The Value of Vintage: Mainbocher

It was curious during my unplanned hiatus to watch as the various aspects of blogging persisted and then fell away.  In early October, I lay out the green wardrobe of the month and even snapped a photo of it.  Prompted by a comment made by Susan Tiner, I was reading a biography of Diana Vreeland, a person she said I reminded her of.  I dressed in the planned outfits and snapped photos of a few.  On days I was too glum or busy to snap an outfit-of-the-day photo, I promised myself I would recreate them.  That never happened.

Initially, I had thought that Susan was referring to something about Vreeland's physical presence.  I was tall.  I had a long horsey face.  But as I read, I found myself identifying with the life story itself--her sense of living on a financial edge at times, her flamboyance.  I made a note or two about a couple of designers I had never heard of before.  One was a person named Mainbocher, known in the 60s for understated elegance.

DH and I continued to thrift shop.  I was highly aware that the shopping was therapeutic, a habit I thought I had left behind in my early 20s.  I tend to shop completely from the gut and as this year of intensive thrifting has progressed there has been less and less that my wardrobe "needs."  I come across designer items all the time that though I admire them and see the value in them, I increasingly have left behind.  When I grabbed this jacket, it was simply because I LIKED it.

Imagine my surprise when I went to our coat closet late one afternoon in October, leaving to go teach an evening class, to grab this jacket and realize that I actually owned a vintage piece of Mainbocher!  My eyes did a double-take.  Initially, I thought this isn't possible; there is no lining in the jacket.  But it hangs well and is in good condition.  Poor DH had to listen to me babble about my "find" for a long time.  For the first time I wondered how vintage dealers attach a value to things like this.

My sense is that Mainbocher has not been in business since the early 1970s, when he closed his NY salon.   In 1934 Mainbocher introduced the boned strapless bodice, and before the war forced him to leave Paris, a waist cincher, forming tiny waisted, pleated and skirted dresses that presaged Dior's postwar New Look.

He is known for designing Wallis Simpson's grayish-blue wedding dress as well as her trousseau in 1937.   In New York, as in Paris, Mainbocher's clientele (always referred to as friends) were drawn from the most elite echelons of society. Gloria Vanderbilt, Diana Vreeland, C.Z. Guest and Babe Paley were among his New York clients. Due to a policy of accepting new clients only through personal recommendation, Mainbocher's salon was known as the most exclusive in New York City.

How, then, did this little jacket find its way into my hands?  I have since passed it along to my daughter P.   But can any of my readers tell me how vintage dealers evaluate their finds?

Return of Rags

When I last posted I was heading into mid-terms and fully expected my absence might last 10 days to two weeks.  Perhaps I should have taken my hot curlers' demise as a sign that I would not return as soon as I thought.  The college's annual literary festival fell at the tail end of this period and I lay out the clothes and dressed in the greens I'd scheduled and even snapped a few outfit photos.  You'll find snaps of these at my new Tumblr account.

In mid-October, I learned of the untimely death of a mentor from early in my career.  She had struggled with cancer for the past five years.  This was on my mind as we finalized contract negotiations for the faculty for the coming year.  I had been aware that these negotiations were more contentious than any I've experienced in my 20+ years with the college.  Somehow, I had known they would eventually become so since August of 2008 when the recession first hit.  DH & I have positioned ourselves in preparation for this.  But, when administration continued to balk at the eleventh hour, continuing to insist on what was basically a 38% reduction in pay, I was speechless and furious.

It was a mentally unhealthy place to be, and even worse, I did not feel free to discuss any of it with my circle of friends at Rags.  Our college does not have a clear policy about social media.  I found myself seriously considering early retirement as I do/did not want to spend the remainder of my teaching career contending over a shrinking pie.  Even now, as I explain all this, I can feel my blood pressure rising.

I took a curious comfort in following the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Vicariously, I felt that they were fighting the battle I could not fight In the workplace or on the blog.  In fact, one Sunday, DH & I drove to our local Occupy KC, which had taken up residence across from the Federal Reserve near this sculpture.  In some ways, this only compounded my anger.  While all eight of our children have a job of some sort, I worry about their future, their opportunities.  I tried to focus on aspects of my life I felt I did have some control over.  I practiced deep breathing and tried to make life pleasant for our grandson.

By mid-November, a compromise contract had been agreed upon.  Both sides had budged and I felt I had something I could live with for the next year or so of my career.  But by then I had been politicized.  My sophomore composition students did research papers built upon a unit of readings having to do with "Money and Success."  They told me that even to find a minimum wage job nowadays, one must be pursuing some sort of education and that for any job they must pass a drug test.  I found their persistent belief in the "American  Dream" very, very touching.  They refused to look very hard at thirty year trends toward income inequality.

I never stopped thinking about what I've done here with Rags.  I DO have an interest in fashion and style.  I DO have an interest in frugality.  I do have an interest in presenting myself professionally, and in being intellectually provocative.  A personal style blog is hardly the place to discuss my existential crises or my personal politics, but if I'm going to resume I felt I did owe all my 'followers' a bit of explanation.

I've missed you in mighty, mighty ways.  I have appreciated all of the e-mails and Christmas greetings and tweets.  Here's to a new year and a new beginning.