Shoes, Aldo; tights, Fruit of the Loom; skirt, H&M; shirt, Smart Set; belt, thrifted; scarf, Vera, thrifted; bracelet, Forever 21; earrings, Ardene.
Have you ever heard of the Vera brand, particularly Vera scarves? My mom discovered it through her thrifty-gal blogger network, and apparently the scarves are quite the draw (you can recognize them by the signature Vera scrawl that is usually found in the bottom corner – see Picture 4 above). The label was created by Vera Neumann in 1942, and while it eventually grew to include wallpaper, bedding, tableclothes, dresses, and blouses, Vera scarves were Neumann’s signature item. She actually made her first scarf from excess parachute silk found at an army surplus store, and made her first sale to Lord & Taylor in 1947. The bold patterns that embodied her creations were her own original artwork, and they were made of up everything from florals, to geometrics, to deceptively simple sketches.
The Vera-scarf phenomenon really took off heading into the 1950s, but the brand remained accessible for women of all incomes, and in 1966, ranged in price from $2 to $10. By then, there were thousands upon thousands of patterns in circulation, and the 1960s are now considered Vera’s most prolific decade because in addition to the scarves, Vera launched a clothing collection. The company continued to grow and expand into other areas, and while it was still hugely popular in the 1980s, Neumann died in 1993 and the empire kind of went into retirement as it was enveloped by various other corporations. The Vera brand, however, was revived in 2005 when its entire catalogue was acquired by a new owner.
Proof of Vera’s modern cache has been found in the wardrobe department of Gossip Girl and Confessions of a Shopaholic, and, let’s face it, on the girl in the pictures above. DUH.
Uhhhhh, or maybe Vera fame is more suited to this image:
Marilyn Monroe wearing Vera in a photograph from Bert Stern’s “The Last Sitting Series” in 1962.
Check out more Vera scarves here!
