Grafton fashion fabrics

A couple of weeks ago at knitting club my lovely friend rummaged in her knitting bag and produced this leaflet for me. It was such a great find on her part and kind of her to give it to me. It is a concertina folded leaflet showing a range of Grafton fashion fabrics, made up in the styles of the day.

Grafton Somakan - a 'soft, gleaming acetate rayon that
looks and feels like fine silk crepe'.

I love this dress, that back detail is so interesting and the fabric is pretty. I wish it was in colour!

Grafton Range 3 - 'gay separates for leisure wear,
 with the emphasis on leisure! Cotton skirt print.'

Fabulous daisy and stripe print skirt.

Grafton Range 16 - 'casual sophistication is the theme of
this distinctive stripe design in rich, glowing colours.
screen printed poplin.

Mind out for the cacti! This photos wins one of random use of props awards.

Grafton Range 19 - 'for elegant town wear, a geometric one
colour design styled in a high necked dress with three
quarter sleeves and a detachable over skirt.

I also want this one. It is so elegant.

Grafton Barcarolle - 'novelty basket weave 'Minimiron'
cotton  in many plain colours, guaranteed fast'.

I very much like the structure and shaping of this dress and the fabric sounds interesting. Minimiron sounds great to me!

Grafton Range 9 - 'luxurious Caple screen printed cotton
satin. The superb two tone design of huge poppies on a
white background is a bewitching choice for evening wear
and the fabric's soft draping quality is shown to
perfection in this specially designed dress with deeply
swathed skirt.'

Gorgeous and bewitching no less!

Grafton Range 2 - 'beguiling young dress with the cool
look of summer enchantment. Range 2 cotton in a print
of delicate shaded flower heads against a darker trellis
of leaves on white ground'.

Beguiling and enchanting?! You can't go wrong in one of these.

Grafton Range 5 - 'charming 'young miss' dress with
trimmed cross-over back and big patch pockets. Any little
girl would be enchanted with the nautical design of brightly
coloured fishes and mothers will like the hard wearing
 cotton.'

Big pockets and brightly coloured fishes?! I will take one.

F.W.Grafton & Co Ltd were based at 65 Oxford Street in Manchester and was first started as a calico printing business at different premises in 1856. They then expanded into other fabric types. I have struggled to find out much about the company but I have found examples of their furnishing fabrics here and here.

Mrs Cuppleditch's hats - Part Two

Hopefully you have started this 1970's hat adventure with me in Part One. Again, this is a photo heavy post but I just couldn't resist all of those hats!

Perhaps I should start with a quote from Mrs Cuppleditch herself.

This made me giggle! However I do think she is making an important point about hats. Sometimes what you adore is not what suits you and in the case of a hat this can make or break your look. I think it is very helpful to have a good hat trying on session with a friend, maybe in a department store (where there is a large selection of styles), so that you can see what suits you and get advice before shopping for lovely vintage hats. Do take a friend who isn't afraid to tell you when you look fabulous, but also, when you look a bugger (as my granny would say). I find my sister is particularly good at this.

Mrs Cuppleditch bought many of her hats from a Louth shop called The Hat Box.

This is such a lovely advert and if the shop was still there I would definitely be paying it a visit.  The final sentence says it is 'situated in the shadow of the spire'. This refers to the spire of the church St. James which has the tallest church spire in England, fact fans! Here it is:

Here is some of The Hat Box's packaging. I think the fonts are gorgeous. Imagine buying your brand new hat and walking out of the shop with it wrapped wonderfully!

The hat on the left is a semi turban pill box in cream fur, tipped with natural ginger fur. It has a brown satin lining.

I think that this would make a fabulous wedding hat. It is a turban in cream rayon nylon decorated with two roses.

 This beautiful hat is a half brim with dusky pink feathers.

Mrs Cuppleditch was quite a fan of fur hats and there are some beautiful looking ones in her collection.

This beret is made of buckram, pleated at the crown and covered with three brown velvet tubes. It has three mink tails as decoration and has a maroon taffeta lining.

This chocolate brown velvet hat would be so cosy in winter. It has nine strings coming off the crown, each ending in a tuft of mink. There is an extra tuft on the crown covering where the strings join.

A skull cap in coffee brown and rust fur with twelve mink tails around the crown. The centre of the hat has two velvet loops. The lining is salmon pink taffeta.

I really like this turban/scarf hat. It is made from purple fabric with a cream geometric pattern on it. I think the pleating is so pretty and I like the bow on the back. It is lined in cream fabric.

I have included two views of this hat as I think it's construction is really interesting. I like the variations in colour alongside the pleats, it looks so pretty.

This is another turban style hat in colours ranging from purples to rusts.

Here are three views of this hat, it is another that I really like. It is a pleated beret in cream/mushroom nylon with a ribbon inset. It is by Mitzi Boutique. I like the pleating in the fabric and the cascade at the back.

I like the massive raspberry bow on this.

Another swimming cap type hat. A back of head pull on with turquoise and white flowers, covered in netting.

Navy and electric blue feathers. I like the pom pom cluster of feathers on the top.

A navy beret with large cream flowers.

A beret in French navy dense weave satin/rayon with polka dot veiling. This is pretty and subtle, it is lovely.

A beret in deep grape felt with a brown leather trim in two pieces, edged in mink. I think that this is a gorgeous hat, simple and very effective.

A coral pink pill box with all over flowers and netting. Swimming caps strike again!

I love this one. A beret with soft smoky blue feathers and undyed pheasant feathers. It cost £13.95 in the 1970's, so quite expensive.

The tassel makes this look like a sleeping cap to me! It is a maroon velvet beret.

A pill box in maroon cotton velvet with maroon feathers.

Quite a strange creation! A pill box in daffodil yellow net with fabric flowers.

This is a turban like hat in a coral pink with lots of pleats and some netting. This is the last one of Mrs Cuppleditch's hats that I took a photograph of. I think I got nearly all of them, I just missed a few that were awkward to get a good shot of. I am quite amazed that this is just one woman's hat collection but I am pleased that Mrs Cuppleditch was so partial to a hat and was so careful to keep them all and keep them in such good condition.

The museum also had some hats on display in the exhibition that were from the same era and on loan from members of the general public.

What a statement hat! It is like wearing a large halo.

The most exciting part for me was this next very special hat.

This is my mum's cream straw hat which she wore on her wedding day in 1973. The trend at the time was for a hat with a veil and Mum bought her hat from Marshall and Snelgrove in Oxford Street, London. She made her own dress which can be seen in this next picture.

Mum also lent the museum the hat that her mum wore on that day. It was bought from one of two shops, one of which was The Hat Box in Louth. You can see it in the picture below. Somehow I didn't manage to take a picture of it at the exhibition, an omission I am really annoyed about!

It was fabulous to see Mum's and Grandma's hats there, to see a piece of our family history fit in with a fashion narrative of the 1970's.

Mrs Cuppleditch's hats - Part One

Last weekend my mum and I squeezed in a visit to a fantastic little exhibition at Louth Museum. Louth is a market town in Lincolnshire and the museum is fairly small. The temporary exhibition (on until 26th April) is of a collection of hats from the 1970's which belonged to Mary Cuppleditch. Her husband became mayor of Louth from 1978-9 and Mary wore many of the hats whilst accompanying her husband on official engagements, of which there were more than 250 that year.

There were more than 60 hats displayed and I did my best to photograph as many as possible so that they can be viewed in all their splendour here. Mum and I had great fun looking at them all, looking at the splashes of colour, the different materials, the trimmings and embellishments and trying to choose our favourites. That was particularly hard. The fashions of the 1970s are not my favourites but I found that I saw many hats which I would wear if given the chance.

The hat at the centre back is a cloche in turquoise brushed fur with black felt applique. The hat to the right is a mink beret. I am using the museum's descriptions of the hats and fabrics where possible, for accuracy.

This beret is designed to sit at the back of the head and is made from maroon velvet and pale pink nylon. It is made in eight parts and is lined in black. I like the look of this one.

Mrs Cuppleditch was obviously quite fond of this type of hat as there are several that are completely covered in flowers. They remind me of old fashioned swimming caps.

Hat 16 was one of my favourites. It is a mustard coloured beret in brushed soft felt, with a piece of the same fabric, folded into loops, at the front. It looks very wearable.

This is the side view of the hat visible in the above group picture. It is a firm crown hat in three shades of purple organza and velvet. I love the colours.

There is so much going on in this group of hats. We will look at individual pictures of them.

This is a pill box hat covered in fabric flowers, probably anemones, in deep purples, blues and pinks. It was one of Mrs Cuppleditch's favourites. I should like to try it on, I can't imagine what it would look like!

This pill box hat reminds me of a large, glitzy brain. I am not sure that was what the designer intended!

I really can't imagine this one on. A straw cone with yellow/beige pleats.

This pink pill box with lighter pink flowers is very pretty.

We will look at close ups of many of the hats here. Number 27 at the back is a pull on turban in raspberry pink angora wool.

This is a close fitting beret in cream fur fabric decorated with cream satin ribbons and fur fabric pompoms. I love this hat, I can imagine wearing it in the winter on a snowy stroll.

It is made by Mitzi boutique. The designer was Mitzi Lorenz who was a top London milliner from the 1940's until the 1980's. Her shop was in Great Portland Street but Mrs Cuppleditch would have obtained her range of hats from The Hat Box, a Louth shop, more on which later. She was obviously partial to Mitzi Lorenz's designs as there are 12 of her hats in Mrs Cuppleditch's collection.

I like this brown velvet beret. It is made in six sections which swirl around the crown, the rosette on the top hides where the sections meet. The velvet is used to make three tails and one loop as trimming.

This beret is navy trimmed with cream fabric. It is very attractive and would be easy to wear.

Hat 29 is a large pill box in deep purple cotton velvet and soft nylon. The cream hat to the side is a pill box covered in net with a bunch of fabric flowers at the front. It would make a good wedding hat.

I really liked this hat, it reminds me of flamingos. It is beret shaped with shocking pink and maroon feathers. It looks like such fun to wear.

This pull on hat in pale blue pleated nylon has attractive details.

This is a very chic beret in rusty salmon with a black polka dot veil.

A forward pill box/beret in deep shocking pink with black polyester veiling.

I really like this cloche in turquoise fine straw and organza. So pretty.

Another swimming cap type hat! A pink and gold cloche with a rose petal look.

A pill box in shocking pink with nylon net. I like all the drapes and swirls in the fabric.

Although it looks sea green here you can see from the group photo that this hat is turquoise. It is described as a pill box in 'pan scrub' fabric which seems very apt!

The hat on the left is a beret in candy floss pink with swirls. The hat on the right is a pull on, designed to sit at the back of the head. The fabric is blue over a pink base.

You can see the rear of this hat in the picture above. It is pink straw with netting and fabric flowers.

This lovely velvet beret has a leaf shaped trim. It is simple but very effective.

I am going to end Part One here as this is a very photo heavy post already. Find the rest of Mrs Cuppleditch's hats in Part Two.