"I really don't know why red. It could've been blue, I suppose" (Nantucket Reds, part 2)

Hey, Nantucket Reds fans (I know you're out there, because Google Analytics tells me). Here's a video just for you:




Complete with schmaltzy strings, slow pans of salmon pink sailcloth, and references to "summer families."

For the record, I've thus far failed to acquire my own Nantucket Reds this summer.

More Malia

A few weeks ago I promised a sequel to my post on Hawaiian resort label Malia.

Malia International was founded in the early 1960s by Bill and Mary Foster, a husband-and-wife team who met at Stanford University, then moved to Bill's native Hawaii. The company began in as a textile concern, but Bill soon suggested that Mary try her hand at designing garments. Their early forays into fashion design were somewhat rocky, but by 1970 the company was a leading resortwear manufacturer. They also kept the textile printing and distribution side going, as well as a uniform division that supplied hotels, restaurants and airlines. Later, the Fosters attempted to expand Malia International beyond the islands, and even opened a West Coast office.

The design process at Malia began with the development of fabrics. Take a look at any Malia piece, and you'll see how the garment was designed around both the print and the structure of the fabric.

As we speak, Malia season is in full swing on eBay !

Martin van Butchell, kook dentist

British, 1735-1814.

"All the remarkable eccentricities which have yet been the characteristic of any man, however celebrated, may all hide their diminished heads before Martin Van Butchell."


"He humorously paints [his] poney, some times all purple, often with purple spots, and with streaks and circles upon his face and hinder parts...His bridle is also exceedingly curious; to the head of it is fixed a blind, which, in case of taking fright or starting, can be dropped over the horse's eyes, and be drawn up again at pleasure.

"After embalming [his wife's] body, he kept her in her wedding clothes a considerable time, in the parlour of his own house, which occasioned the visits of a great number of the nobility and gentry. It has been reported, that the resolution of his keeping his wife unburied, was occasioned by a clause in the marriage settlement, disposing of certain property, while she remained above ground: we cannot decide how far this may be true, but she has been since buried." -- The Lives and Portraits of Curious and Odd Characters: Compiled from Authentic Sources, T. Drew, 1852 via Google Book Search.

"Nevertheless, he was considered a good dentist for his time, and he was extremely popular with his patients."

Seersucker Thursday is June 18!

I can't seem to find a press release or anything else substantial, but several other bloggers have gotten word that Seersucker Thursday is on for this week, June 18th. Incessant thunderstorms and mid-60s temps are cramping Chicagoans' summer style, but I still plan to contribute to this fine summer tradition by sporting my seersucker trousers, which I'm pretty sure I got from the sale rack at TJ Maxx.

Swatch via good ol' fabric.com. Whatever you do, don't get that slimy poly/cotton blend seersucker they sell at Jo-Ann.

Fleur Cowles, 1908ish-2009

Get ready for Seersucker Thursday!

It's rare that my obsession with fashion cults collides with my interest in legislative politics. Even rarer do I find occasion to agree with Trent Lott about something. But here it is:

"In the late 1990s, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott decided the time had come to revive a long-forgotten Senate sartorial tradition. He selected a “nice and warm” day in the second or third week of June to be designated Seersucker Thursday. "

Women Senators started participating in Seersucker Thursday in 2004, through the leadership of Dianne Feinstein.
"Seersucker is the South's fashion gift to the nation," said a Lott spokesman in 2007.


Well played: Ben Nelson, Dianne Feinstein and Trent Lott. Try again: Olympia Snowe (black?!?!?! stockings!?!?), and Norm Coleman in his clown suit.

Seersucker Thursday is usually the second or third Thursday in June, but I don't think they announce it until the day before. For some reason I have a note that it will be June 11. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Angelic Organics Cheesemaking Workshop

Last Saturday, three city girls went to Caledonia, Illinois to learn about cheesemaking at the Angelic Organics Learning Center. Workshop attendees paired up to make one of several different kinds of cheese, including ricotta, chevre, queso blanco, feta and mozzarella. The class was fun and well-organized, and the cheese was surprisingly easy to make. But the best part was the goats.






Top to bottom: Angelic Organics Learning Center; feta preparation; ricotta three ways; this way to goats; mom and baby; cutest kid ever; needy adolescents.