Surrealism from the thirties

The surrealist movement of the 1930s extended from art into design through jewelry and fashion, particularly in the work of Elsa Schiaparelli. Here are two scarves I made from a 1930s silk with a surrealist influenced design. Biomorphism and microscopic images are characteristics of surrealism and these characteristics are apparent in this print that has the appearance of strange blood cells under a microscope. This is one of the earliest fabrics I've found and I've made it into a number of scarves with different backings. This image shows one with a sheer black wool backing and another with a teal blue wool, mirroring the teal in the print.

Fuzzy thought bubbles

I come across some unusual fabrics in my search for interesting materials for The Scarf Moment and I count this print amongst the most unusual. It's a 1940s silk with a design that features what look to me like thought, or speech bubbles that you'd find in a comic strip. There are no characters expressing these thoughts and not even any words in these speech balloons. Just scribbles. A very enigmatic print. I've made some scarves with this fabric using a cashmere backing, and some, like the one shown here, with a sheer wool and silk voile that allows the print to show through the back.

Abstract Art, by Douglas Ram Samuj, converted into a scarf, by The Scarf Moment

The scarf in these photos is made from vintage fabric designed and hand-printed by the late textile artist Douglas Ram Samuj. He was an Australian emigre to the United States, of Indian descent, arriving here in the 1960s. He established a workshop in Los Angeles where he made limited amounts of hand block-printed fabrics in abstract designs. In fact, his designs have a very abstract expressionist look. Douglas Ram Samuj fabrics are rare now and The Scarf Moment was fortunate to acquire this purple and black cotton, which we've made into the dramatic scarf Tziporah Salamon is wearing here with a Chinese coat from her extensive collection of vintage ethnic clothing. I have two other color variations of this Douglas Ram Samuj design that I will show in an upcoming post, and you can see some earlier scarves I made from Ram Samuj fabrics here and here.

Fantasy shopping at I. Magnin

Tziporah Salamon (our featured model for Fall 2013) and I explored what remains of Los Angeles' grand department stores on Wilshire Blvd. This is the interior of the former I.Magnin store just west of Vermont. It's now a Korean mall of sorts, but we fantasized about what it was like to shop there in its heyday. A shopper might have found a scarf like this one by The Scarf Moment, made from a vintage Italian striped wool backed with four-ply red silk crepe.

Winter white

Here I am, the Scarf Moment maker, in a wool plaid scarf backed with hemp silk, which is a satin weave fabric made from a blend of hemp and silk. This is a good example of the scarves that I make that are suitable for the wool-sensitive. You can keep the hemp silk side next to your skin while the wool layer on the outside keeps you toasty warm.

A Scarf for USC Trojans!

Here I am, the scarf maker, standing in my shower ('cause I have a good mirror there), modeling a scarf I made from cardinal and gold plaid, backed with cardinal red corduroy. These are the colors of USC: the Trojans. "Cardinal" in the USC case is a kind of maroon red. The official USC color designation is cardinal so that's what I'm calling it. This would make a nice gift for a University of Southern California alum.

Fifty Shades of Grey, minus 49

Most of my scarves have a vintage print, plaid or stripe on one side and a new solid fabric on the other. But I never pass up a nice vintage solid fabric, so sometimes I get to make scarves that are vintage on both sides. Such is the case here, where I combined an old grey wool flannel with a red and grey striped cotton fabric that's probably from the fifties. The greys matched up perfectly. Modeled by the incredibly talented Los Angeles artist Duane Paul

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Maybe Marimekko, for 2012

The Scarf Moment has been busy making scarves all summer, gearing up for the 2012 holiday season. Here's one of the new scarves, modeled by lovely webdesigner Alison of semidivine.com. The scarf is made from a vintage grey and white cotton fabric that might be by Marimekko. It certainly has that Marimekko look, with checks in a print that looks like it was based on a handpainted design. The reverse of this scarf is soft black corduroy.

The 2011 Scarf Moment Has Arrived!

It's a few days after Labor Day 2011, the unofficial beginning of Fall, and the Scarf Moment is gearing up for a busy scarf season ahead. I've been sewing all summer and I have dozens of new styles for the upcoming season, as always, made with vintage fabrics. I'll be posting the new scarves, one at a time over the next few weeks.
The first scarf I present to you, for Fall, 2011, is modeled by dashing Solomon. The scarf has a vintage wool plaid on one side and soft, grey, cotton velvet on the other. I've also made up a few of these with black cotton satin in place of the velvet. Both the satin and the velvet styles are suitable for people with wool sensitivities. You can keep the cotton next to your skin and the wool on the outside for warmth and style without itchiness. Coming soon to a crafts fair near you!