Vera

We've Moved!

2011-02-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

Hello to all of our loyal followers! I wanted to let you all know that we have moved! The Vera Company's blog is now located at http://theveracompany.tumblr.com.

Come join the fun!

Love and Ladybugs,
The Vera Company

2010-10-28T06:13:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it’s already the end of October? The year has flown by and soon it will be all white and gray outside. The need for color is inevitable. There’s good news, however. Vera bath products are now available at Macy’s, Dillard’s, and will soon be at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! You can also view them online at these stores’ websites. There’s the iconic Flights of Fancy pattern with blue and green butterflies dancing over fields of prairie grass. There’s the just-as-iconic Oriental Poppy re-colored into indigo blue to freshen and brighten every corner of your bathroom. And, as always, Vera kitchen and table linens are at the same locations. Let Vera uplift your winter moods as you walk through your home. As Vera herself once said, “…Color just brings a little bit of joy into our lives.”

The Signature Collection by Vera

2010-09-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, we have started a new collection of apparel on our website. It’s called The Signature Collection by Vera. It’s a collection of limited edition items—most of them are one-of-a-kind. We’ve tapped some fresh talent from Atlanta, GA—her name is Rachel Wertz (she's modeling her dress above.) She’s a recent graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design. We noticed her at a SCAD fashion show for seniors and loved the way she works with silk and really has an eye for vintage. So, she’s working on our collection of repurposed scarf garments for The Signature Collection.

Repurposing scarves is a great way to get a fresh look from your old scarves. Rachel is using original design sample scarves to make garments (they once hung in Vera's own showroom) but if you don’t have the time or the patience to make clothing from scarves (it’s difficult—trust me!) you can make anything from pillows to quilts to decorative flowers. However, you have to be careful. You can repurpose scarves for things around your own house, or give it as a gift, but you can’t repurpose to resell, especially Vera scarves. You’ll run into some copyright and trademark issues.

So, be inspired and check out our new Signature Collection by Vera! www.theveracompany.com

Make your summer hat fun!!

2010-06-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ah, summer! 'Tis the time for beaches and vacations. 'Tis also the time for sunburns and (hopefully!) lots of SPF. A great way to protect your face from the sun is to wear a hat (the face is one of the top areas for skin cancer. Also, do you really want all those sun-induced wrinkles?). And a great way to wear your hat is with a scarf! Some floppy hats can be pretty dull, even if they are a bright, cheery color. So, without further ado, here are some ways to pair your hat with a fun Vera scarf:

The Kentucky Derby

This style reminds me of the fancy hats at the Kentucky Derby. You can wear this to an outdoor wedding, or any kind of fancy outdoor to-do. It not only protects your face from the sun, but also the back of your neck.

Step 1: Drape the scarf (this is a silk wrap size) across the crown of the hat and let the ends hang down the sides.

Step 2: Tie the two ends under your chin.

Step 3: You have the option of tying the ends in a bow or letting the ends drape over your shoulder (shown here). You can also let the scarf hang down over the back of the hat (shown here) to protect your neck. This is also a great way to keep your hat from blowing off in the wind.

The Band-it

This is a very easy way to tie a scarf onto a hat:

Step 1: Take an oblong scarf and position it on the front of the crown of the hat.

Step 2: Tie the scarf in a bow around the crown of the hat.

Step 3: Look totally fabulous! See? Very easy. With this extra long scarf, the tails in the back add more drama.

Cap-tivating

This style tops off your hat with color and pattern! It adds a little flair to your flop!

Step 1: Fold your square scarf diagonally to create a triangle. Position the middle of the triangle on top of the crown of the hat.

Step 2: Take the two long ends and tie them around the crown of the hat.

Step 3: Tie the tails in a double knot (or a bow). You may need to tuck some of the scarf in at the top--it can have a tendency to pucker and look like cat ears where the tails are pulled around.

And there you have it! I don't recommend wearing silk scarves on your hat in the rain, but other than that, perfect for those sunshiny summer days, or the gray ones when you just need more color!

New Vera Webpage!

2010-05-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

The Vera Company has updated their website!
Check it out at www.theveracompany.com.

2010-05-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

The (We Love Vera) Louisa Settee by Anthropologie made it to the front cover of New York Magazine! Anthropologie did an awesome job on their line of We Love Vera furniture for spring 2010. Check it all out on www.anthropologie.com. Search for "Vera" and the home and apparel lines will come up. A feast for the eyes--bon apetit!

The Met Store at Rockefeller Center

2010-04-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

Take a look at The Metropolitan Museum's Store windows! This is the one at Rockefeller Center in New York. You can also see their website with Vera products at http://store.metmuseum.org.

Vera Art at the Atlanta Botanical Garden

2010-03-31T06:34:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that Vera's art is being shown in the Atlanta Botanical Garden! There are some original pieces and also some giclee reproductions for sale. The gallery is adjacent to the Orchid Conservatory. If you're in the Atlanta area, stop on in. The gallery is bursting with color!

Vera at The Met Store!

2010-03-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We are happy to announce that Vera is now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Store. Go to http://store.metmuseum.org/page/home and search for Vera. You'll see all of the gorgeous stationery items and personal accessories featuring her art. This is fabulous not only because it is The Met, but because her father took her to The Met every Sunday when she was a child. These are what we call "Ladybug Moments"--things that happen that were just meant to be.

Vera's Book!

2010-03-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

It is now official!! Vera: The Art and Life of an Icon is now available at Anthropologie! View a piece of honest-to-goodness American art and history! It's also available online at www.anthropologie.com. Just search "Vera" and you will see it along side the fabulous things they've done with their "We [Love] Vera" line. Or, click on the picture to go right there.

DIY Infinity Scarf

2010-01-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

One thing that I think scarf fans have noticed is that this season, it's all about the infinity scarf. For those of you that may not know what an infinity scarf is, it's a scarf that is sewn into a circle. You wrap it around your neck a couple of times and it is quite cute! In this economy, one may not be able to afford another scarf, so I decided to come up with a way that you can wear your rectangular/oblong wrap/scarf as an infinity scarf.

Here I've taken a Vera wrap (that is going to be available very soon--Spring 2010).

I tied two corners together. It doesn't really matter if they're diagonally opposite or not--just as long as they're on opposite ends of the scarf.

Drape the loop around your neck with the knot in the back.

Twist in front and loop around your neck again. Twist in back and loop back over your head (depending on how long your scarf is and what the look is that you're going for.)

This particular wrap has fringe, so I left some of the fringe hanging out to create some dimension. You can tuck your edges in or hang them out, whichever you prefer. Again, it all depends on the look you want. This is my favorite way to wear my wraps now. Very cute and very today!

Sparkle for the Holidays!

2009-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a girl just has to have some sparkle. During the holidays, this is imperative. You want to out-shine all the Christmas trees and holiday decorations that surround you, so here’s a predicament that I’ve personally run into. How do you wear jewelry with a scarf? You have to be so careful not to overdo it. I know I’ve probably been in Marie Claire sporting the black bar across my face many a time. So how does one wear a gorgeous Vera scarf with a gorgeous piece of jewelry? The answer is simple—PLAY! I had so much fun coming up with these solutions, so I know you will too if you get out your scarves and a few pieces of jewelry and have at it. Here are a few of my suggestions:

Here is an example of me wearing my Elephant Blanket scarf with one of my favorite necklaces I bought from Ten Thousand Villages (one of my favorite stores.) I’ve wrapped my scarf around and am wearing it like an infinity scarf and letting my necklace peek out just a little. I’m also wearing a turtleneck, which I’m not sure I would recommend wearing with a silk scarf. Silk holds in the heat! I had to take it off before the day was out, which I hated because it’s a fab scarf.

Here, I put on a necklace that has a similar color theme and tied my scarf in a cowl to go around the neck. To tie a cowl, fold your scarf in half diagonally so it's a triangle. Tie the two top corners together (the hypotenuse of the triangle) then, with the knot facing you, tie the last two corners around your neck. Again, the necklace is just peeking out, so it’s not crying for attention.

This is a way you can wear a scarf for a holiday party. It is a square scarf—this particular one is 36” square. If you tie the same side corners together on each side, you can stick your arms through and voila—a jacket! This would work with just about any type of jewelry, since the scarf isn’t competing for the neck space.

I tied the same scarf as a halter. You make a triangle with a square scarf, tie the hypotenuse corners together, slip that around your neck, and then tie the other two corners around your waist. This can be worn under a jacket or over a long sleeved shirt like a vest. I didn’t have any pearls, but that would be fabulous with this scarf.

This can be done with a sleeveless dress, or even if you’re wearing a vest over long sleeves. This is a square scarf rolled into a long piece and tied into a bow around the strap on the shoulder. I didn’t tie an initial knot when tying the bow because it would be too bulky. Again, play around and see what works for you.

This is one of my favorites! All I did was twist an oblong scarf around my long beaded necklace and tied a bow (without the initial knot, of course). When I talk about the initial knot, it’s the knot you tie before you tie the loops for the bow. I know lots of people tie their bows differently, so—do what works for you.

This is pretty much the same concept as the last picture. I wrapped an oblong scarf (it’s actually more of a wrap) around a long beaded necklace. This time, I left the back long so it has a sort of flowy trail behind you.

If you have a necklace pendant that is big enough, you can thread a scarf through it and wear it as a necklace or choker. I don’t have a pendant big enough, so I used my cocktail ring. In this instance, I used it as a choker with a long tail in the back.

This is the same thing as the last example, but instead of the tail in the back, I tied the tail to where one side is in front and one side is in back. See what you can do by just playing around? Super fun!

This is a square scarf used as a necklace with my same cocktail ring. The way to tie a square scarf to be a long piece like this is to fold it in half diagonally and roll it starting from the tip of the triangle to the base. That way you don’t have the edges showing. However, the edges showing could lend themselves to another look. Try it—see what you think.

This is a square scarf tied the way most people think of when they have a square scarf—a long piece just tied around the neck. However, I used a short beaded necklace to wrap around the neck part. I clasped the necklace inside the knot so you can’t see the clasp and it helps hold the necklace in place.

This scarf doesn’t have any jewelry with it, however I used a flower pin/clasp to dress it up a bit. My flower has both a pin and a clip on the back, so I don’t have to worry about putting holes in my silk scarves. This scarf is just a triangle tied around the neck to where the big part is in front and the ends are brought around the neck again and tied in the front. I clipped my flower to the knot.

This one is pretty easy to do. It’s similar to the example before, only you tie the ends in the back instead of bringing them back to the front. You let the scarf hang like a cowl and then put a long beaded necklace on. I made the necklace go around the cowl so it doesn’t squash it and make it lie flat.

I hope this encouraged you to get out your scarves and play around with accessorizing them. This is a perfect activity when you are stuck at home during a snow storm or on a girls’ night in. You could throw an accessory party and all bring some scarves and necklaces you may want to trade and tie them different ways. Sounds like an excellent blog topic to me! I’ll have to try it and get back to you. Until then, happy holidays and an awesome and glamorous New Year!

To Date Your Vera Products...

2009-10-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

I've gotten quite a few emails asking me how to figure out from what decade a Vera scarf or napkin is. So, I decided to post it on the blog because there's a lot of information--too much to really put in an email. So, buckle up. Here goes!

To help you with dating Vera product, you can generally do it from the logo. There are always exceptions to the rules, of course, but I can tell you in general terms what to look for. When the signature is very small and looks as though the letters are all the same size, that scarf is from the 50s. These scarves are from the late 50s, so the V is a bit bigger than the rest of the signature. The late 40s and early 50s scarves show more evenly sized letters. There are no copyright symbols on the 50s scarves, but don’t be fooled—the designs are copyrighted!

1958

1959

The signature then still is small, but gets slightly bigger and adds a © symbol in the early 60s. The ladybugs are added and the signature is still slightly smaller. The ladybug is the same size as the signature.

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

In the late 60s, the ladybug disappears and the signature gets very large. At times, the ladybug is still there. You can see the two 1967 scarves that have a signature that is similar to the early/mid 60s logo. They are probably from the first half of 1967. The ladybug disappears for a few scarves and then comes back with a larger signature or after the large signature. Then, in 1969 the ladybug disappears again and leaves a large signature.

1967

1968

1969

The ladybug stays away for the early 70s…

1970

1971

1972

…and then reappears in ’73 with a very large signature. She then shortly disappears in 1976.

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1979

The ladybug totally disappears in the 80s and doesn’t come back (until our present-day scarves). The signature is smaller than in the 70s.

1980

1981

1983

1984

1985

1991

Hopefully this will help with everyone’s curiosity about the dates of your scarves. I know it’s confusing at first, but you get the hang of it after a while. Of course, it’s probably easier for me since I work here. I get to work with a lot of scarves, well, a lot! You develop an eye for it. It’s kind of like archeology and very fun! I will probably do another posting comparing the sizes of the signatures with each other because you really can't tell from the pictures how much smaller or bigger the signatures are between the years. Look for that and more coming up!

Decorative Napkin Folding - Part 1

2009-10-16T08:38:00.001-07:00

Folded Card Holder

1. Fold the napkin in half horizontally, bringing the bottom edge to the top. Press. Fold in half again, bringing the left side over to match the right, forming a square. Press. Turn the square so the opening points to the right.

2. Take the top layer from the right and fold over to match the left point.

3. With the same top layer, fold in 1-inch increments until the edge meets the center fold. Press.

4. Fold the top layer of the right side in the same manner. Press.

5. Flip the napkin over, and fold the top corner down to the center of the napkin.

6. Fold the bottom of the napkin up, slightly overlapping the previous fold. Press.

7. Flip the napkin over again.

8. Tuck a place card in the center slit.

Taken from Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate magazine - Summer 2009

Decorative Napkin Folding - Part 2

2009-10-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Flatware Bundles

1. Place flatware in the center of a quarteredd napkin.

2. Fold sides in.

3. Tie with ribbon that complements your table.

Decorative Napkin Folding - Part 3

2009-10-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Napkin Pocket

1. Place a large napkin, folded in quarters with open points at the top, on a work surface. Fold down the top two layers, matching up the points.

2. Flip the napkin over, smooth out the edges, then fold the left and right sides in. The points should meet at the center of the napkin.

3. Fold the bottom point of the napkin up so that it coveres the left and right points. Turn the napkin over; its shape should resemble a bishop's hat.

4. Tuck a leaf into the pocket of the napkin.

Fall is here!

2009-10-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I'm a wee bit late, but the reality hit me a couple of days ago. It's really fall! I just saw a beautiful tree today, Atlanta's getting cooler (weather-wise, as well as being awesome!), our resident chipmunk, Cheeks, is getting more and more active in looking for food to hide, and I bought some wonderful linens from Macy's. Of course, they were Vera. I bought the Turning Leaf pattern at their Red Hot sale last weekend (very well priced!) I put the table runner on my buffet and WHAM! Fall hit me. I suddenly had the urge to break out the pie plate, leaf-shaped bowls, pumpkin-shaped salt and pepper shakers, leaf-shaped candle holders, but it occurred to me that I don't have pumpkin-shaped salt and pepper shakers. In any event, I was rip-roarin' and ready to go! Then, I realized that I didn't have ingredients for pumpkin pie or acorn squash soup, so there was no use in getting out the other accoutrements. My husband has already informed me that I can't use the table cloth except for special occasions, otherwise he'd mess it up. Good point. One thing at a time, I suppose. At least my buffet looks festive.

I realized another thing. I know how to set a table for regular meals, but when it comes to fancy dinners, I'm lost. I can fold a napkin into a triangle or a square, but that's pretty much the extent of it. I decided to entrust my trusty colleague, Mary, with the task of educating everyone on the art of setting a table and napkin folding. Wow. The pictures she came back with are astounding. She is still painstakingly putting together the instructions on some of the napkin folding techniques (an art form, really!) The next blog will be about her adventures in table setting and napkin folding. I just had to say something about my now-gorgeous buffet.

Lady Scarfcrow!

2009-09-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Vera Book is in the Homestretch!

2009-09-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

As some of you readers may know, The Vera Company has been working on a coffee table book on Vera’s life and art. After tireless research, hunting, and gathering, the book team has finally sent off the third and last draft of the book! It will be going into production soon and will be available at Anthropologie this coming March exclusively for 3 months and if you happen to miss it while it's at Anthropologie, it will be in a broader distribution in the fall. Stay tuned...

Working on this book has been like raising a child, almost. It really does take a village! We have Susan authoring it, Jen Renzi working on the verbiage, Steven Meckler photographed hundreds of pieces of art, Jen and I researching photos, photographers, and scrounging through endless article archives to come up with interesting tidbits for this book. Jen has also been interviewing members of Vera’s family and colleagues. It’s not easy putting together a book that is almost purely “archival”, meaning everything happened in the past, so you have to dig things up. I’ve been amazed at the things that we’ve learned simply from putting this book together. One little secret I’ll let you in on is that Vera collaborated with her sister Alice on two children’s books. Alice wrote the words and Vera did the illustrations.

So much more goes into putting a book together than I realized! Not only do you have to write the thing, you have to find information to write about, interview people, peruse archives and historical data, find pictures and then get permission to use the pictures. Just thinking about all that work exhausts a person! Now that the third draft is back to the publisher, one would think that we could sit back and relax, but it’s only the end of the beginning! We have to put our total trust in the publishers, which, believe it or not, is a hard thing to do. It’s like sending your kid to school for the first time. You have to put your total trust in the teachers to do their best with your child. We have an awesome publisher with an even more awesome editor, so we’ll be fine. Still, you can’t help but bite your nails a bit—just around the edges.

I can tell you that this book is going to be great! There’s art in there that the public has never seen. Up until now, only people working at and with The Vera Company (and its predecessors) have seen some of this art and now you can see it in this book. It’s so neat to see the sketch that your napkin came from or the picture that was taken on one of Vera’s journeys that turned into a painting and then into a scarf. One thing’s for certain, I was very inspired to travel more. I found I would like to go to Imste, Austria. Once again, when you read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Vera at the Elmhurst Museum!

2009-09-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Vera is in the Struktur exhibit at the Elmhurst Art Museum in Illinois! Here are a few photos for you...

Images courtesy of Elmhurst Art Museum.

The Elmhurst Art Museum is located on Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst, Illinois. This exhibit is the first of the Struktur Architecture and Design Series. The exhibit shows modern architecture and art that the museum holds in its archives as well as pieces that are on loan. The focus of the Struktur: Glass + Steel exhibit is to show the freshness and energy of 20th century design. It is on view near the McCormick House, which is one of only 3 residences in the US designed my Mies van der Rohe (Mies is regarded as one of the pioneers of Modern architecture. He and his peers created a style that would represent modern times.) The exhibit is up from August 1st-September 13th.

It's very neat that Vera was chosen for this particular exhibit. First, her 20th century designs had such a positive energy and freshness, like the exhibit is portraying. The Vera Company is dedicated to carrying these aspects into the 21st century as well.

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Mies van der Rohe and got chill bumps when I read that he used the saying "less is more." Vera put that on a poster at around the same time. If you didn't know already, Vera's house was built by Marcel Breuer who was a contemporary of Mies. They were both minimalists, the Bauhaus school of which Vera ascribed. Breuer also only built a few residences in the US as well as designing furniture, among which was the Wassily chair. Mies designed the Barcelona chair. Vera may not have been an architect in the common aspect of the word, but she was an architect of prints--things to go on everyday items inside a structure. She was a minimalist and she dressed the minimalist ideals in florals and geometrics--bringing balance to the stark white of society.

A Tip on the Three Rs

2009-08-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Three little words that can make such a huge difference in the world, therefore making a huge difference in people’s lives. With all the hype about being green and global warming, I can’t sit idly by and not discuss these topics and what they also mean for The Vera Company.
Personally, this is such a huge topic for me. The three Rs are some things I can do to make a difference. I can’t go to a meeting of the world’s leaders and discuss carbon emissions or make a really cool life altering video on the effects of global warming on the planet, but I sure can buy a couple of inexpensive plastic trashcans and label them with construction paper and take the contents to the nearest recycling facility (no, unluckily we don’t have curbside pickup. Bummer.) I can install a five dollar valve (from Home Depot) on my shower head that allows me to cut off the water when I soap up or shave so I can save on water. For those of you that don’t know, Georgia is in a drought and also an ugly water battle with neighboring states. The global warming crisis hits closer to home in some states than others. I also put a bucket in the shower when I run the water to adjust the temperature. Did you know that you can use over a gallon of water by just adjusting the temperature before a shower? I use it to water my plants, cats, and also for soaking clothes and linens.

Sometimes the economy, not just ecology, calls for us to change our habits. Vera had started her business making placemats from linen. However, since it was shortly after WWII, there was a shortage of linen for her placemats. She was out and about looking for more linen and ran across some excess parachute silk. That was the birth of her scarf business. She didn’t give up on her business idea simply because there was no linen—she adjusted and she reused. So, what can we all do to help ourselves and our planet during this ecological/economical difficult time?

I was in a grocery store and looked at the price of a pack of 24 paper napkins. $1.89. Not only do paper napkins fill up landfills (I haven’t been able to find a place that recycles them), but they can be expensive when you think about how many you would buy throughout the course of a year. If you have four people in your household eating 3 meals a day and using a napkin at each meal, that’s 12 napkins a day. That 24 pack of paper napkins will only last you two days. Of course you may not use a paper napkin at every meal, but bear with me here. There are 365 days in a year, so that’s 4,380 paper napkins. That’s roughly 182.5 packs of napkins a year. It works out to $344.93 a year just for napkins. Now, with cloth napkins, let’s say the same is true. You have 4 people in your household that eat three meals a day and use a napkin at each meal, yada yada, same scenario. You’d need roughly 84 cloth napkins if you just want to throw them into the wash once a week. So, let’s discuss reducing your use of paper napkins instead of totally replacing paper with cloth. Let’s face it—not a lot of people have room for 84 cloth napkins and it would be expensive to buy that many. How about using cloth for every dinner every day? That’s 4 cloth napkins a day and only 28 a week if you only want to throw them in the laundry once a week. That little cloth napkin scenario will save you $114.67 a year—after the initial cost of the cloth napkins, of course. Not only will it save you money, but it will be a good start in saving the planet. You’ll be employing two of the three Rs by Reducing and Reusing. And by throwing them in the wash along with your clothes, you won’t be using much more water than you already do. If you want to wash them more often than that, you have the extra water from the afore mentioned bucket in the shower!

So where do you get such wonderful cloth napkins, you might ask? Macy’s just happens to have several wonderful patterns and solids from the Vera collection to choose from. They have the black and white Imprints collection (you can see online at www.macys.com) and fall leaves from the Turning Leaf collection. Those, unfortunately, are not online. You’ll have to visit a store for those. While you’re in there, you can choose from several solid colors as well, starting at around $4.90 (prices may vary.) I’ve started my cloth napkin collection by starting with some vintage Veras from Ebay and Etsy and am growing my collection to include seasonal (hence, the fall leaves and very soon some holiday!) and Vera solids. The vintage prices also vary, but the average price is around $10 for a set of four. I encourage you to do your own math to see how much your personal budget can take.

This has been the first installment on being economically/ecologically friendly with Vera. There will be more! Keep a weather eye out.