Fab "birds on acid" print w/ soo many questions.

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Fab \"birds on acid\" print w/ soo many questions.

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Howdy,

This is one of the neatest prints I have found in a long, long time so I thought I would share. I have no idea who Bernardo is, other than seeing a few pieces from the late 60s through 70s on the net. I am suspecting this is more middle-range quality since the flow match is not great on the back seams (they are symmetrical, but the cut off bird heads near the shoulders, as you can see, to save fabric expense). The other curious thing is the arm stitching. You can't really see it in these photos...but, - along that arm seam there are little dots - almost like tiny pinholes where something would have been "taken out" and that doesn't make sense at all. They are very uniform in the line around the shoulder. Does that make sense to anyone?

Like this:

birddress1.jpg


also: Has anyone heard of this Bernardo person/collaborative/label before?
And would anyone take a gander and help id some of these birds? Since some of the colors are a bit unnatural, I don't think I have guessed them all.

From what I could decipher...

The bird closest to the hem is definitely a BlueJay
The second bird (not the one that is just the tail) looks like a Cockatiel. Too small in proportion to the others to be a Cockatoo.
Below the Cockatiel looks like a Chickadee or small Tree Sparrow on acid.
I think I also see a Swallow - what about you?
 
ohh, i looooove this print! deft placement of the border, and it looks like a huge repeat, too.

like julie, i think of sandals when i think of bernardo. not familiar with this one. it does have an italian kind of feel, ala the others of the period heavy into prints, despite the care tag being in english. or maybe he/it was italian per the leaning tower graphic and this was for import.

i think i see (faintly) what you're talking about around the armholes, or just in a few inches from them. from here it looks like it's the stitching tacking the facing on the armholes to the dress? at least the fabric around there looks doubled.

no help on iding any of the other birds.
 
How is the finishing work inside those arm holes? Do you think this had long sleeve and they were removed at a later date?
 
i thought about sleeves having been removed too. but then why would those holes be so far over from the actual armholes? they look the right size from here. although if they weren't large to begin with, that wouldn't matter.

my guess is european made with slightly different construction than what most of us are used to seeing.
 
There is one Bernardo dress on Etsy and if you use google shopping, you will see a blouse and a top/skirt set. Nothing really like this, though. One of them showed the label. I am thinking this is a different Bernardo than the shoe maker but I really can't say for sure.

Joan - yes, the fabric there is doubled from the edge of the armhole to several inches in, where you see those holes. It is a different piece of fabric rather than being folded in from the front. (rather, two pieces, one is the facing of the front of the armhole and one for the back). The fabric is the same pale yellow.

Okay - you'll have to bear with me to see if this makes any sense. If not, wait til I get my new USB cable shortly so I can upload a photo...

It (the lining fabric) is fastened in two places. The first is very near the outer edge of the armhole. There are no holes or tack stitches here and in fact I don't know if I know the name of the seam. I'll have to look - but extremely neat. Definitely machine done and the way the one layer is folded under you have to look close to see that its not just one fabric, but two pieces joined - the inner and outer.

Upon very close inspection, going back to where we see the holes - what I thought were holes actually also have tack stitches/invisible stitches - very hard to see them - at about those areas too. But then if the thread is almost imperceptible except 2-3 stitches - why the holes? There is a chain stitch/lock stitch at the edge of this piece of the fabric inside that doesn't connect to the rest of the garment, and then it is tacked.

When I inspected the other inside pieces - such as the lining that the label is affixed to, they were all finished with a very neat and uniform chain lock stitch (definitely by machine). The chain stitch on the "hole line" so to speak is a much more crowded and looks like it was stitched and then stitched over on top of. In some places it looks like a small lock stitch but in other places it is harder to decipher because it appears to have been stitched again for good measure on top of it or just an incredibly crowded stitch. Or it was handstitched to begin with - a possibility.

Also, the fabric on the right and left panels of the dress also faces the back of the lapels, so if you pulled the collar up and lapels closed, it is a continues bird pattern. (but of course, there is no button on the top to wear it this way). The upper part of the collar is a front and back piece, and there is a piece lining where the label is.

Okay - now I don't know if I made sense to myself but gave it the college try.

I wonder if the lining was loose there and the original owner didn't like having to tuck the arm lining in so tacked it down and did overkill, or it did have a suspected arm removal. . Or just different construction.

I know - I should give diagrams and photos. Or do semaphore.
 
btw, it doesn't show well at that angle, but the left hand side of the wearer, or our right, the pattern is increasingly larger bird cages with oddly green and pink lovebirds and other smaller birds in them.
 
Chris, not sure I quite can get everything you're saying about the armhole facings--picture's worth a thousand words, right?--but could it be that both facings were hand tacked at the edge all the way around, which wouldn't be unusual, but that the one facing that looks odd came undone and then the original chain stitching on the edge unraveled? And then somebody hand restitched the edge, then made less-than-neat stitches to re-tack the facing to the dress? It sort of sounds like an after-manufacture "fix" of some sort, by probably the first owner, because of the stitching on top of stitching.
 
I'm still thinking it had long sleeves originally. Sleeveless was "tighter" in design then.
 
I think your 'tree sparrow on acid' is a Blue Tit. That's a very good description of a blue tit actually! It has the right face markings, the 'highwayman's mask', and actually the colours aren't so far out - blue head, green back, blue wings. I guess you don't see them much in the US, but they are a very common bird in europe. Do a Google Image Search on blue tit, and see if you agree.

Above the cockatiel looks rather like a small pigeon. Maybe a turtle dove? Something from the pigeon/dove family anyway,

And if I'm right about the Blue Tit, I think the third from bottom could be a Great Tit. Seems to have the right markings and also the shape of the tail.

By the way, do you realise that's the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the label? Might help narrow down your research.
Ruth
 
Ruth - I did google and those birds are adorable. When you said blue tit, I was thinking more of a Tufted Titmouse, which I have seen in the US. They are both very cute.

Originally posted by bycin
I'm still thinking it had long sleeves originally. Sleeveless was "tighter" in design then.
Click to expand...

Yeah - you are right - it would have been higher and tighter. Maybe if it was made now, not, but then, yes. Not that this is very scientific - but in trying this on, granted its just a hair big, I wouldn't wear it without a tank top underneath or something to cover the sides of a bra. Now, if this was worn by a tall gal, maybe she wouldn't have that issue. But for gals who would wear it bigger to cinch in, it would be a prob. Unless it was just a design choice that wasn't in tune with everything else that was going on at the time.

Now - long sleeved (or it could be short sleeved also), or was it altered for a gal who had larger arms and it was just widened to a accommodate.
 
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