Red Bandana
THE RED BANDANA One Sunday morning in 1984, a young boy of seven named Welles Crowther, having been gifted with his very first suit, enlisted help from his dad to tie his necktie. As his father knelt before him, the boy noticed a crisply folded pocket square in his father’s breast pocket and asked “What’s that? Can I have one of those?” In response, his father retreated to his bedroom and returned with two hankies. The white one he carefully folded and tucked in his son’s breast pocket, explaining it was “for show.” The second hankie, a crimson bandana, was “for blow” said his dad, to be...
Read MoreLove and Marriage
For some, true love is their heart’s desire, the prize they seek. For others, romance is merely a prelude to the main event – marriage! The ultimate, nonpareil, pinnacle of achievement. Hmmmm. With success rates hovering at 48% for first marriages, 33% for second marriages and a grim 27% for third marriages, one wonders about those convinced they can beat the odds. Perhaps they’re just incurable romantics. These handkerchiefs reflect the era when marriage was considered the zenith, the ultimate victory in the world of love. Yet, the artists are well aware that romance, for some, is akin to...
Read MoreRoad to Romance
So many flirtations, assignations, and secret trysts have commenced with the flutter of a handkerchief, it’s no surprise that hundreds of hankies carry images of amour. Naturally roses and romance go hand in hand, with many a suitor gifting everything from hand embroidered bouquets To dazzling displays of bonbons bursting from a bevy of blossoms. An elaborately draped blackamoor displays a stunning bouquet sent by a suitor with the card “see you tonight.” His boutonniere matches the bouquet, providing a subtle reminder throughout the evening of his adoration. Our...
Read MoreAnimal Magnetism
For the cynic who says love is for the birds – you’re absolutely right! In this hankie everyone from the cuckoo to the dodo, the parrot to the nighthawk have something to squawk about, while an ermine robed Queen Bee holds court center stage. I doubt this hankie will satiate an endlessly inquisitive child, but then, the birds and bees chestnut has always been mostly an escape hatch for flustered parents, leaving kids more baffled and befuddled than before. “Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it; let’s fall in love.” Let’s Fall in Love, 1933 by Harold Arlen and...
Read MoreThe Music of Romance
From stolen kisses to secret rendezvous, scenarios are endless when it comes to matters of the heart, yet all seem to share one common denominator – the power of music to express the inexpressible, to enfold the heart and move the soul. Victor Hugo opined “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” Music can transport us to either the apex of joy or nadir of despair like nothing else can. It moves both body and soul, compelling us to literally dance with joy when we’re in love. The 1935 musical “Top Hat” encourages one to “do the Piccolino with...
Read MoreWords of Love
Alex William’s New York Times article The End of Courtship could bring the most optimistic romantic to tears. The accompanying graphic depicts 16 millennials sitting at a bar, all sending and reading texts. Eye contact between patrons is Zero. Zip. Nada. Yet the messages they’re reading include “Join me for breakfast?” “Steamy spa night @ 11 p.m.” and “You in? 2am my place for some hot mac and cheese.” Courtship today consists of “Hey” or “Sup?” (Sounds the Fonz; yet even he knew courting required meeting the girl at her doorstep and escorting her home.) According to Williams, one woman who...
Read MoreRitva Coffron – the Joie de Vivre Artist
A Ritva Coffron handkerchief can’t help but make you smile. Light and playful, cheerful and heartwarming, Coffron designs welcome you with joyful exuberance. Like many staff artists who worked for a corporation, Coffron’s work went unsigned, and we might never have discovered her identity without the help of her niece Marja. Luckily, Marja found this blog, and generously shared her handkerchief collection and stories about her aunt. As we know, some textile designers like Tammis Keefe, Carl Tait, or Tom Lamb, had exclusives for their designs with large retailers – B. Altman, Neiman...
Read MoreShakespeare in the Park
Summer spells surrender – to long sultry days, balmy twilights and star studded evenings. It’s a time to indulge not only in the pleasure of being outdoors, but perhaps even delight in the brilliance of a Shakespearean play. It’s gratifying to see people lining up for Shakespeare in the Park tickets before Central Park opens at 6:00 a.m. People know a good thing when they see it! From comedy to tragedy, to history, it’s all there for the taking. Comedy Tragedy History All’s Well That Ends Well As You Like It Comedy of Errors Love’s Labour’s Lost Measure for Measure...
Read MoreArtist’s View of New York
“London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.” Dorothy Parker Just hearing the words New York conjures up more images than the mind can hold – from Wall Street to Park Avenue, Broadway to Central Park – the people, the pace, the passion – it’s all overwhelming. How could anyone attempt to capture the magic of the Big Apple in a simple handkerchief? Yet a select few have managed to portray the crackle and pop, the magnetism that is “the City”. Artists Carl Tait and Tammis...
Read MoreNew York, New York
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” Tom Wolfe From the Statue of Liberty to the Brooklyn Bridge, the Flatiron Building to the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square to Grand Central Station, The Empire State Building to Rockefeller Center…my, oh my… Washington Park to Central Park, St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the Ground Zero Memorial, from outdoor movies to outdoor murals, to ice skating in Central Park… if you can’t find it in New York… it probably doesn’t exist. Where else can you find a Christmas tree 100 feet tall topped by a...
Read More1939 New York World’s Fair
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” Tom Wolfe The 1939-40 World’s Fair celebrated the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington, which took place in New York City, the original first capital of the nation. Declared “everyman’s fair” it was designed to “show the most promising developments of production, service and social factors of the present day.” From this arose the slogan “Building the World of Tomorrow.” Covering 1,216 acres in Flushing Meadows, the fair stretched for 3.5 miles. On opening day, 206,000...
Read MoreHollywood Stars
Having recently featured heavenly stars as viewed by astrologers, we now turn our attention to stars as viewed by Hollywood. It’s an apt analogy, since MGM used to boast their studio contained “More stars than there are in the heavens.” Three MGM stars – Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy appeared together in the top grossing movie of 1936, San Francisco. In the movie, Blackie Norton (Gable), a Barbary Coast saloonkeeper hires impoverished but talented singer Mary Blake (MacDonald) to sing in his Paradise Club, and soon falls in love with her. Mary’s skill is quickly...
Read MoreThe Art of Astrology
The soul of the newly born baby is marked for life by the pattern of the stars at the moment it comes into the world, unconsciously remembers it, and remains sensitive to the return of configurations of a similar kind.” Johannes Kepler, Harmonies of The World Whether you’re astronomer Johannes Kepler, physicist Stephen Hawking, or just a stargazer admiring the heavens on a warm summer evening, the vast velvet vault overhead twinkling with constellations has captured man’s imagination for centuries. Whether a fiery gold harvest moon or icy silver sisters of the Pleiades, the firmament...
Read MoreThe Personalities of Astrology
“We are born at a given moment, in a given place, and like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more.” Carl Gustav Jung The topic of personality is endlessly fascinating, and is thus an extremely popular topic for handkerchiefs. Add the element of astrology, and you have a foolproof conversation starter, regardless of whether you’re pro or con on the topic. A Zodiac hankie allows a woman to flatter a man by elaborating on his positive traits. It’s fascinating to watch a curmudgeon convert to...
Read MoreBirthday Cards
“A good man measures his life not in the number of his years, but in the quality of his friends.” Todd Stocker As we learned in our first birthday blog, a popular custom in years past (and for some of us, still today 🙂 ) has been to tuck a hankie in a card to say Congratulations and Many Happy Returns. A handkerchief card from Millie to her sister Flo in 1935 Other fun gifts to receive were “secret message” handkerchiefs, much like we saw in our Secret Love Valentine handkies. The message is revealed when the handkerchief is folded. Many handkerchiefs were designed to unfold...
Read MoreJoin the Conversation
