Origin of an idiom: “the wind at our backs”

From A.I. Phail’s Everyday Idioms and How They Got That Way (2023):

“The wind at our backs” is an expression that takes us back to the early 1950s.

In that mid-century modern era, fashion designer Hendrik der Vinde (1916–1987) was at the height of his fame. His B-line skirt and chapeau immatériel (“So light, you’ll forget you’re wearing it”) took sophisticated New York by storm. His most sought-after designs, those of his Mountain Greenery collection, with fabric textures meant to resemble topographical maps, were available from only one outlet, Ohrbach’s department store, known through the 1950s and 1960s as the trendsetter in women’s clothes.

Ohrbach’s full-page newspaper advertisements featured der Vinde’s designs with the catchphrase “der Vinde at Ohrbach’s.” And that catchphrase became a watchword among chic urbanites, even making an appearance in Truman Capote’s 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, where it is spoken by Holly Golightly:

“There’s only one designer who can really make me happy, darling: der Vinde at Ohrbach’s.”

By extension, “der Vinde at Ohrbach’s” came to signify any highly desirable consumer good. Through mishearing and mispronouncing, the words were turned into ”the wind at our backs” — or at anyone’s back.

It is likely impossible to pin down a first appearance of this idiom in print. But here is a fine example of its use, though one that might have made der Vinde wince. From ”Around My Kitchen, Around My Town,” Gainsville Bugle-Courier, November 9, 1998:

Thanksgiving will be complete this year. I finally found the Gobbles Beanie Baby I’ve been searching for. I have the wind at my back!

Note: “Gone with the wind” is an unrelated idiom that has been traced to Martha Mitchell’s 1939 novel Gone with the Wind. Mitchell was later known as the fourth wife of Richard Nixon’s surgeon general John Mitchell.

More origins
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