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Area mother, daughter co-author books on accessories collections
(The Blairsville Dispatch Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 19--BLAIRSVILLE -- Katie Monsour's captivation with couture collecting began at a very young age, and branched out from her mother's own flair for fashion accessories.
Monsour, 23, and her mother, Ronna Lee Aikins, have strengthened their mother-daughter bond through their joint venture in collecting costume jewelry and purses, and their assemblage has grown into the thousands.
"It is an art within itself," Aikins indicated of the jewelry. "And I do love the jewelry, there's no doubt about it."
The mother-daughter duo's collections and combined knowledge of vintage vogue has led them to publish four books, with a fifth one in development.
"Brilliant Rhinestones," "Twentieth Century Costume Jewelry," "100 Years of Purses" and "Twentieth Century Costume Jewelry -- Second Edition" have helped Aikins and Monsour climb to high stature in the world of accessory collecting.
Monsour and Aikins have been featured in several local and national publications, such as Pittsburgh Magazine, Country Living and Smalltown Life.
They have done several pieces for Country Living, including jewelry features for Mother's Day and specific articles on rhinestones, compacts and purses.
Both have been guests of antique expert Harry Rinker's radio talk show, sharing their expertise on costume jewelry and purses with others who have shared interests.
Aikins was first drawn to the thrill of collecting back in the early 1980s, when she developed a fascination with Depression glassware.
But the more she delved into antique shops and talked with dealers, the more she realized that her true enchantment lay in costume jewelry. Her first inclination was when she first caught sight of accessories that originated in West Germany.
"I was looking for glassware at at the time, and the jewelry really caught my eye," she said. "It had a different design, it was better costume jewelry. So I started collecting jewelry and glassware sort of fell by the wayside."
The art of many of the designs is what first caught her eye. The beading, the hand-strung pearls, gems and metals, and the metals themselves were awe-inspiring to her.
She was struck by the beauty and painstaking work that went into many earlier pieces, particularly the ones by older Italian designers.
"They understood how to put colors together, the right metals with the right designs," she remarked. "The art of it, and the mystery of where it came from fascinated me."
Aikins' mother, Ann Little, affectionately referred to by Monsour as "Mimi," is also a collector of sorts, though not at the scale of her daughter and granddaughter.
When Aikins initially started collecting, Little was delighted with her daughter's newfound interest in costume jewels. "Mother has been into jewelry all her life, real and costume," Aikins noted. "Once I got into it, Mom was really happy."
Many of Aikins' pieces came through the still-popular Avon line of jewelry. Little and Aikins have both worked as district sales managers for the company in the past.
In the last 25 years, and with Monsour's interest in jewelry piqued, Aikins' collection has swelled to well over 3,000 pieces of jewelry.
"I'm starting to sell it off because I can't keep it all, it's ridiculous," Aikins said. "I want other people to enjoy it."
Always an admirer of her mother's couture accumulation, Monsour was bit by the collecting bug herself when she was 14 years old and entering high school. A handbag buff, her assemblage of purses grew to over 300 by the time she graduated high school.
She would pick them up anywhere, she said -- flea markets and yard sales, consignment shops, quaint local stores. Her assortment started off more modern, but soon she began searching out more vintage items at auctions and estate sales.
"I like to haggle for things," she noted, adding that she and her mother both limit their purchases to under $100 under normal circumstances.
Monsour has kept almost every purse she's ever bought, which accounts for her abundant collection.
"I couldn't even begin to fathom how many purses I have," she laughed. "And the thing is, I only carry one bag now. I used to switch every week, rotate my collection."
Her theory is, as long as it looks good, she'll buy it. "I'm not brand-loyal," she said, referring to today's trends that lean toward high-end designer purses.
And the more vintage, the better when it comes to carry-alls. "In purses today, we could carry a box of cereal," she said of their sometimes bulky build. "The average woman's purse weighs eight pounds. That's a lot of weight on your shoulder."
Of the purses in her collection, she pointed out, "These purses are so much more feminine, very delicate. You carried your lipstick and a mirror."
Her tastes in purses lean toward the Lucite purses from the 1950s and alligator purses.
Lucite purses are boxier carry-alls that are made of acrylic glass that were popular in the mid-1900s. She likes the look of them--"They're sturdy, and I like their shape," she noted -- but their boxy shape makes them very hard to store, she acknowledged. "They take up a lot of room."
The alligator purses, on the other hand, aren't bulky, but they do require very specific care. They must be stored protected in a very dry place where moisture and sunlight can't damage the leather.
"The skins can get ruined very easily," Monsour said, noting they must be sent away once a year to be conditioned.
Monsour's jewelry preferences are based largely on what gemstone is featured in a piece. She's partial to citrine topaz, but lately has taken a liking to the greens and purples of the mystic topaz.
"It's like Mardi Gras in a gemstone," she stated.
Aikins, too, is drawn to topaz, her November birthstone. That gem, in colors varying from the lightest yellow to the darkest brown, is what she's most fond of wearing, too.
Though she's happy to have her collection, what astounds Aikins is how the jewelry fell into her hands to begin with.
"Jewelry is very personal," she stated. "I can't imagine somebody letting it go."
Two pieces she wouldn't dream of putting on the market, though, are a smokey topaz necklace from Czechoslovakia given to her by a friend, and a Siamese cat piece that was given to her by her father.
"It's the prettiest piece I own," Aikins said. "I have never, in my entire years of collecting, seen anything like it."
Aikins' and Monsour's collection features a host of designers, and neither can choose a favorite, though Aikins acknowledged that she still harbors a love for West Germany jewelry.
"If you know jewelry, you can spot it," she said. "You can see the quality. It sets itself off from everything else. They use a lot of antique gold, guilded gold, put in super-colorful stones like topazes and emeralds. It's very eye-catching."
The costume jewelry cache is a joint collection between her and her mother, Monsour said, though, "She's more into wearing the pins and stuff. I'm not much into brooches. I prefer earrings."
And though she acknowledges that she's not a fan of the brooch, Monsour pointed out that they have their place in today's fashion world. They're still relevant, she said, and can be used as a scarf pin or hair piece.
"They're not kitsch," she said. "They can be very modern. You don't have to be tied to the traditional uses of jewelry."
Monsour and Aikins have honed their knowledge on purses and jewelry by reading other books and guides on the items, and in Aikins' case, shopping the market for over 20 years. After her collection became alarmingly large, Aikins thought it was time to start tracking her purchases.
"It had became quite a collection, and it actually got out of control, and I thought I had better start documenting it," she said.
So she decided to try her hand at publishing a guide for other collectors of costume jewels.
Monsour offered her assistance when her mother expressed a desire to publish a book for fellow accessory fanciers.
"My mom has this huge collection, and she wanted to get a book published, but didn't know how to go about it," she said.
So Monsour, in high school at the time (she graduated from Blairsville High School in 2003), took the initiative and began researching publishing companies that specialized in collectors' books.
She landed her first lead when she e-mailed a Seattle-based company. They turned down Monsour's pitch to publish a guide for costume jewelry collectors, but pointed her in the direction of a company called Collector Books in Paducah, Ky., a division of Schroeder Publishing Co., Inc.
Aikins contact the company and was initially met with reluctance. "They said submit to us a proposal, and we'll get back to you," she recalled.
So she composed the write-up and sent it along with numerous descriptive and photographic examples of her collection. "They got right back to me and said give us what you have, we want a contract," she said.
Monsour was only a sophomore in high school when she became the co-author of that first book. She and her mother have since written three more. "It was hard being in high school" and helping her mother get the book together, she admitted. "I'd come home from school and start writing."
The books allowed Monsour to connect two of her favorite hobbies -- collecting and writing. After earning her bachelor's degree in English literature from Seton Hill University and a master's degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Art of Teaching English program, she now works as a part-time professor at both Westmoreland County Community College and Seton Hill University, teaching writing and composition.
Monsour designed a worksheet for her mother to use as they sorted through their collection. For each piece, Aikins would fill out what type of accessory it was with a brief description, where it came from, what time period it was produced, and its projected value. Monsour would then compose a more detailed and descriptive caption for each piece.
And ever since the first book, the publications have continually been snatched up off the shelves. "It's pretty hefty numbers," Aikins said. "For a smalltown person, it's nice. It pleasantly surprises me.
"When Barnes & Noble sells out, you know that's a good thing," she added with a laugh.
Aikins believes that Collector Book has continued its interest and cooperation because they appreciate the hard work of their mother-daughter authors, who photograph every piece, write every caption and edit their own results before sending it off to be published.
"They love the way we work," she stated. "We do it all, from beginning to completion."
Next for the tag-team writing mother-daughter duo will be a Collector Book publication on vintage smoking items, such as cigarette and cigar holders, rhinestone boxes and ashtrays, from her grandmother Little's own personal collection.
"It's all very glam," Monsour stated. And because the collection is her grandmother's, "It will be a three-generation effort."
Gina Delfavero can be reached at gdelfavero@tribweb.com or .
To see more of The Blairsville Dispatch or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/blairsvilledispatch/.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Blairsville Dispatch, Pa.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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