That Vintage Girl

The Stahl House is one of the most famous and beautiful mid-century homes in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California.  It was built in 1960 by Buck and Carlotta Stahl and the same year it was featured in Arts & Architecture magazine with the iconic black and white photograph taken by Julius Shulman. In 2024, I had the opportunity to tour the iconic home, which is still owned by the Stahl family.  The building of this home was truly an inspirational story powered by love and perseverance.   When Buck and Carlotta Stahl purchased the empty lot in 1954, most of the surrounding area was still undeveloped.  Their lot was also very sloped, which meant building challenges, but they knew this spot, on the edge of a high mountain, was special and they had a vision.   The first challenge was grading the slope to strengthen the foundation and prepare it for construction of their home.  Buck Stahl spent a few years building a retaining wall and fi...

My latest vintage find are these charming and whimsical strawberry earrings that were sold by Avon in the 1990s.  During my research to discover the origin of these earrings, I found that fruit themed jewelry has existed for centuries. Gold jewelry from Ancient Greece included carvings of fruits and flowers. Artisans from the Renaissance period in Europe used enameling techniques, like champlevé and cloisonné, with precious stones, like rubies, emeralds and sapphires, to create jewelry with colorful motifs of fruits and flowers.  Famous jewelers from the Art Deco period of the 1920s, like Cartier and Trifari , began designing colorful jewelry inspired by designs from the East. This style of jewelry assembled bright and colorful gemstones in fruit-like designs that is now fondly described as "Fruit Salad" or "Tutti Frutti" jewelry.  During the 1980s and 1990s, fruit salad jewelry experienced a revival with contemporary designers drawing inspiration from the past.  ...

The Hollywood Heritage Museum has a new exhibit called Broadcast from Hollywood: When Movie Stars Met Television that displays memorabilia from televisions shows like I Love Lucy (1951-1957),  The Lucy Show (1962-1968), Here's Lucy (1968-1974), Adam-12 (1968-1975), Three's Company (1977-1984), The Survivors (1969-1970), and Mad Men (2007-2015). The exhibit explores how television transformed the Hollywood entertainment industry.  In the 1950s, Hollywood studios considered television programs a threat as the rise of televisions in the household lead to a decline in theatre attendance. According to the Library of Congress, the number of American households with televisions grew from 9% in 1950 to 90% by 1960.  However, Hollywood eventually embraced television as it diversified its scope of entertainment to engage audiences in both the theater and home.   Starting in the late 1940s, television studios such as the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broad...