Australian Home Journal, September 1955

 The free patterns for Spring "frocks" which came with the September 1955 issue of the Australian Home Journal were so typical of their era that they've almost become cliches.  They are all variations of styles which combine cinched-in waists with bouffant, calf-length skirts.  The artist who illustrated them for the cover of the magazine has accessorised them with hats and white gloves.  The two figures on the right are wearing fashions for younger women: the woman on the left is wearing a "matron's frock" designed for older women.

As usual the Australian Home Journal has lots of fashion news and advice, including some suggestions on how to spark up your accessories!

Full-skirted, sleeveless cotton frocks are featured in teenage styles for the coming season.  In bright prints or soft pastels, many of them have special petticoats or hip stiffening to accent their swirling skirts.  Simplicity of design is combined with trends which characterise the spring silhouette for adults.  The elongated line is seen in long torso dresses and in frock with a hipline emphasis (a band of braid, velvet or ribbon extending extending around the skirt at hip level is one of the ways in which this is achieved).

Coat frocks, buttoning from neck to hem, have established themselves as  a classic which appears in many attractive versions nowadays, from slim sheaths to styles with graceful fullness in the skirt.  Their capacity to look equally dressy when worn on their own or when partnered with a coat makes them a particularly practical style.

Fashion's latest . . . Add a rhinestone buckle to a belt, the bow of a sash, or the centre or side of a scoop neckline: stitch brilliants to the curve of a turn-down collar or add a rose to either corner: pull a pert white organdie bow through slots at the jewel neckline of a dark frock: stitch groups of gay glass beads on to a cinch belt: brighten a round necked sweater with a collar of vivid felt flowers sewn on to a foundation.

David Jones catalogue (Autumn and Winter 1951)

 These pictures came from David Jones's Autumn and Winter catalogue of 1951.  David Jones was (and is!) an upmarket department store, and its catalogues were aimed at its country customers.  The clothes advertised inside would have been good quality, but fairly conservative in style.

Apart from that I don't have much to say about the fashions below.  Let the pictures speak for themselves.

JAEGER coats box or belted style, all fully-lined

These beautifully tailored coats are made in camel-coloured wool and fully lined with good quality lining.  In cosy "Jaeger" with easy-fitting raglan sleeves, you'll be ready for the coldest winter.  Each has vent back.

"Bridal Fashions" (Australian Women's Weekly, June 17 1950)

 After the distressed 1930s and the turbulent 1940s came the placid and conservative 1950s.  The parents of the baby boomers were getting married and settling down in the suburbs, so I think that a bridal gown is the perfect way to kick off this decade.

This is a classically simple dress, made in what appears to be satin.  You'll notice that though it is quite décolleté it has sleeves and covers the model's shoulders.  This is because bare shoulders were not acceptable at a church wedding in the 1950s (and brides wearing this kind of dress would have almost certainly have been married in a church).

For some reason I couldn't find a description of the dress on the cover of this issue of The Australian Women's Weekly. (There were, however, plenty of other bridal designs inside the magazine, which you can browse here.)  And of course there were plenty of ideas in the issue's advice column:

As a constant follower of your dress column I am seeking your advice about my wedding frock.  Clothes are so expensive to buy, I wondered if it would be possible to have a frock I could convert after the wedding into a dress for dances.  Would a removable train be suitable and possible?  I am having white silk organdie for the frock, and as I am rather a girlish type I thought a frilly trim would be nice.

White silk organdie with self-pleated ruffles for the trim would be charming for a spring wedding.  The train could be made detatchable (yes, I think it an excellent idea) at the waistline.  Have the bodice top form-fitting with long sleeves plus a ruffle to form a yoke effect.  Later, sleeves and yoke can be revised.  Have the ruffle again to finish the hemline and outlining a long, oval-shaped train.

"Dress sense" by Betty Keep, Australian Women's Weekly, June 17 1950

June is in winter in Australia, so the fashions depicted here would probably been used in planning a spring wedding in September or October.

Wakes, Winter 1947

 In the annals of high fashion, 1947 was the year in which Christian Dior unleashed his "New Look" upon the world.  It made a big splash in the news internationally.  The makers of everyday fashion, however, decided to play things safe. How could they tell whether they were looking at a genuine shift or just a passing fad?  This was especially pertinent when you consider that many countries still had rationing and/or shortages of materials.

The fashions from Wakes catalogue below illustrate this approach.  Waists are slightly emphasised, but shoulders remain broad.  Skirts are fuller, but still only come down a little way below the knee.

THREE PIECE ENSEMBLE

CYCLAMEN-RED AND JET BLACK team together in an all-wool ensemble incorporating all the new season's newest features.  The collarless jacket comes in the gorgeous new Cyclamen-Red illustrated.  Cut in 7 figure-hugging gores, with divinely figure fitted back, darted front panels and simulated hip pockets.  Appliqued Jet-Black motif on the front, smoothly tailored shoulders, narrow tie in front half belt.  The pencil slim skirt has a graceful long inverted pleat both front and back, dart-fitted back, firm waistband—zip placket.  The prophetic three-quarter length coat picks up the cyclamen-red in its appliqued shoulder motif, features full-cut sleeves, twin pockets, poker straight shoulders, boxy cut.  The three pieces team together, or form the basis of a wardrobe worn individually. 

 

Australian Home Journal, July 1946

 What were postwar fashions like?  As you can see from the picture below, in the short term very little changed for the average woman.  Perhaps they were  allowed an embellishment or two (like the peplum worn by the figure on the left) but rationing was still in force in most countries, and economy was still the order of the day.

So what were the emerging fashion trends of 1946?  Oddly, for this date, there was very little information in the July issue of the Australian Home Journal as the magazine's fashion correspondent appears to have gone missing in action.  Fortunately for us, there were lots of interesting snippits of information in other publications.

Wakes, Winter 1942

Japan entered the war in 1942, and for the first time Australia had the enemy on their doorstep.  However, Australian manufacturers were still capable of turning out stylish outfits like the coat and muff (with matching hat) illustrated on the cover of the catalogue below.

COAT AND MUFF, 5 GNS.

A three piece ensemble (the hat sells separately) with furrier-made tawny luxurious leopard-dyed coney fur, mounted on a brilliant Loyal Blue English all wool coating.  Seven panel, slim as a whistle princess with new lines in every inch from moulded, semi-extended, immaculate shoulders to flared full hem.  British rayon lined throughout.  Matched skins and material in the zip closing muff purse.

Australia's Lost Department Stores IX: McDowells (Spring & Summer 1941-42)

McDowells was one of Sydney's smaller department stores, and like so many others, began as a drapery in the 19th century.  It was founded as John McDowell and Partners in 1889, and became McDowell and Coogan in 1893 when one of the original partners dropped out.  In 1895 it became McDowell and Hughes, when Hughes bought out Coogan, finally becoming McDowells Ltd in 1917.  

McDowells prided itself of old-fashioned service and providing value for money.  Staff often spent their whole careers there, and discipline was considered to be firm, but fair.  (That didn't stop one enterprising manager stealing 70 dozen pairs of stockings from his employer in the early 1920s!)  Notably, McDowells refused to reduce the pay of its employees during the Great Depression.

McDowells did a lot of business via mail-order catalogue, which brings me to this publication from 1941.

The front cover hopes "for a brighter year!" but history tells us that they would be disappointed.  Meanwhile they were advertising a "FROCK you will love to wear to any function" in "SHEER GEORGETTE", a "FLORAL FROCK" in crepe with a silhouette "emphasised by the drama of a WHIRL OF PLEATS", a "WASHING FROCK attractively styled in ... a good quality LINEN LIKE FABRIC" and lastly, a dress cut with "9 complete Gores" in a "Flower-splashed distinctive SUEDE CREPE".

It's a fairly good selection of early wartime fashions, but as wartime economies bit clothes would become less generous in their use of materials.  Tucks, pleats and 9-gored skirts would no longer be allowed.

Australian Home Journal, April 1935

 Here we have reached the mid-point of the 1930s.  It's worth stopping here to look back at how the fashions of the decade developed, and forward to see how they're progressing.

In 1930, fashions were ladylike and—dare I say it?—a little bit droopy, with skirts falling softly in godets from a yoke beneath the hips.  A couple of years later, and fashions start to get intensely feminine, with frills and ruffles decorating the necklines and shoulders of women's garments.  In 1935 we can see the start of a shift in styles, with skirts becoming straight and shoulders squared.  Frills haven't been entirely abandoned, but they have been moderated.  Eventually this silhouette would evolve into the square "military" look prevalent in World War II.

The Australian Home Journal, as usual, noticed these changes and communicated them to its readers:

Fashion's Dress Decrees
Figures are to be rather more statuesque, waists a little larger, less fussiness about the neck and shoulders and not so many detachable parts...

The Slim Sihouette
The line remains slim, long and simple, occasionally accentuating the bust with trimmings...

 More detailed and specific suggestions were made for different types of garment.

In Brief
Dark blouses worn with lighter coloured skirts are again shown in the season to come...

Fashion Pointers
Buttons of wood or metal are as fashionable as those covered with material...

A New Suit
You can make your last year's brown tweed suit into a perfectly new and up-to-date morning and country outfit if you add to it a bright green velveteen shirt-blouse with wide cuffs that go outside your coat.

However, in 1935, Hollywood was not only enjoying its Golden Age, but had become a major (if not THE major) source of fashion information for the general public.  Women wanted to know what the stars were wearing, both on and off the screen.  Australian Home Journal was willing to oblige.

Furs Too
Furs dyed to match your gown is one of the new fancies of designers, and Myrna Loy introduced one of the first ensembles of this type.
Her royal blue dinner gown, worn at at recent function, was trimmed with a large cape of royal blue fox.

Joan's Novelty Bag
An evening bag, eighteen inches long and twelve inches wide, has been designed for Joan Crawford's use in her new M-G-M starring production, "Forsaking All Others."
The bag is fashioned of black velvet.  It is an envelope style and features two three-inch cuffs of white pique on either side...

Mauve for the New Season
Most conspicuous amongst Hollywood's winter fashions is the choice of mauve material...  Appealing particularly, is a gown worn by Sylvia Sidney, star of Paramount's "Behold My Wife."  It is a dinner ensemble of wool and metal cloth.  The skirt is the new shade of violet or mauve with a decided bluish cast.  The top of the dress is of the same hue in metal cloth.  Huge epaulettes of beaver, dyed to the same tone, trim the little jacket.

This last is interesting, because Miss Sidney's gown would most certainly have been shown in black and white on the silver screen!  Some Hollywood publicist must have decided that women would be really interested in the details of colour and fabrics for this dress.

Myer Catalogue, Spring & Xmas 1929

 I had this picture in mind for 1929 ever since I started this project.  Here we have some fashionable, higher-end ready-to-wear garments sold by the Myer Emporium in Melbourne.

01—Smart SPUN SILK FROCK, in this semi-tailored style, pleated from yoke back and front; red, lemon, white, almond and beige.

02—ENSEMBLE SUIT, with full-length coat of woollen crepe-de-chine and frock of printed artificial silk; coat lined to match frock.

02—TAILORED COSTUME, of fine worsted suiting, in light brown, fawn, beige or grey tones; silk-lined coat, in single or double-breasted style; wrap skirt.

04—An elegant FROCK of printed silk crepe-de-chine, on black, navy and colored grounds; scarf collar, three slightly flared frills on skirt, buckled belt.  

 Short skirted and drop waisted, these fashions are still very much of the 1920s with only the tiniest hints of the decade to come.   

Australian Home Journal, November 1949

 We're nearly at the end of the 1940s at this point, and the fashions foreshadow the 1950s.  The Australian Home Journal still reports on Hollywood fashions, but in this issue is very much focused on the latest collections from Paris.

The way that women look will not have greatly changed due to the Paris Spring dress collections...

Shoulders, despite a move to square them, remain on the slope.  And there are still plenty of princess, beltless dresses although we have said goodbye to the difficult Empire lines which rose so high under the bust...

Necklines
Necklines are styled this year.  For example, there are star-pointed collars, a mandarin neckline which develops from a bib-yoke of contrast stitch, a button-opening neckline with small Peter Pan collar and bodice-pocket flaps repeating the curve of the collar.

Pattern 7452 (the centre one on the cover) shows how a more "styled" neckline could be adapted to meet the needs of a home dressmaker. 

Bayadere Cotton Dress (Myer, Spring-Summer 1954)

 Real life™ prevented me from posting last week.  This week I thought I'd post something cheerful, summery, and very, very 1950s.

Bayadere Cotton Dress

So casual . . . eye-catching . . .

Such value, too!  319HA: Cleverly fashioned to highlight a striking bayadere print.  Cool square neckline, cap sleeves and skirt of unpressed pleats.  Enchantment in royal blue, green, grey, carnation ruby.

"Bayadere" derived its name (though a number of steps) from Hindu temple dancers in southern India.  It has come to mean a fabric of brightly contrasting horizontal stripes.  This version is a printed cotton, though any material could be used.

Styles of '65: Spring dresses (Australian Home Journal, September 1965)

 Spring has sprung, and the Australian Home Journal of September 1965 celebrated by offering free patterns for these light-hearted dresses.

It's time to think of spring, and all the gaiety this season always brings.  We help you to greet it with our Free Patterns for a spring-into-summer wardrobe.  The theme is very feminine and just a little romantic, and we've chosen floral, completely drip-dry fabrics.

By 1965 Australian Home Journal had stopped offering fashion advice, so I'm going to The Australian Women's Weekly to look at their advice on dressing to please husbands (or at least so as not to offend them):

If a new fashion comes in and you intend to wear it, bide your time and break him in by a little wifely cunning.  Any major fashion change almost certainly give rise to cries of, "Isn't that awful!  Don't ever let me see you in one of those!"

Wait until the fashion has modified a little, and he's used to seeing it on girls in the office.  Then he'll be ready to admire it on his wife.

This brings up another point: the fact that your man may admire a dress on another woman that he'd hate on you, even if you'd look just as good in it.

Dresses with decollete necklines are at the top of the list.  It's said to be because he's afraid you'll go Attracting Other Men.  Take it as a compliment.

The Australian Women's Weekly, August 4 1965

Fashion changes came fast and furious in the 1960s, though possessive husbands might find themselves more worried about hemlines than necklines!

Australian Home Journal (September 1940)

 If Woman's Journal looked to Paris for its fashion news, the Australian Home Journal sought inspiration from Paris.

First up: costume jewellery as worn by the stars:

The Stars' Glamour Gadgets
Glamorous gadgets are favourites in the costume jewellery field, and unlimited variety is suggested to Miss and Mrs. movie fan who follows the style leadership of film favourites.  Bracelets, necklaces, clips and boutonnieres rival each other in originality and imagination, with dressmaker trimmings equally decorative.

Australian Home Journal was always happy to turn to designers for advice— in this case, a film costume designer.  Dolly Tree's credits for 1940 included Young Tom Edison and Strike Up the Band.

"Shorts" for Sports
"No matter what the sport—who the girl—the shortest route to smartness in sports is by way of shorts," says Dolly Tree, M-G-M fashion designer.  1940 finds shorts in top place.  Shoulders may be covered, waists nipped in, but legs remain uncovered for the athletic Miss.

For more mundane use, the magazine suggested some popular dressmaking materials. 

Floral patterns are in the front line of dress ideas; spots will be seen everywhere, and checks, while not so prominent as last season, will still have a good following. 

... And of course, some suggestions for things to make with those materials:

Skirts and Blouses
For all-round practical wear, skirts and blouses have come into their own again, and for simple day clothes they are just the thing.
It is to the diversity of changes that the different combining of several blouses and a skirt give that make these garments so popular.

Practicality and making a little go a long way some to be the watchwords here!

Bridal Couple (Between 1883 and 1886)

This photograph has a connection to one of Australia's lost department stores!

Inscribed on the back is the name and address of the studio where the photograph was taken:

 GEORGE & GEORGE'S

FEDERAL STUDIO

11, 13, 15 & 17 Collins St East

MELBOURNE

George and George's Federal Emporium was located at this address between 1883 and 1888.  The photographic studio was one of the services they offered, along with products such as "Dress goods, Manchester goods, soft goods, &c, &c".  George & George's Federal Emporium became simply "George's" sometime after the turn of the century, and it remained Melbourne's most fashionable high-end department store until it closed in 1995.

The back of the photograph also gives us the name of the photographer:

F.E. ELLIOTT

PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST

F.E. Elliott was Florence Elliott, a photographer who worked at the Federal Studio between 1883 and 1886.

I don't know if the bridal couple are wearing anything bought at George's (the lace? the veil? gloves? the outsize bouquet?) but it would be nice to think that they did!

Styles of '65: Separates (Marcus Clark's, Autumn and Winter 1965)

 Some styles are classics.  The skirts and twin sets below could just have easily been worn in 1955—or 1975!

B27W4—Fully fashioned pure wool Twin Set with fancy rib band trim on V-neck cardigan.  Short sleeve Sweater with Turtle Neck.

B28W4—Pure wool check Skirt.  Box pleated all round with welted seams, firm, narrow waist band, side zip.

B26W4—Pure wool Skirt with box pleats, stitched & welted seams.  Neat band.  Side zip fastening.

B25W4—Fully fashioned, pure wool Twin Set.  Button to neck Cardigan, Crew neck Sweater with long sleeves, narrow ribbed basque, turn back cuffs.

Australian Home Journal, August 1958

Are the two dresss illustrated on the right hand mother-daughter fashions—or older sister-younger sister outfits?  Either way, the artist has emphasised the similarity of the designs by drawing them as if they were made up in the same material.

The Australian Home Journal still offered fashion advice to its readers in 1958, though its suggestions were far less detailed than they had been earlier in its history.

Now that Spring is "just around the corner", you'll find a frock in fine wool, crepe or silk indispensible.  Give it "top interest with a crossover fill-in, diagonal bands, an eye catching bow, or three or four small buttons placed one above the other on each side of a V neckline.  You'll be in the mode, too, if you cover up with a jacket-cardigan when the air turns chilly, for the dressy character of much of todays knitwear puts it into the fashion class...

Among current styles, the dress which looks like a suit with a scalloped jacket is one of the best investments a teenager can make.  For a "fashion extra," make a little handbag of the same fabric as your hat; or—if you like to go hatless, and prefer skirts and blouses to frocks—add matching touches to your separates to give them that smooth, ensembled look which spells smartness.

Australian Home Journal, July 1962

 In 1962 the Australian Home Journal was on its last legs as an independent pattern magazine.  In a few years it would start promoting McCall's patterns, and a few years after that it would switch its focus to interior decorating.  Meanwhile in July 1962 the magazine offered three free patterns: a blouse (in two views, both with ruffles), a simple shirtwaister with a slim skirt, and a skirt and jerkin sized for a 10-year old girl.

Unfortunately, by the early sixties Australian Home Journal was no longer offering fashion news and advice to its readers.  Fortunately there were plenty of other magazines taking up the slack.

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.

Australian Home Journal, May 1948

 In May 1948, the Australian Home Journal offered its readers patterns for three "frocks" (depicted below) and its usual budget of fashion tips and news.  As you can see from the cover, the patterns were for dresses that were longer and fuller than their wartime predecessors, but still a long way from Dior's "New Look".

Here and There.
High rising necklines are accepted on day-dresses but are not particularly liked because they are not comfortable.  They are not wanted for wear after five.  It is felt the lower neckline is more appealing.

Everybody loves long sleeves, and hates capes because they expose the sometimes unattractive underarm and layers of underclothing.  Long sleeves are wanted on everything because they add to the long slim look of this season's favourite line.

Longer hemlines are selling well; in fact they started selling last season and are going well now.  They are popular on all type dresses because they are felt to be fashionable and make the wearer look slimmer.

Customers do not especially like dressed-up wool dresses.  They are buying jerseys and wools with sequin trim and detail because they can find nothing else.

It would appear that many women weren't satisfied with the clothes available in the shops!  Perhaps the magazine was hinting that they would be better off buying an Australian Home Journal pattern instead.

Australian Home Journal, April 1956

Let's look at some of  the ladylike fashions of the mid-1950s, as depicted on the cover of the Australian Home Journal.  In Paris, couturiers produced an endless succession of "lines" and "looks" each season.  In the towns and suburbs of Australia, however, fashion in the 1950s took a more "steady as she goes", approach.  

Thoughts of what to wear in the coming months, as Autumn deepens into Winter, are uppermost in the minds of most of us just now.  Although there are no revolutionary changes in line, the new season's styles offer infinite variety to the home dressmaker.  The slender silhouette is a fashion leader.  Other styles, by concentrating attention on the hips, achieve the longer line which is so flattering to those who lack height...

The use of tabs for ornamentation as well as practical purposes is a feature of many autumn styles.  Artfully used at focal points they add importance to the line of a frock or coat.