimsical purses. Great whimsy inspires affordability. The most famous of this is Judith Leiber handbags. They are very whimsical as well as expensive. In similar fashion, Kate Spade came out with its frog bag. The former retails for a few hundred dollars. The latter goes for between about $5,000.
A Kate Spade Wicker Frog Bag next to A Judith Leiber Frozen Marguerita Clutch. The Judith Leiber is over 10 times as expensive as the Kate Spade bag.
ALMOST TWINS
These two totes are so similar. In fact, I took a double take when I discovered the Burberry Remington tote. It’s hard to believe that it can cost up to five times as much as the Kate Spade on the right when this designer ‘knock’ goes on sale.
Two bags that look so similar. The Burberry on the left can be five times as expensive as the Kate Spade on the right when it goes on sale.
GUESS WHICH BRAND THIS ONE IS
Sometimes the affordable bags are so well made that one can’t tell the difference between luxury, ‘working girl designer’ (like Coach and Kate Spade) or a total ‘knock off’. This example is from the best knock off company I have found. If you’re curious, the answer is in the Sources and Resources section.
Guess which brand this is. The answer is in Sources & Resources.
CONCLUSION
As a handbag collector and flea market stalker, I am always on the prowl for that special but accessible bag that the seller is practically giving away. Wouldn’t it be great if someone was selling an extraordinary purse for next to nothing. That is my dream. So I continue to search and collect in the hope my dream comes true.
What is installation art? Do art installations interest you? Without intention, I have created several art installation projects. Read about them in this blog post.
My collection of vintage enamel kitchenware is too old and fragile to use. As a decorative collection, it becomes installation art.
Because I have collected and created so many small to medium sized 3D objects, I have had several options of what to do with them:
1. Box them for storage
2. organized them in bigger collectibles
2. Sell them
3. Display them individually
4. Use thm
5. Create art installation projects.
In this post, I focus on the fifth option, installation art. In fact the only way everything I collect and love has a home is because I create art installations of them.
LOVELY TO LOOK AT
A Wall of Purses are gems individually and an art installation as a group
If I can’t resist, I can still take these purses off the wall and wear them one at a time. But I would rather look at them all at one time.
TAKE YOUR HAT OFF TO INSTALLATION ART
I love to wear hats. Over a century ago, when all women wore hats that were very fashionable and voluminous at that. Care and storage were a challenge. Hat boxes were essential, indeed. But they took up so much room. Those hats did not need to be part of art installations. They were installations, themselves. My Great Grandmother Annie Laber (1877-1935) in her finery.
So I created a new take on accessible hat storage and selection. This way I can choose at a moments notice which to wear for the day and which to hang up. But let’s go back just for a moment to over a century ago to what my Great Grandmother Annie Laber wore when she wore her finery. Here’s a place to hang your hats when you’re not wearing them but you want to show them off. This was originally a plant stand.
A MINI INSTALLATION Imagine this ten time bigger and an installation one could walk around and even enter like a magic bus.
Irresistible small items that imagine themselves into a mini installation.
When I start to gather these mini treasures, then put them together, I never know what whimsy will emerge.
This piece started as a small metal box, was decorated with whatever I could gather at the time. it is so much fun.
I wish I could make it ten times bigger. Imagine the size of a real magic bus big enough to sit it, enjoy the song magic bus, and capture to true meaning of an art installation.
My designer purse gems were not difficult for me to select from my rather large collection of favorite designer and style bags. Some are on my studio wall to provide a decorative view of this room. Others decorate my bedroom, and the rest are housed in their own cabinet. Four of my designer purse gems are featured in this blog post. Indeed these four are my favorites even though I have many others that I love.
For example, I own about a dozen Coach bags. These and others purses are the ones that serve as decoration on my studio wall. They are all still usable as pocketbook. They are truly my designer purse gems.
This wall displays most of my Coach Bag collection as well as others and is the view on my studio wall
My Gems
From the above and other purses that I have collected, there are four that are the absolute gems. The images below or either from my own collection or from the companies themselves. How I wish you could see them and touch them. Maybe one day, they will all be in a design museum or a handbag collection in a interdisciplinary one. Museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art, also in New York and The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Then you will able to see them in person.
These are pictures of the bags that I posses or similar ones to my own. From left to right, Coach original Wills bag, new Coach Willis 18 bag, Dooney & Bourke teton bag, and the Furla round bag.
Public Gems
Did you know that there are other museums that do house outstanding everyday objects of superior design? Well, there are. Even though some of my bags are design to last ‘forever’, I hope that as many people as possible will be able to enjoy them by experiencing them. Then my designer purse gems, will be your design purse gems, too.
The banner for Dooney & Bourke All Weather leather bags blog.
THE DUCK BRAND
the famous vintage style ‘All Weather Leather’ duck bag is captured here.
Acquiring an ‘all weather leather’ Dooney & Bourke bag started my collection. That is because a D & B bag was the ideal way to dress on rainy days and fun vintage bag days. So began my collecting. But it did not last forever.
Although this company had it purse beginnings in all weather leather, it have moved on to other styles and materials. When they moved on, I moved on as well.
But their all weather leather is still my favorite Dooney & Bourke. That’s why I want to focus this post on ‘their duck bag’.
Their original styles can sometimes be found on sites like ebay and Pinterest
MEMORIES
The bag shown below is similar to the very first one I ever owned. It was my first step into designer bags. From there, my story continues.
A New Vintage Dooney & Bourke Handbag found on ebay
COLLECTING QUALITY LEATHER PURSES
As I mentioned, my first love was Dooney & Bourke. Coach had not introduced vibrant color yet. Therefore I gravitated to the colorful ‘all weather leather’ that caught my eye when I began collecting. Because of the vibrant, colorful design of all the bags I bought, the one below has always been my favorite. It was the teton bucket purse style.
I found so many picture of ‘All Weather Leather’ Bags when I was researching this post. To be thorough, I am including this image from ebay.
Images of some of the Dooney & Bourke vintage bags that are available on ebay.
Traveling Coach Style is a very fun and pleasant ways to coordinate a purse with an outfit. As a connoisseur of fine leatherware, I gifted myself a new purse each birthday for many years. In fact, the brand has either been a Coach or a Dooney & Bourke.
Above is the blurb about Coach on their Yahoo page. Note the Coach logo in the top right
Each company has a long history of quality leather goods. Although they both use primarily leather and fabric, their results are uniquely recognizable. So whether one is ‘traveling coach style’ or in ‘all weather leather’, with these products, it is always with fashion in mind.
The original logo of a duck representing the Dooney & Bourke brand of all weather leather.
I have not always been able to afford the latest and newest creation of my favorite leather goods. Since our budget has changed dramatically in recent years, I have become a frequenter of thrift stores. I am always on the lookout for great buys. In this category I have found many.
Rebag is newest, hippest, most affordable ways to acquire re(used) luxury handbags.
In fact, I recently discovered Rebag, re(used) purses that are not just for the shabby. They are very chic but less expensive than to buy them new.
For your viewing pleasure, future posts about this topic will feature pictures of great designs, colorful bags, and some of my very own favorites. Keep reading these fun fashion posts, to find out my most desired bag for my upcoming birthday.
Here’s are illustrations of early Coach bags. When was the Coach Company founded and who designed their early bags?
QUIZ
To answer this Coach quiz question, ‘when was the Coach Company founded and who designed their early bags’?, or comment on this post, scroll to the very bottom of the page and engage in Disqus. If you do not find Disqus, click on the ‘continue reading’ box on the right hand side to reveal it.
Superior home entertainment activities have become my favorite social distancing pastime during the COVID pandemic. In order for me to participate in this luxury of domestic and foreign films, series, and documentaries, I need the following:
1. entertainment equipment (a computer or smart TV)
2. streaming venue subscriptions
3. access to individual films and series
Details about equipment may be featured in a post at some future date. But this post focuses specifically on information about streaming venues. It highlights individual films, series, and actors, especially. Therefore, a group of our favorite entertainment selections happens to be the primary focus of this blog post.
ENTERTAINMENT EQUIPMENT
Samsung Neo QLED
In fact, I was reminded of this when I posted about home entertainment on my my Facebook page recently. I wrote, “What’s on my mind this morning? Did you know that my husband, Phillip Jacobs and I are huge film and TV drama series fans?” We even have a Facebook page devoted to this topic, Streaming Choices by Alison. Now we offer this blog post, too.
STREAMING VENUES
Our two primary venues are Netflix and Prime. Occasionally, we will watch something on Youtube or stumble upon another streaming venue.
The Netflix and Prime logos
OUR CURRENT FAVORITES LIST
As part of this new pastime, many of our choices are off the beaten path of mainstream entertainment. For this reason, they may not be foremost in your memory. Actually, some actors and selections may be unknown to regular movie goers. To me, this is what makes our topic fun, even unique. As a result, choices may expose readers to a whole new world of superior home entertainment options. Immediately below is a montage of non-clickable links.
This is a montage of unlinked images of our current selections of superior home entertainment choices. Clickable links are available from individual entries.
11. Lifetime Acting Achievement Award James Gandolfini
Although best known by far for his award winning role in the Sopranos, Down the Shore, is a little known film that we found very appealing. The story itself will surprise you.
CONCLUSION
So, there you have it. Some of our favorites. Their inclusion has no rhyme or reason. In fact, we just love them. To illustrate their diversity, we have included American selections and International selections. Besides that, there are contemporary choices and classic choices. As you can see, our choices are from a broad range of options.
If you have others favorites, please let me know in the comments area at the very bottom of this post. But remember this, please do not labor over your choices. In fact, you should be spontaneous. In other words, from the heart not the intellect. Mention just the ones you love.
Butcher ‘rock star’ Jonel Picioane proudly poses in his Ridgewood European Pork Store for The Bushwick Daily. The is located in Ridgewood Queens since the 1930’s. This write up is for The Bushwick Daily.
INTRODUCTION
The Ridgewood European Pork Store transcends modern-day food. It is, in fact, an endangered species. It is located in what was originally an eastern European neighborhood. Amazingly, the store was born in the 1930s with very few changes in ownership and products.The Ridgewood European Pork Store looking similar to the way it did when it first opened in the 1930s. Photo from Yelp.
ARTISAN FOOD
Technically homemade meat products like it had in 1930s US and Europe fill much of the store today. Artisan is the new name that has been given to this type of food. This term represents foods made in small batches, made often for freshness, and traditionally-prepared to taste as it originally did. Artisan is a new word for old-time goodness. Here is a definition for artisan food from Wikipedia
FOOD THAT TAKES US BACK IN TIME
There is an entire movement of Artisan Food. We crave food the way it used to taste, free of preservative for long shelf lives. We want it homemade with a focus on quality, not quantity, wrapped in butcher paper, not vacuum sealed plastic-wrapped. There was time when speed of preparation rather than taste was the priority. But things have changed. We want slow food. We want to go back in time.
FOOD TODAY WITH A TASTE FOR YESTERDAY
Owner Jonel , the rockstar butcher, at work at his butcher shop. Photo from The Bushwick Daily.
CONCLUSIOIN
I haven’t had a chance to visit the European Pork Store yet. But it is on my list of things I want very much to do. Even though I am not much of a world traveler, I love to travel the world and its history within my own world.
