Tag Archives: pantsuit

I Couldn’t Resist…

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…wearing my Disneyland skirt another day.  Since my Disneyland skirt received such a wonderful reception the first day wearing it, I had to wear it again on our last day in the park.  While waiting for the park to open I had several older cast members come up to me asking what the story was behind it and we chit-chatted for a long while.  They especially appreciated the fact that I had the Monsanto House of the Future on the skirt, an attraction that disappeared in 1967.

Since Disneyland had their Mardi Gras celebration going on, several characters, including Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale were all in Mardi Gras outfits! So of course I had to get my pictures taken with them!  Chip and Dale really flipped over my skirt, it was quite delightful!

Later in the day I changed into my Enchanted Tiki Room pantsuit.  I had several people, mainly cast members, come up to me to comment on the outfit, many had never seen anything like it before!

I’m always sad leaving Disneyland, but I know we’ll come back again real soon.  Maybe even as soon as November.  Meanwhile, I came up with several more Disney themed circle skirt ideas, and I can’t wait to get started on them! So many sewing projects!  Once again, stay tuned for even more Disneyland photos, since we are picking up our film from our dual lens camera tomorrow!!

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

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Last week I was killing time at Antique Alley (I do that a lot…) and was in Lorrel Mae’s space (visit her Facebook, blog, and Etsy) where I found this stellar pantsuit…

At first I was freaking out because it was so fabulous, then I looked at it closer and realized it was fabric was actually themed to Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room!  And I couldn’t try it on fast enough!

Obviously it fit, and I had to purchase it – especially since we’re going next month! When taking a closer look at the garment, I observed that there were no labels and that it appeared homemade.  I began to ponder where the garment came from…I did some digging on the internet and discovered Disneyland sold mens shirts and womens dresses in this print in the 1960s, and then in the early 2000s, Disneyland reproduced the garments.  I found images of both original shirts, as well as reproductions, and compared the two fabrics, discovering subtle differences, and concluded my fabric was of 1960s vintage, but I still didn’t understand where it came from, since I could find no evidence that Disneyland ever sold fabric to guests, so I decided to contact someone I thought may have some insight.

Designer Kevin Kidney has an extensive wealth of knowledge for all things vintage Disneyland and I figured he may know something I didn’t.  I shot him an e-mail including pictures of my suit and my questions about it.  He responded with saying that the park did in fact sell small batches of Adventureland themed fabric to park guests, like this package here.

Photo credit: Kevin Kidney

He also noted that he had come across several creations including an Oriental dress, swim trunks and this suit jacket!

Photo credit: Kevin Kidney

He confirmed that my fabric was indeed vintage, circa 1964, and that this pantsuit was a new creation he had not seen before!

So, there you have it! A one of a kind pantsuit made in the mid-1960s of Tiki Room fabric! And you can sure as hell bet I’ll be wearing it to the park next month!