BEFORE VERA BRADLEY, THERE WAS VERA

Way back there, in the 60s, I was studying Home Economics at Texas Technological College, and fell in love with all the beautiful things of that day.  One of my classes took a field trip to a store located on 34th Street in Lubbock, Texas that was filled with beautiful table linens, Danish Modern pieces,  beautiful colored glass, and gorgeous tableware.   That is where I discovered and fell head over heels in love with Vera.  Vera prints are so pretty and unique--truly a reflection of the 60s with lots of bright colors, especially turquoise and green, pink and orange combinations.  She used flowers and geometrics in her designs, and there was usually a cute ladybug beside her signature or somewhere in the design.    

 I got these brand spanking new place mats at a thrift store in Montrose, PA.  They are treasures and I will never use them.  Robert and Marina can put them on ebay after I die.  I hope they get rich selling all my valuable stuff.

More about Vera!  Amazon has a book about her, but it is pricey, so I will rely on Wikipedia and blogs for the information.  This is the good part about blogging--I have to do research and learn something.  Vera was very fortunate to have been born (July 24, 1907) into her family, and I wish all parents could be as wise as hers.  Fanny and Meyer Salaf encouraged each of their four children to figure out their passion, and then go for it.  Vera's dad bought all of her sketch books, just to encourage her, and took her to The Metropolitan  Museum of Art on Sundays.  Oh, if only all parents would take the time on Sundays to spend with their kids doing things.  The world would be different. Vera went to design school and then worked as a textile designer.  She met and married George Neumann, an Austrian, who had family in the textile business back in the old country.  They started their own textile printing business on their tiny apartment kitchen table.  The only thing they could silk screen print was place mats.  Their work sold, and business grew.  Eventually, they had to move to larger quarters, and they finally ended up in a mansion in Ossinig, New York where they lived and produced.  Either during the war or after, Vera started buying parachute silk, and began making the fabric into scarves with her signature and bug printed on them.  I do believer hers were the first signature scarves.  Later she produced fabric specially designed for clothing.  I am always happy when I hear of a successful business that started in a garage or on a kitchen table, or a tent (like Laura Ashley).  Then I hear of businesses going out of business that started with an SBA loan, or  DOE loan like Solyndra, and I wish these people could have started small and either grew or crashed in the fledgling stage instead of adding to the national debt.  I graduated from Texas Technological College just before it became Texas Tech University, and then I received my master's degree from Texas Tech University, and I wouldn't take for my education.
For more on Vera, just go to  http://fashionsfinest.fuzzylizzie.com/vera.html