Feels Like Yesterday?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since our national debut at New York’s National Stationery Show.  It feels like last week. Or a decade ago. I can’t decide which.  Last  year at this time, the line was in about 5 stores.  After NSS in May, that jumped to 20. Because of the show, 2 rep groups took us on. The store list grew to over 50.  I met Dale Laurence from Kitchen Papers doing the LA Gift Show last July. He thought our lines might work well together.  In September, I went down to Nashville to meet with the aforementioned Dale and owners Angie and Robbie Cook.  We launched the new Hilda Glasgow Collection last January and as of today, I am thrilled to say that we are in over 500 stores worldwide.  Crazy!  So, yes, it feels like I was setting up my little 6’x8′ booth yesterday, but I also feel like 10 years of progress has been compressed into one short year.   Who knows where we’ll be next year at this time. Whew! I’m exhausted, but sure am enjoying this ride.

If you’re going to the National Stationery Show, please stop by booth 2844 and let me introduce you to Hilda’s gals.

Some of our products

So Many New Things

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We’ve been busy. Sorry I haven’t posted sooner. Our first year exhibiting at The National Stationery Show is coming up soon.  May 20-23 – Javits Center NYC. Booth 1871. Be there or be square. Flavor Paper and I have teamed … Continue reading →

Ad Men and Bunnies and Planes, Oh My!

It must be because The White Cabinet has had such success that the major television networks have introduced two new show this seasons that are set in the early 1960’s.  Or maybe it’s Mad Men. Who knows.  In any case, I’ve just finished watching both and I have some thoughts. Both are about women trying to spread their wings.

Mad Men, as we all know, holds a very high standard.  The characters, storyline, fashion all paint a broader image of the early 60’s.  Sure, there’s probably some stereotyping there, but hell, women did have fewer choices and were probably really uncomfortable in those girdles.  And here’s the most important part – it’s just really fun to watch.  Now The Playboy Club and Pan Am have jumped on the bandwagon.  I, for one, couldn’t wait for the fall season to start.  Here are my reviews, for what it’s worth.

Playboy Club makes you realize how really good Mad Men is because they make it look so easy.  I had reservations about watching a show about the bunnies parading around and the men who oogle them, but it was promoted as more than that.  Life from the perspective of the women.  Okay, that could maybe be interesting.  Again, not as many opportunities in that time and this was a good way to make a living.  What were they really thinking about the guys as they served up the Manhattans?  How did this financial freedom change their lives? How did it affect their family life? How did it change them and their perspective of men in general? Did it change them?  Now turn that into an entertaining show, like the aforementioned AMC hit.  Here’s what I got.  The new cigarette girl (CG) is asked to dance by this kind of surly looking guy (SG).  She agrees and when he puts his hand on her butt, she changes partners to the handsome young attorney (HYA) who is an up an coming politician who also happens to be the boyfriend of the head bunny.  Cut to the CG restocking her tray in the back room when SG barges in and attacks her.  HYA happens to wander in and a fight ensues.  CG is thrown on her back and stabs SG with her stiletto in the jugular.  He dies.  HYA tells her that that was the mob boss (it’s Chicago, after all) and if anyone finds him there, they’d both be goners.  So without anyone noticing, they drag the body to HYA’s car, drive him to the river, wrap him in chains (that happened to be in the trunk) and dumped the body.  After that, back to the club where a man approaches HYA. He wants him to work for the family again. HYA says he can’t. Man says if he doesn’t, he can forget about his political career.  Oh please. At this point, I had to turn it off.  I tried, but it really was just so not Mad Men. I could take it no longer.  And even if it’s the fashions I was watching for, all I saw, for the most part, was Bunny garb. And it was all about HYA, not the women.  And it was dark. The club was dark. It  takes place at night… There was no lightness both literally and figuratively.  I probably should have watched until the end, but the story was so unimaginative that I couldn’t imagine that changing in the second part. I could stand it no longer. It’s been deleted it from my Tivo list.

Now on to Pan Am.  Loved it! Okay, From the first moment it started, the era unfolds. The clothes are FABULOUS.  And all types of clothes, from beatnik to wedding dress and everything in between.  The hair. The makeup.  Now this is fun! Through flashbacks, we learn about the characters.  There’s even Cold War intrigue.  Not a route I could have foreseen watching the promos.  The characters have the potential to be  interesting and to give us more insight into those years.  There’s the smart Greenwich Village girl (Christina Ricci) who has a beatnik boyfriend. I hope they show more of that world (and clothing). There are sisters, one of whom has just been recruited by the CIA to do some espionage and one who walked out on her wedding day to find a more interesting life.  There’s the French stewardess who had the affair with the, unbeknownst to her, married man and the original stewardess spy who is retiring from that game (we think).  The male characters aren’t as intriguing.  They are pretty but pretty much stereotypes which I think is great.  It focuses all the attention on the ladies.  I get the feeling that was the intention.  Yeah, there were some cheesy parts, like the flashback in Cuba. The plane was set to take off with rebels from the botched Bay of Pigs invasion. One stewardess (the original spy) was missing and the co pilot boyfriend goes to find her.  They’re standing on the tarmac. It’s dark. He asks her to marry him… Maybe a nod to Casablanca (she said hopefully)?  That’s okay. The moment passed.  I’m on board with this one. I can’t wait until next week!

What do you think about these shows? I’d love to here.

Our First Anniversary

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Anyone who reads this regularly knows how beyond happy, thrilled, elated, inspired, astounded, and most importantly,  touched I am to the response Mom’s drawings have had over this last year.  It’s been beyond my wildest dreams.  What started out as … Continue reading →

Hilda’s Hangout

I recently caught up with Laura Mueller, one of Mom’s models and a friend of my folks since they met after WWII.  Laura has always had a fabulous wit and time has not passed that gift by.  She says of herself “As a former model, I can say that I no longer have snap to my garters”, but I beg to differ.  Laura was 17 when she started modeling for Mom.  They met at a place called Wally’s.  This was a studio in Manhattan on 44th Street between Lexington and Third.  Wally’s was where all the fashion illustrators of their  day came to practice their skills,  meet like minds and kibbutz.  In other words, it was a hangout.  The owner, Mrs. Wally, was a widow from Scandinavia and apparently a women of few words.  Laura says she only remembers two – “Pose Please” – at which point the models would do four five minute and then four twenty minute poses.  This was an opportunity for the for the artists to really express themselves more creatively.  Even the very best of them had some more mundane accounts where there were restrictions on how the clothes were drawn. Wally’s gave them an opportunity to create truly unique portfolios. This was a time when the printing technology had evolved so that photography was starting to infiltrate into advertising more consistently.   Fashion illustrations were starting to be phased out.  It must have been a very competitive group.  It was also a place where life long friendships (and business associations) started between both artist and model, and artist and artist.  In talking to Laura, I realized that not only she, but other friends that I remember as a kid, came from Wally sessions.

In addition to Mom, Laura worked with  many of the artists that she met there.  One had an account of a very upscale store.  Laura would pose in the most beautiful gowns and after the drawings were done, the artist would give them a little spritz of Chanel No. 5 and off they went to the client.

Mom never mentioned Wally’s.  She did love to reminisce, so I’m surprised this was all new to me.  Perhaps it was an ordinary occurrence of her week at that time and she didn’t think it special enough to discuss.  I am grateful to Laura for helping me bring those years back to life.   

Razzle Dazzle Zazzle

Yes, they are baubles, chachkes, little somethings or maybe even a tiny nugget of beauty.  The White Cabinet and Zazzle – together at last.  In addition to the beautiful custom prints and notecards, Zazzle allows us to offer the drawings as invitations, postcards, mugs, magnets and soon to come coaster, key chains, bags, aprons, calendars, stickers, stamps… You get the idea.  I was a little reticent to go this route.  “Is Walmart next?” I asked myself.  But here’s a way for me to design some pretty cool stuff for an audience of people that may never have had the opportunity to see Mom’s drawings.  

Here’s a party invitation-

You Are Simply Divine and So Is This Party

and some of the other products –

Pretty Little Things

More to come soon.  And more models to be introduced to the site as well!

What do you think? I’d love your opinion.  On what other products from Zazzle would you like to see Hilda’s work?  Or on what things in general.  I’m open to suggestions.  Let your imagination go crazy.  Just like I let mine do when I started this not even a year ago.  

What a blast!

 

Trés Chic! Our Big Debut in New York

There were no gowns or tuxes, but The White Cabinet has officially joined the créme de la créme of the furniture world, making our wallpaper debut with Flavor Paper at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in mid May.  The Javits Center was packed with the world’s most beautiful, unique and sometimes downright odd home furnishings.  Flavor Paper’s wallpaper is not for the faint of heart. If you want your walls to make a bold statement, you’ve found the right place.  Our wallpaper can be printed on any color background.  Jon Sherman, the owner, decided on  50’s pink.  Remember Think Pink?  Well he did.  And the name?  Tres Chic, of course.  Among all of his unique designs, the girls held their own.  What do you think?

Trés Chic, n'est pas?

Quite a collection

If you love the paper and want a small sample, Flavor Paper is happy to send you one. Should you decide to make a commitment to live with our girls for a while, enter “HILDA” on Flavor Paper’s site and you’ll receive 5% discount on a Trés Chic order.

What a year.  Who’d of thought?  Truly amazing.

Lights, Camera, Action

Just wanted to mention our very first television appearance.  Mother’s Day is fast approaching and The Gift Insider  thought one of Hilda’s drawings would be the perfect gift.  Here’s the link below.  So did the camera add 10 pounds to Cyd?  She will always look eternally fabulous in any case.

Creative Gift Ideas

Surround Yourself with Fashion

It is just about here everyone.  The wallpaper should be ready to roll within the next week or so.  Jon at Flavor Paper told me that one women came in ordered it by just looking at the prototype.  This bodes well… They can print it on any color background, scaled to any wall size.  She will be surrounded by beauty.

I did a trade show this week on Long Island and FP sent me a sample to hang.  Here’s what it looks like without the final touches.

Fabulously fabulous, right?  Now picture the drawings double the size and that is what the final paper will be like.  They are officially introducing it at the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) at the Javits Center here in NY in May.

It’s been 10 months since I had the first thought of The White Cabinet.  All I can say is “Wow!”.

Not In Her Wildest Dreams

How could a woman, born in 1913, who finished her fashion illustration career in the early 1970’s, who put away the “commercial work” to sit in a cabinet for decades, how could that woman even dream of how many people were enjoying her drawings.  And there are so many more to come.

Last week, Lisa Pines and I visited Flavor Paper, the company who is turning the drawings into wallpaper.  Lisa and I have been friends since we were about 4, so she spent a lot of time with my family growing up.   Jon Sherman welcomed us in and showed us a shrunken sample of the “pattern”.  I use quotations because it isn’t so much a repeated pattern rather a collage of about twenty drawings, some larger, some smaller.  When blown up to it’s real size, the images will be about the same size as the originals are.  All the detail and nuances  are there.  It’s really more like having a wall of her drawings rather than traditional wallpaper. Lisa and I were blown away.  Jon told us that the paper will be ready to show when they exhibit at ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) at the Javits Center in NY in May.  We left Flavor Paper on cloud nine and started walking down the block, neither of us speaking.  About halfway down, we stopped, turned to each other,  screamed at the top of our lungs and hugged each other.  It was a moment I will never forget.

You have to understand something here.  My late father, Bernard Glasgow,  was a painter from the 1930’s into the 60’s.  He had some success, exhibiting throughout the country including the Brooklyn Museum where he was in group shows with the elite like Georgia O’Keefe.  His paintings sell quite well now through Papillon Gallery in Los Angeles.  Through those years,  Mom was the one who earned the majority of the household funds.  She did the commercial work and he was the fine artist.  I grew up on the upper east side of Manhattan in a large seven room apartment.  His paintings covered every wall.  We had one of her drawings up and that was in the workroom.  One of Mom’s friends, when looking at that lone piece, said “I guess this is what he thinks of your drawings…”  And I  hate to admit it because Dad was a good guy, but I think she was right. He did not think of them as “art”. Now the tides have turned. Hilda’s the star now.  Dad I love you, but guess what?  They are art and people are loving them.  And they are going to be on more walls than you can imagine.