Vera was a well-known name but her products were always intended for ordinary people. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s I remember seeing her table linens in mid-range department stores. Crate and Barrel is just the sort of popular priced, design oriented chain that would have carried her designs during her lifetime. During the same era, I was taught that standing with feet in the T position, as she is doing here, was how runway models posed.

This just in from my sister, a scan of a section of Mother's Vera scarf. I think I remember it now.

Apt.

Just look at the way she's standing - heel to instep, oh my! Isn't that elegant.

So THAT'S Vera. I have a small collection of Vera scarves; I buy them whenever I find them in thrift stores. She was known for bold colors and patterns and her 60-year-old scarves are still stylish.

Vera would be spinning in her grave if she knew that mass-marketer Crate & Barrel is now selling her designs.

She wasted a lot of time playing Plinko.

Peg.

... gallons of champagne every week, but it was worth it for that wall treatment!

So Ms. Bradley started making handbags!