Let's See Those Novelty Prints

[Katydid]

A novelty print on a late 1940s "Countess Mara" necktie:

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Marc, I love this tie. Very fun! And yes, all the faces in the second are a bit creepy. Have any more you'd like to share?

 

[Katydid]

Hi Ladies,

I have bought fabric from fashionfabricsclub.com and I am pleased with it. I bought some green rayon, and a couple flower prints similiar to what Daisy described. The only thing about them was that it took over a week for the fabric to get to me in the mail. But overall, it is worth it since the selection is better than Jo-Ann's.

I would even say two weeks is worth it! I'm glad you liked the fabric. I've been eyeing the site for a while and my birthday is coming up so I have a feeling that about $150 is getting blown on fabric. I'm getting sad seeing the patterns piling up instead of finished garments.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

. Have any more you'd like to share?

You bet I do, Katy ... Thanks for asking!

I'm a vintage tie nut, so here goes nothing ...



The left one is French, from around 1950. The one at right is made of Hawaiian shirt rayon:

Here's a spiderweb rayon brocade from the 1930s. If you look closely, you'll see a tiny spider in the middle of each web:

Here's a silk print from a 1950 Brazilian tie, celebrating that year's World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. It shows the Sugar Loaf mountain and the "Maracana", Rio's garguantuan soccer stadium:

I especially like the 1930s Deco seahorse design in middle tie:

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[BonnieJean]

Love those ties!

Marc,
I'm sure this has been posted over on the guys' threads, but my husband has recently started collecting 30s ties. He found a really nice hand-painted one and now he's on the hunt for more. Were most of the ties of the era hand-painted? Sometimes I see ties out on my "haunts", but hesitate to buy any because I'm just not sure of the period. Hubby says a lot of them were unlined and made of silk or rayon, is that correct? He had thought they were skinnier than modern ties until he started watching 1930s movies closer and realized that there were both wider and narrower ties then. I'm just confused about the whole thing. So, if I see a tie with similar novelty prints as you have posted, should I consider it a vintage tie or are they re-bopping them too?

 

[Katydid]

Marc, I think the first two are definitely my favorite. The French one is very quaint and I love the print on the Hawaiian one. The spiderwebs....well, let's just say that I would religiously spray every single corner, doorway, nook, and cranny of my apartment in college, determined to erradicate every spider before he even thought of setting up house. Evil spiders!:rage:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I'm just confused about the whole thing.

Handpainted ties were popular in the U.S. from 1945 until the early '50s. A lot were sold, and I'd say that about 10% of the vintage '40s ties that have survived are handpainted. Some of the airbrushed ones go for lots of money (in the hundreds of $$$); handpainted (or printed) ties with nudes tend to be expensive, too.

You're husband is right: rayon ties were extremely popular in the '30s and '40s, and are easily found today.

As for tie widths, most ties from the '30s are about 3.5 inches wide; some are a little bit less. Most ties from the '40s to the early/mid '50s are about 4 inches wide, though some are 4.5 inches or more. Ties from the mid '50s to about 1960 tend to be 3 inches wide at most; some are only 2 inches. From 1960 to about 1967, they were as narrow as 1 inch. Then, in the late '60s, ties widened out and became thicker (heavy polyester material and/or heavy lining) and longer. This new trend lasted until the late '70s, when Disco and New Wave called for narrower clothing dimensions.

Perhaps the best I can do is offer you and your husband a visual education. You can see ties from my collection in the following link. Most of them are from the 1930s; the ones with bigger and wilder geometric prints tend to be from the '40s:


http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g276/marcchevalier/ChevaliersVintageTies/?start=0

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g276/marcchevalier/ChevaliersVintageTies/?start=20

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g276/marcchevalier/ChevaliersVintageTies/?start=40

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g276/marcchevalier/ChevaliersVintageTies/?start=60



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[Miss Neecerie]

OK Folks, hold on tight while this thread moves to General Attire, since it now is not an exclusively Powder Room type of thread.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Evil spiders!:rage:

No kidding. Spiderweb designs popped up quite a bit in '20s and '30s fabrics. Must have been the influence of silent film vamps

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[Marc Chevalier]

No need, Miss Neecerie; I'll bow out. Didn't mean to do anything wrong.

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[Katydid]

No need, Miss Neecerie; I'll bow out. Didn't mean to do anything wrong.

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I think she killed the thread.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

I adore novelty prints and love to snatch up dresses with cute prints!

This is one of my recent purchases:

I also just bought another dress with a Hawaiian musical theme.

Some of my other favorite otherinclude this one, along with ladies walking in the park and a circus theme:

 

[Katydid]

oooooh I love the music notes. Did you get the second one off ebay? I think I saw somthing like that.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Yes, I did--I adore the print of that one

 

[jitterbugdoll]

My Hawaiian novelty print dress: