28 January 2013

a Love Story

Sort of-

It is truly winter here in the Old North State right now-30's high- 20's-the low-and that was a warm up from nights last week. There has been one good Snow this month and there was ICE on Friday along with that phrase that forever warms my heart-"a wintery mix." Again tonight & tomorrow the counties along the northern borders will likely get another dousing of ice with a bit of snow.



a word I was conditioned to -SNOW- from my days in school. I never went to school a day I wouldn't have preferred to be home sleeping late-snow covering the ground- or as a child running in and out of the house-boots on, socks on-boots off-socks off.
quickly followed by coat on-toboggan on...





As a fashionable 10 year old, I took my cues from actress Ali MacGraw’s wardrobe in the movie, Love Story. 
Remember Jenny’s pea coat? 

 Pea Coat originating from the Dutch or West Frisian word "pijjekker," pij refers to a coarse kind of twilled blue cloth with a nap on one side.

I had a navy one. My brother wore my dad's Navy issue to bits-I never could get my hands on it!

A very few changes fashion wise-for one thing now I look forward to getting out a vintage loden duffel coat for the coldest days-its very heavy-very warm-one that I purchased on ebay about 15 years ago





The duffel coat was made popular by Sir Bernard “Monty” Montgomery during the war-and I think mine is from the very same era-and it's mint-minus about 60 or 40 years.




  

I purchased a Burberry plaid pea coat about 10 years ago & I love that one even more than the basic navy one



But- recently I've had a hankering for basic.


 

Hey-does anyone wear a toboggan anymore? 
I do, Oliver-
I do.

.

15 comments:

  1. Beanies, slouchies, berets... name it. I wear them every day but then again, the climate here leaves very little choice.

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  2. I bought a red "pea" coat this fall. I love it. It's actually a super soft light weight wool for California winters--but it looks like the real thing. Have fun in the snow,
    Mary

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  3. Please excuse my ignorance! I am a 3rd generation Southern Californian! (an endangered species!) !!

    I was of the generation of this movie!

    Is not a "toboggan' A SLED? AND is not Ali's headgear a "stocking cap"?

    I did go to boarding school in Northampton, Massachusetts; for two and a half years!
    ("Cruel and unusual punishment!!")
    It was actually HELL!

    The bright spots were my "mossy green 'Loden' coat" (with horn closures) ; my "vintage" (even then) raccoon coat; and my shetland sweaters with grosgrain trim (where the buttons were on the cardigans) and monograms! (always the same color of the sweater....no "shouting" with the monograms)!

    Ralph Lauren must have been tailing me! Since I came from Southern California; I arrived with a complete disadvantage! I had to learn! What a wonderful mother I had!

    Lord have mercy!

    Penelope

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    Replies
    1. Penelope-I think my etymology should have been with "the Toboggan"- So interesting to read up on this-and it just proves the South is-well-the South. Here is what I found... it appears that there is a Southern region of the United States that use "Southern American English" and they use the term toboggan as a hat. I suspect the use of Toboggan as a cap- came from -this definition of "Toboggan"- a blend of merino wool and superfine alpaca twisted into a soft bulky yarn & the fact that you really need a "tuque" when tobogganing!
      Also check out http://answers.ask.com/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/why_is_a_hat_called_a_toboggan
      very interesting I think-and thanks for adding to the regional culture differences discussion-Now you know I really am from the South! xx PGT

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  4. Oliver, I also were a tuque- a stocking cap-a beanie-a bobcap-a sherpa-a toboggan! xx, happy sledding!

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  5. caps topped with a pom-pom- a style of tuque- is sometimes referred to as a bobble hat, toboggan or sherpa ... Go figure. pgt

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  6. I live in LA and also thought a toboggan was a type of sled and couldn't figure out what you meant about wearing one. Thanks for the explanation, interesting. I have a Burberry navy pea coat and love it.

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  7. My introduction to Love Story (the satire) was through Mad Magazine because I had a subscription when the movie was released. I was surprised years later when I actually saw the it. It's a good movie!

    P.s. I had Pea jacket too. Everyone did it seemed.

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  8. I also had the dark blue, original pea coat. As I look back at old photos, I see that it was a very flattering style.

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  9. When I was a kid, I had to have a loden duffel coat with horn buttons because all my friends had them, and I didn't want be different. In college, my new friends were either wearing pea coats or army surplus parkas, but by then I'd gone the other direction, with a Hudson's Bay coat made of a striped trapper blanket. You could spot me clear across campus.

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  10. I'm on my third pea coat, of my life, to date. First came, in college, a navy one, a "real" one, from the commissary at a nearby naval station. We bribed a brother of a friend to purchase 2 of these all wool true *Navy Blue* wonders, and I wore it for years. When it finally became a bit over-worn, I had to have another, but this time, not from the Naval base, from a store-store. It was still dark 'navy blue' and I loved it and wore it for years with jeans, with khakis - it was my favorite jacket and it goes with most everything my long black wool didn't go with (awkward, shameful dangling prep...so sorry) Nowadays I also have a black one, it's perfect and classic, and I'll keep it forever. ... More than the coat, though, it was Ali McGraw's hat in the movie that really caused a stir here in the Midwest, where Marshall Field's (the original, the best) carried the absolutely identical cap, and my best girl friend and I had to have one, they were pricey for newly minted graduate budgets, but they were It. The Hat. We even grew out our bangs and let our post grad haircuts grow long again a la Ali, because that length hair looked best with The Hat. Fun memories, thank you Gaye for rattling the "attic" of my mind, so to speak...pbb

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  11. Saw an interview with Ali MacGraw - she said the hat was her own ( made by her own hand?) She was approached by a company to market the hat but she said wouldn't do it because she felt at the time it was "beneath her" a descision which she later said was one of the dumbest moves she ever made-

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    Replies
    1. 2... that's interesting-I wonder if it is the crochet sort of hat with a slightly flopping brim and a flower on it she also wore in the movie-it was adorable. I bet she did feel it-she might have been the first to do what every celebrity is now doing. I wonder if she ever did a line of clothing? will check. She was a great needlepoint-er I think as well.

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  12. Is there anything much cooler than "Ali/Jenny"'s wardrobe in Love Story? Not really. By the way, growing up in England we called those caps "woolly hats" or "bobble hats"

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