"Anyone for tennis?" Sports Costumes 1919-1939

 When lawn tennis first became popular in the 1870s, women wore their everyday dress to play—complete with bustles, corsets, petticoats and trains:

Punch, July 7th 1877

In time a specialised costume started to evolve for women tennis players—beginning with protective aprons with pockets to hold spare tennis balls!   By the turn of the century some women were playing competitive tennis, usually dressed all white tennis outfits consisting of skirts and blouses.  Unfortunately these women were still encumbered by long skirts, stiff collars and corsets.

By the end of the First World War, however, women's ordinary clothing had become much less cumbersome and restrictive.  Naturally their sportswear followed suit!

Le Petit Echo de la Mode, Juillet 6 1919

[Left: "Dress for a young girl aged 14 to 16, in two-toned jersey, shirt-shaped with turndown collar, closed with a fancy tie.  Short kimono sleeves and narrow waistband tied and finished with wool pompoms."

 Centre: "Tailored suit in twill.  Straight jacket with long lapel collar, decorated with pockets and closed with a belt.  Narrow, plain skirt."

Right: "Jersey dress with collar, lapels and short sleeves in white jersey.  Long waisted bodice over a lightly gathered skirt."]

At a guess, these outfits would have been worn for a social game rather than a competitive tournament.   The silhouette is the same as fashionable dress, but the dresses are made up in plainer fabrics with less ornament.

Miroir des Modes, Juillet 1924

Blazer, blouse and skirt—all available from Butterick.  The look owes a lot to contemporary men's sportswear; only the skirt is distinctly feminine.

 

Fashions For All, June 1928

Summer is coming!  So all prepare your tennis outfits.  This white dress with strap sleeves is smartly cut, and has two box-pleats in the skirt, which are arranged in a new pointed fashion at the waist.  Happily there is the cardigan included in the pattern—to slip on when the game is over.

Judging by other illustrations in the magazine "strap sleeves" appears to mean "sleeveless".  Made up in more colourful materials, this design would have easily served for a day dress of the period.

Pictorial Printed Patterns, May 1933

These three girls from Pictorial Patterns appear to be playing tennis in ordinary sun frocks—with bared backs to get a fashionable tan.  Each dress came with its own jacket or cape (not show here) to be donned after the game.

Weldon's Ladies' Journal, June 1936

From 1936 Weldon's advertised patterns for "Your Smart Sports Kit... Crisp lines, trim details, and plenty of room for play".    The two illustrations on the right are not of dresses.  No. 98193 in the centre is for

"Shorts and shirt—the perfect choice for games on deck or on shore"

While on the right pattern no. 97573 is described as 

"A trouser-frock is as smart as it's comfortable; nobody could say more!  And if you don't want shorts, yet find a skirt hampering, it's an ideal solution of your problem."

Le Petit Echo De La Mode, 18 Avril 1927

["Set for sport, consisting of jacket... and dress.  Fitted jacket, buttoned in front and lined with tailored flap pockets. Turn-down collar.  Sleeves gathered at the shoulders.  Plain wool dress is adorned with a waistcoat inlaid with the same fabric as the jacket..."]

Once again I get the impression that this outfit was intended to be worn for social games rather than competitive matches: the puffed sleeves and coloured trim would have been unusual wear for a tennis tournament.

Wakes catalogue, Spring and Summer 1939-40

In 1939 Wakes advertised "this cool white petal crepe with its slim-making pin-tucked bodice, young square neck."  This hem of this dress has risen above the player's knees to give her freedom of movement.  From this point on, nearly all tennis dresses be this length or shorter, no matter where the fashionable hemline sat at the time!

"Flair" (September 1964)

 On the cover of Flair September 1964: a shift dress made up in a very lively yellow print:

Unusually the magazine tells us more about the fabric designer than the fashion designer or the manufacturer:

Making news, a striking abstract print by English-born artist Mik Kitching, prize winner in this year's Australian Fashion Fabric Design award: here interpreted in a care-free Terylene taffeta...

A regular feature in Flair was "Ask Us and receive expert fashion advice from Patricia Wise" in which ordinary women sought help with their clothes.  This issue contained a letter from a "middle aged housewife... working for one or two pet charities" asking for advice in putting together a "well co-ordinated efficient wardrobe".  I'm going to quote Mrs Wise's reply in full, because it describes the kinds of clothes worn by the women who didn't get into the fashion histories.  Notice that she takes it for granted that her correspondent can sew!

The following is a basic summer wardrobe plan we feel would suit your way of life.  Pattern numbers in brackets are indicative of the styles we mean.

Slim summer coat of navy linen, rayon or shantung (Simplicity 4355)

Dark green suit (McCalls 6531, but with buttoned front) of linen or synthetic, to wear with white pin-tucked Dacron blouse or printed silk blouse in white, green and touches of pink.

Classic shirtdress in blue and green Paisley print (Simplicity 5258)

Three-piece suit in white-spotted navy silk (Simplicity 5151, version 1) with top made as straight overblouse which can also be worn under green suit.

Basic dress or slim two-piece in sand-colored linen or rayon (Simplicity 4906).

Crepe dinner dress (McCalls 6813); we like the idea of palest ice-green rather than black.

Theatre suit with overblouse and optional slim skirt (Simplicity 5206) in dusty pink Thai silk (could have a very pale grey lace top as well).

Your accessories could be navy straw hat pinned with white camellia (or knotted with silk to match your ensemble), navy kid shoes and handbag, navy kid gloves; a pair of stack heeled white shoes with navy trim, white gloves; pale grey evening shoes and slim purse.

Of course I have no idea if "Modern Mum" ever took Mrs Wise's advice and assembled this wardrobe!

"Madame Weigel" and "Madame Weigel's Patterns" by Veronica A. Lampkin

 "Madame" (Johanna) Weigel was one of the early movers and shakers in Australian fashion.  Along with her husband Oscar she founded Australia's first business manufacturing paper dress patterns in 1878.  Before then Australian women had to rely on patterns from overseas for home sewing, with an occasional (pirated) pattern made available through locally published newspapers or magazines.

In Madame Weigel: the Woman Who Clothed the Australasian Colonies, Veronica R. Lampkin tries to unravel the past of Johanna Weigel.  I say "tries" to unravel because very little is known about this mysterious woman.  She dropped a few autobiographical hints in her magazines, but no primary evidence remains: no letters, no diaries, nor even authenticated photographs!

Born Johanna Astman in Prussia in 1847 in a "privileged position of estates, servants, and peasants" she suddenly found herself homeless at the age of sixteen when her father went bankrupt.  (Lampkin provides evidence for a slightly different version of events in the final chapter of this biography.)  A resourceful girl, she made her way to her godmother in Vienna.  Nine years later she emigrated to New York.

What did she do in New York?  Legend has it that she worked for the McCall Pattern Company as a fashion designer, though there is no direct evidence to substantiate this.  What is certain is the fact that she met and married Oscar Weigel, another immigrant from Germany.  Oscar had taken out US citizenship, so they must have intended to stay in America.  Instead they emigrated yet again in 1877, this time to Melbourne.

Many accounts make the Weigels' arrival in Victoria and the setting up of their business seem almost accidental: on Madame Weigel's death in 1940 it was reported that "She came to Australia on her honeymoon in 1877, and began her business in Richmond in 1877."  "By chance she designed a paper pattern for a woman in her hotel," another account read.  Veronica Lampkin unpicks this romantic story to get at the more pragmatic truth.  The Weigels were unlikely to have been on their honeymoon in 1877, as they had already been married two years.  The fact that they set up their paper pattern business in the same year that they arrived indicates that they had planned their move—paper pattern making requires specialist plant that would have had to have been imported to Australia.  Lampkin theorises that Oscar and Johanna Weigel came to Australia in order to break into the sewing pattern business in a market that was less competitive than the United States.

From these beginnings the Weigels' business grew.  If Madame Weigel had worked for McCall's she made good use of her experience in Australia.  By the 1890s the Oscar and Johanna Weigel had 270 agencies selling Weigel's patterns, and by 1916 one million patterns were being sold each year.  They also established Australia's first fashion magazine (Weigel's Journal of Fashion—later, after Oscar's death in 1915, Madame Weigel's Journal of Fashion).  Johanna Weigel used the Journal as a vehicle for self-expression, and a lot of her biography has been pieced together from her articles for the magazine.

Much of this takes the form of travel writing, because Madame became an indefatigable globe-trotter from the 1890s on, first with her husband Oscar and then with her maid/companion Sarah Neilson.  Her travels began when her business was well-established and she could afford to cruise in luxury—a far cry from the immigrant voyages that took her to America and Australia!  She was also a keen-eyed social commentator and fashion journalist; and since she wrote from the late Victorian era to the 1930s she witnessed a lot of changes both social and sartorial.

While there are gaps in Madame s biography, there  is much more information available about her patterns—mostly from her magazine and pattern catalogues.  Madame Weigel's Patterns: 1878-1950 goes into detail about the patterns she was peddling, and incidentally provides a social history of Australian and New Zealand women through their clothes—and the clothes they made for their families!

Beginning with Pattern no. 100 (Lady's Princess Robe) in 1878, Weigel's issued over 9000 patterns before the firm closed in 1968.  Madame Weigel's Patterns: 1878-1950 surveys the 6824 patterns issued from the beginning until Madame Weigel's Journal of Fashion ceased publication in 1950.  

Madame Weigel liked to stress that her patterns were made for Australian women:

'"That fashion may be all very well for England", she exclaims, as she throws aside her study books,  "and that may be the taste of Paris, and the American will perhaps be best suited by that style, but my people... want something between all these, suitable for their climate, their surroundings, and very particularly, for their purses,", and again she thinks and plans and sketches.'

Weigel's Journal of Fashion, March 1908

Weigels patterns were sold to women who sewed for their households as well as for themselves, and were particularly prized in rural and remote areas.   They can be classed into two 'tiers'.  The first tier consisted of original and newly issued patterns presenting "contemporary style and new fashion", the second of repeated patterns presenting "enduring favourites, practical garments that were more clothing than fashion".  Clothes for men and boys tended to fall into the second category—as well as garments such as underwear, nightwear and work wear.

In her preface, the author of Madame Weigel's Patterns describes the book as "a collection of essays and notes tailored to showcase Madame Weigel's pattern series".  Each chapter, therefore, explores the subject from a different angle.  Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the patterns as manufactured objects and Weigels as a business.  Chapter 3 discusses "Australian seasons & Australian women", exploring when and how Madame Weigel's patterns would have been used, and how seasonable styles changed through the years.  

Chapter 4 looks at international influences on Weigel's patterns and chapter 5 at fashion in Weigel's patterns and in her Journal of Fashion.  The magazine not only reported on the latest fashions, but also offered advice to and answered the questions of readers.   Chapter 6 takes a strictly chronological approach, looking at "The decades of fashion in Weigel's patterns" and chapter 7 looks at "Style in Weigel's patterns", noting how particular styles, for example the Norfolk style, the princess style or the cutaway style, came and went.

Chapter 8 explores "The lifecycle of Weigel's patterns", covering bridal wear, maternity wear and children's wear before discussing the range of garments worn by adult women (including underwear and work clothes).  Chapter 9 looks at accessories and chapter 10 discusses "Choosing a Weigel's pattern for a purpose", whether that purpose was cleaning the house, travelling, attending an evening function or playing sport.

The final chapters, Chapters 11 and 12, look at the practicalities of sewing with a Weigel's pattern and clothes maintenance—the latter quite time-consuming in an era when clothes were expensive and expected to last, and washing machines had yet to be invented!

You can read Madame Weigel's Patterns: 1878-1950 in order or dip in and out of chapters as different topics take your fancy.  Veronica R. Lampton has taken what at first appears quite a narrow subject—the output of one sewing pattern firm in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—and uses it to make a detailed examination of Australian women and their clothes and the attitudes surrounding them.

(The books can be obtained at: https://www.madameweigel.com.au/)

Madame Weigel: the woman who clothed the Australasian Colonies / by Veronica A. Lampkin
[Carrara, Queensland] : Veronica R. Lampkin, 2015 
ISBN: 9780994238306

Madame Weigel's patterns : 1878-1950 / Veronica R. Lampkin
Southport, QLD : Veronica R. Lampkin, 2020 
ISBN: 9780994238313

"Outsize Styles for Summer" (Weldon Series no. 473, 1939)

 In the 1930s as today, most fashions were designed for the young and slim.  Sadly, many of us are old and fat—so it's with relief I turn to Weldon's Outsize Styles for Summer to see what the not-so-svelte among us were wearing.

And the trick as always to looking slimmer is vertical lines!  The dress on the left is "tucked on the shoulders and at the waist; it has stitched pleats in the skirt which form a slimming panel."  The second dress on the right uses draped revers to camouflage the bust and pleats and gathers to create a vertical front panel.  Both dresses are made up in minimizing dark colours.

Two Versions of McCall Style News (from September 1947)

 As it happens I own two editions of McCall Style News from September 1947: the US edition and the Australasian edition.  One looks forward to a northern autumn, the other to a southern spring, and each version offers us a different selection of seasonally appropriate patterns.

First the cover.  The US edition features a long sleeved overblouse, perfect for cooler days and lengthening nights.

The Australasian version, on the other hand, features a short-sleeved dress in anticipation of warmer weather.  

Most of the inside pages of the US pamphlet are taken up by dresses.  These two are typical examples.  In design they are a modified version of Dior's recently released "New Look".  Skirts are a bit longer and fuller (but not to "New Look" extremes) and waists are slightly indented, but shoulder pads are still worn.  It seems American home dressmakers were not prepared to copy the excesses of Parisian fashion designers!

The pattern descriptions make much of the necklines of these models, and once again, note the long sleeves.  These dresses were designed for wearing in cooler weather.

To be worn over the dresses: two coats.  McCall's 6993 and 6982 with back flares.  No. 6993 comes with a hood, and it's "smart" to wear no. 6982 with the collar up.

On the other side of the world, the Australasian edition of McCall Style News also featured lots of dresses.  On the left is no. 6909—"Silk Suit-Dress... so useful, and cooler than a real suit".  In the centre no. 6900—"Flaring Skirt... with pockets that give you the new rounded hip look."  At right, no. 6913—"Tunic Drapery... A flattering woman's design".

There were no coats illustrated in the Australasian edition of this pamphlet.  The editors gave us a page of separates instead—two shirts with full sleeves (one plain, one trimmed with lace) and a selection of pleated skirts.

From the US: a skating costume zipped up the front...

... While in the southern hemisphere, we are offered clothes for days in the sun.  The outfit on the left is a tennis costume, and the illustration on the right depicts a skirt that could be worn over it to turn it into a "sports dress".  In the centre is a bathing suit—"side buttoned, worn over trunks.  Drawstring bra, halter straps that tie in a bow in the back."  The recommended material for the trunks is wool jersey.  It almost seems too elaborate for a day at the beach—personally I wouldn't like to swim in it!