Remember the 50’s? As the first baby-boomers reached school age, television began to realize its potential over popular culture by bringing Roy Rogers to the small screen and by introducing America to Leave It To Beaver. Sinatra was making a Great American Comeback. Jazz clubs and beatnik poetry brewed underground. Rock-and-Roll was incubating at Sun Records. And On the Road, Howl and Catcher in the Rye launched innumerable road trips.

During these heady times the imaginations of many designers were fired to create some of the most enduring textile designs. Fabric was their canvas and they drew from the most vibrant color palette to create designer fabric prints that are as immediate today as they were fifty years ago.

Witness the vibrant colors on such prints as Checker created by Alexander Girard in 1952. J & O carries this fabulous designer fabric in Crimson/Violet, Black/White and Emerald/Ivory (ale00008, ale00006 & ale00007, respectively).

Charles and Ray Eames created a fabric design of enduring popularity in 1950, this is the Small Dot pattern. This retro print comes in a variety of different colors including Yellow, Red and Green (cha0010, cha00002 & cha00006, respectively). This very same pattern is available in six other colors. To see them all just visit our online fabric store: jandofabrics.com.

For a trippy, circa 1950’s Havana vibe all you’ll need are a few yards of 50’s Mambo Bark Cloth: Gray (bar00005). This fabulous decorator fabric has an Eames-like look and is very reasonably priced. To see the other available colors for this print just browse jandofabrics.com. Beatnik Bark Cloth (bar00031) is another 50’s style designer fabric that will remind you of nights spent at jazz clubs along the backstreets of New York.

The domestically oriented, less turbulent side of the 1950’s is evoked in the following discount novelty fabrics: Kitchen Club (pin000126), 50’s Housewife (pin00009), Domestic Goddess Fabric
(pin000129) and Retro Roller-skating Waitress (pin000250). These are just a few of the many retro quilting fabrics we carry.

One of the greatest icons of the fifties is also depicted on quilting fabric. Elvis Presley Picture: Retro (elv002) and Elvis Jailhouse Rock (elv009) show the King in his heyday, just as he and other rock-and-rollers were supplanting the crooners of the previous generation.

As the 1950’s road trippers undoubtedly found out, there were more than a few dives for them to stop at. We have some great novelty and decorative fabrics which are reminiscent of those greasy spoon diners. Retro Diner (ret00066) is a great example from among our discount novelty fabrics. Two decorative fabrics you might associate with retro 50’s diners are Classic Diner Vinyl: French Blue (vin00058) and Retro Blue Vinyl (vin00059). Either one of these discount vinyl fabrics can be used to upholster cars or to give your home a classic, retro look.

Granted, it might not sound exciting to know that your fathers upholstery is back in style. But allow yourself to take a look and you will find the charisma of these designer fabrics impossible to resist. More and more modern designers are using vintage styles as inspiration for today’s textiles. So why not share in the retro fabric renaissance and decorate your home with these perennially modern designs?

* Do you have any pictures showing the great uses you have given our fabric? Then please e-mail them to us at jandofabrics@comcast.net. We will be happy to hear from you and might even use your pictures for future blogs or on our website. We reserve the right to utilize the pictures sent without prior notification and in the time and manner that J&O Fabrics deems appropriate.

# If your inclination is towards quilting instead of upholstering or sewing, then please investigate J&O’s vast array of discount quilting fabrics! These quilt fabrics and many more can be seen by browsing the fifty-plus categories of cotton novelty fabrics listed on our online fabric store.

Posts by J&O Fabrics Store

Be Sociable, Share!

•