As the top layer of my hair has been blond for almost half my life I can’t argue with these glasses. The baked-in blonds are appropriately Russ Meyeresque and, despite the lighting in the photos, the yellow is bombastically perfect bleached-out-beach-meets-strip-club platinum. Drink up!
Blue jeans were SO popular in the 70’s they not only were wrapped around every inappropriate body shape imaginable but also around every object that could possibly be interpreted via denim. This pitcher is one of my favorites. Not only is the blue ceramic faithful to the blotches of fading with deeper blue remaining around the stitching but it even has a glossy ceramic rawhide label.
I used this on the set of Just Say Julie, the first music video clip show on MTV ever, which I art directed from 1989 to 1991. That’s when I crossed the line from a collector of great Atomic design into hard core Kitsch. Some of things I bought at swap meets were so ugly it creeped me out they were in the car. But they were perfect for Julie as they were as crass and commercial as many of the videos she was spoofing.
If it’s vintage and involves a Poodle there’s a 90% chance it qualifies as pure Kitsch. In the 1950’s and 60’s there were as many Poodle pitchers and vases as real dogs. The more textured, flocked or pink the canine, the better the pedigree. The perfectly-postioned-for-Kitsch-fluff balls at the end of their appendages qualified Poodles as instant icons for the Kitsch driven Age of Atomic and Mod.
I cannot tell you how many people ask me if they can keep this vintage cup after I serve them the half a cup of coffee they ask for. Tons of these were made as state souvenirs. Lots of different styles. Not always easy to find but as of this morning there were 8 on Ebay. Run.
One of the ugliest things I own this pretzely mess of a coffee mug, almost 7″ high, holds enough caffeine to keep me buzzing through this lockdown weekend of song and video deadlines.
I’m not sure how golf balls became the standard for Kitsch building materials but from poodle sculptures to lamps they adorn some of the greatest Kitsch gems of all time. This lamp is the Velveeta of my collection. Turquoise and natural white balls mounted on a stem that forever tips. The lamp weighs a ton and falls over with regularity as little thought was given to equal distribution of ball weight. I suppose this is why, upping the Kitsch factor, a lacey cast iron shade is mounted over a more fragile pleated fabric shade that would have long ago been crushed by the number of falls the lamp has sustained. Or, in a kitsch lover’s dream, perhaps it’s there to throw a pattern on what I hope was a wood slat sunburst or tin foil covered wall in the original owner/ crafter’s home.
I’m a big fan of state souvenirs, especially since most states have the identical souvenir snow globes, ashtrays and pen holders, all of which have nothing to do with the state itself other than the name decal slapped on front. But hats off to New Mexico for going a step further on the disconnect scale and having these teeth salt and pepper shakers. If anyone is aware of the connection between these choppers and “The Land Of Enchantment” I’m all ears or, should I say, teeth.
Poised to catch chewing materials when your mouth must be otherwise occupied these ceramic gum catchers had their heyday in the 1960’s and 70’s. I once knew a pug owned by a famous chef friend of mine who began every morning by racing around her restaurant eating gum stuck to the bottoms of all the tables by patrons who had no better place to dispose of their wads. Once the tables were clear, my friend would stretch out a 4′ long piece of dental floss and the pug would run her mouth back and forth over it until the spaces between her teeth were once again spotless. I’m glad there were no Spit Ball Gum Catchers around as this was such a spectacular trick! But unless proprietors own as gifted of a pet it seems like gum catchers should be on the inventory list of all self respecting food establishments.
As common as ants at a picnic these resin grapes continue to infest coffee tables since their proliferation in the 1970’s. With rubber leaves, driftwood stems and a propensity to be turned into swag and table lamps, often regrouped as a pineapple, they’re a staple in any decent Kitsch collection. Transparent pink was the champagne of the resin cluster colors with blue, red, orange, yellow and green more common. Still made today, more recent grapes don’t have the same depth of color as the vintage ones as many of the original ingredients were taken off the market due to toxicity (safely sealed inside the vintage crop). Although clusters still abound on eBay, for instructions on how to grow your own go here.
The fringe lampshades, far too traditional to sit atop this buff-to-the-max bodied Nubianist couple, make these lamps the cherry on the kitsch de la creme plaster figurine lamp sundae. Muscles taunt, abs ripped, they look like they just came from the gym instead of serving grapes to the master. Made in the 1960’s, these were the very first items I ever bought on Ebay when it launched in 1998.
