Concerning Coats III (1930s)

 In 1930, the questions on every fashion pundit's lips were, "Where was the waistline going to settle?" and, "How far were skirts going to lengthen?"

And the waistline—another very important question!  This is as it has been for the past few seasons, a moveable feast.  Some dresses show the old normal waistline, in others, the waistline is creeping up to above the hips, giving a different proportion to the silhouette.

The only position the waistline has not yet achieved is under the armpits.  But who knows?  This may probably be in fashion next autumn. 

Australian Home Journal, June 1930

 

Weldon's Ladies' Journal, December 1930

In other words, belts were going to be literally, as well as figuratively, tightened during the straitened 1930s.  My sources indicate that tweed was the most popular material for coats, though other fabrics were worn too.

There is a dashing touch about the coats of this year, suggestive of out-door sports more than sober city occupations. Every flapper sports a tweed coat, or its nearest counterpart. Flannel, by the way, can be obtained in attractive designs, and looks very well when smartly tailored. The great advantage,  of course, is that it looks well- and costs less than a good tweed. Particularly smart, for flecked tweed  is a style with narrow belt, deep pockets bound with braid, and a scarf collar that can be worn loose, or caught with a pin.  Another style has full raglan sleeves, with broad, buttoned cuffs, a very full skirt finish, and stitched inverted pleats at the back. 

"Coats are sporting", The Evening News (Rockhampton, Qld.) 8 May, 1930

Chicago Mail Order, Fall and Winter 1931

The Chicago Mail Order catalogue for Fall and Winter 1931 features three of their "Style Queen" coats on the cover.  All are very typical of the early 1930s, being slender and fitted to the wearers' figures, belted at the natural waistline and sporting large fur collars.

From left to right we have: an "All wool crepe bouclé" coat with a "genuine natural cat lynx fur" collar, an "All wool monotone crepe coating" with "two voguish ways of wearing the new two-way collars" in fur-effect fabric, and a coat "of Good Quality All Wool Tricot Broadcloth" with a plastron collar of wolf blended dog fur dyed to resemble red fox.

McCall Style News, November 1923

McCall's describes these street coats as being "long and luxurious", and interest is added to the collar and shoulders with—from left to right—an optional cape, a detachable collarette and a fur cloth collar.

Modes & Travaux, July 1933

A new style of coat was introduced in 1933: the swagger coat.

The new "swagger" coat needs no introduction... There will be many of these swagger suits worn.  

"Spring Shows Its Influence", Everylady's Journal, August 1933

Coats, even the full length ones, fall from the shoulders, and every designer in Paris shows some version of the three-quarter, bell-shaped coat, hanging coolly, even if it is not so full in the back, while quantities of box jackets are shown everywhere.  There is another type of coat that looks new this season.  It just meets up the front, instead of overlapping, is frequently buttoned from the top nearly to the knee, and in walking opens below to show the frock.

"Fashion Gossip from Continental Centres", Everylady's Journal, June 1933

Examples of both kinds of coats are shown in the illustration above.  The "swagger" or bell-shaped, falling straight from the shoulders, would be a fashion staple for many years to come!

Petit Echo de la Mode, October 8 1934

1934 sees the same mixture of full (but not full length) coats and more fitted coats reaching to the hem of the wearer's dress.  All these examples from Le Petit Echo de la Mode are embellished with fur collars and cuffs.  

The fashion icon of the day was Marina, Duchess of Kent, and we are told that "Marina blues and greens are all the rage" and

When, however, winter finally comes, coats will be worn that have a still fuller line at the back, and will be often of materials with quilted effects, though corded materials will also be used. Big checks are featured in dull colors and pastel shades which are "delicate without being wishy-washy."

"New Fabric Trends", The Australian Women's Weekly, 9 March 1935

Singer Easy-to-Make Wardrobe, Fall-Winter 1935

In this pamphlet, Singer encourages women to take up sewing by selecting a few paper patterns to make up a complete wardrobe, and comparing the cost of making each garment to the price of buying ready-to-wear.  For a coat, Singer chose Pictorial Pattern No. 7927, a swagger coat, and had it made up in "luxuriously soft Kapco all-wool tweed".  The estimated price: $6.96, as opposed to an approximate ready-made price between $25.00 and $29.75.

National Bellas Hess, Midsummer Sale 1936

National Bellas Hess describes these coats as "popular swing-back coats" and they were available in various mixtures of wool and rayon, plain or in a fashionable plaid check.  

National Bellas Hess, Fall-Winter 1937

 All the coats in this catalogue from 1937 have raised sleeve heads (looking almost like leg o' mutton sleeves in some cases), extended shoulders and elaborate collars (some made of fur).  Belts seem to have come back into fashion, though they are wider than the belts fashionable earlier in the decade.

National Bellas Hess captioned the first coat "Stand up and Cheer" and the second "The Sweeping Beauty".  A particular selling point seemed to be their flared skirts, and the "swagger" appears to be temporarily in abeyance.

Weldon's Ladies' Journal, November 1938

Weldon's offers its readers two free patterns for a "Town Coat With Dolman Sleeve" (left) and a "Smart Fur-Trimmed Winter Coat" (right).  "48-inch fur cloth" is suggested for making up the warm and fuzzy looking coat on the left. 

Though Weldon's features two slender-line coats on the cover of its "Portfolio of Fashion", there are still plenty of patterns for wider, swagger coats, inside.

Petit Echo de la Mode, October 1 1939

These coats featured in Le Petit Echo de la Mode have a definite (and literal) flair.  All the fashion indicators in 1939 pointed towards narrowing waists and broadening skirts.

One look at these new coats will give you their idea; they are shorter than ever and definitely racy.

Most of the coats are quietly and plainly fitted from the waist up; all of them, like everything else this year, are full skirted.

Newest shape is the coachman's coat, a tight-waisted coat cut with a bunch of fullness at the back.  And you can't miss the checks; they are as bold and colorful as the parrots at the zoo, done in vivid greens, purples, reds and yellows.

"The New Coats", Australian Women's Weekly, 22 April 1939

However the coming war would put these trends on hold with rationing and shortages—but that's another story.  And as spring is around the corner in Australia, I might put this series on hold until the weather turns cold again.

His and Hers (Avon Catalog, Holiday 1976)

 Did you know that Avon sells clothes as well as makeup?  Me neither—until I found this Avon clothes catalogue from the 1976 Holiday season.

As in many of the catalogues of this era, Avon has a section for His and Hers Fashions, illustrated by photographs of couples wearing matching outfits.  Well, it's true that nothing says True Love more than dressing like your honey... and I admit I was only a kid in the seventies, but I never saw a couple dressed like this in reality.   "His and Hers" was probably a marketing ploy, though the clothes were real enough.

To start we have a couple dressed in "The 20th-Century Shirt"

...a screen-print futuristic fashion, uniquely engineered to flatter every size.... Two different contemporary scenes front and back in 100% Enkalure® nylon that's cool and comfortable to wear

with "Natural Colored Prewash Canvas Jeans with Braided Belt".

Our next couple are hanging out in "His or Her Striped Shirt[s]" and "His and Her Dress-Up Jeans" of "polyester and cotton... special brushed sateen finish... The legs are fashionably flared".

  

Care for a spot of archery?  This couple have decided to hit the target wearing matching knit shirts with denim trim and "His and Her Striper Jeans"

...in brushed cotton denim.  Side panels with narrow strips that are worked horizontally inside the panels.  Results?  A slender silhouette, a great fashion maker.  Match them with our his/hers denim trimmed shirts and you've got an unbeatable "boutique" look outfit.

"Performance Minded His and Her Separates" for riding—or at least petting a horse.  This couple is wearing "British Army Shirt[s]" in cotton and polyester with shoulder and sleeve epaulets.  Below they are wearing "His and Her Wrangler® Jeans" with straight legs in 100% cotton, indigo dyed, prewashed denim.  Lastly, their boots are "His and Hers Genuine Leather Boots by Dingo".

Interestingly, "She" is wearing a turtleneck underneath her British Army Shirt, while "He" has his undone to reveal his manly chest hair and his 1970s gold medallion!

Australia's Lost Department Stores V (Grace Brothers, Spring 1948)

 At last, a lost department store I can remember!  Though Grace Brothers was taken over by Myer in the 1980s, it continued trading under its original name until 1999. 

ME91R—Ensemble of British Delustered Crepe Rayon for smart Matrons.  Frock features the new treatment of self plaiting on shoulder and soft shirring on bust.  Self covered buttons and loops to waist line and pleats in front of skirt.  Matching coat with self plaiting on shoulder and sleeves.

Known as "The Model Store", Grace Brothers began in 1885 when two immigrants—J.N. and A.E. Grace—opened a small shop in Sydney.  Two years later they moved to larger premises on The Broadway, Glebe, and their story from that point was one of expansion—first outwards, into neighbouring premises, then upwards into a purpose-built, multi-story building.

Grace Brothers began its move to the suburbs early, opening a branch in Parramatta and a branch in Bondi in 1933.  Depression and war prevented Grace Brothers from moving further afield until the 1950s, but meanwhile they introduced all the latest conveniences to their main store: Otis elevators, chrome furniture, a hair and beauty salon and an 'American Shop' where they sold the newest fashions from the United States.  They even built an auditorium, which hosted many events, including fashion parades, Christmas pantomimes and farewell dances for soldiers during the Second World War. 

During the war, Grace Brothers' premises was commandeered by the Federal government for use as General MacArthur's headquarters.  This was not quite the disaster for the store that it first appears, as the compensation they eventually received for it enabled Grace Brothers' postwar expansion.  They expanded their suburban empire, introduced an in-house credit scheme (Graceway Home Credit), started a removalist service (still going strong today) and a travel bureau.  They were even the first retailer in Australia to install a computer—a "massive" IBM in 1967.

Grace Brothers was listed as a public company in 1960, which lead to a strange turn of events in 1983.  Grace Brothers moved in on its Melbourne rival Myer, taking over its Sydney and country stores, only to see Myer turning the tables and taking over Grace Brothers in turn!  

Like most other big department stores, Grace Brothers' main business was selling clothing and acessories.  These things figure prominently in their catalogues and in their magazine "The Model Trader".  In the beginning, most of the clothing they sold was made-to-measure, with vast workrooms hidden behind the scenes in their Broadway store.  By the First World War the workrooms were being replaced by stockrooms as people started buying ready-to-wear. 

"Correct Clothing, and How it Should Be Made" (Girl's Own Paper, August 1883)

 It's 1883, and we're well into the "second bustle" era.  Or, as the Girl's Own Paper prefers to call them, "dress-improvers":

So far as "dress-improvers" are concerned, they are extremely moderate in size and generally consist of a few steels run into the back of the dress, which is then tied back with strings... In fact, in the present style of dress there seems nothing exaggerated or immoderate; and both faults, if any such appear, arise from the bad taste of the wearer, not the fashion.

All the newest bodices are cut with much shorter basques than they were in the spring, and all have a waistcoat as a general rule, or else a full chemisette which bags over below. The soft gathered plastrons, often added to cotton morning-gowns, are called Molière, and the first figure of our illustration, dressed in a sateen of the deepest “ crushed strawberry ” hue, wears a basque-bodice, with a Molière front. The lace at neck and sleeves matches the dress. This figure represents the probable style of making-up thicker dresses for young girls, for the autumn, with six or seven narrow flounces, and no extra trimming. Sleeves do not appear to be worn quite so much puffed into the armhole as they were, nor so high at the top of the shoulder, but it is impossible to say whether this change will last.