Jewel colours light up gloomy days!

For my first Etsy treasury I chose something that I love for gloomy November days like today - a bright dress or some accessories in bright, strong jewel colours to lighten my mood! And here you'll find some gorgeous vintage things just right for this purpose!

Meyer's Modeblatt 1946 - No. 13, 30th March

So, back again with a "new" issue! Here they promote a "pretty dress for the first spring ride" with a very wide skirt. Dress by Jeanne Lafaurie, made from fabric by Strub of Zurich. Jeanne Lafaurie was a couturière in Paris, according to Wikipedia, and André Courrèges once worked there! Note the shoes as well - they're pretty timeless, aren't they?

The fashion

Practical spring dresses for girls every age!

Spring chic for the ladies... (that one in the middle actually had a top with wide straps underneath that bolero)

... and "men love handknitted things"... but do they have to pull their pants over it? Oh dear! Plus some suits and a coat for the ladies. Love the coat!

Make it yourself

A leather cover for your desk!

This'n that

A typical story of the day - English women who married Canadian servicemen. The farmer's wife on the right was an office worker before she married it says. Talk about change! But nice that they show her in her no-nonsense practical outfit with pants. I wonder where they got these stories from...

Something about a Swiss theater actress, Rita Liechti - instead of the usual Hollywood story. She studied at the famous Reinhart Seminar in Vienna and worked in some well-known films as well (unfortunately, I haven't seen any of them...).

The usual "mixed page". The Norwegian royal family at the Holmenkollen ski race, a women celebrating her 60th year working in the same company (can you imagine that?), a Swiss skript writer and the famous Basel Fasnacht (carnival) where the singers with had free hand again with their biting ditties. Now there's a tradition that hasn't changed! The bigger piece talks about Sonja Henie, the Norwegian figure skating champion who went on to have a professional career in the US. This talks all about her getting a divorce and being seen with a new man soon after.

Ad-tastic
First two that need no introduction!

One more of those clever marketing ploys... this half page that looks like a receipe column is in fact just an ad for Helvetia-products! Seems a strange mixture of products though - mustard, puddings, baking powder, vanilla sugar, teas and spices.

Another nice ad page, again with the Bell ad we've seen before. Also always popular - ads for all kinds of products to soothe your nerves or to help you to more energy. And - there's an Enka ad - this is a washing powder that is still available! Here's it's called a bleaching and anti-stain product, to "add to your soap water". Nowadays it's marketed just as an anti-stain product.

Gold watches as an Easter gift. It says "extra inexpensive" here, but the 158 Francs for a gold-plated watch would have been a hefty sum!

 

I talked about the Ovaltine-like product Forsanose last time. Now in this issue, there were two more products much like this being advertised! There's Nagomaltor which claims it's vitamin content is under control by the Basel University, whilst Isomalt claims to be the right thing for the "indefatigable housewife". 

Slimming ad

Yes, you might have already spied it above... Redux pills are back in this issue. Talking about how easy they're to use - just swallow one or two before going to bed and it works it's "magic". Duh...

Orbal of course had their usual ad too. They must have paid for a year in advance or something!

Breast-enhancement product

Yes, you guessed it, indefatigable Rondoform! And they had a new claim - "successful for years". It also talks about how its extracts (hormones - now in parentheses) "fill empty cells". Ugh!

Exhibtion roundup - Paris & St. Gallen

Before they're all over again, I guess I should make a quick round-up of great exhibitions I've seen lately or will hopefully see soon!

Paris
La mécanique des dessous, Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris
One more gorgeous fashion exhibtion by this museum! The focus is on the workings of undergarments that will shape your body in one way or another. It starts with a few pieces of the 16th century and then goes right through to modern times. Modern reproductions show how they work "mecanically". Lots of things I've never seen before anywhere else. There's also a big book, but it's in French only and there's a lot of text to read, so buying it is I think only worth it if your French is good enough to understand all those technical terms.

Azzedine Alaïa, Palais Galliera, Paris
The Galliera is the fashion museum of the city of Paris, which only opens for special exhibition, there is no constant collection on show. This one was well worth the money. I wasn't overly familiar with Alaïa before, and I did not like everything there, but it was well presented, nothing behind glass, the incredible Haute Couture workmanship was well visible - and there were some outfits worn by the likes of Tina Turner and Grace Jones in there as well!

Virgule, etc., Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Just a hop, skip and jump across the road from the magnificent Palais Galliera is the modernistic Palais de Tokyo. It's currently under renovation and doesn't look very inviting, but this exhbition is free and every shoe lover's dream! On show are about 140 shoe and boot designs by Roger Vivier from the 1930s til today. Ok, the modern stuff isn't too exciting in my view, but the vintage designs are mind-blowing. Those delicate, elegant, sequinned evening shoes he did for Dior are the most amazing shoes I've ever seen!

Jordaens 1593-1678 La gloire d'Anvers, Petit Palais, Paris
Something for the art fans out there. Though he never made it to quite the fame (at least today) as his contemporaries like van Dyck or Rubens, this Flemish painter was in his time just as well-known, and there are a lot of great paintings by him to be seen. What I found even more impressive though were his drawings and sketches - these quickly, but so accurately drawn pictures are absolute masterpieces!

St. Gallen
Lisbeth & Robert J. Schläpfer Textile Innovationen 1965-1995, Textilmuseum, St. Gallen
This one I have to see yet but I am sure it's a excellent as all the other exhibition I've seen at this museum so far. Companies like Schläpfer and Forster Rohner took the textile production in St. Gallen, that started with linen and came to the famous lace, to a whole new level. Their amazing machine-made embroidered, lacey and otherwise unsual fabrics are what you see on Paris runways. Schläpfer specialised in embroideries with sequins, Swarovski crystals and such. This exibition shows what incredible innovations and ideas they came up with under the aegis of Lisbeth and Robert Schläpfer. There should also be dresses on view that were made by their in-house seamstress to showcase their fabrics.