Crozzled state of mind.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Ginger Rogers at Volo

So anyway thanks to Jen, I went to the Volo Antique malls in Volo, Illinois over the weekend. I was there with my aunt and we stumbled upon a case that had a booklet about Ginger Rogers written by her mother, a milk bottle supplied by her ranch, a pair of gloves, and a skirt. The clothes were supposed to be hers, and both items looked very pretty and weren't too expensive so I decided to get them. I also got the booklet too. My aunt and I left the milk bottle in there and finished looking around at the rest of the mall (which is the size of a village) while the other items were on hold. When we came back to purchase the items, my aunt felt too sad to leave the milk bottle all alone in the case so she decided to buy it.

When we got back to the hotel room we examined all the items. We looked at the gloves, but there was no label, only a size number. In the skirt there WAS a label, but neither of us could read that. 'That... sort of looks like a G...' 'And maybe that's an I? Or an E?' We could read that it was custom made, and since the skirt is vertically striped we could tell it was well-made because the stripes lined up at the seams.

When my mother heard I bought these items, the first thing she said was 'how do you know they were hers? The seller probably said, oh look a milk bottle, let's display this with a booklet and grab two totally unrelated items and put them together.'

So we brought everything home and I put the skirt on the modeling form to display it. Neither my aunt nor I thought of asking my mother (a fashion designer) so inspect the label. Well she finally got curious and was looking all over for it and finally found it. She stared at the label hard for a few moments then said, 'OH MY GOD... Is this ADRIAN?' I whipped my head around and said 'What???' So my mother and I raced to our computers to search for what an Adrian label looked like. (If you aren't familiar with Adrian you can check out this info on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Adrian. He designed the ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz (1939) among other items for Hollywood.)
So we couldn't find any pictures on Google, so I went to eBay to see what I could find. I found a magazine advertisement for his clothes:

Sure enough that was the same signature as the one on my newly purchased skirt. My mom was sitting there saying, 'I cannot believe it! Oh my god.' My aunt and I were shocked yet laughing at the same time. WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT? I'm still shocked. So if this ISN'T Ginger's skirt, we know it had to have belonged to some old Hollywood star because those are the people Adrian worked with, and the average person would not be purchasing something custom-made by him.

I do have some pictures out of the Ginger booklet I wanted to share, but I will probably post those on my other blog, and later because I have to scan it. I'm not in the mood for scanning but hopefully I will get to it soon, preferably tomorrow!!

12 comments:

Jennifer said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Lauren! :)

NO WAY! Are you SERIOUS?!? Okay, now I REALLY want to go check out that booth and see what else is there or if they added anything new! :)

That's so awesome! Congrats on such a great find!

Lauren said...

Haha no problem! If it weren't for you I would have never found the stuff!!

Hurry! Go check it out before the seller catches on! No way did he/she know it was Adrian because no one in their right minds would sell that for a mere $75.

Thank you so so much, again!

Lauren

Maria said...

My! What a terrific blog you have here. The material you have is fantastic and, damn it! I wish we had the same here. You can find some stuff but not as good as yours. Nice to see other fans of F&G around and, btw, thanks for you comment in my blog. As I replied in there, I'm glad you liked the coloured header, if you wanna see more coloured pics, just ask for it and I'll work on it.

M.

Loes said...

Wow, finding a treasure like that is the dream of every vintage clothing/classic hollywood fan! Lucky you!! (:

VKMfanHuey said...

...what I want to know is, how does a seemingly dormant blog have more followers than mine, which is always vibrant and up-to-date???

...er, did I say that out loud?

Lauren said...

Excuse me, Huey. I take offense.
Maybe it's because you don't have 'hard copy' items of Ginger's like postcards of her, or her skirt. ;)

Lauren

VKMfanHuey said...

oof... now, see, THAT really hurt...like, "Charlie bit me...OWWW!!! CHAR-LEEE! THAT REALLY HURT!!!" kind of hurt...it's like you have a 'direct link' to Ginger - so cool...

I was just trying to get you riled up into posting! Guess it worked...but at what cost? Will you and Beth still let me talk to Ginger sometimes when I deliver y'all's ice cream poolside? PLEEEEZEEE???? :-)

Lauren said...

HAHAHA you enjoyed Charlie bit me too??? :D I hope you're saying that with the accent as well.

"Will you and Beth still let me talk to Ginger sometimes when I deliver y'all's ice cream poolside? PLEEEEZEEE???? :-)"
Will you pose as our invaluable man-servant Bates?

Check your e-mail.

Lauren

Lauren said...

Oh PS I've been working on a new blog, which is why I haven't posted anything here recently.

Lauren

Maria said...

Oh, a new blog! Will you post the link soon, right?

Lauren said...

Maria, if you click on my little picture next to any of my comments, it will take you to my profile and under the list of my blogs, you will see a new one!

Lauren

VKMfanHuey said...

sure...I will be the 'man-servant'...how 'whumsical'... :-)