From the Dress-Up Box, 1970s Style (Lana Lobell, Summer 1972)

 

In any era, fashion designers like to borrow, but the designers of the early seventies took a really eclectic approach.  For example, let's take a look at this spread from the Lana Lobell catalog of Summer 1972.

 

Figure A, on the left is wearing a very up-to-the-minute style, made up in a traditional Turkish print.  Though it looks like the model is wearing a wraparound skirt over a top and a pair of short shorts, in fact she's wearing a "shortjump", or cut-down jumpsuit, under her skirt.  The whole thing is made in acetate jersey—artificial fibres for the win!

Figure B, in the centre, has gone all out (to sea) in a jumpsuit based on a traditional sailor suit.  Need I add it's made up in rayon acetate crepe?

Figures C and D on the right are wearing a cheongsam (from "The Orient ... Land of Beauty!").  It's made in taffeta lined acetate, designed to look like Thai silk.  Modern westerners would hesitate to wear it, but the cheongsam was briefly fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s thanks to the influence of the movies.

Australian Home Journal Summer Fashions, 1946-47

 Since summer is almost here in the Southern hemisphere (though the weather sometimes makes that hard to believe) I thought I'd treat myself to some "frocks" from the Australian Home Journal.

World War II ended just over a year earlier, and the general outline is still very "wartime".  Maybe there is a little more leeway allowed in the way of gathers and skirt widths. 

Rationing was still in effect in Australia, so dressmakers had to be careful with their materials.  The dresses on the right and left look as if they could be made up from a mixture of smaller lengths.  The peplum on the dress in the centre is a nice postwar touch.  The dress on the left sports a some  embroidery: a touch that would have been thought extravagant during wartime.

The fashions are similar on this page, including a two-toned dress on the left, and a dress with a peplum on the right.  

The dresses on this cover range from the fairly plain (the coat frock, centre) to the quite fancy (the dress decorated with shirring and bows at right).

"Serviceable Raincoats" (Philipsborn catalog, Fall-Winter 1909-10)

 

It's raining all down the East coast of Australia, and I've spent the last few days staring out the window waiting for it to stop.  Meanwhile, my mind has turned to raincoats, so here is a selection from 1909.

Though they are cut on fashionable lines, they are slightly less ornamented and more, well, serviceable than ordinary coats of the era.  They are made of "rubberized" materials (from left to right, rubberized mohair, rubberized taffeta, rubberized silk bengaline, Watercress silk moire and rubberized grosgrain moire).  Rubberisation was a method of waterproofing fabrics by coating them with rubber.  First developed by a Scotsman, Charles Macintosh, in 1823, the earliest "macintoshes" were heavy and smelly (reeking of a combination of trapped perspiration and rubber).  They went in and out of fashion quickly—only to regain favour as technical advances made rubberised material lighter and less odorous.

The first raincoats for women were produced in the 1870s, around the time when the kind of women who could afford them were starting to live more active lives.  From the beginning they were designed along simplified but fashionable lines—like the examples above.

Man Made Fibres IV: Acrylic Fibres (Vanity Fair, May 1962)

 Real Life (TM) made it impossible for me to update this blog for a couple of weeks, but now I'm back and ready to bring you the next in our "Man Made Fibres" series—Acrylic.

Courtelle, 1962

 'Acrylic Fibres.  Courtelle  is British.  Acrilan is of American origin, but is now made in Ireland.  Orlon is America, Leacril is Italian.'

Courtelle, 1962

 'The Acrylics make very good partners to wool because they look and feel like wool but add extra  qualities such as easy washing, shape retention, crease resistance and quick drying.  They also pleat durably.'

Courtelle, 1962

 'You find the Acrylic fibres mainly in knitwear, either mixed with wool or in 100% qualities.  They are soft to the touch and do not shrink.  They can be either shaggy or so fine that they feel like silk.   They are lovely in jersey.  Acrilan also blends with wool to make tweeds and suitings which have a soft handle combined with all the easy-care qualities.  Acrilan carpets are long wearing and stain resistant.'

Courtelle, 1962