Any advance on 'Beardsley-esque' and 'the Yellow Book' for these motifs on a Ja-Na dress?

M

mercyonthesubway

Registered Guest
Any advance on \'Beardsley-esque\' and \'the Yellow Book\' for these motifs on a Ja-Na dress?

I've had this dress for some time, and I'm finally doing a bit of a survey/rationalization of my collection and trying to fathom this one. I know nothing about Ja-Na of Hawaii, and I've been assuming that this dress is early 70s or possibly late 60s (that cusp again - I'm rubbish at it). Other 'Ja-Na's I can see available are all along the same colourful lines. I know that somewhere along the line I've seen this fabric used in a differently-labelled or label-less dress. I've lost track of what it might have been, but there are more out there, definitely.

So... the figures on the print. I've just taken a break from leafing through the entire run of 'the Yellow Book' online (would you believe the lot is available? o the wonders of the interweb!) where I'm vainly hoping to spot a model for these two figures. One looks like an Indian-ish temple dancer, the second is a reclining, again, slightly fantasy-Indianized, hookah (shisha, nargilah, galyan etc etc) smoker. There's a border of hookahs (etc). I've uploaded them into the Flikr novelty print pool, in case anyone has any ideas.

Can anyone give me an advance on 'Beardsley-esque', 'Art Nouveau' or 'Decadent' as a stab at locating the style/origin of these figures? I wondered if these might have been lifted from an actual original, or whether they were a textile-pattern designer's fantasy?





Thanks everyone (back to 'the Yellow Book'!)

L
 
the fabric looks like that wonderful 70s knit, nice drapable hand? and the print is a hoot! dancing and dreaming post hookah pipe ~

with a hookah border! methinks the print designer pulled a few tokes themselves ~

i would not say art nouveau for this, even though alot of 1970s designs were inspired by that era. some of the background motifs also have a morrocan look, as well

and India -Indian, of course.
 
It surely is a flight of fancy on the part of the fabric designer. There were SO many historical influences on textile design in the 70s, and they were not afraid to mix and match.

I can see the Beardsley influence, but think it is just in his style, rather than a direct copy. I could be wrong... It's just that this type of "exotic" thing was so popular that the consumers at the time had no idea of the background of the print (speaking only for myself here, but I can safely assume that most young women pretty much were as oblivious to such things as was I!). Designers could take a bit from a traditional paisley, add it to an old Persian print and wrap it up Peter Max style, and everyone was happy!

A little off the subject, Lin, if you do not already have it, you need to find a copy of volume 5 of American Fabrics magazine. It is 1947 or 8 (don't have my copy here with me) and the topic of that issue is Persian prints.

I had to laugh at myself after reading your title. I thought, what does the phone directory have to do with it! The business directory here in the US is commonly called "the yellow book!"
 
I can see Beardsley in the print as well and definitely Peter Max - even a little Klimt! I agree with Lizzie that it looks like the fabric designer's "interpretation" of Persian miniatures.

This type of print was never my "thing" back in the day but I do have a book on Aubrey Beardsley in my library!

I'm not sure what the Yellow Book refers to, either. We call the business part of the phone directory the Yellow Pages here.

Linn
 
Thanks all! This discussion has definitely clarified things a bit. No, I didn't find anything likely in the 'Yellow Book' (we have the 'yellow pages' too! I was amused, in reading up on this, that Beardsley allegedly suggested the title 'yellow book' with yellow covers, because that's what was used to cover 'immoral' books published in Paris!).

I thought I'd try and work out if there was an origin for this, because it's something I'm starting to try and do for the Persian miniature ones (see the John Charles 70s garden party dress, a week or two back). But yes, I think you're all right that it's a fantastical combo. Mary, you made me look again at the background and realise that there was a bit of that copying of Islamic wooden screens etc going on.

Liz & Linn, yes, I'm not very aware of Peter Max (I remember years ago on this very forum having to ask exactly who this Peter Max guy was!) and I must remember he's out there mashing imagery up vividly at this period. Linn, Klimt - exactly, I'd not thought of him at all, but that's a good analogy too. I don't think Persian miniatures come into the source material much at all for this particular example, though - these figures are much more based on a Western tradition of representation of the East.

Liz, what a brilliant tip-off about 'American Fabrics' I didn't know of its existence, but now I google it and realise what the content was (swatches and all), I realise it must be a fantastic resource. Even the multiple paisley-related ads to be found in the 1951 edition posted online by Karen Horton are really useful.

I've had a nose in a couple of catalogues and I find that the National Art Library at the V&A have a run of 'American Fabrics' so I'll use it as an excuse to go and bother my friend for lunch there, and spend an afternoon browsing through more than a couple of volumes. Wonderfully useful, thanks!

L
 
I found one advertisement for a Ja-Na of Hawaii dress in a 1964 issue of the Oakland Tribune (CA).
It is a cotton maxi with a floral print called "Wunderbar." It is included with a number of other high-end garments.

And that volume five sounds wonderful.
 
If it were me I wouldn't use Beardsley. I find that to be real stretch. Your print has more of a South Asian influence to me (India..Pakistan..) I don't see much in the way of Nouveau either. The face on the first character has a vague Erté look but thats all I'm seeing along those lines. I would say something like Eastern inspired.

Here is a print from a 70s dress I have on Etsy. The design sensibilities are definately Nouveau inspired. You see the difference?

il_430xN.107434414.jpg
 
Thanks Tangerine! Yes, I see what you mean. I guess the field I was stabbing around in was the 1970s souped-up fin-de-siecle obsession and the peculiar flatness and ornamentalism of these figures which reminded me of Beardsley's prints. I haven't gone with either of those keywords to describe it though - I think we can settle mainly on 'Orientalist' (fantastical portrayal of stereotyped East not much based on authentic originals).
 
(Forgot also to say thanks to Amanda for that info - thanks Amanda! it really helps position the dress/company profile a bit).

Meanwhile.

I'm hyperventilating. 'American Fabrics' vol. 5 has just arrived from Black Cat Book, and it is FANTASTIC. What a great source: ads, tipped-in fabric samples of as-yet-unknown novelty prints, *and* some pretty cool essays by bought-in experts. This is going to keep me busy for some time. None of my 40s fabrics identified, I suspect, but lots and lots of context. Lovely!

(ps. I hope to post some scans at http://vintagevoyager.blogspot.com/ in due course)
 
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