KOMELY HANDBAG ADULT CRAFT CLASSES –Sewing Instructions Sidecar Messenger Bag

HISTORY OF VINTAGE HANDBAG

1960s : Op and Pop Art Influences

Bright new patterns, appropriated from the op and Pop artists of the day, infiltrated all aspects of design and were used on products as diverse as paper dresses and plastic handbags.

The designer played with scale, lowering the “V” of a jumper to the waist, enlarging a football shirt so that it could be worn as a dress, and scaling up cardigans into coats.  Her 1963 Wet Collection included a classic trench coat in PVC (POLYVINYL CHLORIDE).

It was a fabric for the space age-modern, shiny, impermeable, and wipe-clean-and one of the many synthetic materials that 1960s fashion and handbag designers embraced enthusiastically.

Initially the fabric created manufacturing problems.  British fashion designer John Bates recalled that it was a walk through Soho that sparked his interest in unusual materials:” I could do something with that” and had it made up into a dress.

 When the model moved, all the seams perforated like postage stamps.

It was the start of his experimentation with futuristic materials, such as PVC, transparent plastics and the new bonded jerseys made into clothes that pushed the boundaries of modesty.

The dramatic shift in the hemline changed the entire proportions of the garment.  A shorter skirt demanded narrower shoulders and a higher waist.  This streamlined silhouette emphasized the midriff, which insertion of a contrasting fabric, or cut-out

that left the midriff completely bate. 

When John Bates launched his Bikini dress, with a revealing mesh panel over the midriff, he might have caused shock waves in the national press, but it was designated “Dress of the Year” by the fashion industry.