Has anyone seen this vintage label before?

M

mss660

Registered Guest
Hi everyone!
I've tried googling what I think this label says but it's so hard to make out the letters... best I can see it says "Loniaw" or "Loniau" but nothing is coming up. It's such a specific label that I wanted to see if anyone had seen it before. I believe the piece is 60s or 70s doing victorian.

Thanks in advance!
Best,
Madeline

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Thanks for posting it right way up Donna. Now I can see the name 'Sonia' or maybe 'Sonia W'.

As a costumier myself, I see a Renaissance-style costume piece here, not fashion. You can see it's well-made, suggesting theatrical costume. Hard to date as older techniques are often used by costumiers, garments need to be robust. For example, it displays the same techniques I was taught in the '80s. Sometimes you can date from fabrics but costumiers are notorious for our use of older fabrics to create the desired look. I've even cut up '40s dresses because I wanted to repurpose elements.

You don't say where you found the garment but if if you search for 'Sonia' and 'Costume Designer' with the location/state/city/country you might find something. Whoever Sonia was, she was professional. Getting labels like this made up are an indication of that. It's unusual for costumiers to label their work. Good luck.

Nicole
 
I seconded the idea that this was theatrical. The spelling looks like Lonia, with the remaining bit meant to represent the hairline. If you google "lonia" you'll find several women with that name. Also, the Lonia are a caste in India, the name of a shoe company, a wine, and the name of an ebay vintage shop *link deleted by admin* that sells vintage t-shirts, and the style name given to many an item, such as a leather coat by Hugo. If you think the coat might have been local to you, you can try the guilds.

It could be Sonia, but I think the first letter looks much more like a cursive L than an S.
 
It doesn't look theatrical to me. I don't think I have ever seen a 'labelled' theatrical piece - they are usually cloth tags with the name of the character or play on it, not the maker, and I have never seen a nice label like that. Also the lining is too nice. Most theatrical pieces are lined in cotton twill or something durable and washable. This sewing is not industrial, so not from a large run - it looks very boutiquey to me...
 
You can see HERE the same label as the one about which you are asking. It seems Lonia was an exclusive NYC Boutique owned by Linda Friedman…and the same one Victoria mentioned above. A 1977 fashion article stated: "Lonia, a tiny store on West 55th St., is owned by wispy Linda Friedman. Friedman began the boutique four years ago with $10,000 and no staff. There are now four saleswomen, all of whom have the tasteful and spirited look of Lonia's clothes."

I found THIS article about the textile artist Linda Friedman Schmidt, who creates her art with strips of fabric from discarded clothing and is the same Linda Friedman of the Lonia label. Be sure to click the link to the fascinating short video about Friedman Schmidt.
 
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