Simple Saturday: Playing Dress Up

I fall hard for clothing from the 1910s, 1940s, and 1960s — particularly dresses.  This day dress from the wartime 1940s makes me smile.  I love the simple economy of fabric in the skirt, the subdued silhouette (compared to the 1930s and 50s), and the wide bust detail that’s common to dresses of the time period.  Fabric was in short supply due to the war, you see, so they had to minimize their skirts and maximize the smaller embellishments.  And looking at clothing that women wore on their everyday errands is something special.

I could spend all day poring over old clothes and going on at length about them.  Like, for example, how silk and wool were used for men’s uniforms and parachutes, so a lot of dresses from the time period were made with rayon and other synthetics.  Or how the government encouraged women to conserve fabric by making their suits from old men’s suits and cutting down their old garments.  Shoulder pads were big — after all women were doing men’s jobs now, so even their fashions emulated the men’s.  Isn’t this fascinating?

This stuff applies to today’s eco-friendly movement; the wartime period was about conserving resources.  It’s where the “Make Do and Mend” mentality came about, as well as “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”  But it’s all right if you’re not interested, I won’t be offended.  Here’s another day dress to look at:

And an evening gown:

Yum.

__________________________________________________________

©2009 at Simple Savvy, the simple living blog where we all have our mini obsessions. Period costuming happens to be one of mine.  Images courtesy of My Favorite Vintage, Vintage Clothiers, and Timeless Vintage Vixen, respectively.

Advertisement