"Princess and Semi-Princess Dresses" (The Delineator, June 1909

Fashion turns vertical in 1909, with The Delineator describing these dresses as being on "popular long lines".  They certainly use every trick in the trade to make the wearers look as tall and as slender as possible.  Only the hats add a horizontal note to their ensembles, perching on the tops of their heads like large mushrooms.

... A very pretty design for a princess dress is shown here (3107) which is especially well adapted to development in the softer materials, as foulard, net, and in lawn or batiste... As hand embroidery is to appear on the most stylish garments this Summer, the woman would do well to add a touch of embroidery to this dress between the tucks and in the sleeves.

A design for a semi-princess dress is shown here (3056) which has the popular panel front and back... This design is equally suitable for a wash dress for Summer wear and for the elaborate silk gown every woman wants to have in her wardrobe.

Australian Home Journal, June 1939

 Unusually, the June 1939 issue of Australian Home Journal included an evening dress among its free patterns:

Evening Frock, 4921
Evening frocks look smart in bouffant effect from the hips, and the bodice moulded to the figure, a la early Victorian models.  Skirt is six-gored and gathered round the waist.

More typically, the magazine contained its usual assortment of fashion tips and tricks.  Reversible coats were coming into vogue:

Hard Wearing Coats
The most important place is presented to the hard-wearing warm coat worn for morning, sports and travelling purposes.  Here one notes the new supple winter tissues with reversible wrongside, held in some contrasting tone or having checked or plaid pattern...

Small waistlines were the latest thing.  If war hadn't intervened, we might have got a "New Look" a full ten years earlier than we did. 

How is Your Waistline?
If it is small, exaggerate it with a full bodice, wide, tight waistband, and an extremely full skirt.  That is the fashion advice of Robert Kalloch, noted Hollywood designer for Columbia studios.

Velvet? Very glamorous, very Hollywood.

Velvet Popular
Go in for velvet in a big way, and if it's black, so much the better.

 And a brief look at the shape(s) of things to come:

 Boleros and Tunics
Practical garments for winter wear!  Among the favourites are simple street dresses, besides suits and ensembles...
Bolero, tunic, jumper and tightly-fitting princess dresses come in many interpretations and are very different in cut, colour, fabrics and finish.

Going to All Lengths (Woman's Day August 1970)

In the 1950s, Paris dictated skirt lengths.  An inch or two either way decided whether your clothes were "In" or "Out".  In the 1960s the system came under stress, as the young rushed to wear shorter and shorter skirts and the older lagged behind.  By 1970, the system fell apart altogether, as designers tried to impose longer ("midi") skirts and many women just didn't want them.

What was a girl to do?  Well, (American) Woman's Day had some suggestions (in the form of Simplicity patterns) for fashionable skirts in various styles and lengths.  These ranged from a modest miniskirt on the left, to the longer but slit midi-skirt on the right which allowed you to still flash a bit of leg.

From left to right: 

THE SHORTEST ZIP in bold acrylic plaid.  Simplicity pattern 8739... Garland's clinging pumpkin sweater...
SO LONG KNEES—hello pleats, in wool flannel, newly-colored teal.  Simplicity patter 8842... Lady Arrow's frontier shirt...

THE WRAPPED SLASH in purple tweed-printed corduroy.  Simplicity pattern 8749... Over a cat-lady body stocking, by Irene for the McCallum Boutique...

THE BUTTONED SLASH in native-striped washable wool.  Simplicity pattern 8925... With Lady Arrow tab shirt... Also divine over one of your mini-dresses, giving you a split-level costume, another new look.

And if you were going out in your new skirts, you needed something to wear over them.  Woman's Day suggested coats, cardigans, capelets and capes you could buy.  From left to right:

SPONGE-IT-CLEAN TOPPER, in canvas, wipes clean with a damp sponge.  By Gangsters by Valstar of London...

STRING-BEAN CARDIGAN in chenille knit hs the elongated good looks just right for longer skirts.  By Garland...

KNITTED CAPELET with buttons down the front and swaying fringe is updated Victoriana for boutique fanciers.  By Garland...

PONCHO CAPE in henna-colored loden cloth is a versatile coordinate, has white topstitching.  By White Stag...

Styles of '65: Knitted and Crocheted Dresses (Stitchcraft, January and March 1965)

 Let's head back to 1965 again!  In this year, Stitchcraft featured patterns for full-length dresses on a couple of its covers. The simple lines of 1960s dresses would probably have meant that they were well within the power of the average amateur to make—though perhaps a bit more than average time and patience was required!

January 1965

 January 1965 features a knitted sweater dress—in double knitting!  For the non-knitters among you, double knitting is method of producing a fabric of double thickness using two sets of needles.  OK, maybe this pattern did take that little bit of extra skill, but the results would certainly have been warm and cosy! 

March 1965

In March we have a crocheted shift dress (so no need for shaping) in a fairly simply cluster stitch with fringed neck- and hemline.  Cluster stitch produces a double-sided fabric, so it's possible that this dress could have been worn inside-out.