Sharing my pieces from my vintage archive ....
For a long time I've been meaning share some of my vintage clothing collection that has given me so much inspiration over the years. It's significantly smaller than it was and mainly dates from the 1950s and before.
Last weekend I spend Easter Sunday wandering the hundreds of stalls at the Bath and West Flea Market. Anna and I met up and bought a very large quantity of ribbons, I found an perfect Morris chair for our house which matches my Grandad's and at the end of the day I found this collar.
I have to share it because it's one of the most beautiful and intricate pieces of seed beading I have ever seen. In keeping with our Broderie Anglaise collection, this looks like it was based on very fine embroidered cotton lawn with oval eyelets. Then each oval has been embellished with fine opaque white rows of seed beads.
I'm not 100% sure of the age, the collar and cuffs are cut pilgrim style and I would guess early 1920s. There's something Edwardian about the set but the button and cuff buttons are yellowed Bakelite with a slight art deco shape to them. So maybe late 1920s or the buttons could be an added detail at a later date?
The set has a gorgeous heavy drapey weight to them, look perfect with a little black sweater too. These will be carefully wrapped up and stored flat until I discover them in a few years and get the wow of seeing them again!
I wonder how wore them and how they styled them when they were new, and I wonder what skilled person sewed such unbelievable beadwork? Hope they can give some inspiration to you too. x
