Should you give up on buying brand new bath towels and instead, hunt down vintage? I think maybe so — these towels can be found very inexpensively — and the quality is often outstanding. They last DECADES. Santa Baby was very nice to me this Christmas. He found these New Old Stock Fieldcrest bath towels in the way back of the workshop (or maybe it was on ebay for $29.95 no competition) and knew that I would love them. Can you believe it — they are still in their Marshall Fields box, wrapped in tissue paper with a gold foil Marshall Fields sticker. Absolutely pristine. Even DH was impressed, and he normally is not so keen on vintage textiles. They will go just beautifully in my blue bathroom — the one with the blue, green and cream wallpaper with the little red geranium pots on it! In my recent story about best bath towels for the money, several readers underscored that vintage bath towels just can’t be beat. Vee worked in the industry, and I loved her commentary. She said:I worked for Cannon Mills in their NY office in the ’70s. I still have towels from that job that are in excellent condition without fading. They were demoted to my weekend house 15 years ago because all the browns and oranges of the era looked better in the more country style of the house. All the deep tones of these towels are still intact 35 years later.
I gave away so many towels and sheet sets because I just got tired of looking at them which I now regret . Nothing is comparable in quality (unless you spend a fortune) to the towels that were manufactured for their so called value/low end line, Monticello, much less their luxury line Royal Cannon.
I still have a few terry distowels from that era that are still going strong and unfaded despite hot water bleach and hot dryers.
One of the things I look at when I hit a tag sale are towels, if they were made in the US, I will buy them if they are in decent shape.
These were my #1 favorite finds -- vintage Fieldcrest towels, in avocado. They match my bathroom. I got 3 bath towels, 4 hand towels, a bath mat and a washcloth for like $5. YAY!
Vee — I absolutely agree. At the summer’s best estate sale, I also found a set of vintage bath towels — Cannons, in an avocado jacquard — dirt cheap. I am using them. They are terrific.
HOT TIP: Keep an eye on this ebay seller — a treasure trove of uncovered NOS seems to be coming out from storage, slowly but surely.Tip to using the ebay carousel: To go to a particular item, click on its photo (NOT on the ebay logo) — then, click on the lime green “View and Bid” box, which will take you to ebay.Disclosure: When you buy anything from these ebay carousels or after you click into ebay here
Hey Pam — had to respond to this one! I’m 45. When I moved to the big city in ’93, my mom gave me some “old stuff” she had to help set up housekeeping. Included in my loot were some towels she had been given as a wedding present back in 1964.
These towels are Fieldcrest, thick and pretty, with a pattern of big pink roses.
I married in 1998. The good quality towels I was given from Target are pretty much puckered and shredded in spots.
The Fieldcrest towels from nineteen-sixty-FREAKIN’-four are beautiful!
They truly don’t make things like they used to.
OFF SUBJECT — watched Doris Day and Rock Hudson in Lover Come Back the other night. Oh my gosh!!!! The interiors!!!!! The clothing! The cars! Seriously funny movie with lots of eye-candy for people like us!
Hey Chris,
Thanks for the info on Lover Come Back. I” ll put it on my Netflix list. I’m always looking at the interiors on old movies. Great for ideas and of course nostalgia
Pam,
Don’t know if you’ve done a post on this already but how about one with Chris’s idea. Movie interiors for retro decor.
Also, what if you gave us advance notice when you were going to do a
post on something you wanted our pics for or like this movie idea. It’s sometimes hard to come up with something right away and by the next day it’s too late; you’re on to something else. Perhaps a one line post just giving idea and day (retro movie interiors on blankday) would work.
Those towels are gorgeous! Good job DH!! I SO wish I still had the brown towels I received as a wedding present in 1977. I bet they are still in good shape, too. One of the brand new Ralph Lauren towels I bought a couple months ago (after your “best towels for the money” post) binding has unraveled along the edge. arg.
SCORE!! Look how rich and juicy they look! That DH knows you well.
I picked up a couple sets — wash cloth, hand towel, bath towel — and a couple bath towels, in the fall at the flea market, never used, pretty inexpensive. Have been meaning to post about them, maybe this is the impetus. I like the colors and designs of the era.
I always look for good towels when I am in thrift stores. I recently found two great ones that probably are late 60s/early 70s because of the flower design woven in and the beautiful colors — one was avocado green and rose, the other avocado green and blue. My daughter was the lucky recipient. I am not sure of the brand since she has taken them home — no way she was going to leave them behind! They are towels that will actually soak up some moisture, as well as being pretty.
Beautiful towels! What a nice gift. I agree that the quality is much, much better with older towels. We had the same towels the ENTIRE time I was growing up…imagine my surprise when I moved out on my own and my new ones started looking ratty within a year! I’m going to keep my eye out for vintage…
In 1965, my Grandfather bought a ton of towels for my uncle’s high school football team, and kept a few sets that made it to my Mom. I still have those towels, and use them often. Only one still has a tag, and it is pretty beat up, but it looks like “Treasure Chest” brand.
I love Cannon Fieldcrest towels, nothing holds up better than their towels. Its a shame the company is no longer around. Living here in NC, I live about 40 min from where the plant stood. In 2003 there were 7.650 people that were layed off from the plant because of the bankruptcy. Largest layoff in the NC state!
When I do find the vintage towels I buy them up and still have some that my grandmother use to have.
Trip H.,
My father-in-law worked at the Fieldcrest bedspread mill in Eden, NC practically all his life. If he were still alive today, I’m sure he’d be heartbroken at what has happened to our textile industry.
I remember having similar towels growing up. Searching for quality towels and linens has become the bane of my domestic existence. I wish, wish, wish, these were still sold all over the place.
Yes, I am pretty obsessed with this issue, as well!
When I was doing my pink bathroom project, I looked and looked for vintage towels and couldn’t find any to match. This gives me motivation to begin my search again and this time I will prevail!
Janice, if you have a Purple Heart Thrift Store near you, check there first. We have one near us and they trump both Goodwill and the Salvation Army. I usually leave with an armful of towels whenever we go, and I never break $10.
They ARE around, Janice!
Janice, if you’re looking for pink towels I just saw these pop up on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110803651269&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
Maybe y’all can help me with sheets: I purchased two sets of king sheets 18 years ago when we first got a king-size bed. They were inexpensive; one set I bought at a department-store outlet shop and the other set I found at Sears and bought because it matched the first set.
Even though little consideration was given to quality at the time, these are the softest, longest-lasting sheets I’ve ever had. They are washed and washed and now have the feel of soft butter. They are so soft and so thin I am afraid any movement or tug on them could now rip them.
The only thing I can make out on the long-faded labels is Cannon. I’m assuming they are a poly/cotton blend percale, since my research shows that percale remains soft and these sheets don’t wrinkle at all.
Any ideas on how I can replace them? What I should be looking for?
I just purchased a new king mattress set and assume these 18-year-old sheets won’t be deep enough to fit on the new mattress. While I’m looking forward to my new bed, I hate losing my soft comfy sheets.
Thanks!
Tina, I see NOS sheets on ebay fairly often… Worth a try relative to the fit issue… If you are looking to buy new, I have had a very positive experience with my Fieldcrest 450 thread count sheets from Target. Watch for them to go on sale…
I love vintage towels. I grew up with the Monticello towels with reverse patterns and they are still around 35 years later! I’ve been told by my wife that I need to stop buying towels, as we have too many as it is, but our local thrift store always has them dirt cheap and they are always in great shape. The Fieldcrest name has been revived in recent years, but the towels are imported from…yep…China. It’s really a shame we’ve lost our linen manufacturers in this country: Martex, St. Mary’s, Stevens of Utica, Cannon/Fieldcrest; all of these companies made awesome linens that really do hold up to the wear and tear of everyday life.
Guess I’m going to start checking out the thrift stores for vintage towels – and sheets, I HATE all the new sheets out there, they are awful! Old anything is better than new anything (except maybe toilet paper!).
Alas – I checked Google images for vintage towels, and these are sold already, but oh-so-to-die-for! Thought you’d all like to see…hopefully a RR reader was the lucky one who got these!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79712271/vintage-cannon-standard-french-poodle
TTT,
Remember to check at yard sales. I’ve found some great vintage linens at neighborhood sales.
I have been looking in vain for American-made towels — I never thought of vintage, what a great idea!
No one has mentioned yet that the bath towel sizes were smaller than the big ones in the stores now. I like the smaller sizes; and they dry faster too.
Sara, you’re so right. Some of my bath towels are almost too heavy to use.
Oh, Pam. What glorious towels. Good for you.
Sometime back, I was fortunate enough to find an arm-load of bath towels at our local Salvation Army. They are true classics of floral and geometric prints in our beloved mid mod colors.
Each towel is adorned with fringe and is smaller than today’s standard, which I, too, like better. They’ve withstood the test of time and are still going strong. In fact they’re the
I also adore vintage 100% cotton sheets – nothing quite as soft to me as a well worn cotton sheet.
I grew up in Raleigh NC and every year we would go to the mill in Eden NC or Burlington. I still have the fabulous towels from then–we got countless pink towels for our pink bathroom with Hudie rim sinks. They have lasted forever (got them in the late 60′s) and still have the sheets from my freshman year at college. The stuff out there now is junk although I have found some good sheets at Garnet Hill–they are made in Portugal.
Anyone have any advice for searching on NOS towels?
I am usually not part of the germ-police, but used towels give me the willies…
Watch my ebay carousels…. You can find these on ebay – but you have to think through and try lots of keywords. Also watch etsy….
I use one of my parents’ wedding presents, a 2 tone pink Canon Monticello hand towel, on a daily basis in my mud room. It gets washed weekly and still looks amazing. My parents just celebrated their 50th anniversary 12/23/11 – Congrats Mom and Dad!
Whew! I have been secretly collecting vintage bath towels and kinda felt like a creep for it. Now I know I’m not the only one.
Hi Pam,
I was thrilled to see my comments quoted. It is so sad to me that the US no longer has any textile industy. The workers at Kannapolis turned out quality products every day for everyday people.
This is always a subject of conversation in my house since I use mostly vintage applicances. After our big box store vacumm cleaner, made in China went up in flames after being used for less than two
I went into our basement and pulled out an Electolux that my parents gave me in 1983 when I bought my house. It was in their basement for years, being one of those gorgeous deco streamline ones. The point of the story is that in the fall of 2011 we plugged it an it still worked. I went on ebay and a replacement cord an some attachments.
So did American manufacturing die out partly because of the high quality of the products? I have a Dormeyer hand mixer and also a stand mixer (they closed in 1953) that are still going strong.
For the person that is bothered by used towels I would say that most of the towels that you will find now are the slightly use company towels. You can throw them in the washer, use lots of soap and hot water and dry them on a high heat. They will still look better in a month that anything you will buy today made in India or China. I feel that I go to hotels and are given previously “used” sheets and towels
that are washed. I can do the same at home.
Good hunting to everyone!
Vee
I have one St Mary’s towel in a dark brown. I just love that towel!! I wish I could find more St Mary’s.
Hi just found your site. Years ago my grandmother would buy al lher grandchildren fieldcrest or cannon mill towels for Christmas. I live in Australia. She would buy them from a lovely store, David Jones, I spent time when I can looking for similar, contemporary ones. These towels would last for years I still have some of my mother’s that are pink jacquard ones with roses. I wish, do I wish that one could get similar towels today. I spend time hunting on the internet and I have found lovely jacquard ones that are white with one colour. These other towels from that era were something else. Either we would get traditonal or lovely bright coloured ones suitable for teenagers in the 60s. Can’t some towel company re-make these? For years now in Australia the only towels available are just plain coloured ones, I am now adding to my towel collection of some contemporary, good quality jacquard ones. Not the same though. I was spoilt when I left home and went to university and was in a shared house, the others would comment on the beautiful towels, I didn’t know anything else at that time. I do now. Please some towel maker, there is a market for these!!
I remember thinking my dad was a little crazy growing up. We used the towels that his parents had gotten as a wedding gift in 1933. They are Cannon Royal Family. I guess my dad’s grandfather managed a cotton mill in North Carolina that later became a Canon mill. The bath towels were mended until they couldn’t be mended any more but, the hand towels look pretty great and are in regular use in my household. My kids are growing up with them now LOL. Three generation towels.
What a great story! Thanks, Liz!