Transforming the Fashion Industry
Check out these innovative ways that fashion is
moving forward and sideways and frontways!
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Hybrid? The Joya Real Vest
Hybrids are not just for cars these days.
In fact, we are actually doing a little in the design room too. Double D Ranch’s™ Joya Real Vest is what we call a “hybrid”. It fuses desirable leather with the cool comfort of linen to give you a very wearable piece for this spring and on into summer.
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We’ve mentioned in previous posts how cold it was while we
were shooting in the Texas Hill Country. Here’s more proof!
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.Fun Fact: a bird hybrid is a fowl who has two different species as parents. The resulting bird can present with any combination of characters from the parent species, from totally identical to completely different. As of 2012, there are more than 3,169 bird hybrids in the world!
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Elvis is in the House!
I’ve got a friend from wayyyy back in my Baylor University days, who has developed this alternative personality that he slips into when the (read any) occasion calls for it.
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He likes to do Elvis impersonations so we made him a stage costume complete with rhinestones and cape, circa 1974 Elvis, to go with his
bad wig and cheap sunglasses.
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He wears it everywhere and what started out as a little joke has turned into a full time sideline for him.
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Wally/Elvis has appeared at events in Las Vegas at the Rio and Harrahs Hotels, Coushatta in Louisiana, and all over Texas while opening for
Three Dog Night.
He won’t just don The King’s digs…he full out performs The King’s hits!
Heck, he’s a 2-time winner at the Howl at the Moon (San Antonio)
Elvis Impersonator contest!
He says the costume makes him feel “like a rockstar!”
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Well, this May, my favorite Elvis impersonator is jumping across the pond to Britian. He is hired to perform a few numbers at a wedding reception in Liverpool and let’s just say we cannot WAIT for the video!
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But in the meantime, we thought he needed a new stage costume for his hunk, a hunk of burning love performance.
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We love the pink jumpsuit Nudie Cohn did for Elvis back in the 70s and knew Wally would love it too. However, it has caused a bit of a problem in the design room – we are having difficulties sourcing pink polyester!
We’ll keep updating the blog and Facebook as the process continues!
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Joya Real “Dude” Ranch
The “Dude Ranch” began popping up in American culture in the late 19th century, because of the rise in romanticism in the American West.
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Everyone secretly wanted to be a cowboy like they saw up on the big screen and read in dime novels. The lure of the cattle drive, fighting wild Indians, and riding a pony into a beautiful sunset was cemented in the minds of adults as wells as kids in post WWI America. Industrious landowners in Texas, Arizona and other western states, beckoned Eastern tourists to guest ranches to enjoy the amenities, breath in the fresh country air, but more importantly to get a chance to play the role of the “cowboy” they had always dreamed of.
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Some of the larger dude ranches were almost like small towns. Taxidermy shops, saloons, tiny grocery stores, and cabins lined a main road and guests usually fished, road horses, hiked, or hunted before meeting up at mealtimes in the kitchen cabin to eat family style with everyone staying at the ranch. As the ranches grew in popularity, they became less primal and more of an escape for the wealthiest of Americans with lavish guesthouses and coursed out meals.
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My grandparents used to manage a guest ranch near New Braunfels, Texas called Joya Real. (pronounced HOY-ya rè-AL) We’d stay the summers with them with the only rule being to stay out of the way of guests. We would swim, collect feathers from their grounds-roaming peacocks (hello Freebird Collection!), ride horses, and play shuffle board. We could go into their big industrial kitchen and get whatever we wanted to eat or drink. It was like our own little summers of paradise.
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Odell McMullen, our paternal grandfather, tending one of his colts at the Joya Real Ranch
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Here is our Joya Real Jacket - thank you, Grandparents, for the memories!
Back at the Ranch, Beyond the Ranch, Collectors, Faith, Family, Fashion, Friends, From the Archives, Inspiration, Marketing, Rememories
Design History 101: Four Corners
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Design History 101: Placed Flower
The Placed Flower Collection started out as a cover from a box of safety matches.
Safety Matches?!
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Phillumeny: The hobby of collecting match related items such as matchbooks, matchboxes, and match-covers. Before the Internet, travelers often brought back matchboxes as souvenirs from other countries. Match factories caught on to the attraction and started issuing special covers after WWII. The hobby became especially widespread from the 1960s through the 1980s. Now with the use of the internet, enthusiasts are able to share their collections worldwide.
As for me, I don’t collect the actual match-covers, but instead collect the digital images. Below are a few of my favorite and here is my Phillumeny Board on Pinterest.
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Feature: Catherine Lace Dress
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Freebird….Fest Maxi!!!
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Design History 101: Chinati Jacket
Design History 101: Navajo Loom Tee
