Category Archives: Canadian dress

The World’s First Booty Call

Posted on 2018-08-09 by Jonathan

142 years ago, on August 10, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell received the world’s first long distance telephone call in Robert White’s Boot and Shoe store and Telegraph office. The one way phone call made 13 km away from the Dominion … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – Tony Day Sweaters 1946 – 1970

Posted on 2018-08-01 by Jonathan

In 1946, Bob and Mary Pritchard began making sweaters in a garage near their home in Kitchener, Ontario. They used a knitting machine Bob had purchased while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the War. The company was … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – Savage Shoes

Posted on 2018-07-30 by Jonathan

Founded in 1922, the Parker-Steel Shoes Ltd. company of Preston, Ontario, was bought out in 1927 by Laurence Melville Savage, his father, and a business partner. In 1936 Savage also acquired Hurlbut Shoes, and the Wragge Shoe Company of Galt, … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – Marjorie Hamilton

Posted on 2018-07-24 by Jonathan

Born 1911, Marjorie Hamilton never learned how to sew or design clothing, but in 1945 she decided that most lingerie was dull and made a pair of rayon panties with scalloped edging. When a department store placed an order for … Continue reading →

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Glossary – Hollanderizing, Shinerizing, Martinizing

Posted on 2018-07-01 by Jonathan

Yesterday’s fashion in song post Take Back Your Mink from the 1950 play Guys and Dolls contains the line “So take back your mink to from whence it came, and tell ‘em to Hollanderize it for some other dame!” Hollanderizing is … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – April Cornell

Posted on 2018-05-27 by Jonathan

In 1975 Montrealers Chris and April Cornell came back from a trip to Asia with their luggage stuffed with hundreds of pounds of kilims, Kandahar wedding shirts, Turkomen jewelry, Nepali jackets, Afghani socks, and Kuchi tribal dresses – enough to … Continue reading →

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Mary Humphries, 1926 – 2018

Posted on 2018-05-25 by Jonathan

I just read that Canadian fibre/fabric specialist and author Mary Humphries passed away February 22 at the age of 92. Born in Evanston, Illinois, she grew up in Thornhill, Ontario, and received her MA from University College, University of Toronto. … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – H. V. Cowie Company Ltd.

Posted on 2018-05-20 by Jonathan

The H.V. Cowie Company Limited was founded by 45 year old Hedley Vicars Cowie on March 6, 1922. The company specialized in manufacturing and importing menswear (dress pants, blazers, dressing gowns, smoking jackets, neckwear, scarves…) Initially located at 22 Front Street in … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – Photographer William Notman

Posted on 2018-05-14 by Jonathan

Some of the earliest fashionable images of Canadians come from photographs taken by William Notman’s studios. Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1826 and became a partner in his father’s wholesale woollen cloth business in 1851. In 1856 he … Continue reading →

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Canadian Fashion Connection – Lou Myles

Posted on 2018-05-06 by Jonathan

Luigi Cocomile was born in 1928, a month after Joseph and Lucetta Cocomile (an itinerant shoemaker and his wife), immigrated from Calabria, Italy to Toronto, Canada. The family struggled financially and Luigi dropped out of school after grade 8, earning … Continue reading →

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