Exercise
And one, and two, and kick, and kick….and three, and four….and SMILE….this if FUN! Like milk & cookies, mac & cheese, ice cream & hot fudge, what goes with Diet? EXERCISE! Back in the heyday of the handkerchief, the king of exercise was Jack La Lanne. Today people may chuckle at his stretch jumpsuit and pumped up “guns”, but he motivated thousands to get off the couch and into shape; and he lived to be 97. It was pneumonia that finally felled the workout master. As far back as 1936 La Lanne had a gym, juice bar and health food store in Oakland, CA. Doctors decried him as a...
Read MoreDiet
You can’t watch tv or listen to the radio the first few weeks in January without being deluged with diet programs of every kind. The tv show Biggest Loser promises to return “Bigger and Bolder” than ever – perhaps not the best choice of adjectives for a show on dieting. Even Jane Fonda has resurfaced in leotard and headband to teach AM/PM yoga. Yep, you can work out with her morning and night! Whether you planned to get into shape or not, you may be shamed into doing so. Calorie counting is nothing new, as these 1940’s and 50’s hankies will attest, although methinks they did it with a...
Read MoreHappy New Year
Oh dear, looks like this hapless chap may require a bit of “hair of the dog” to restore him to his former glory, or at the very least to an ‘upright and locked’ position. Note the wobbly-kneed stance so cleverly depicted by the four-footed stumble of our staggering celebrant. Or is it just our own double vision? If you’ve ever attempted to “party hearty” like this sad creature, your sympathies are with him, I’m sure. Aside: Hair of the Dog dates back to the time of Shakespeare, and is a term we use today to refer to treatment for a hangover. Apparently the Scots believed that a...
Read MoreZip Zap Zing it’s Christmas
If you’ve read our Hip Holiday review, you know that the hip 50’s jive and swingin’ 60’s cool influenced clothing, furnishings, lifestyles, and even tweaked the traditions of Christmas. Artists adopted a brave and vibrant palette that included zaps of hot pink, zips of turquoise, zings of chartreuse, and a zesty squeeze of lime and orange, topped with a zealous oomph of aluminum. Stores like Neiman Marcus and Lord &Taylor, ever vigilant in the hunt for “new” and “fresh” embraced the hues with gusto. To accommodate a range of consumers, retailers offered the gamut from...
Read MoreHip Holiday
Hip Holiday For most of us the holidays inspire images of sugarplums and gingerbread, homemade ornaments, sleigh rides, caroling, a crackling fire, and sipping cocoa while watching the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. We’re all aware the holidays can run the gamut from dreadful to divine, dashed hopes to dreams fulfilled and everything in between. From before the turn of the century, right up through the 1950’s one thing you could almost surely count on finding, beautifully boxed under the tree or tucked in the toe of your stocking, was a lovely handkerchief. Designs ran the gamut from...
Read MoreChild’s Christmas Hankie – Goldmine or Giggles?
There are literally thousands of Christmas handkerchiefs still in existence. Even when people defected to Kleenex, ladies often carried a lovely Christmas hankie in their purse. In addition, holiday hankies made the perfect gift for a teacher, aunt, neighbor, pastor’s wife, and all those to whom you wanted to say “Thank You” or “You’re Special.” Thus, most women often had a Christmas handkerchief or two, and since they were used only one or two weeks a year, they’ve lasted through the decades in great shape, including Christmas handkerchiefs for children. Today I chose to focus on an...
Read MoreThe Handkerchief as Alter Ego
Are you Adventuresome? Creative? Colorful? Fun Loving? Exciting? Or are you Demure and Shy? Serious and Studious? Classic and Refined? A Person of Mystery and Intrigue? In case you think I’m exaggerating the influence of the handkerchief on fashion,(see history) take a gander at this full page ad in the June 28, 1947 issue of The New Yorker. A full page was no small commitment, and it features – not a Mainbocher suit, Christian Dior gown or Lilly Daché hat, but a handkerchief. Yep. A simple square of cotton. And yet….it’s described as mad, witty and sophisticated! The subtext being of...
Read MorePucker Up
Hunters have known for decades that a red handkerchief can literally save your life. Conversely, a white handkerchief could spell your doom. When spotted from a distance, a fluttering white hankie can be mistaken for a deer’s tail, and a hunter dressed in camouflage, stifling a sniffle, may find himself the target of an eager bullet. The wise hunter always carries red. A hunter of “big game” of another sort – her trophies included Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Clark Gable, and Pepsi CEO Alfred Steele – was Oscar winner Joan Crawford. Legend has it that Ms. Crawford is responsible for...
Read MoreThe Grand Tour
“Study the past if you would define the future.” Confucius My friend Brad loves all things classically beautiful, and his gimlet eye selects only the best. In fact, his fine honed sensibilities have enabled him forge a successful business based on historical and vintage images. (see Cavallini & Co.) Curious and inquisitive, Brad instinctively searches archives and antique stalls to uncover the uncommon, unusual, and unique. So it really came as no surprise that when gifted with a set of antique intaglios, he wanted to know more. The plaster cameos were part of someone’s Grand Tour, I...
Read MoreA Charmed Life
To say Coreen Cordova is a colorful personality is an understatement. Her home, her design studio, her wardrobe, are all awash in brilliant hues that make you smile. Not surprisingly, she is also an Accidental Collector. Although some collectors find their passion and delve deeply in one area, there are others who find something fascinating in everything they see and touch. They’re explorers on a grand scale, often with multiple collections that reflect their grand curiosity. Coreen is an explorer extraordinaire. Before I show you her passion that became her profession, let’s peek inside...
Read MoreJazz it Up!
This week marks the grand opening of San Francisco’s new Jazz Center. As I write this, I’m listening to Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, and thinking about the recent loss of the late great Dave Brubeck. I used to listen to jazz with my dad. He adored Earl “Fatha” Hines and Ahmad Jamal, among others. Both were Philadelphia transplants who joined the Chicago jazz scene. We would listen to Dizzy Gillespie be-bop, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and others. The Dixieland sounds of Al Hirt, Pete Fountain and Louis Armstrong were also ever present. By the time we were through, Jamal’s Live at the...
Read MoreThe Handkerchief Flirt
“Flirting is a woman’s trade. One must keep in practice.” Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë Recently, I attended a graduation at Stanford as a guest, and found myself immersed in a throng of families, friends and parents of graduates at a reception. Many were alumni, and related tales of “when I went here…” or bemoaned the changes that inevitably come with time. One remark that caught my attention came from a grandfather with whom I’d been speaking earlier. Apparently he had met his sweetheart at college and later proposed at a landmark on the campus. “Kids today” he sighed, “have lost the art...
Read MoreThe Wedding Bouquet – Toss it or Keep it?
Ok, I’m being a bit facetious here because I’m not referring to the traditional bouquet toss, but rather to the current trend in bridal bouquets which makes me want to toss them to the curb. Rather than compliment the bride, today’s bouquets often make her look like she just breezed in from the farmer’s market. Of course styles and fashions constantly change, even when it comes to something as time-honored and traditional as a wedding dress. Bouquets used to consist of a cascade of flowers. The arrangement was formal and refined. Then in the 1970’s Age of Aquarius, things relaxed. Suits...
Read MoreBeam Me Up Scottie …..
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer; A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe, My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go. Robert Burns Pets of all varieties have adorned handkerchiefs throughout the years. The poodle is probably the most popular image, but the adorable Scottish Terrier appears frequently, scampering across everything from sporty handkerchiefs for men to hip and fashionable lipstick handkerchiefs for women to embroidered pups scampering around the border of a lady’s pocket handkerchief....
Read MoreGet Out the Vote
“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.” William E. Simon. As I write this, we’re closing in on the Presidential election for 2012, which is shackled by a polarized constituency, with little give and take on either side, according to the pundits and polls. Far from taking sides, I’m here to simply showcase the graphics which artists have employed over the years to depict party partisanship. Whether it’s a pack of galloping pachyderms or a band of braying donkeys, there’s plenty of hoopla to be enjoyed by all. In years past, when candidates made their...
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