Hi everyone I have a wool knit dress with a Tracy's Fashion Centre label as well as a Myer Kahan Adaption label. Now, I would think that an adaption label would not be on little designers of the time but important designers. All adaption labels I have ever found have been high end designers of the day but I have never heard of Myer Kahan and google brought about no information. Other then google at this point I have not done any research and don't have the time at the moment but thought I would put it out there in case anyone had any info on Kahan or where I can go to get some.. Thanks guys! Michelle
I have been using Froogle a lot on stuff like that so it weeds out hometown articles about lists of 1,0000 names in a marathon, etc....and just has "items"......but found nothing either!
And I've been using Vivisimo because it clusters results, but unfortunately all I found was a 60s dress with this label on a vintage site, but no info on the label. Sue
hmmmmm yes, I found the one listing online as well. And SHE had the "real" thing rather then the adaption Twas a very cute dress! Anyway, I am going to hold off on listing the dress until I do some more research Thanks for your help Michelle
Fwiw (13 years later...), Myer Kahan was my grandfather, but Kahan was not his original name. He was born Myer Kudlovich and married Gertrude Rosenthal. Gertrude was the designer, an immigrant at about 16 from Eastern Europe, I think Romania. She had descended from Sephardic Jews who had moved east to escape the inquisition in Spain. Gertrude worked her way up in the garment industry. Myer was a tailor, also a Jewish immigrant but from Poland. After marrying, the two opened a prominent mid 20th century dress factory in Toronto. Gertrude did not like Myer's Polish last name, Kudlovich. Instead, they agreed on "Kahan", a name frequently given to Jews on arrival (a variant of Cohen et al.).
I can't think of a specific example I have in the collection, but it doesn't sound unfamiliar, so I must have seen this label at some point. Thanks for bringing this thread to my attention Maggie... I assume it was one of the Spadina Avenue manufacturers that blossomed in the late 1940s to late 60s. There were so many of them then - Canada's 7th Ave.