"Paris Smiles" (Woman's Journal, July 1938)

Here is the first in a series about high fashion in the months leading up to World War II.  

Recently I got hold of a bundle of issues of Woman's Journal from the late 1930s.  Each issue of this British magazine, marketed to a well-off, middle-class readership, contained several pages of colour fashion illustrations.  Some depicted clothes that you could buy, some that you could sew.  But always a few were dedicated to showing the latest designs from the couturiers of Paris.  

As to styles, they are very youthful.  You can have your skirt for the morning tight and short, or short and pleated, with your coat cut to suit your figure—that is very important.  Some girls look right with a hint of a waist-line, others don't.

Paquin

Woman's Journal described these as: "For romantic evenings when we dine out of doors by the light of the dipping sun."

Adorable dress and bolero in bluebell-coloured shirred chiffon with big hat to match, or full skirted white chiffon with fascinating trimmings of tiny jet sequins.  More loveliness in a dress and jacket of yellow organdie—the yellow of sun-ripened corn.

Madame Paquin founded the House of Paquin with her husband in 1891.  She was known for her "rich, glamorous, romantic" clothes during the Belle Epoque and her "tango dresses" during the 1910s.  However, by 1938 she was no longer in charge of the business having retired in 1920.

Mainbocher

"Paris has taken to checked and spotted ways," says Woman's Journal.  "Look at these Mainbocher ensembles."

First is the svelte bolero and dress... with a swathed black satin belt giving the favourite corselet line.  Admire the quiet elegance of the black and white spotted foulard coat, roomy and swing back... A suit to like for a long time is the deep blue outfit with the blue and white figured blouse.

Mainbocher (born Main Rousseau Bocher) was an American by birth who decided to stay in Paris after the First World War.  He became a designer by a roundabout route, becoming a fashion artist for Harper's Bazaar in 1922, and being recruited by Conde Nast as the fashion editor for French Vogue a year later.   In 1930 he opened his own couture salon.  Perhaps his best know design before the war was Wallis Simpson's wedding dress for her marriage to the Duke of Windsor.  On the outbreak of war Mainbocher closed his Paris business and relocated to New York, where he remained for the rest of his career.

M. Rochas

"Marcel Rochas agrees with us that country clothes have to be simple... The parchment coloured linen frock has a reason for turning its back—to show its amusing and practical little hood to slip over the hair on windy days."

Marcel Rochas opened his fashion house in 1925.  In the 1930s he was known for adding surrealist touches to his designs, though this is not much in evidence in the simple (albeit expensive) summer frocks illustrated above.