Vintage Sweater Weather (Cowichan Sweaters, 1950's-1970's)

Good morning!

I was slogging through vintage t-shirt listings on ebay the other day (like you do), when I stopped about dead in my tracks at a listing for a "vintage 60s 70s FISH wool COWICHAN SWEATER small ROCKABILLY jacket", and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a friendly little fish memorialized thus in all its vintage glory. Look at this sucker! If it weren't $89, I would have already purchased it:

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Sadly/luckily, as a lot of innocent ebaying begins, I spent a good chunk of the next half hour sucked down the rabbit hole of Cowichan vintage sweaters. "Cowichan", which I intially thought was a company name, refers to the type of novelty knitting you see here with large, figural representations of everything from school houses to dancers at a sock hop. It is named after the Cowichan tribe of British Columbia. These sweaters owe their cultural heritage to both that Native American group and the early English settlers of western Canada, who brought with them in the mid-nineteen century domesticated sheep and easy access to wool. And to the kitschy, crazy knitters who kept their needles sizzling with kooky designs throughout the middle of the twentieth century-- popular with fifties' tourists and modern-day rockabilly enthusiasts, the patterns that seem to go for the most money on the online auction sites are the most out there, outlandish ones! What might have mortified a teenage kid on the back of a Fred McMurray type in 1954 is commanding high dollars among collectors! Ain't that always the case, though-- what once was "hick" is "hep'!

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According to Wikipedia, these gaudy, gorgeous garments also go by the handles "Siwash Sweaters, Curling Sweaters or Mary Maxim Sweaters". The former refers to a (possibly slightly unkind?) word for "wild" in the local patois, the middle term for the winter sport (depicted on a sweater, here!), and the latter for a 1950's popular patternmaker (more on those from this blog). I kept scrolling through page after page of whimsical outdoor-sport, wild animal, and novelty composition. Wouldn't you like to have one for every day of the week? From the ebay listing for the above wolf sweater:

"Item condition:--“FLAWLESS BEAUTY!" ” 

One, that's hilarious; two, could you disagree?! The big, bad canis lupus hanging out in wool-relief, tongue lolling, is enough to thrill and chill any grade schooler into looking forward to wearing outer wear in the winter months. Likewise on this sweet hoe-down sweater, complete with a musical staff for a dance floor!

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I'm not a big fan of the hunting-related items (so! Many! DUCK HUNT! MOTIFS.), but I do like the "great outdoors" motif of several big and small game items adorning the knits of these sweaters. Can you imagine somebody's sweetheart hurrying up with the circular knitting in time to finish a shawl collar for Christmas? Some pretty fifties' girl sitting in a wingback chair before a fireplace, exclaiming, "Oh, nerts, wouldn't you know I just-- ugh, Alaska is A-L-A-S-K-A....wonder if Burt will notice I left out an A..." before deciding to unravel back to the error. I hope "ECK" was pleased with the rams' head masterpiece you see below!

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This three-figured price tag item (you're killing me, smalls) features every angle of the tatonka you could wish for. I love that in Googling that word to make sure I was spelling it right, I've been brought abreast of the fact that the Native American word for "buffalo" is also now used to describe undesirable women in the urban dictionary. Buuuuurn, urban dictionary. That ain't right.

These images are from a finished listing, but others are for sale all over ebay

Thought for the day-- where would the well-dressed forties' or fifties' person wear this kind of gear? Novelty knits are not the sole dominion of trend-crazed teenyboppers-- I think a lot of these sweaters were probably vacation wear or weekend-warrior wear for people who would otherwise dress as conservatively as first season Don Draper. Isn't it funny how Hawaiian shirts and wild prints were originally conceived for a way vacationers could "let it all hang out". Fifties' women, usually prim in a girdle and stockings and nip waisted dress and hat and gloves and pumps, could feel positively native in a one-size-fits-all muumuu and a pair of strappy thong sandals. Gents who usually wear a necktie and sportscoat could feel sinfully rakish in leg baring shorts and an eye blinding print. It's vacation, cut loose! I think similarly, for outdoors wear and a weekend at a friend's cabin, why not wear something a little less staid and a little more sportif? See the movie stars below dressed for a ski-weekend in uncharacteristically button-down clothes. How do you like rugged Gable's motorcycle zip jacket and foulard? How about dreamy Gary Cooper's fair isle knit? I love them all! 

Here's what I'm talking about:  "[Gary Cooper] skiing in Sun Valley in 1946 with Rocky [Cooper], Jack Hemingway, Ingrid Bergman, and Clark Gable, 1946" (source)

Easily my favorite sweater of all of these, though? It took some digging, but I did find this Mary Maxim pattered wonder on Etsy (still out of my price range, still magnificent). Check out this ice skating motif emblazoned hunk of AMAZING:

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Come with me and be my love, figure skating sweater. Who even thought of this to have it on a sweater?! Looking through other online listings, I've seen rockets, bowling pins, totem poles, scuba divers, bicycles... anything and everything you could think of! I'm going to have to keep a look out for these in my picker outings, though, as they are too rare for my blood in terms of price! $20 has to be the ceiling for me on something like this, and darned if there isn't a thing under $50 I've been admiring. Le sigh.

The only comparable knit I already have in my closet is this 70's Sears Fashion Store cape.  It features a sun and pyramids on the sides, and....well, whatever the heck native Aztec figure this is on  the back! I very rarely can't remember where I bought something and when, but this must have been so long ago I've forgotten. High school? College? You used to see seventies' kitsch like this all the time at Goodwills and the like, but with the rise of Etsy and Ebay's vintage sellers, much, much less gold is in them thar hills. Still, check it out:

Most hilarious feature? Though the motif is definitely portraying some kind of mesoamerican cultural markers, the buttons, original to the piece, feature the same North American native American you'd see on the old "indian head nickels". No joke, I wish I'd taken a photo. Side note: Ladies-- how do you successfully wear a poncho or cape? I always feel like the portliest character actor in an old PBS mystery when I wear one... think Charles Laughton minus the talent. I've thought to run a belt INSIDE the cape and have it fasten outside through the arm holes to give me a little more form, but I think it takes a chutzpah to wear a crazy cape like this that allergies have robbed me of this week! Still, I didn't mind modeling it for the sake of chiming in on novelty knits.

How about you! Would you wear one of these loud and crazy sweaters, or is this a step too far in vintage wildness for you? Do you have any bizarre novelty knits in your collection? What's the best/worst sweater you've seen out on the streets in this sartorial vein? Let's talk!

I gotta get back to work, but you guys have a great Tuesday! I'll see you back here tomorrow for more vintage tips and quips. Til then!