"Pale, Bulky Frocks" (Wamsutta advertisement, 1956)

Sometimes the most telling details can be gleaned from fiction:

 Thrasher had rolled the single sheet of mimeographed paper into a child’s telescope and was sighting  through it.  Far below his office, clearly limned within the paper circle, he watched the summer visitors moving lazily about Rockefeller Plaza.  The men wore white, yellow, and blue sport shirts without ties.  Many of them wore cameras around their necks.  The women were in pale, bulky frocks, patently different from the dark sleekness of dresses worn by the handful of native New Yorkers.

Gerald Green, The Last Angry Man (1957)

 

Our protagonist, an advertising executive, notices the style differences between native New Yorkers and visiting tourists.  And what better way to illustrate them than with a piece of 1950s advertising?  Some of the female tourists no doubt made their own "pale, bulky frocks", hoping to look as pretty and as feminine as the women in the Wamsutta advertisement above.

"How A Girl Should Dress" (Girl's Own Paper, January 20 1904)

 The column is addressed to "girls" (or young ladies) but the fashions depicted below seem rather matronly.  This is the result of the fashionably mature figure of the day, achieved where necessary by a combination of padding and corsetry.  The ironic thing was, the "girls" here, dressing like older women, would reach middle age in an era where youth was everything, and matrons tried to dress like girls!

Though it may not be apparent, fashion was becoming more democratic in the early twentieth century.  The author of this column does not entirely approve:

The more I watch the dressing of the highest and the humblest, the more I am amazed at the way both classes contrive to have every article in the latest style.  Shop-girls and servants, clerks and factory girls, one and all manage somehow to have a cheap imitation of the latest accessories of dress of their wealthy sisters.  There are the really poor who, of course, do not think of dress, but let us look just one step higher, and even the flower-sellers on Sundays have the dyed cat-skin round their shoulders made into the latest shape of stole boa.  I must say I cannot see the class of girls who wish to dress plainly and suitably according to their positions and incomes.  There may be an isolated few, but surely if there were more the fashions given in the penny papers would cater to their tastes.  As it is, in the most popular penny papers we see cheap imitations of extravagant elaborate fashions.  I suppose no girl wishes to look poorer than she is, or any woman older than she is, and therefore most people dress beyond their means.  What a contrast the dressing of to-day is, compared to what it was ten years ago!  The same class of girls give to-day twice at least as much for their dresses as they did then.  In everything we are growing more and more luxurious in our lives.

The "good old days" are always at least ten years ago, no matter when you start from!

Australia's Lost Department Stores II (Hordern Brothers, Spring and Summer 1935)

 Two branches of the Hordern family in Sydney owned department stores: Anthony Hordern's (Anthony Hordern and Sons) and Hordern Brothers.  This catalogue was issued by Hordern Brothers, the younger and smaller of the two stores.  Hordern Brothers ("Drapers and Mercers") was founded towards the end of  1882 by brothers Edward and Alfred Hordern, grandsons of the original Anthony Hordern.  They were still advertising for staff (milliners, drapers, saleswomen and "slop hands") in November that year, but by the 20th of December were able to offer:

YOUR DRESSES FOR CHRISTMAS

If you have left your Dressmaking orders until this week, you may unfortunately, owing to the pressure of orders, be unable to get them made before Xmas.  If so, give us a call for OUR READY-MADE COSTUMES.

While Anthony Hordern's saw itself as a "universal provider", Hordern Brothers specialised mostly in fashions and fabrics.

The cover of their catalogue for Spring and Summer 1935 and 1936 depicts some perfect examples of the lady-like fashions of the mid-1930s.  From left to right:

Summer Frock of Delustred Crepe in Margaret Rose pink, Jubilee blue, Canton green, navy and black.

Frock of Floral Linen in rose/blue/green on natural grounds.

Cape Suit in Check matt Crepe, in Saxe blue, deep coral and Marina green with black over-check.

Figured Marocain Frock, in navy/white and red/white, white/nigger and Lido white in varied assortment of designs.

 Note the references to members of the Royal Family, cashing in on George V's 1935 Silver Jubilee.  Dresses are offered in (Princess) Magaret Rose pink, and Marina (Duchess of Kent) green!

200 Years Ago (Ackermann's repository, April 1823)

 Merriam-Webster defines "morning dress" for women as "a woman's dress suitable for wear around the home; especially: an informal dress for housework".  This dress, made of "Cyprus crepe, of a pale lavender colour" with "nine bands of of gros de Naples, bound with satin" is a far cry from that.   However the "square collar of worked muslin" and the "round cap of sprigged bobbinet" add a domestic touch to the outfit.  

Surviving morning dresses from this era appear to have used much less expensive material and be much simpler in construction.  They run more to printed cotton than crepe and satin.  One suspects that dresses like the one in this print were only ever worn by a minority of the beau monde, if at all!

In this issue, the fashion writers of Ackermann's Repository penned a few observations on the change of seasons:

The heavy garb of winter begins now rapidly to give way to the lighter attire of spring. Cloth pelisses have disappeared; velvet ones are still partially worn, but they are more generally adopted in silk.  Beaver bonnets are seldom seen; Leghorn and silk are very general.  Swans-down muffs and tippets begin to be substituted in carriage dress for ermine and chinchilla.