Vintage Paris Couture: The Elegant Evening Coat

Evening coats weren't just for warmth; they were fashion statement in the late 1940s and early 1950s. As elegant and elaborate as an evening dress in their own right and designed to be left on and not consigned to the closet or tossed across a bed at a cocktail party.
I ran across an excellent biography of Jacques Fath after I fell in love with this evening coat.

If I were fortunate enough to own a stunning creation such as this Jacques Fath flared coat I would never want to take it off!

The article points out that Fath served as a launch pad for the careers of many well known designers:

Jacques Fath hired several young new Designers as assistants and apprentices, many continued to form their own Fashion Houses, including Hubert de Givenchy, Guy Laroche, and Valentino Garavan.

He loved experimenting with color and asymmetrical forms. His creative use of pleats can be seen in this swing coat and two-piece suit.

Jacques Fath suit with detachable pleated chiffon overskirt

Susan Hayward - Hollywood Bombshell

Photo Restored by Covet and Love it Vintage

I love vintage sequined gowns and this one teases the heck out of me.
This color publicity photo shows Susan Hayward wearing a teal green sequin and beaded evening dress.
She's reclining on a chenille couch but it's only a torso shot. I would love to find a full length shot of her in this beautiful dress.
Knowing the types of gowns she wore in photo shoots, I'm sure it would be stunning. For now, I can only speculate if the hem was fully flared a la Ginger Rogers dance style or a figure hugging bombshell wiggle look.
The photo was badly torn when someone carelessly ripped it from the magazine and it took quite a bit of work to edit out the tears after scanning it.
As I said, I would love to find a full length picture of Susan in this gown showing more detail, but so far I've not had any luck searching the internet.
Until then ~ thank, you Susan for your wonderful movies and the memories of your elegance and style.

1930s film star Madeleine Carroll Publicity Photo - Evening Gown by Edith Head

Photo Restored by Covet And Love It Vintage

I'm currently having a ball, going through my collection of fashion and gossip magazines from the 1930s and 1940s: Personal Romances, Mirror, etc. I hope to get more images scanned and onto this blog.
My scanner is very old (haven't had the time to search out a new one) and it moves very slow. Sits there and has to think about it.

This photo of 1930s movie star Madeleine Carroll shows her in a simplified but elegant evening/dinner gown.
From the description:
'Printed wool is high fashion this fall and winter. Edith Head has created this charming dinner dress of black imported wool covered with a pale blue bluebell print.
Following Madeleine's favorite "basic" silhouette for dinner clothes, the designer has used a high-waisted, Empire line with a V decolletage, short sleeves and graceful back fullness in the bias skirt.'

I just love running across a nice write-up along with one of these publicity photos so you know what the colors were in real life. Now when I see a photo of Madeleine in this dress, I think of sweet little bluebells scattered across it. Even though she was referred to as an 'Iceberg Maiden', I find this a very fitting look for a star who I always thought had a fresh and innocent look.

A friend ran across a stack of magazines from the 30s and 40s when she was helping a neighbor clean out a bunch of stuff to get rid of so she grabbed them for me. She knows how crazy I am about vintage magazine ads and fashion photos of the movie stars during the Hollywood days of glamour.
This was another photo that had been extensively damaged over the years and there were parts of the page missing so it took a lot of time and patience in photo restoration, but I think t turned out rather well. I hope I can get more images from these magazines onto digital so they'll live a long life. It's amazing how paper images have survived as long as they have, but time is running out for a lot of them. Just as the old movie films are starting to deteriorate.
Hopefully they'll still be around for many generations to enjoy them as much as we have.

Photo courtesy of

wolffian classics movies digest

Vintage Crochet Pattern - 'The Rosey Chenille Vest'

My aunt taught me to crochet when I was a child, but I was a little intimidated when I watched her knitting a coat. Yes. A full length coat. I loved the look of cable knit but couldn't quite get the hang of it. So, years later when I was well into my teens I got really excited when I saw this pattern featured in a Woman's Day (?) magazine. I not sure since I only kept the pattern.
It was done in a variety of crochet stitches to resemble a knitted design; it was right up my alley.
The description reads:

The Rosy Chenille Vest
The shawl collar and dropped shoulders of our little vest are only part of its charm. What about the velvety chenille? The luscious color? The chevrons and popcorns and other pretty surface effects? You'll love this wonderfully challenging crochet that combines a variety of stitches.
A Linda Osborne Blood design in Unger's acrylic Chenille De Luxe yarn.

My mother also fell in love with the look and as she never learned to crochet, I made one for her in a different color. One of the popular yarns at that time was Caron 'Dazzle Aire' which had a frosty sparkle to it. Very pretty.
I couldn't wait to get started. I picked out some off white for myself and mom's favorite 'Rust' and went to work. One thing about this pattern though; it does run a good bit smaller. I did both vests in size Large (the largest size option) and they fit more like a Medium. It could be because the crochet stitches are bulky, so I would recommend crocheting as loosely as possible with very little tension on the yarn.

I still have both vests and here are some photos of mom's below.

The wide, see-through section at the waist area was done in a crossover stitch.

Now you must remember...a lot of what we were crocheting in the 70s was ripple pattern and granny squares, so we were coming off of that mod influence. To today's talented crafters this may look like child's play, but it was pretty innovative to us!
I'm hoping to find the time to transcribe the pattern so that others can enjoy this beautiful vest, so hopefully you'll see an update in the future!

Covet And Love It Vintage

1960s Vintage Lingerie - JC Penneys Gaymode Peignoir

Vamp up your style in this vintage 60s peignoir in siren red.
It is styled in such a way that makes it a great choice for a house dress or lounging around in the evenings. Made of a silky nylon that is so soft and caressible you may not even want to take it off!

A gathered on yoke is embellished with lace appliqued roses and the demure Peter Pan collar has a ribbon bow accent. She buttons down the front with pearlized buttons

A double layer of nylon chiffon forms the tulip petal puffed sleeves.


Vintage Lingerie Gaymode Penneys Label

Available at Covet And Love It Vintage

For more sweet and sensuous peignoirs and nightgowns to pamper yourself with; you can check out the Vintage Lingerie section of my shop: