Hello so happy I found this site!! I come across many vintage items. I have a scarf that has label "Donald Davies" it's 53 1/2" by 58" it has boats and boathouses very nice greenlime main color with pink red blue and darker green colors on graphics. I tried to find more about the label but all I found is, this designer did mostly ladies' Vintage Fashions any help is appreciated! thanks
A 1961 newspaper blurb reported that: "Donald Davies of Dublin, designer of casual clothes, has brewed a new shade of green." Another 1961 newspaper article noted that: "A ruddy Irishman who lives and works in a drafty Dublin castle is visiting here briefly to declare a fashion pants war on American culottes...Donald Davies with sandy hair and pale blue eyes is the same Gaelic designer who put boys' long-tailed shirts on women and therefore had sack dresses at least six months before a Frenchman named Dior...Five years ago Davies made his first trip to New York quietly, and much more peaceably, with armloads of his native tweeds for department store executives to examine. The buyers liked his colorful fabrics, but they wished he would fashion them into an unusual type pf ladies' shirt. One buyer spotted the shirt on little Richard's (Davies) back. "Make us some like that," he said. Thus the Irish Paddy grew in feminine popularity on both sides of the Atlantic..." A 1961 ad touted a new shipment of "Donald Davies' Irish whisper-weight woolens." A 1965 article noted: "Donald Davies is actually a Welshman, but even the Irish have forgotten it now. He is known for his use of Irish fabrics, notably linen and tweed, in striking colors, but classic, soft styles. His wife, Mary Davies, who is Irish, runs a boutique under her own name in Enniskerry, about 14 miles outside of Dublin...Mr. Davies designs all the textiles; his wife helps him with the styles." A 1967 article on Irish designers stated: "Handloomed lightweight wools are used for hostess gowns and hooded day dresses by Donald Davies, who is one of the few Irish designers including mini styles in a collection." A 1968 ad featured ties by Davies. A 1971 advertisement invited shoppers to buy from the Donald Davies store at 19 E. 57th Street, New York. A 1972 article about Davies' shirtwaist dresses noted that: "The dresses are, quite literally, the outgrowth of the homespun shirt with which Mr. Davies began his business some 25 years ago on the stables of Charleville, his estate in Enniskerry, just outside Dublin. Today there are seven Donald Davies shops in England, one in Paris, and three in Enniskerry, where the factory is also located." The article further notes that the Donald Davies shop on 57th Street carries Donald Davies slacks, shirts, and skirts, wool sweaters, belts and necklaces "that blend in with Davies' colors" and "shirts, sweaters, and ties for men and dresses for little girls."From a 1974 article on Irish designers: "Then there's Donald Davies. He brought out the tweed shirt that gave the Irish look a new dimension." I never saw a reference to a Donald Davies scarf, but I wonder if they were sold in his shop(s) to "blend in with Davies' colors."
