Vintage and Historical Fashions With Brenda Sneathen Mattox
09.21.06 By Deanna Dahlsad
“Keeping TABS on Historical Fashion” is paper dolls maker Brenda Sneathen Mattox. I’d tell you more about her, but she’s so charming (that ‘tabs’ pun, for example), why spoil the fun? So here’s my interview with Brenda…
Introduce yourself, dearie, and tell us everything and anything you want us to know about Brenda Sneathen Mattox.
I’m a life-long artist who always loved fancy “old-fashioned” clothes, well, old-fashioned anything. I’ve come to believe I was born in the wrong century; I should have been born 100 years earlier.
I studied fashion illustration at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, graduating in 1982. Not much work in that field anymore, but through a happy accident paper dolls turned out to be the perfect niche for me. I live just outside Indianapolis in an 1891 Victorian house, with my husband, 3 cats and lots of Victorian stuff.
I know you are a fashion collector. Is there a period or style you focus on?
Victorian has always been big for me and that probably makes up half my collection, though I have pieces that range from the 1820s through the 1960s. When I was thinner I liked to wear vintage and was particularly fond of 30s and 40s suits & dresses.
When did you begin collecting vintage fashions?
I bought my very first vintage item, an ostrich feather fan, when I was 16 years old (and I still have it). I began collecting in earnest in 1983 after discovering a wonderful vintage clothing shop in Indianapolis called The Red Rose and attending my first vintage clothing show.
Along with the garments themselves what else do you collect?
Oh Lord, this may take a while! I wanted to mention before leaving the garments that I have special fondness for bridal gowns and accessories. I currently have about 20 gowns dating between 1850 and 1950 plus shoes, headpieces, veils, etc. I also collect antique fashion prints (again with a focus on brides), books on period fashion, and antique wedding photos. Add to that just about anything with lily of the valley on it (my birthflower), Cinderella stuff (my childhood obsession), and, of course, paper dolls.
I’m under the assumption that you collected fashions and then began making the paper dolls… Please tell the story of how you moved from a collector of fashions to creating paper dolls.
You are entirely correct, vintage fashion led me directly to paper dolls. I was subscribing to The Vintage Clothing Newsletter (published in the 80s by Terry McCormick) and in one issue I noticed a little ad by Sylvia Kleindinst for something called The Original Paper Doll Artists’ Guild (OPDAG) and was intrigued. I had loved paper dolls as a child and had drawn my share of them, but never imagined that there were adult artists still creating them.
Receiving my first issue of OPDAG’s newsletter opened up a whole new opportunity to me and once I attended my my first paper doll convention (something else I had no clue was being done), I knew I’d found where I belonged and the direction my art career should go.
Wow, you sure remember the details of that moment!
Of course! I can honestly say that joining the Guild changed the direction of my art career for the better. At last I could draw old clothes to my heart’s content and share my work with people who were truly interested in it. I might add a little preamble here: a fellow vintage collector had suggested to me doing a vintage clothing paper doll a couple of years earlier, which I did, but since I had no way to promote it, the art ended up stuck behind a door until OPDAG came along.
So, it was a life changing moment, that little ad… The birth of an artist! It seems like this would be a great time to hit ‘pause’ and take a break… Brenda and I will see you soon, in part two of her interview. (Oh, and you may want to bring your art supplies along next time because Brenda will be giving us some design tips!)
All images © FancyEphemera.com
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Article Tags: Brenda Sneathen Mattox, historical fashion, Victorian, vintage================
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