Sometimes I have to search for the material I post on this blog, sometimes I just stumble across it, and sometimes it comes as a gift! With that, I want to thank the friend who gave me a big bundle of 1930s dressmaking magazines. The magazine below is the first in the collection to be blogged, with many more to come.
Roma's calls this a "Special Lingerie Issue", and it does have several pages devoted to lingerie patterns... but it also dedicates a few pages in its colour spread to bridal fashions. The lingerie is presented as part of the bride's trousseau, though I'm sure that many a non-bride tried making up the patterns.
The free patterns available with this issue of Roma's Pictorial Fashions are shown on the left side of the cover. Working clockwise, they were for a nightdress, a petticoat, a chemise, closed knickers (at the botton of the cover), open knickers and a bra. The pattern for the robe on the right was not included with the free patterns, but could be bought for the bargain price of ninepence.
Strangely, lingerie wasn't discussed in the magazine, but the editors do offer some advice on fashion in general. It seems that in 1934 accessories and trimmings were the main points of interest:
Fashion is very quiet about its tube-like silhouette, but it is very talkative about accessories. It is the way you trim your frock, the way you set on your scarf or your hat, that makes you a chic woman these days.
As to hats—they seem to change over-night! A little difficult the new hats, one must admit, but veils come to the rescue. The new small cap is a gay affair that is a cross between a soldier's forage cap and a revolutionary bonnet. It just perches on the side of your well-set coiffure, while attached to it, and shooting out all round like a modern halo, is one of the new stiff horsehair veils of the same colour...
Scarves! The idea of the moment is to have a quite plain, sleek little woollen frock, and at the high, round neck to put three or four tabs, one on either shoulder, one in front, one at the back—north, south, east and west! Through these you slot your scarf—in as many different ways as there are days of the week...
When you are choosing any new dress or suit of the tailored or sports variety, do not forget to plan for lots of buttons and as many pockets as you can carry. These are the right trimmings...
Once again, this ties into the theme of economising in hard times. It was obviously much cheaper to ring the changes with one dress and multiple scarves than to maintain an extensive wardrobe!
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