Retro Shopping: Back In The 50's Again

I was channel surfing the day after Christmas looking for bargains on the shopping networks, and ShopNBC obliged me with its fur coat clearance sale. For those of you not in the know, or who are smart enough to not to care…ShopNBC is the Saks 5th Avenue of the cable shopping networks. It hocks $5,000.00 diamond rings like so many pebbles. And people actually buy this expensive jewelry on line. In fairness to ShopNBC, it has nice stuff…but nothing I can afford. God bless those who can, and have the credit line to do it!!!

At any rate, they were featuring Cedrick’s Luxe Collection of various fur garments. Cedrick was there, along with the on air sales person. Cedrick is the quintessential fur coat designer with his over the top suit and silver hair and saccharine tongue. He, along with the Quacker Factory lady on QVC, makes for some of the best television around today. You don’t have to buy anything, just watch these nut cakes sell their stuff, and laugh with them, but more often at them.

Two things jumped out at me. The first was a loose fur jacket with ¾ length draped sleeves, that Cedrick said would go perfect with your ¾ length gloves. ¾ length gloves? I didn’t know you could still buy those things. I thought they went out with Jackie Kennedy, which was the last time my mother bought a pair at Strouss’s downtown first floor glove department. They kept them in cases and drawers and brought them out like diamond rings.

If that didn’t suit your fancy, you could buy a Patch Pocket Mink Fur Shawl. Here is the description:

“The luxe accessory that is the ultimate expression of your personality. This fashionable mink shawl will be the most versatile piece you will ever own. Wear it with casual or occasion attire, your look can be modified so easily by what you wear underneath. It's a great traveling companion and features patch pockets on either side. This shawl is the perfect fur for those that are daring, but also want to be classic.”

Classic shawl my toukas…it’s a mink stole. My mother wore them in the 1950’s/60’s, along with those ¾ length gloves. If you wintered in Florida, you dragged it on the ground behind you when you disembarked your plane in Miami. It was the only way to go!!!

Now for the guys!! I like sweater vests because they keep me warm. Layered with an undershirt, a shirt, and a sports jacket, I don’t have to wear a coat until it gets below 30 degrees. Heretofore, I have had only solid colored sweater vests, the standard black, maroon, tan, and red for Christmas. But this year, my wife found that sweater vests were de rigueur in the stores, and bought several more. Of course, they weren’t solid. They were done in argyle prints. Argyle prints? I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story.

Don’t get me wrong. They are beautiful and I am enjoying wearing them. It’s just that this style of sweater was popular in the 1950’s/60’s along with, you guessed it, the mike stoles and ¾ length gloves. Am I nuts, or am I living in Leave it to Beaver??

It only goes to show you what my depression era parents and grandparents used to say. Don’t throw anything out. It will come back into style one day. Everything old is new again!!

Wait a minute!! Is that Eddie Haskell sitting at the soda bar?