In 1962 the Australian Home Journal was on its last legs as an independent pattern magazine. In a few years it would start promoting McCall's patterns, and a few years after that it would switch its focus to interior decorating. Meanwhile in July 1962 the magazine offered three free patterns: a blouse (in two views, both with ruffles), a simple shirtwaister with a slim skirt, and a skirt and jerkin sized for a 10-year old girl.
Unfortunately, by the early sixties Australian Home Journal was no longer offering fashion news and advice to its readers. Fortunately there were plenty of other magazines taking up the slack.
Current world fashion is strongly dominated by two women—two who are poles apart in position and age.
One is Gabrielle Chanel, an ageless, unmarried Paris couturier. The other, Jaqueline Kennedy, is America's First Lady, a young wife and mother. Chanel will go down in fashion history as the only couturier who spanned the tastes of almost half a century without ever changing her basic concept of clothes; the First Lady because in less than a year she has put the stamp of fine tailoring, young spirit, and zestful colors on current fashion.
Jacqueline Kennedy is the best thing that has happened for a long time, because the easy, simple styling she affects is basically good fashion.
The pillbox she has revived may be a hazard to millinery designers... but to women in all age groups it is wearable, chic and easy to copy.
The world is as good as sold on other Jackie fads—the standaway neckline, the boxy suit. She has also given the biggest boost in years to coat and suit fashions...
Separates are the first step to a well-planned wardrobe, and it's a good idea to get used to the idea of them as early as possible in your teenage wardrobe (then, by the time you're ready for your "grown up" wardrobe, they'll spring logically to mind); we'd suggest you start with... a plain, polo-necked sweater-top, with a matching plain pleated skirt, a longsleeved overblouse in a fine check, with matching slim skirt...
SEEN AT EVENING PARTIES... last year's straight and simple dress given a 1962 look with a deep frill cascading from shoulder to hem at one side. Alternatively, you could cut a deep V at the back of your dress and outline it with a wide frill, continuing it around the front as well...
"Vanities", Vanity Fair, July 1962
Also in July 1962, U.S. Vogue praised a dress "ruffled and ribboned" for "at home entertaining, of white silk organza dotted in black".
Paris takes the lead here, as the Australian Women's Weekly points out:
Ruffles, frills and flounces—take heed. Maison Dior's autumn collection included deliciously feminine dance dresses... short and massed with tiny ruffles of lace. But the single ruffle silhouette... is out. Ruffles, which will be big in spring fashions, will spill from suit necklines, dangle from sleeve edges, as well as circling hemlines.
"What's in Fashion, and What's on the Way Out", Australian Women's Weekly, 11 April 1962
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