"Typed manuscript, 6 leaves (11x8 inches)... In Dora Sarin's memoir of her Post-World War II New York fashion business, Things Unlimited, she declares that it "was the first public [fashion] botique in the U.S. set up as a thing in itself not in conjunction witha Maison de Couture as in Paris..." (pp[3-4]). In 1945 Sarin opened her fashion botique in Greenwich Village near Greenwich Avenue and Sixth Avenue in New York City. At that time, the neighborhood was decidely not chic and trendy: Since Things Unlimited was across from the controverial Womens [sic] House of Detention my door was the waiting room for relatives, friends, and pimps who arrived to reassure their girls that all was being doen to release them... Then came the drunks and the panhandlers. From the Bowery, to Bleecher Street flophouses they lurched through Washington Square Park, down through the street shops crossing Sixth Avenue ro Greenwich Avenue and right into my shop which was right at the headstart of the street. (p[2])..." -Ian Brabner Bookseller
"A collection of correspondence between British designer David Hicks and various editors from the Macmillan company, including Richard Oldenburg, James Wade, and Ray Roberts. From the collection of Ray Roberts. The correspondence, the majority of which is on Hicks' boldly designed red and gold letterhead, focuses on details of the designer's biography, which Macmillan publised in 1969, and which became the last authoritative book on his work. Several of the letters are annotated in Hicks' hand, and the first is held with an original pencil maquette designed by Hicks for the lettered cover of the book, which he instructs to be printed in high gloss 'shocking pink' on white. David Hicks is acknowledged as one of the most imporant interior designers of the late twetieth century, in the company of Albert Hadley and Billy Baldwin. Known for his bold use of graphic color, electicism, and geometric designs -as well as for a temperament that veered between disarming charm and apoplectic rage- Hicks turned English decorating on its head in the 1950s and '60s. His trademark use of electrifying color combinations, and mixing antiques, modern furniture, and abstract paintings became the 'in style' for the chic of the day, including Vidal Sassoon and Helena Rubinstein. By the '70s, David Hicks was a brand; his company was making wallpaper, fabrics, and linens and had outposts in eight countries, including the U.S. where he worked with the young Mark Hampton, and where his wallpaper was used in the White House. Late in life he became celebrated for designing the geometrically precise gardens at The Grove, which have been the subject of numerous articles in major design magazines over the last decade. He was indeed an anomoly: an English decorator who loathed the Masterpiece Theater school of English decoration." -John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller
This collection contains information about and writings of designers from fashion design as well as interior design. Included is the typescript of "Nobody's Fault but My Own, Unlimited", a memoir of Dora Sarin's memoirs of her Post-World War II New York fashion business, and 14 pieces of correspondence from interior designer David Hicks as well as 12 pieces of press clippings about Hicks, his work and family. The collection also contains ephemera from Suzanne Caygill's life, including six color swatches, a personal notebook, lecture hand-outs, and one booklet entitled "Everyone is talking about Suzanne."
One pamphlet, one booklet, five chromatic exercises in color, one lecture outline, two color wheels, one poem, four flyers on Suzanne, one make-up palette poster, one list of basic services.
