gunnes on parade

careless darlin'

2011-10-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

this beautiful hooded dress was part of the collection that nikki found, and is now part of her own collection. notice the black label style in white!

nikki of careless darlin' on etsy got in touch to share photos of the amazing collection of gunnes she scored at an estate sale.

several of these beauties are not only black labels, but are in mint-with-tags-unworn condition, AND they are all totally wearable sizes. run, don't walk!

electric ladyland

daydream believer

sad eyed lady of the lowlands

princess buttercup

absolutely sweet marie

hypnotist collector (my favorite of the ones in the careless darlin' shop)

thanks so much for getting in touch, nikki!

the blues

2011-07-27T09:49:00.001-07:00

just a preview/catalog of a few gunnes coming soon to an etsy shop near you
<3

silverlight

2011-07-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

a couple long overdue photos to post of claire in her gunne. don't you love the one in front of the stained glass window?
sorry for the delay, and thanks for sending the pics, claire!

O.G. (original gunne)

2011-07-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

this sweet and surprisingly simple vintage black label chambray mini skirt made its way to our shop via the kindness of one of our regular customers, whose mom was the original owner. it is in new condition and still has the original paper hang tag. i can't believe mom never wore it!

finding their destiny

2011-04-20T08:14:00.001-07:00

this little sweetie found its new home last week. she is going to idaho, where she will be layered over a blouse for a costume in a musical stage play of Tom Sawyer, after which retiring to a lovely life as a sun dress off stage.

before i forget, i wanted to document this black label beauty that is currently in my shop. the smocked bustline is very sweet.

hope all has been well. xo

the gift of gunne

2011-02-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

and this is what happens when one beautiful blogger gives another beautiful blogger a gunne.
radiance. pulchritude. blissfully sublime.

check out heather's original post about the gift she received from milla for more lovely photos.

she's got the happy blues

2011-02-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

our gunne blog friend, rachel, recently emailed me photos of her newest dress. i love the photo of her with sun coming through the trees! that shade of blue is really lovely on her, and i don't want to meet the person who doesn't love a leg 'o mutton sleeve.
see some of rachel's other gunnes here and here
thanks again, rachel!

windfall

2011-01-26T07:32:00.001-08:00

frothy layered cream lace white label gunne sax (sold by rags and feathers vintage)

alison, of rags and feathers vintage, recently shared that she came into quite a windfall at a theater sale. she walked away with about 10 gunnes! can you even imagine?! while she is adopting at least one of the dresses, others are looking for new homes in her etsy shop now:

vintage white label gunne with blue quilted panel and charming ribbon trim

vintage black label gunne sax cream and green corset front dress

thanks so much for sharing your story and pics, alison!

happy new year/the kindness of strangers

2011-01-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

happy 2011! i am not one for resolutions...but maybe one is in order for this neglected little blog :)

the dress pictured in this post came to our shop via donation from a kind and generous stranger. and upon recently checking the gunnelove mailbox, i found two more generous souls had shared pics of their gunnes. both of these events made me feel so grateful for this new year, and happy to keep this journal of gunne loving alive and well. next post, another lovely lady in her gunne! but for now, i hope you all are doing well and i thank you so much for checking in on this little slice of calico love.

xo

more double trouble

2010-09-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

(rachel in her striking gunne. i love the white boots!)

(2009, the first annual gunne parade, and birthplace of this blog. i am wearing my identical gunne on the far right, though it is partially obscured by a denim gunne vest, a calimba, and general awkwardness. also pictured in the photo, from left to right, are amber of violet folklore, sasha of astral boutique, and my daughter)

remember our friend rachel? she sent a new photo of her wearing another gunne from her collection....and it happens to be the same one that i have! (and my favorite ever, too.) brown, black and cream calicos in complementary stripe and print, accented with cream lace. rachel's is only the third of these sundresses i have ever seen. and a while back i had a long sleeved striped sister dress that found its home through my etsy shop:

this whole little collection of gunnes in brown are just perfect for autmun.

thanks again, rachel!
take care, all. xo

double trouble

2010-08-11T18:11:00.001-07:00

(milla of the girl who married a bear in vintage gunne)

(and missa of thrift candy in a sister gunne)

this post on the girl who married a bear handed me a couple of photos i just had to add to our parade. i didn't know whose photo to put first, because both are lovely photos of beautiful women whose blogs i love....so finally i decided to put milla first since i am quoting her post so liberally (do check her post, though, for more "sister dresses").

there's always space for more photos of girlies wearing their gunnies (hi, c!), so send some to me, would ya? gunnelove@live.com

calico buzz

2010-08-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

at kara's (of porkchop rules) and my brick and mortar shop, crimson & clover, a week or so ago, wearing a vintage gunne top i got from enid and edgar vintage with a thrifted vintage wannabe gunne skirt by "coming attractions".

and i FINALLY got around to listing this amazing black label Gunne in my vintage etsy shop.

p.s. happy birthday, kara!

flower power and the gunnesaxgirl

2010-07-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

darn it, i did it again! i went and neglected the poor little gunne blog. so many gunnes, so little time and all that....
the photos above are of my blogging bud, cynthia, wearing one of her gunnes. she always finds the best settings for taking photos of purty dresses....

i just noticed a new store that popped up on etsy, called gunnesaxgirl. not much to speak of in the way of a profile or story, but she's got a bunch of gunnes (like the two above) and most of them are in good, wearable sizes (noticed several 11s).

also found on etsy:

adorable little cropped jacket from penelopepupsvintage
(and only $24!)

sew your own gunne with this vintage pattern from BlueCatVintage
($5.95)

hope everyone has been doing well. i will try not to stay away for so long next time :) xo

motherlode!

2010-05-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

when i saw an email from amber of violet folklore in the gunne love mailbox, i suspected that i was in for treat....

...and i was right! these first two pictures (above) are of gunnes from amber's own closet. the second one was the what she wore to our gunne sax parade last autumn. i just love the black calico with red accents!

(exquisite brown paisley white label gunne offered by violet folklore)

in case the sight of elegant amber in her gunnes leaves you jonesing for a new gunne, these two are now looking for loving homes.

(blush pink white label gunne with ribbon and lace trim offered by violet folklore)

and these last few photos are of gunnes that have "found their destiny" (as amber likes to say) through violet folklore:

(the gunne above purchased from violet folklore was used as a wedding dress!)

still need more gunne? amber sent me a link to a facebook group called the Gunne Sax Addicts
and check out the interview with amber now featured at citizen rosebud
thanks so much, amber <3<3<3>

i'm every woman, it's all in me

2010-05-06T14:22:00.001-07:00

cynthia of www.crusheleptic.blogspot.com submitted this photo of her in her very first gunne! she doesn't love the photo, but i think it's great--looks like a meeting of goddesses in the garden :) check out her blog for more loveliness.

amazing batik gunne offered by Tiger Cult Vintage

this vintage gunne has all the bells and whistles--corset front, lace inset sleeves, and, last but not least, a striking and awesome batik pattern. wow, just wow.
AND, she's in need of a new home, so check her our here.

sightings...

2010-04-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

(judy and her daughter at our paintmaking station. yeah, it is supposed to be blurry like that, sure sure.)

every year at my kids' school, we have a renaissance faire to celebrate leonardo da vinci's birthday. most everybody dresses up in an attempt to be historically accurate, and i have seen more than a couple gunnes floating across the gymnasium for the occasion. this year i worked most of the day with judy, who was wearing her gunne that i remembered spying last year. this year, i just had to get her story and snap a couple pics.
it turns out that judy is the original owner of the dress. it was purchased for her in 1974, when she was 14 years old. the dress is made of black and cream calicos littered with red, blue and green flora, and boasts black corseted details at the bust and mutton sleeves. lovely!

and here's a few gunne goodies looking for loving homes on etsy:

how's that for a rare black label style? offered by CatseyeVintage

another black label rarity, in an ultra wearable and super cheerful halter style. offered b y PleasureQueen

i just love this white label maxi offered by enidandedgar

yikes, the risk of browsing for gunnes on etsy is falling in love and making a purchase. but just look at it-- i had to! purchased from enidandedgar

daughter of aquarius

2010-02-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

(the red hair, the burgandy gunne--too much pretty in one place!)

yikes, i said i wouldn't be away for so long this time...and here it's been 2+ weeks! no matter now, though, because i am back with another lovely gunne lover! many thanks to Kat for getting in touch and sharing the photo above. she first fell for a gunne when she saw an old photo of her then-sixteen year old mom wearing one (thus i have dubbed her our Daughter of Aquarius). and years later while sifting through donations for their church's annual rummage sale, Kat's mom found her the dress pictured above (for only $2!). a great story and a beautiful photo! thanks again!

i also wanted to post a few photos of gunnes that i have "temporary custody" of while i find them their new loving homes. i am hoping to get them listed in my etsy shop this week, but in the meantime i wanted to add them to our growing gunne database.....

a showstopper in unbleached muslin and lace

lace sleeved muted floral voile

black calico in a rare vtg size 13

baby blue calico with lace up cap sleeves

got gunnes to add to the blog? shoot me a photo/link....hope you all are well. take care. xo

woodland fairy

2010-01-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

(pure white with elbow length sleeves--dainty yet perfect with boots)

(cap sleeves and corset front--love it!)

happy new year, all! another decade of loving gunnes behind us. i am sorry to not have posted more recently, but we are back now...and with another lovely gunne lover to feature!

thank you to rachel for submitting these precious photos of her in a couple of her vintage gunne dresses. her sweet and pretty face and the natural surroundings inspired me to call her our woodland fairy.

i have another gunne devotee to feature soon (thank you!), as well as photos of some vintage pieces that are moving through my etsy store that i want to add to our library of gunne here....so i promise to be away for so long this time! take care, all. xo ---n

p.s. got gunne photos? well, shoot them over!

velvet iris

2009-12-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

a while back sasha (of astral boutique) turned me on to the new-ish etsy shop VelvetIris. they have a lovely little collection of dresses for sale, including some rare and special black labels (the red one pictured, wow!). check out their shop, if for no other reason than to ogle the lovely photos....

p.s. sasha's former violet folklore partner, amber, carries on the violet folklore name and has a new blog at www.violetfolklore.com

p.p.s. got photos of your favorite gunnes? vintage photos featuring gunnes? please shoot them over so i can add them. happy new year! xoxo

blissful blouses and a new old dress

2009-12-02T08:25:00.001-08:00

the other day while at the shop, i wore my newly acquired gunne. navy floral with white lace accents. my favorite part is the sweet little tulip sleeves. white label 70's vintage, super wearable.
in a gunne mood, i took to our rack of tops to search for other treasures and came up with three yummy lace treats....

(gunnies label)

(scott mcclintock label)

(gunnies label)

btw, if one of these blouses is making your heart sing, email for more details (e.g. prices range from $15-20)-- we are always willing to do a custom etsy listing for you.

xo --n

the free spirit

2009-11-17T19:43:00.001-08:00

(Katlyn found the beauty pictured above on eBay and wore it to a prom)

(Of the photo above Katlyn says: "Any gunne can be turned into daily wear...underneath the sweater you should see the fantastic foot wide lace angel sleeves!")

yay, it's time to share another set of photos submitted by you! katlyn submitted the photos above of a couple of her vintage gunne dresses. she looks so lovely on her way to the dance, and i love her choice of a long pendant necklace with the ruffled off the shoulder neckline. for wearing a gunne to a 21st century prom and giving great fashion advice, i have dubbed her "the free spirit"!

the belle of the ball

2009-11-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

it's like christmas when i open the gunnelove email box and find photos that you all have submitted... and this week i received mail from two lovely ladies! i am going to post them separately in the order in which they arrived, so that they each get their own much deserved moment in the limelight!

rini submitted the photos above, and she positively radiates in these photos of "just some" of the gunnes in her collection. with all the beauty and such pretty settings, i've dubbed rini our belle of the ball....

thank you so much for the submissions! please keep them coming. have a beautiful saturday. xo ---n

corset fronts...

2009-10-27T08:24:00.001-07:00

(my atelier partner, kara of porkchop rules, models a corset front gunne sundress)

(this black label xxs/xs corset front gunne dress is currently available in my vintage etsy shop)

Queen neo-Victoria

2009-10-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

this super-lovely gunne blouse was submitted by Ultra Violet Vintage. thank you!

the Ultra Violet Vintage etsy shop is adorable, and with reasonable prices, too. definitely worth swinging by next time you are on the prowl for vintage treasures on etsy...

the last unicorn

2009-10-23T09:56:00.001-07:00

well, not really the last unicorn, but gunnes featuring a unicorn print fabric are pretty darned rare. the example above was first purchased on eBay from my atelier partner, Kara, who was unhappy with the fit and brought it to the shop to sell. so i had to buy it, and then also found myself feeling very much like i was wearing someone else's dress. when i finally decided to part with it, i enlisted the help of chelsea wolfe to model for me. though it took a bit of traveling, hopefully the last unicorn dress has found its forever home now....

in search of jessica...

2009-10-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

(hillary wore a gunne when she married bill!)

(jessica mcclintock at home 2005 by Lacy Atkins, www.lacyatkins.com)

jessica mcclintock is actually celebrating thirty years in the fashion business this year. i found this great article which gives some background on gunne sax and her involvement and eventual evolution into a powerhouse of the biz:

Women's Wear Daily
"Jessica McClintock at 30: From Rickrack to Riches"

New York-Her esthetic might have been ripped from the pages of a romance novel, the kind that tell of satin-tied corsets, billowing ball gowns and clingy black velvet slips. But at heart, Jessica McClintock is a tie-dyed hippie.

The irony that is part of Jessica McClintock's career is most profound in the story of how this designer- whose signature has become "serious occasion" dresses- during the days of nonconformity, had one of her off-the-rack frocks at Dillard's purchased by Hillary Rodham to war at her wedding to Bill Clinton. But times do change.

In those early years of McClintock's business, which was founded in the heart of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in 1969 as Gunne Sax, her designs were influenced by a different sort of romantic philosophy: Make love, not amour.

"At that time, everything was very counterculture," McClintock said during an interview late last month at Lord & Taylor here, where she was kicking off a national tour of public appearances to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her business.

"I was designing for the hippies and flower children, so when I started, I was designing granny dresses," she said. "I had a basket full of trims and rickrack, muslin and jute trim, even beads dangling from the jute trim. I never knew it, but I was doing bridal for counterculture kids."

Thirty years later, McClintock is doing bridal for just about everyone else.

Her business is expected to have sales of $140 million this year, which includes revenues from a wholly owned fragrance, Jessica, which turns 10 this year; Gunne Sax, now a junior line; Scott McClintock for the moderate market, and Jessica McClintock in better and bridal.

McClintock also owns 26 stores around the country and plans to open a 27th in Portland, Maine, this month.

The firm has been revving up its licensing division, which is headed by McClintock's half-brother, Jack Hedrich. The company's oldest license, for home furnishings, was with Bibb Manufacturing. That company was recently acquired by Dan River, which plans to continue the line. In the past two years, deals have been made for licensed lines of jewelry, eyeglasses and fine china.

In addition, McClintock has been developing a new fragrance for the past three years with Givaudan-Roure, which makes Jessica, a scent based on the lily of the valley, which is plentiful in New England.

"For this one, I've them going crazy trying to match the scent of a plant we used to call mayflower," she said. "It only grew on the sides of streams. It was a very small, delicate flower, and the fragrance is extremely light. But it blooms only in the spring, so they're going to have to go up there to capture that fragrance."

Jessica McClintock ranked 92nd in the 1997 Fairchild 100 consumer survey of recognizable brands and fourth in its top 10 ready-to-wear- category. NPD Beauty Trends named Jessica as the 10th most popular in its 1996 prestige fragrances survey, while Working Woman ranked the designer 39th in its 1997 survey of the top 50 women-owned businesses, one spot ahead of Oprah Winfrey.

Despite her success, it was a circuitous route that brought McClintock, who is 68, to the apparel industry.

Born and raised in Presque Isle, Maine, McClintock studied anthropology and psychology at Boston University, where she met her first husband Frank Staples, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Staples led her to California, where he worked at Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles, developing tantalum and titanium, which are used in the nose cones of rockets.

"He was killed in an automobile accident, and I was left with a 10-year-old son," she said. "I went back to my home grounds- New England- and ended up on Long Island.

There she met and married Fred McClintock, but when that marriage didn't work out, Jessica moved back to California.

"We sailed on a big sailboat for six months," she said. "He was an adventurer, but we should have just been lovers and stayed that way. But that's how I got my name, and it's a great name."

McClintock taught in the Cupertino School District, just south of San Francisco, for a few years, usually working with sixth graders on their science studies, and sometimes teaching music, because no one else could play the piano. But McClintock said she wasn't happy, so in 1969 she moved to San Francisco with her son, Scott.

"There was a company there called Gunne Sax that had just started," she said. "For $5,000, I became a partner. I never went to design school, I never did anything but my grandmother was a fabulous pattern maker and designer, and from five years old on I was sitting at her Singer sewing machine, and I would make anything I could get my hands on."

In the beginning, McClintock sold dresses to local boutiques and specialty stores around Berkeley. When the style was mini, she experimented with the midi, using a big, wide rickrack trim that was, she said, "a knockout seller" for Joseph Magnin, one of her earliest supporters. Magnin was trying to make a change in fashion away from looks coming off the stage of Mary Qual the British designer widely credited with popularizing the miniskirt.

"I started to do all these flower-child-influenced clothes," McClintock said. "I was trying to feed an entire generation of people that came off of a strong visual sense. They had been going to school and having more art lessons than ABC's and math, so they were very visual, and they were used to mixing things and putting things together artistically."

Young kids and "far-out movie stars" wore her dresses in films, like Sissy Spacek did in "Coal Miner's Daughter," the 1980 rags-to-riches story of country music superstar Loretta Lynn, McClintock said.

"I did make Hillary Clinton's wedding dress," she said. "She was really counterculture. She was part of that hippie generation, I'm sure, and didn't want to marry in a traditional bridal dress."

The line was originally called Gunne Sax, which today is McClintock's junior social occasion collection, worn mostly for proms. Her San Francisco contemporaries included other labels with tongue-in-cheek names, like Ginger Peachy, Foxy Lady, and Plain Jane, which later became Esprit.

"Gunne Sax was not a serious looking label and it's funny because I do very serious looking clothes for very serious occasions, like proms, bar mitzvahs and communions," she said. "As the years have gone on, like every other area in our society, the focus has become more and more specific."

"Now, you go into a store just to find special kinds of light bulbs, then another just for bath products. My focus has been extremely special occasion, and what people want to wear to these occasions, either going to them as a guest or being part of the event.

McClintock was quickly discovered by Bloomingdale's, which displayed her playful dresses in its windows, as did Saks Fifth Avenue. Eventually Federated Department Stores and the May Co. stores followed suit.

"I built this myself. I sold everything and designed everything," McClintock said. "I just kept working. I didn't think it was work because I loved it so much. I didn't even stop to think about it.

Others did.

"It must have been 22 years ago." McClintock said. "I had just gotten the windows of Saks, and the Bon Marché was doing a designer appearance event, when a young man came up to me and said his name was Tommy Hilfiger. He said, 'Jessica, I want to be doing what you're doing.'

"The next time I see him I'm going to say, 'Tommy, I want to be doing what you're doing.'"

black label beauties

2009-10-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

(black label floral and ricrac for joseph magnin)

(look at the birdies! black label for joseph magnin)

gunnes on parade

2009-10-15T09:02:00.001-07:00

whilst preparing to parade through the streets of sacramento in our favorite gunnes last saturday, talk turned to creating a gunne sax database to document all the many sweetly detailed frocks we come across. but a database is so cold....so a blog it is. we plan to post photos of the gunnes that pass through our hands, and invite others to submit photos of their favorite gunne sax frocks.
and for the deets on our parade, check here.