Countess Mara

Last updated
Countess Mara
Industryclothing
Founded1935
FounderLucilla Mara de Vescovi
SuccessorRanda Accessories
HeadquartersItaly
Area served
Worldwide
Productsbelts
leather goods
neckwear
shirts
sportswear
accessories

Countess Mara, founded in 1935 by Lucilla Mara de Vescovi, was an Italian menswear fashion label specialising in high-end pictorial neckties. The brand has been owned by Randa Accessories since 1998.

Contents

History

Lucilla Mara de Vescovi was born in Rome, Italy, in 1893. Daughter of a very wealthy medicine professor of the University of Rome, descendant of an ancient noble family from the Veneto, and, from her mother’s side, from baroness De Gleria from Trieste, descendant of baroness Maria Hatvany from Hungary. Her brother Silvio, medical doctor and mining engineer, survived the sinking of the Lusitania and took care of the family’s business interests in mining in Chile. She married Malcolm Whitman, an American singles tennis champion, in 1926. In 1930, following an argument about her husband's dull ties, his wife made him one from silk dress material. [1] Following Whitman's suicide in 1932, she travelled through Europe, purchasing fabrics that she brought back to New York with the intention of launching a career making men's ties. [1] [2] Vescovi Whitman founded Countess Mara, her men's neckwear company, in 1935. While Mara was her second name, the company name might have been inspired by an 18th-century Kneller portrait of the Countess de Mar wearing a loosely tied Steinkirk cravat. [3]

Lucilla de Vescovi, from a 1923 publication LucilladeVescovi1923.png
Lucilla de Vescovi, from a 1923 publication

Countess Mara ties featured several novel marketing decisions. Vescovi Whitman had the C.M. initials featured on the outside blade of each tie, ensuring that they were instantly recognizable. [4] The ties were made in very limited quantities, typically only fifteen dozen per design, and they were comparatively expensive. [2] [4] This led to their becoming collector's items, sought after by celebrities and fashion-conscious businessmen. [4] As a designer, Vescovi Whitman aimed to make her ties colourful, interesting and artistic, while avoiding spectacular and showy designs. [5] She described her ties as "jungles" populated with trees, flowers and animals. [5] However, her ties also featured a wide range of other subjects, including astrological signs, Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Devil, Lady Godiva, torn love-letters and safety pins. [2] Other tie manufacturers, noticing her success, copied her business model and hired artists to imitate her tie designs. [4] Vescovi Whitman did not mind this, saying in 1949 that being imitated had "expanded the acceptablity of the pictorial tie". [5]

In 1944 Countess Mara was awarded the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award in recognition of the influence its ties had had upon fashion. Among their most high-profile wearers were Frank Sinatra, Eugene O'Neill and J. Edgar Hoover. [6]

Countess Mara Today

The Countess Mara brand was purchased in March 1998 by Randa Accessories, a major manufacturer and distributor of men's neckwear. [7] Countess Mara belts, leather goods, neckwear, shirts, sportswear, and other products and accessories are retailed worldwide.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Costume jewelry</span> Jewelry used to complement a particular costume

Costume or fashion jewelry includes a range of decorative items worn for personal adornment that are manufactured as less expensive ornamentation to complement a particular fashionable outfit or garment as opposed to "real" (fine) jewelry, which is more costly and which may be regarded primarily as collectibles, keepsakes, or investments. From the outset, costume jewelry — also known as fashion jewelry — paralleled the styles of its more precious fine counterparts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Schiffer</span> German model (born 1970)

Claudia Maria Schiffer is a German model and actress based in England. She rose to fame in the 1990s as one of the world's most successful models, attaining supermodel status. In her early career, she was compared to Brigitte Bardot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Necktie</span> Clothing item traditionally around the neck

A necktie, or simply a tie, is a piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat, and often draped down the chest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scarf</span> Garment of fabric worn around neck or head

A scarf is a long piece of fabric that is worn on or around the neck, shoulders, or head. A scarf is used for warmth, sun protection, cleanliness, fashion, religious reasons, or to show support for a sports club or team. Scarves can be made from materials including wool, linen, silk, and cotton. It is a common type of neckwear and a perennial accessory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1870s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion of the 1870s

1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cufflink</span> Items of jewelry

Cufflinks are items of jewelry that are used to secure the cuffs of dress shirts. Cufflinks can be manufactured from a variety of different materials, such as glass, stone, leather, metal, precious metal or combinations of these. Securing of the cufflinks is usually achieved via toggles or reverses based on the design of the front section, which can be folded into position. There are also variants with chains or a rigid, bent rear section. The front sections of the cufflinks can be decorated with gemstones, inlays, inset material or enamel and designed in two or three-dimensional forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Miller</span> American fashion designer and businesswoman

Nicole Miller is an American fashion designer and businesswoman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Whitman</span> American tennis player

Malcolm "Mal" Douglass Whitman was an American tennis player who won three singles titles at the U.S. National Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1840s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion of the 1840s

1840s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a narrow, natural shoulder line following the exaggerated puffed sleeves of the later 1820s and 1830s. The narrower shoulder was accompanied by a lower waistline for both men and women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1850s in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion of the 1850s

1850s fashion in Western and Western-influenced clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, the mass production of sewing machines, and the beginnings of dress reform. Masculine styles began to originate more in London, while female fashions originated almost exclusively in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1550–1600 in European fashion</span> Costume in the second half of the 16th century

Fashion in the period 1550–1600 in European clothing was characterized by increased opulence. Contrasting fabrics, slashes, embroidery, applied trims, and other forms of surface ornamentation remained prominent. The wide silhouette, conical for women with breadth at the hips and broadly square for men with width at the shoulders had reached its peak in the 1530s, and by mid-century a tall, narrow line with a V-lined waist was back in fashion. Sleeves and women's skirts then began to widen again, with emphasis at the shoulder that would continue into the next century. The characteristic garment of the period was the ruff, which began as a modest ruffle attached to the neckband of a shirt or smock and grew into a separate garment of fine linen, trimmed with lace, cutwork or embroidery, and shaped into crisp, precise folds with starch and heated irons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1930–1945 in Western fashion</span> Costume and fashion from the 1930s to the end of World War II

The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1920s in Western fashion</span> Clothing in the 1920s

Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time. The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles. From 1925, the public more passionately embraced the styles now typically associated with the Roaring Twenties. These styles continued to characterize fashion until the worldwide depression worsened in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French fashion</span> Overview of fashion in the French Republic

Fashion in France is an important subject in the culture and country's social life, as well as being an important part of its economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Men's Dress Furnishings Association</span>

The Men's Dress Furnishings Association was a trade association based in New York, New York, which promoted men's fashion accessories, with a primary focus on dress shirts and neckties. The group also educated consumers at high schools and colleges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Rappaport (designer)</span> American fashion designer

David Rappaport was an American fashion manufacturer, designer and painter.

Randa Apparel & Accessories is a manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of men's, women's, and children's clothing and apparel, belts, wallets, neckwear, neckties, jewelry, slippers, hats, gloves, and leather goods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pussy bow</span> Scarf or neckcloth tied in a floppy bow

A lavallière, also called a pussycat bow or pussybow, is a style of neckwear worn with women's and girls' blouses and bodices. It is a bow tied at the neck, which has been likened to those sometimes put on "pussy cats".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Christensen</span>

Amanda Charlotta Christensen, née Svensson was a Swedish fashion designer and business person. She founded the firm Amanda Christensen AB (1885), which has a Royal warrant of appointment since 1949, and created the necktie label Röda Sigillet.

Vicky Davis was an American necktie designer based in New York.

References

  1. 1 2 Goldberg, Michael J. (1997). The Ties That Blind: Neckties 1945-1975. Schiffer. ISBN   0-88740-982-2.
  2. 1 2 3 Ettinger, Roseann (1999). 20th Century Neckties: pre-1955. Schiffer. ISBN   0764305786.
  3. Gibbings, Sarah (1990). The Tie: Trends and Traditions. Barrons Educational Series Inc. p. 24. ISBN   0812061993.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Dyer, Rod; Spark, Ron (1987). Fit To Be Tied: Vintage Ties of the Forties and Early Fifties. Abbeville Press. p. 43. ISBN   0-89659-756-3.
  5. 1 2 3 "Interview with Countess Mara". The New York Times. February 1949.
  6. Hellman, Geoffrey (1963). "The Unusually Pleasant Necktie: Countess Mara". Mrs. de Peyster's Parties: And Other Lively Studies from the New Yorker . Macmillan. p.  320.
  7. NY Times, March 1998