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!

La Mode (26 Septembre 1915)

From World War II to World War I: let's take a look what was happening to fashion in the waning days of 1915.

And the most startling innovation is—skirts have now risen above the wearers' ankles!  Adult women's ankles had been hidden in ordinary wear for centuries.  (There were exceptions, of course, for certain kinds of working dress and costumes worn by entertainers.)  However, nice middle class ladies like the ones depicted below, would never have appeared in public wearing skirts as shockingly short as these.

What they probably didn't realise as yet was that the days when skirts for day wear would trail on the ground were over.  Skirts would have their ups and downs in the coming decades, but as far as length goes, this would be as low as it got.

1. Robe d'enfant — Cétte robe trés simple á attache par des boutons boules et se ferme avec une large ceinture.

[1.  Children's dress — This very simple dress fastens with ball buttons and closes with a wide belt.]

2. Robe habilitée en taffetas — Jupe froncée, blouson de mousseline gris recouverte de bretelles de taffetas.
[2. Taffeta dress — Gathered skirt, gray chiffon jacket covered with taffeta straps.]

3. Costume genre tailleur — Jupe découpée sur un panneau plissé, petit boléro blousé devant.
[3. Tailored-style costume — Skirt cut on a pleated panel, small bolero bloused in front.]

4. Robe de fillette — Jupe foncée à volants, corsage blousé garni d'une cravate de satin d'un col de dentelle.
[4. Girl's dress — Dark ruffled skirt, bloused bodice trimmed with a satin tie and a lace collar.]

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!

"In France, Poise Counts" (Woman's Journal, January 1939)

 "It is with a sigh of real gratitude I register the passing of ugly hats", opines Moma Clarke in the January 1939 issue of Woman's Journal.

The danger of the hour lies in the short, tight skirt.  If a girl has legs too sturdy and hips at all broad, a very short, tight skirt can be unsightly.  A good many flared skirts are worn and as many pleated ones. Coloured dresses look cheerful at a tea or bridge party, high necks persist, and long, tight sleeves are worn more than any others.  They give a nice slender line to the figure and admit of a good splash of brightness in a bracelet at the wrist...

As discipline is the mot d'ordre of the day for all of us, I make no excuse for bringing it to the fore in such things as dress and fashion.  You simply cannot be well dressed if you are not disciplined...

Little did she know just how much discipline would be required in the near future, and how little fashion would count in the great scheme of things!

But back to 1939.

Alix, better known for her postwar label of "Madame Grès" was once described as a "columnar" designer, who used pleats and draping to create vertical effects reminiscent of Ancient Greece.  Here she is in a more conventional mode, but still using pleats to create a slender effect.

A skirt which sways like a willow in the wind is Alix's tribute to grace, and so she puts her fullness in the front of her skirts to make them swing gently in movement.  This grey duvetyn model is perfect in its simplicity and slim line.  The ideal background-to-accessories dress.  The rust coloured woollen frock has a skirt as straight at the back as the front is full, a kindergarten bib, and a Scotch belt—delightful mixture!  More tartan comes in the unusual full gathered blouse, which goes beneath a black suit, and has its basque front pulled through a slot in the jacket.

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.

Family Photograph (circa 1896 or 1897)

 I found this in a secondhand ("disposals") shop in Adelaide.  It looks like a family gathering, but there is nothing to say who these people were or on what occasion the photograph was taken.

I assigned it a date of 1896 or 1897, mostly because of the size of the women's sleeves.  As you can see, they are still puffed at the top, but they are not the exaggerated "balloon" size popular in 1894 and 1895.  By 1898 sleeves were much smaller, and by 1899 the only reminder of the big sleeves was a some material gathered at the sleeve head.  Here, the width of the women's shoulders are emphasised by the use of revers, epaulettes and frills.

The woman in the centre of the photograph is wearing a broad ribbon tied in a bow at the back of her neck—a fashionable touch in the mid-1890s.

The babies in the photograph are wearing elaborate long, white gowns, while the little girl sitting at the far right is wearing a loose, smock-like dressed falling from a high yoke.  For everyday wear, children's dresses were usually protected by pinafores, but it is absent here—possibly suggesting that this photograph was taken for some kind of special event?

Both the men have nearly identical moustaches and are wearing wing collars and tie.  The man at the back is wearing a suit with a "lounge" jacket (clearly the ancestor of modern suits) while the man at the front is wearing a jacket and trousers in different materials.

Interestingly enough, no-one in this photograph is wearing a hat!