1934 summer cruise wardrobe - article

The summer is back! After a few very rainy days finally it's sunny outside, here in the Netherlands. I'm already back to work, but some of you might just start to enjoy weeks off, preparing for a trip far from home.
Last week I wrote about my tips for festival outfits, now get back in time for a crispy, fresh holiday wardrobe from the 30's! Back then, going on cruise was very fashionable. Enjoying the fresh air, sunbathing on the ship, fancy dinners with entertainment, trips to the shore to visit foreign towns and cultures.
Although this article is from 1934 there are a lot of tips you could use when packing for your holiday wardrobe, even when not going on a cruise.

This summer cruise wardrobe plan based on the classic and fresh white, red and navy color combination. If those are not your colors (white is certainly not mine) the article advises on other color options as well. How about string-color* combined with bright green, pale blue and some brown or grey with cornflower-blue, pale blue and white? Scroll down to read!
*string-color is beige

"don't wear these on cruises!

• printed crepe-de-chine or crepe day dresses
• any dresses that are 'frilly'
• high-heeled shoes
• black for daytime, unless it is linen
• dresses of elaborate materials, such as satin
• elaborate make-up by day
• jwellery in the daytime
• 'trimmed' hats
• taffeta (it will split) or lame (it will tarnish)"

1965 travel wardrobe

I've always been intrigued by vintage wardrobe plans. How to do it with just a few items or what to buy when you only have limited resources (coupons), when or go on holidays.

The Duchess of Cambridge recently finished her Australian tour. I don't think her travel wardrobe was particularly special or exciting at all. Were you impressed?

Of course, it is hard to assemble a versatile travel wardrobe, especially when you want to use a limited amount of items (which was certainly not the case for Catherine...) How about a wardrobe of 21 garments, weighing only 22 lb? (=less, than 10kg)

Bridget Maginn was a famous American sewing expert in the 1960's. Her 3-months Australian tour in 1965 was sponsored by Butterick and Singer. 

For her light-weight travel wardrobe Butterick selected 8 of their own patterns:

• 1 coat
• 5 suits
• 1 blouse
• 1 overblouse+skirt combination
• 1 dress+jacket combination 
• 1 cocktail dress

beauty behind glasses: 1945 make-over

Are you a 40's gal wearing glasses? Let's take a closer look at this 1945 makeover session with the AWW's beauty-expert!
Popular make-overs magazines are not new. Take someone who is unhappy with the way she looks, and let the stylists and make-up artists do their job. Look, even the way pictures are taken is the same: 'before' a sad, clearly unhappy look, little or no make-up and even the light hits her face from above which makes her features look 'droopy', while the 'after' picture is happy and bright... The shadow of the glasses on her face is different and her hair looks shinier. I guess, some things never change.
Some things does though, because Gloria doesn't get a new outfit in this article. In 1945 the beauty expert chooses to recycle her old hat, and shows how to put it on to make it look more flattering. Still, I like the stye of the article, it is written fun and animated, giving exactly the same tips a contemporary stylist would:


the makeover step-by-step:


looking happy:

1934 cruise wardrobe - article

This week back to the 1930's again. Today an article from 1934, which gives a detailed description of a cruise wardrobe when you decide to escape the cold weather. Later this week: in the baby bootie series the cutest 30's booties ever!!! Plus, the finishing touches on my Valerie jumper.
Suddenly, the weather has got warm here, in Western Europe. We are experiencing a quite warm winter this year. No sign of snow at all! When the temperatures are rising it is nice to think about planning the holidays. This week we finally sold our old house (yay!) so there will be more money left to get away for a few days. In the 30's cruises were the ultimate holiday get-aways for the rich. Entertainment, socializing and sunbathing on the ship and sightseeing ashore. With these items you are safe for colder weather on the way and ready for a summer holiday ashore!

"The experienced, well-dressed traveller, you will find, takes a few well-made clothes, the minimum amount of hats and shoes, and looks infinitely smarter than the amateur who is always changing her frocks and is encumbered by many trunks and suitcases."

tweed or flannel suit

• Flannel in beige, grey, dark blue or brown; tweeds in checks and plaids. 
• The  coat should be either hip length (nipped-in-at-the-waist) or full length (either fitted or swagger style) 
• A skirt of the same fabric, with a big pleat back, and in front stitched down to knee-height to complete the suit. 
• Complete with blouses, several wool sweaters a wool cardigan

long coat

• A long coat with a high collar and deep pockets in natural colored tweed (flecked with brown and yellow) lined with yellow jersey to wear over sweater and skirt or frocks. 
• The blouse is of the same jersey and the skirt is the same tweed tweed or flannel with matching long coat (to wear sweater or cardigan underneath) 
• Grey flannel instead of tweed combines well with everything. 
• White flannel and chinchilla cloth coat can be an option, but then you need another coat for colder weather.

lightweight wool frock

• To wear on board. 
• It should be very tailored looking, in a lighter shade fine wool jersey.
• machine knitted or handknitted material, short sleeves, trimmed with buttons and pockets.
• Color suggestion: pastel blue, grey, pink or yellow, beige, grey, white

wool frock 

• To wear ashore. 
• Sleeveless or short sleeved, with an accompanying brief jacket, which is made in the same fabric with short or 3/4 sleeves in plainly tailored crepe-de-chine or linen. 
• Thin frocks should be of crepe-de-chine, pique, tweed, linen or any of the non-transparant cottons, tailored with a severe neckline, short sleeves and pleats in the skirt. 
• Printed crepe with a flower, dotted or striped pattern in red and white, blue and white, yellow or green or brown and white can be an option.

evening dress with a cape or jacket

• The simpler the better. 
• Made out of printed crepe, lace or chiffon.
• Add long coat of velveteen, velvet or sheer wool in a bright color for cooler nights on deck.

sports outfit

• An outfit consisting of shorts, shirt and detachable skirt for deck sports, in linen, pique, jersey, sponge cloth or flannel. 
• The shirt is made like a men's buttoned shirt with two patch pockets. the shorts can be tight fitting if you are slim. 
• For the 'stouter' girls pleats over the stomach and full legs that hang linke knee-length skirts. 
• A skirt with buttons at centre front (the bottom buttons are left undone and there is no need to wear stockings!)

bathing costume or beach dress 

• To wear on deck.

shoes

• Evening shoes which can be paired with several gowns and topcoat.
• Two pair of day shoes: 
• one pair of white or brown, and white low-heeled, rubber soled lace-ups for deck wear 
• and a pair of white or brown and white court shoes with a high Cuban heel for ports. 
• Add a dark pair of shoes if one of the ports is cold.

hats

• Made of the same material as the tweed or flannel ensemble.
• A medium brimmed thin white felt or panama for the thin frocks 
• and a big white straw for the ports.

other:

• a white or colored mackintosh (=trench coat) for rainy ports
• scarves in dark or bright colors to wear with the thin frocks and sweaters.

source newspaper article and images: Australian Women's Weekly through Trove.

Vintage inspired shoes from...Clarks

very 30's: lace up shoes, shaped heels, slingback sandals, suede

very 40's: heavier heels, pumps, suede, platform soles, ankle straps, wedges, fabric & canvas

Continuing the vintage inspired shoes series I've recently found a few gems in the collection of Clarks. you find the other posts under the label 'shoes' To be honest, never looked at the Clarks shoes until now because my mom who has 'difficult feet' loves them. The good thing is, the fit must be good, but on the downside she tends to like really shapeless shoes lately. It took me some time to talk her into buying a few neat and feminine shoes with low heels instead of the Birkenstock-type sandals she likes to wear.
The shoes above have typical late 30's and 40's shapes, they would all look equally pretty worn with a skirt or trousers. Now, that we finally (almost) sold our old house I'm aloud to buy new shoes. Above there are quite a few from the 2013 autumn/winter collection which are amazing but sadly, already sold out here. How about the Alma Kendra? To die for!
From now on I really need to watch the Clarks collections for new, vintage inspired items for myself...

As a little extra, below a 1946 article on tips for buying the right shoes for your feet:

Slender silhouettes - 1944 article

How pretty are these wartime suits?!
Comparing these to the famous Dior New Look suits with the tiny waists and huge skirts, I'd say these mid-40's suits are more elegant and definitely would look much more flattering on every body type. Beautiful!
Typical details for the era are the short fitted jackets with accentuated shoulders, high neckline with different type of revers (lapels) and only 3 buttons on the jackets, slightly A-line skirts without gathering or pleating due to the wartime restriction rules (read about it more here), with complementing accessories: hats, bags and gloves.

Government restrictions on clothing - 1942 article

Have you ever wondered why the 40's garments had less details than in the 30's? Why the 40's jumpers were so short? Why the A-line skirts were the fashion of the day? Let's talk about the wartime restrictions of World War 2. Called 'Victory fashions' the fabric and clothing restriction rules were designed in the early 40's to save fabrics and save manpower. Interestingly, the restrictions were not only applied for ready-made clothing items but for home-made items too. At first sight there were a huge amount of restrictions, starting from specifications on the length and width of garments to details like the amount of buttons and the width of hems. As always, there were two sides of every story. On one side it was a sport to find ways to make the most of your wardrobe while obeying the rules, but on the other, it must have been really hard for mothers to have enough items to dress their fast growing children. Scroll down to read the article.

did you know...
...that it was forbidden to place more than two pockets, pocket flaps  and more than 5 buttons on a suit? There were restrictions on using more tucking and shirring than required to fit the garment properly, and the amount of embroidered details was limited to no more than 6 square inches (=15 cm2)?

Source article: AWW through Trove

WW2 Moviestars made their own clothes - 1943 article

"This casually tailored blue suedette suit is perfect for all occasions says Theresa Wright who wears this outfit in her latest Universal movie 'Shadow of a doubt' and had it copied in beige for her personal wardobe. In the top-picture Theresa is seen re-making last years plead coat into a perky little pinafore frock, which she plans to team with crisp white blouses to wear for afternoon at home."

Can you imagine the moviestars of our days sitting behind their sewing machines and making their own outfits? Me neither...
Even when they kept looking glamorous during the WW2 years, not everything was as easy as it seemed. While MGM and Universal studios had a huge collection of costumes on hand they had to deal with the clothing restrictions as well. Scroll down to read the article!




Source article: AWW through Trove

Window shopping back in 1948

Nowadays, once in a while there is a (mostly unsuccessful) initiative to replace the usual, extra-small sized window dummies by 'average' size or plus size dummies, to make feel us, 'average' women better... Well, the problem of the idealized body shape image in marketing existed in the 1940's too.
While we tend to think that the nipped-in waist era started in the early 50's, even the window dummies went from the 26 in (=66.5 cm) waists to 22 in (=56 cm) as early as in 1948! 'Pleasing oval proportions' of the face and 'Vogue' noses, which were 'small, plump and delightful' were preferred. And how about the whopping 5 foot 11 (=180 cm) height?! Not so different from model sizes of our days which is more than 60 years later!!!!
There was true craftsmanship involved in making these dummies, starting with sculpting them individually. The horsehair wigs were set with bobby pins and even the eyelashes were curled...

did you know that...
...back in the early days of department stores window dummies were made out of wax which occasionally melted on hot days, causing the dummies to collapse in the shop window?

Scroll down to read!

source of all newspaper images: AWW through trove

Plus size modeling is not new...

When we think of the 1950's, we the 'New Look' era, tiny, nipped in waists and corsets come to mind. We don't think plus size, though one of the successful fashion personalities at the time was the 50 years old Mag, with her 16 stone (just over a 100 kg).
Scroll down to read the AWW article from 1959!