Suits VIII (La Pastorale, Winter 1964)

 In 1954 Coco Chanel reopened her business, and introduced what was to become known as the "Chanel suit".  The Chanel suit consisted of a short straight suit and a loose fitting, hip-length "cardigan" style jacket.  Her suit swept away the constricting, shaped-to-the-figure suits fashionable in the early 1950s and replaced them with something much more modern and easier to wear.

By 1964, when this catalogue was published, every ready-to-wear manufacturer of women's clothing was producing their own imitation of the Chanel suit.  Of course they couldn't afford the craftmanship and materials of a genuine Chanel—but their source of inspiration is obvious!

Four suits in "textured wools".  From left to right we have:

Perfect elegance is the story of this outstanding suit in diagonally woven pure wool.  The fully lined Jacket with set-in sleeves in double-breasted style has a velvet collar, matching self buttons, slanting pocket flaps.  The slimming skirt, lined too, is detail finished.

Pure Wool Hopsack Tweed in rich deep colours, hits the fashion headlines with this outstanding two-piece suit.  Fully lined, it features White saddle stitching around the Hip-length jacket.  Note the simple neckline, the three covered button opening, and the pocket flaps.  The slim skirt has a kick pleat, of course.

Young Australians will love this California styled two-piece, and look very dashing in it.  We selected a pure wool woven with small checks and finally trimmed the short Jacket with Suede in a very sporty fashion.  The skirt we styled with release pleats both back and front.

Faultless styling in figured Terylene/Worsted!  Who could resist this flattering suit with the charming low revers.  Immaculately finished, of course fully lined, this model suit represents classic tailoring everyone will admire.  Best of all, being Terylene, you can wash it at home and drip dry!

And five more suits, including three in double-knit Jersey and two trimmed with braid (a decorative touch also favoured by Chanel).  From left to right:

The lithe look in "Janilaine" Double-knit Wool Jersey.  There's a free-n-easy shaping with chic detail to the delightful two-piecer.  Note the Chanel treatment and bow highlighting the top.  The skirt is lined for shape.

Wonderfully fashionable, this co-ordinated three-piece Ensemble in Double-knit Wool Jersey with a toned floral top which is short sleeved and back zipped.  Styled for all ages, all figures, this three-piece is a fabulous investment.

Style, value and instant appeal are obvious in this lovely suit in pure wool textured Tweed.  The surface interest is accented with black braid and button trim.  The jacket is really shaped to flatter and the skirt is cut to give a slender silhouette.

A Wool pebble Tweed suit priced to please, styled to appeal!  The Jacket richly trimmed with braid has self buttons and set-in sleeves.  The half-lined skirt has the popular twin inverted pleats both front and rear.  Truly amazing value.

The feature of this stylish pure Wool Double-knit "Janilaine" Jersey Suit is the lavish EMBROIDERY on the Jacket.  Difficult for the camera to catch, it extends in depth all round the jacket in an exquisite pattern.  The slim skirt is half lined.

Found Online: Winns Catalogues II (Early 1930s)

 Let's take another look at the collection of Winns Mail Order Shopping Guides held at the State Library of New South Wales.  This time we're moving onto the early 1930s

Autumn & Winter 1930

The garments on the cover of the first catalogue for 1930 still look very 1920s in style.  Skirts fall to a little below the knee and hats are still close-fitting.  (They were made of felt, by the way, and available for the price of 12 shillings and 11 pence.)  One-button coats with heavy collars feature prominently: on the left, in wool velour, and on the right in a new "fur-fabric" with "the wearing quality of an expensive fur".  Down the bottom left is a cardigan in wool with "art. silk" (i.e. rayon).

Spring & Summer 1930

In the world of high fashion hemlines were starting to fall, but Winns skirts still hover around their wearers' knees.  As you can see by this cover however, the waistline is back in its normal position and dresses now outline the figure.  (How you got the right figure for these dresses is illustrated by the Berlei "Foundation" garments on page 14 of this catalogue.)   The skirts flare out from dropped hip-yokes.

For the first time not only hats, but fashionable shoes, are featured on the front page of the catalogue.

Winter 1931

Winter 1931 sees more coats, cardigans and hats on the cover of Winns Catalogue.  The figure at the centre is wearing a suit made of tweed—with the coat made long so it can either be worn as part of the ensemble or separately.  The coat on the left is made of wool velour with a rabbit-fur collar.  The cardigans are made of mixed wool and silk.

Hats are now being worn off-the-face.  For the first time in a decade, foreheads are visible!

Spring & Summer 1931-32

The cover of the Spring-Summer catalogue for 1931 sports four typical dresses (now with hems dropped to calf-length).  From left to right: a dress for an older woman in "Good Quality Lockstitch JERSEY RAYON with smart vest effect".  Second left: "An Effective Sleeveless TENNIS or AFTERNOON FROCK" in "good washing Cambrics".  Right: Ladies frock in "FANCY ALL SILK FUJI".  Far right: "FASHIONABLE CAMBRIC ENSEMBLE SUIT" with piped contrast trimmings. 

Autumn & Winter 1932

There's an innovation on the front cover of the Winns catalogue for Autumn and Winter 1932: an evening dress!  This one was made of Milanese silk on "the latest lines, with full flare and deep frills on Skirt" and came in opal green, barbaric red and apricot.  Note the fashionably deep cut-outs on the back of the frock.

Spring & Summer 1932-33

From left to right we have: A Ladies' Frock of Art. Silk Rayon in "neat floral designs with contrasting shades"; A Pretty Frock of Floral Haircord for School Girl; A Smart Frock in the Popular Silk Milanese; and An Attractive Washing Frock in Reliable "Meadow Sweet" Cambric.  Floral prints are popular, but the main things to note here are the large, rever-like collars on the two dresses on the right.

Winter 1933

Wide revers and big collars create an illusion of width near the top of the coats and suits depicted on the cover of the winter 1933 catalogue.  (For more examples, check out the coats on page 11 inside.)  The red coat on the left is decorated with steel buttons and revers which can be fastened back to create a double-breasted effect.  Hats now appear to be worn entirely off the face or tilted so the brim nearly covers one eye—once again, for more examples look inside at page 16.

Spring & Summer 1933

Decoration seems to have gone to the top of the bodice by the spring of 1933, with bows and scarves being popular.  The dress on the upper left (a smart tub frock in "fadeless Falcon Cloth") has puffed sleeves, while the dress on the upper right (in pique voile fabric) has cape sleeves.  Shoulders are starting to broaden out, a fashion which will last until the end of the next decade.

Winter 1934

Shoulders are broad, hats are small, and fashionable gloves are gauntlet style.  On the left we have two dresses in "wool crepe de chene". At the far left is "an exact copy of one of the latest overseas models".  Next to it is a dress "featuring the new sleeve and plastron front treatment".  The coat on the right is made of wool velour "finished with a lavish fur collar of good quality"—though the authors of the catalogue don't state what kind of good quality fur the model is wearing!

Spring and Summer, 1934-35

And now we reach the end of the first half of the decade with these four models who are "smartness personified".   From left to right:

Printed Cambric has has been chosen for this Dainty and Attractive Style.  Contrasting collar and cuffs to tone, edged with printed organdi, gives a delightful "summery" finish.

An Attractive Frock in the new uncrushable Floral Crepara Crepe.  Neck and sleeves prettily trimmed with goffered frilling of self material, and smartly cut skirt gives a distinctive air.

This Charming Frock is in Floral Pique Voile: short sleeves with an opening; and a very effective Jabot trimmed with knife-pleated organdi, adds a smart note to the bodice, with godets in skirt.

A Very Striking Jumper Suit, in Matchbox Check and Pin-spot Silk Moracain, with self-trimming of pleating around shoulders and on sleeve; contrasting bow gives a snappy air to the Jumper.  The Skirt in White, having an inverted pleat back and front.

Suits VII (Vogue Pattern Book, 1955)

 The skirt suit was as popular as ever in the ladylike 1950s.  In 1955,Vogue Pattern Book devoted fully half of its covers to suits.

February-March 1955

"This spring it's pale tweed (like this butter yellow) for suits (like this tapered box jacket suit).  Noteworth: the collar that rolls away from the neckline, the low-placed belt.  Vogue Pattern S-4573."

August-September 1955

"A twelve-month-of-the-year investment... the good little jersey suit.  Here in a bold herringbone in black and white.  News: the bare neck, the spark of red in the hat and gloves.  Vogue Pattern Number S-4625."

October-November 1955

"Tweed, the seasoned green of an early autumn countryside... a suit as relaxed as a day in the country.  News... the follow-through of polished green leather accessories... the park of sky-blue.  Vogue Pattern No. S-4638."

Found Online: Winns Catalogues (Late 1920s)

 My latest discovery: The State Library of New South Wales has put scans of 82 catalogues produced by Winns department store online!  Winns was based in Sydney and specialised in inexpensive clothing for men, women and children.  This online collection spans the years 1927 to 1955 and it is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to learn about everyday fashions in the second quarter of the twentieth century.

Taking the collection in order, it also becomes an excellent chronological history of clothing.  Let's start off by taking a look at the Australian summer of 1927-28.  

Spring and Summer 1927

... And we begin with the straight, dropped waist fashions that are oh-so typically 1920s. Each dress is nearly identical in style, mainly differentiated by the choice of materials.  The model second from the right at the bottom is wearing a summer coat made of "Crepe de Chene" [sic].

The covers include pictures of children's dress, including a frock with matching bloomers for a child (top right), a girl's dress in linette (bottom left), and next to her a costume for a toddler.

All the adult models wear hats, but you have to search inside the catalogue to see Winns' offerings of "Up To-Date Shapes at Most Reasonable Prices".  All the hats are deep-crowned and have narrow brims.

Spring and Summer 1928

Spring and Summer 1928-29 saw Winns' Redfern branch feature similar fashions, made of (from left to right at the top) striped Fuji silk, floral voile, crepe de Chine with silk embroidery and floral rayon (our first artificial fibre!) Narrow belts resting at hip level seem popular.

Page 13 has "A Choice Selection From Our Millinery Department".  Hats are still deep crowned and close fitting, but a few—a very few—now expose the forehead.

Camperdown store, Spring & Summer 1928

From the same season, Winns Camperdown store featured a similar selection on the front page of its mail-order catalogue.  From left to right: a frock in crepe de Chine trimmed in colours to match (a modernist touch!), "a dainty frock in Floral Voile", two girls' dresses, a dress in striped Fuji silk and "a Smart Frock.. in Floral Voile" designed especially for outsizes.

 The contents of this catalogue are not quite the same as the contents of the catalogue from Redfern.  On page 13 the Camperdown store offers a different selection of "Attractive Millinery Keenly Priced". 

Spring & Summer 1929

Our last catalogue for the decade (Spring and Summer 1929-30) and the last before the Great Depression—and Winns decides to innovate.  There are now pages of coloured illustrations inside the covers.  We'll have to see if this continues into the leaner years of the 1930s.

The dresses seem much the same as in previous years (though they do appear to be shaped slightly closer to the figure) but there are some more changes in hats.  Two wide brimmed hats ("A Becoming Picture Shape" and "A Charming Model in Fine Silk Crinoline") appear on the cover.  Shady hats not only look pretty, but are a sensible fashion for the Australian summer!

Next time, we'll take a look at what Winns was selling in its catalogues in the early 1930s.

Suits VI (National Bellas Hess, Fall-Winter 1944-45)

 On the cover of this wartime National Bellas Hess catalog is a suit echoing the uniforms worn by women in the armed forces (and auxiliary services).  The look is tailored and no-nonsense, the emphasis is on practicality.

The Man-Tailored SUIT
Smartly styled and expertly tailored of our best ALL new Wool Shetland-weave, handsome, firm textured—keeps its shape through active wear.  Classic three-button jacket, with darts at the waist for slim, feminine lines; inner flap pockets; full Rayon lining.  The trim-fitting skirt is box-pleated front and back; one-button waistband concealed placket.

The Popular "Boy" COAT
Young, easy to wear, comfortable.  Smartly tailored of rich, firm-bodied All new Wool Shetland-weave, on trim-fitting straight lines.  Single breasted front with wide revers, tailored welt seaming, two deep inset flap pockets, arm straps for over-the-shoulder wear.  Rayon lined, warmly interlined.

With rayon blouse, felt hat and leather gloves.

Suits V (Modes & Travaux, May 1931)

 The cover of this issue of Modes et Travaux depicts a suit by Lucile Paray in green and black wool, with a white blouse made of crȇpe marocain.

The suit displays the pared down chic that was fashionable in the early 1930s.  Style is achieved by cut rather than by ornament.  In typical early 30s fashion, the suit lightly skims the model's figure and reaches to around mid-calf.

"Lucile Paray" was another one of those inter-war fashion designers who has been forgotten today.  Though now obscure, in her time she was well-known enough for her work to appear in the pages of fashion magazines around the world, had her designs sold as paper patterns through a number of major pattern companies, and designed the costumes for one film (Samson, 1936).  In 1937 she merged her fashion house with "Jenny", only to close her doors for good in 1940.

100 Years Ago (The Delineator, August 1922)

 Some clothes are fashionable, some clothes are purely utilitarian, and some clothes fall somewhere in between like these aprons below.  The makers of Butterick patterns were firmly of the view that just because aprons were worn for work, that didn't mean that they couldn't look good at the same time.

On the far left is an apron masquerading as a house frock, decorated with outline embroidery or appliqué. The Delineator advises "young housewives" to: "realize the close relation of sweet tempers and a neat appearance" and choose this apron for their chores.

"Aprons can forget their domestic origins and go in for the Russian" says The Delineator of the third figure on the left.  The apron has a mock side fastening in imitation of a Russian blouse, but it in fact slips over the head and ties with a sash at the back.

 Third from the right is another apron with the appearance of a house frock.  The bodice is made up in chambray and the skirt in checked gingham.  It is tied at the back with a sash.

The apron second from the right is more obviously (to modern eyes) an apron.  "Dusting is a delightful duty if one wears a becoming one-piece apron," promises The Delineator, and while I doubt it, this one is both cheerful and practical.  Like the apron on the far left it can be decorated in either outline embroidery or appliqué.

And finally, on the far right:

"Color is a wonderful brightener for blue Mondays and only the misguided would ever think of choosing somber shades or dull materials for their work-a-day clothes.  This one-piece apron appreciates the advantages of rickrack braid [and] it is most convenient to slip on over one's frocks when one prepares Sunday night suppers.  For the girl who plans for college in the fall it is almost a necessity."