"What the Parisienne is Wearing" (Woman's Journal, May 1939)

 I'm going to have one last fling with the frivolities of Haute Couture, before I settle down to the years of austerity, rationing and "make do and mend".  And it seems that the designers of 1939 were also having a last fling in the shadow of war.  Moma Clarke wrote in the May issue of Woman's Journal:

All the Paris dressmakers have "gone" womanly in the most feminine sense of the word... Schiaparelli announces that "women are ladies again".  One dares not reflect on the interim.  Better not...

It's one of the minor what-ifs of history: if there had been no Second World War, would fashion have given us a "New Look" a decade earlier than it did?

On to the designers—and we have some familiar names at this point.

Summer fashion plans have turned topsey-turvey. Instead of a plain suit with a figured blouse it is the other way about, and a gaily flowered tailor-made is the order of the going.  Jean Patou makes this delectable suit of brown and white figured crêpe with a white crêpe blouse, and the blue flowered ensemble of glazed cotton with a white piqué waistcoat.  Never have pastel shades been so loved.  A dress and coat matching in a pastel coloured crêpe is as chic as anything can be—especially when trimmed with scalloping, as in this lovely pastel blue dress and coat by Patou.

Patou died in 1936, but the house he founded lived on.  I have no information on who actually designed these dresses. 

Molyneux, who senses the feminine feeling of the moment more quickly than anyone, is calling out for colour this season.  He gives us lovely pastel shades and a new dark green called Vert Marine—a navy-ish bottle green.  Here on the left is his yellow coat to wear with a printed dress.  It hangs straight and swingy, showing the dress beneath.  The black woollen frock has a sparkling air with gay green tartan bolero, and on the right is a gladsome tailleur with a high corslet skirt and a flowered crêpe-de-Chine blouse.

Molyneux has appeared in the pages of Woman's Journal before.  When war broke out he was an international designer based in London.  Known for his tailored, almost exaggeratedly "British" look, he was one of the designers involved in creating the wartime Utility scheme.

Just a hint of the peasant dress with all its sweet bouffancy, and a good deal extra of reassuring sophistication typifies the latest Balenciaga printed models.  There is the interest of a basque on the front of his youthful green and white crêpe frock with its pussy-cat bow and swinging skirt. Many will fall in love with the centre frock with its helpful tunic line across the back and the soft necklace of grey and black silk flowers.  Very charming is the typical silhouette of the yoked frock with its nipped waistline and circular skirt.

Born in Spain, Balenciaga had only opened his Paris house two years earlier in 1937.  He was already well known when Woman's Journal published these designs, but he became a truly Big Name of fashion in the postwar period.  (Several years ago I went to an exhibition focusing on his designs from the 1950s and 1960s.)  Several other well known designers, including Mary Quant and Saint Laurent were influenced by his work.