The skirt suit made its way into women's wardrobes at the end of the nineteenth century and has been a staple ever since. The February 1922 issue of The Delineator illustrated some of the latest variations on the idea—as available in Butterick patterns, of course. From left to right we have the classic skirt suit, a dress with matching caped jacket, and a suit with "knickers" for sporting wear.
For women looking for information on what kind of suits the fashionable were wearing in Paris and New York, the magazine had the following advice.
On the Subject of Your Spring Suit
By Eleanor Chalmers
Do you think it is too early? Winter is here to-day and weather that is too warm for Winter clothes is upon us tomorrow. Now is the moment to choose, to weigh and to decide on what you really need, for if you let the first Spring days come upon you unawares, you are likely to be stampeded into a hasty and unwise choice. The smart thing this Spring for the street will be the suit. There will be dresses worn, of course, but the suit is the first choice of the Parisienne and of American women of fashion.
The skirt can be dismissed with a word. It is always narrow and always fairly short, though not in the knee-length meaning of that word. In Paris it is cut straight and in one piece. In New York many women prefer the two-piece skirt, for this takes away some of the fulness from the waistline.
When it comes to the coat there are several distinct types. Three that are typically French are made by those great Paris designers—Jenny, Bernard and Chanel. Jenny makes the mandarin coat, rather long, very narrow and with her characteristic narrow sleeve. She also makes many of the box-coats, especially for young girls and younger women, but the Chinese coat is peculiarly her own. Bernard, one of the master tailors of Paris, makes the classical tailored jacket, fitting the figure smartly, flaring a bit at the hips, with what the English call "the step collar" and which we know as the notched collar. Chanel, who first made a fashionable success of sports clothes, uses the little soft jacket with a narrow string belt. The belt had practically disappeared in Paris last Spring but it came back with the short fur jacket this Winter and it is most suitable for jersey materials, crȇpe silks and the new satin suits.
The patch-pocket sports coat is more American and is used a good deal with knickers for golf, riding, etc. in the country.
Satin is the newest material for the Spring suit, but it is only appropriate for costumes of the more elegant type. The classical tailored suit is always made in wool material, usually a gray or beige mixture, or Oxford, a velours check, the navy serges, and blue or black twills, tricotine repp, poplin or broadcloth.
The patch-pocket coat suit is also made of these wool materials and of wool jersey. The Chanel and Jenny suits are made for the most part of satin, crȇpe silk or the serges, light-weight velours, repps and occasionally broadcloth, and their colors are pretty well limited to black, dark blue, gray or beige.
The Chanel and Jenny suits are frequently composed of a jacket and dress and when they are made of wool the body of the dress is usually made of satin, crȇpe silk, printed silk etc., to make a more comfortable costume for Spring. The patch-pocket coat is also used with a jumper dress or rather a jumper skirt as well as with a separate skirt. Very frequently there is a short cape to match the suit of this type, an excellent arrangement for motoring, travelling, etc., when one needs an extra wrap.
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