Apart from its inclusion in this original article from 1971, the Orphan Annie fashion label is completely unknown to me and there doesn't seem to be any other relevant information out there at the moment, none that I could find at any rate (so far), apart from a couple of vintage items that have turned up for sale on Ebay and Etsy over the past number of years, two of which were illustrated in this editorial. Ritva on the other hand has been reasonably well documented online, therefore i've included some links to further reading about the label at the end of this post.
Lucky Strike and Ritz crackers sweaters are by Orphan Annie and sell for $15 at B.Altman "Eat at Joe's" was designed by Ritva of London and is sold here for $40 at Bloomingdale's.
POP SWEATERS WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR
Just when it seems as though pop might be a dying art, up comes a crop of pop fashions, this time in sweater form. Some portray such things as a Ritz Cracker box. Or a Lucky Strike pack - before the green went to war. Others might best be described as kitsch flavored fashions. Betsey Johnson, a young woman who has never taken her fashions too seriously, has loaded her designs for Alley Cat with scenic vistas that might have been lifted from the "art" in a Times Square souvenir shop. There are sweaters with trees, mountains, rivers and the lot. These can be found over at Betsey, Bunki & Nini, 237 East 53rd Street. A blue sweater with all that scenery thrown in goes for instance, for $24.
A PERSONAL POP FASHION
For great times, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo has done his own very personal kind of pop fashion. This amounts to a Red Baron kind of airplane (bright red on black) flying across all kinds of knitted things. Such as a long skirt, a flying jacket, a sweater. Lord & Taylor has these in their sixth floor Young New Yorkers sportswear, and the price is $40 for the skirt. $32 for the jacket and $24 for a sweater. In Bloomingdales sweater department on the third floor, Ritva of London advertises "Eat At Joes." Right on the front of a long-sleeved black wool sweater. This is $40. And as for those cracker boxes et al, well, they're being snapped up by young men and women alike. Made by a concern called Orphan Annie, presumably with the blessings of the Ritz and Lucky Strike people, they're about as "realistic" a package as a sweater can get. B. Altman has them on their sixth floor in either sleeveless or long-sleeved versions. The sleeveless is $11, while the long-sleeved is $15.
A PERSONAL POP FASHION
For great times, Giorgio di Sant'Angelo has done his own very personal kind of pop fashion. This amounts to a Red Baron kind of airplane (bright red on black) flying across all kinds of knitted things. Such as a long skirt, a flying jacket, a sweater. Lord & Taylor has these in their sixth floor Young New Yorkers sportswear, and the price is $40 for the skirt. $32 for the jacket and $24 for a sweater. In Bloomingdales sweater department on the third floor, Ritva of London advertises "Eat At Joes." Right on the front of a long-sleeved black wool sweater. This is $40. And as for those cracker boxes et al, well, they're being snapped up by young men and women alike. Made by a concern called Orphan Annie, presumably with the blessings of the Ritz and Lucky Strike people, they're about as "realistic" a package as a sweater can get. B. Altman has them on their sixth floor in either sleeveless or long-sleeved versions. The sleeveless is $11, while the long-sleeved is $15.
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| ORPHAN ANNIE 'RITZ CRACKER' SWEATER DETAIL, 1971. |
SLEEVELESS VARIATION OF THE ORPHAN ANNIE 'LUCKY STRIKE' SWEATER FEATURED IN THE NY TIMES ARTICLE, 1971.
An original RITVA MAN 'FLASH FEARLESS' sweater designed by Mike Ross (1975) currently for sale here on Etsy.
IMAGE CREDITS
Pop sweater illustration by Anne-Marie Barden for an original article by Mary Anne Crenshaw scanned by Sweet Jane from The New York Times, November 18th, 1971. Photo (1)&(4) Orphan Annie Ritz/Lucky Strike sweaters courtesy of expired listings Ebay. Photo (2)&(3) Orphan Annie sweater detail and logo courtesy of brinkdwellers on Etsy. Ritva Man sweater image courtesy of elliemayhems Etsy.
View the V&A Mike Ross RITVA MAN collection here.
The RITVA Knitwear Collection 1966-1978 on Flickr here.