Australia's Lost Department Stores IX: McDowells (Spring & Summer 1941-42)

McDowells was one of Sydney's smaller department stores, and like so many others, began as a drapery in the 19th century.  It was founded as John McDowell and Partners in 1889, and became McDowell and Coogan in 1893 when one of the original partners dropped out.  In 1895 it became McDowell and Hughes, when Hughes bought out Coogan, finally becoming McDowells Ltd in 1917.  

McDowells prided itself of old-fashioned service and providing value for money.  Staff often spent their whole careers there, and discipline was considered to be firm, but fair.  (That didn't stop one enterprising manager stealing 70 dozen pairs of stockings from his employer in the early 1920s!)  Notably, McDowells refused to reduce the pay of its employees during the Great Depression.

McDowells did a lot of business via mail-order catalogue, which brings me to this publication from 1941.

The front cover hopes "for a brighter year!" but history tells us that they would be disappointed.  Meanwhile they were advertising a "FROCK you will love to wear to any function" in "SHEER GEORGETTE", a "FLORAL FROCK" in crepe with a silhouette "emphasised by the drama of a WHIRL OF PLEATS", a "WASHING FROCK attractively styled in ... a good quality LINEN LIKE FABRIC" and lastly, a dress cut with "9 complete Gores" in a "Flower-splashed distinctive SUEDE CREPE".

It's a fairly good selection of early wartime fashions, but as wartime economies bit clothes would become less generous in their use of materials.  Tucks, pleats and 9-gored skirts would no longer be allowed.

Vogue Pattern Book (June 1940)

 War or no war, Vogue Patterns was still capable of producing glamorous and sophisticated patterns.  Illustrated on the cover of the June 1940 Vogue Pattern Book is pattern S-4189 for a skirt, a blouse and a jacket.

S-4189——RIDING HABIT JACKETS will make your town suit look crisply English and pay homage to the flared-hip silhouette above a slim skirt.

Suits and separates would remain staples during the war years, though as time went on the cut of this jacket would be seen as wasteful.

This is the British edition of Vogue Pattern Book.  It would have gone to press around the time of Dunkirk, and subsequent issues during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.  Though the patterns would have been the same as the ones in the American edition, the war crept in via the editorial content.  This issue warns readers of possible fabric shortages as British manufactures are exported to pay for the war effort. The October issue warns readers of a possible purchase tax on paper patterns (a tax had been imposed on clothes that month) while the December issue exhorts them to be economical.

Eventually, due to paper shortages, the British edition of Vogue Pattern Book would cease publication as a separate magazine, and would not resume until some years after the war.

Australian Home Journal, November 1949

 We're nearly at the end of the 1940s at this point, and the fashions foreshadow the 1950s.  The Australian Home Journal still reports on Hollywood fashions, but in this issue is very much focused on the latest collections from Paris.

The way that women look will not have greatly changed due to the Paris Spring dress collections...

Shoulders, despite a move to square them, remain on the slope.  And there are still plenty of princess, beltless dresses although we have said goodbye to the difficult Empire lines which rose so high under the bust...

Necklines
Necklines are styled this year.  For example, there are star-pointed collars, a mandarin neckline which develops from a bib-yoke of contrast stitch, a button-opening neckline with small Peter Pan collar and bodice-pocket flaps repeating the curve of the collar.

Pattern 7452 (the centre one on the cover) shows how a more "styled" neckline could be adapted to meet the needs of a home dressmaker. 

Australian Home Journal (September 1940)

 If Woman's Journal looked to Paris for its fashion news, the Australian Home Journal sought inspiration from Paris.

First up: costume jewellery as worn by the stars:

The Stars' Glamour Gadgets
Glamorous gadgets are favourites in the costume jewellery field, and unlimited variety is suggested to Miss and Mrs. movie fan who follows the style leadership of film favourites.  Bracelets, necklaces, clips and boutonnieres rival each other in originality and imagination, with dressmaker trimmings equally decorative.

Australian Home Journal was always happy to turn to designers for advice— in this case, a film costume designer.  Dolly Tree's credits for 1940 included Young Tom Edison and Strike Up the Band.

"Shorts" for Sports
"No matter what the sport—who the girl—the shortest route to smartness in sports is by way of shorts," says Dolly Tree, M-G-M fashion designer.  1940 finds shorts in top place.  Shoulders may be covered, waists nipped in, but legs remain uncovered for the athletic Miss.

For more mundane use, the magazine suggested some popular dressmaking materials. 

Floral patterns are in the front line of dress ideas; spots will be seen everywhere, and checks, while not so prominent as last season, will still have a good following. 

... And of course, some suggestions for things to make with those materials:

Skirts and Blouses
For all-round practical wear, skirts and blouses have come into their own again, and for simple day clothes they are just the thing.
It is to the diversity of changes that the different combining of several blouses and a skirt give that make these garments so popular.

Practicality and making a little go a long way some to be the watchwords here!

"Checks, Please!" (McCall Fashion Book, Autumn 1941)

 If McCall Fashion Book can be believed, the "must-have" fabrics for coats in 1941 were plaids.  Every coat listed in its Autumn issue was illustrated in a plaid version, often with a caption pointing out how suitable plaids would be for making it up.

To modern eyes, these coats appear decidedly formal.  The writers of 1941 spent a lot of ink telling us how casual they were.  This, more than anything, tells us how standards have changed since then.

Shoulders were inevitably "well-padded", though "rounded"!

CLOTH OR FUR CLOTH
The casual coats all have an excessively casual appearance this season.  The nth degree of casualness.  They are bulky-looking, with wide sleeves, deep armholes, huge pockets.  Like all of them, this coat has the look of slipping easily over anything—dress, jacket or suit.  It has the new smooth shoulder, well padded even though rounded.

Australian Home Journal, May 1948

 In May 1948, the Australian Home Journal offered its readers patterns for three "frocks" (depicted below) and its usual budget of fashion tips and news.  As you can see from the cover, the patterns were for dresses that were longer and fuller than their wartime predecessors, but still a long way from Dior's "New Look".

Here and There.
High rising necklines are accepted on day-dresses but are not particularly liked because they are not comfortable.  They are not wanted for wear after five.  It is felt the lower neckline is more appealing.

Everybody loves long sleeves, and hates capes because they expose the sometimes unattractive underarm and layers of underclothing.  Long sleeves are wanted on everything because they add to the long slim look of this season's favourite line.

Longer hemlines are selling well; in fact they started selling last season and are going well now.  They are popular on all type dresses because they are felt to be fashionable and make the wearer look slimmer.

Customers do not especially like dressed-up wool dresses.  They are buying jerseys and wools with sequin trim and detail because they can find nothing else.

It would appear that many women weren't satisfied with the clothes available in the shops!  Perhaps the magazine was hinting that they would be better off buying an Australian Home Journal pattern instead.

Australian Home Journal, March 1940

 Let's take a look at another issue of Australian Home Journal—this time from the war years.  As usual it's full of advice for women who are both fashion-conscious and budget-aware.

Dearer Materials.
Quite a number of mothers are wondering if the dress materials will be dearer this season.  Yes, they will be dearer, there is no question of that, and they must remain dear for a long time.  Exchange, freights and war risks have added to the cost of all imported goods, and Australian-made materials are also advancing in price.

 World War II is only a few months old, but it's already having an effect on prices.  Things will only get worse in the coming years. 

"These Patterns..." (Australian Home Journal, February 1949)

 Fashion can sometimes offer a window onto social and technological change.  For example, the February 1949 issue of the Australian Home Journal advises readers on what to pack for one of those exciting new aeroplane flights. 

Don't Overload
If you are flying—and this is a popular form of travel to-day—you have to whittle your luggage down to essentials because you are only allowed 44 lbs. of luggage—and excess luggage becomes an expensive proposition.
If you plan interchangeable clothes, you'll have less luggage to carry and the right things for the time and the place.

The perennial problem of keeping within one's luggage allowance has arrived!  There are still a few years before our intrepid travellers have to worry about flying "cattle class" or airport security scans, however.  

"Once More Unto the Beach, Dear Friends" (Rockmans, Summer 1947)

 If in 1929 some people were scandalised by backless bathers, by 1947 some female beachgoers had progressed to two-piece ensembles.  As yet they only revealed a small sliver of midriff, and a matching skirt is provided if the wearer has to preserve her modesty off the beach.

THESE GARMENTS ARE ALL "FRANCIS BOURKE" PRINTS

R1140.  The latest in cotton bathers.  Laced at both sides and gathered in front.  Pants lined with heavy linen.  One-piece back.  In assorted florals and nautical prints.

R1141.  A snappy cotton pinafore with a wide band, fitted waistline, tied at back or buttoned.  In assorted florals.

R1143.  A youthful cotton skirt with wide-fitted waistband.  Cut on cross and very full.  6 Buttons down back.  Assorted floral designs.

"Francis Bourke" was probably Frances Burke, a modernist fabric designer who went into business in Melbourne in 1942.  Among other commissions she designed the fabrics for the Australian embassy in Washington.

Little Black Frock (Woman and Home, January 1945)

 Woman and Home was a magazine targeted towards British housewives.  It contained the usual mix of recipes, household advice, knitting patterns, fiction—and of course, fashion.

By January 1945, however, fashion was pretty thin on the ground.  Even if the magazine's readers had the coupons to buy new clothes, there was very little in the shops for them to purchase.  In this article, Woman and Home comes to the rescue with an article with suggesting ways of making over a worn dress.  All you need is a few sewing skills and a shabby little black frock!

You could alter the neckline and add trimming in worn spots:

Sketch No. 1 shows it with the high neck cut in a "V", the worn underarms covered with curved bands of black satin and a satin tie-belt with a soft bow.  The bands are outside-stitched on to the frock at each side, with the upper bands lapped over the lower ones, and the back the same as the front.

Concerning Coats IV (1940s)

 Last (southern) spring I paused a series of posts I was writing about coats, saying that I'd pick it up once the weather turned cold again.  Well winter has well and truly arrived.  I'm picking up the narrative thread in the 1940s.

With the first half of the decade dominated by war, practicality and economy were the fashionable watchwords.  

Farmers, Autumn-Winter 1940

Four coats and two fashionable ways of wearing them 1940.  On the left, swagger style (in marl coating and boucle wool).  On the right, also in marl and boucle, two belted coats, with necks that could either be worn buttoned up as shown, or open as revers.  "Shoulders are smartly squared... Featuring the new tucked and flared umbrella skirt."

"Wool" (Australian Home Journal, April 1948)

As Australian recovered in the postwar years, the Australian Home Journal was there to offer free dress patterns and fashion advice.  If the magazine was to be believed, wool was the fabric to be wearing in April 1948.

Wool Sweaters
It is but a step from wool jersey to knitwear and, with a considerable increase in supplies recently, pure wool sweaters in all colours of the rainbow have pride of place in many shops.  However, first favourite is black, often heavily embroidered with wool, like one which had a yoke worked in a closely-packed floral design in mauve.

Wool in Paris Theatres
Wool takes the stage in Paris theatres, for leading actresses are wearing wool frocks created by famous designers at present, states a special message to the Australian Wool Board.  Maggy Rouff, who dresses many stars, has just designed a frock in lime-green wool for Simone Renaud to wear in "Liberte Provisoire", one of the successful stage hits of the moment.  Made with ruched-up elbow-length sleeves, it has a novel hipline belt which comes from a low line at the back to edge slanting hip pockts and finally buckle in front at the natural waistline.

From France
Revelling in the return of fine woollens, French milliners are using them lavishly for draping turbans and even to cover brimmed shapes, while wool jerseys are being stretched or draped into beret and muffin toque shapes to match winter suits and coats.

Jersey Frocks
Perfect styling in jersey frocks depends on simplicity, and Pierre Balmain shows many models with slim skirts, perhaps with a hint of back interest.

Of course the wool industry was the mainstay of the Australian economy at the time, so perhaps the Australian Home Journal had a patriotic interest in ensuring that women used as much wool as possible!

Fun In The Sun (Vogue Patterns, January 1948)

Recently I got hold of a Vogue Patterns counter catalogue from 1948.  Needless to say I'll be posting a lot of scans from it in the future!  For today I thought I'd start with some pictures of bathing suits and beachwear from the catalogue's "Work and Play" section. 

5766 One-piece Bathing Suit

A one-piece bathing suit with interest added by shirring.  The pattern was designed to be made up in either rayon or wool jersey.  By the 1940s there were swimsuits made of new, water repellant fabrics—such as lastex—but they don't appear to have been available for home dressmakers.

Peasant Blouses, Dirndl Skirts (Wakes, Spring-Summer 1947-1948)

In the late 1940s "peasant" skirts and blouses became very popular for casual wear.  Usually consisting of dirndl skirts in brightly coloured prints and puff-sleeved blouses that could be worn on or off the shoulders, these outfits were popular for picnics, the beach, and informal daytime parties.

Here are a few examples as advertised by Wakes of Melbourne in 1947:

ELASTIC TOP'D AND CUFF'D BLOUSE in 'Celanese Celshung'.  To sun or show your shoulders by day or night, just slip elastic top to shoulder point.  Sweet puffed magyar sleeves, frill and bow finished.

DANCE WITH THE WIND DIRNDL, TREMENDOUS SKIRT.  Multi-gore skirt with huge hem, fluted drape in Wakes exclusive spotted bow printed cotton linene.  Zip back placket, interlined corselet band.

ROSEBUD BAYADERE BRAIDE ON 'CELSHUNG' ELASTIC TOP PEASANT BLOUSE.  Sun or show off your shoulders by day or night in this launderable peasant blouse.  Elastic too on peasant puff sleeves.

FLORAL BORDER DIRNDL SKIRT.  LAUNDERABLE MULTI-COLOR SPUN RAYON in gay colors to make a peasant skirt with daisy-chain border.  Double waistband, full gathering all-round.

DRAWSTRING COTTON PEASANT BLOUSE.  A fine white cotton banded by boilfast cotton bias.  Wear as illustrated or with suncatching loveliness of bare shoulders.

"SIESTA", SUN-LOVING COTTON DIRNDL.  Exclusive-to-wakes print on colorfast cotton linene.  Lazy old peons drowsing beneath their sombreros, against desert cacti, make a gay border.  Sombreros and little cacti complete the print.  Gathered-all-round dirndl, button waistband, zip placket.

DRAWSTRING BLOUSE, LACE SLEEVES.  A combination of fine cotton lawn and all-over lace.  Wear the cute drawstring neckline high or low.  Oval drawstring back and puffed magyar drawstring sleeves.  Longer tuck-in length.

COLORFAST COTTON CORSELET-WAIST, BOW-BORDERED DIRNDL.  An exclusive-to-Wakes border print, with with color-spotted white bows encircling hem, more tiny bows on skirt and a collection of coin spots.  Many gored skirt with a tremendous width hem.  Lined corselet waist, zip placket at back.

Australia's Lost Department Stores V (Grace Brothers, Spring 1948)

 At last, a lost department store I can remember!  Though Grace Brothers was taken over by Myer in the 1980s, it continued trading under its original name until 1999. 

ME91R—Ensemble of British Delustered Crepe Rayon for smart Matrons.  Frock features the new treatment of self plaiting on shoulder and soft shirring on bust.  Self covered buttons and loops to waist line and pleats in front of skirt.  Matching coat with self plaiting on shoulder and sleeves.

Known as "The Model Store", Grace Brothers began in 1885 when two immigrants—J.N. and A.E. Grace—opened a small shop in Sydney.  Two years later they moved to larger premises on The Broadway, Glebe, and their story from that point was one of expansion—first outwards, into neighbouring premises, then upwards into a purpose-built, multi-story building.

Grace Brothers began its move to the suburbs early, opening a branch in Parramatta and a branch in Bondi in 1933.  Depression and war prevented Grace Brothers from moving further afield until the 1950s, but meanwhile they introduced all the latest conveniences to their main store: Otis elevators, chrome furniture, a hair and beauty salon and an 'American Shop' where they sold the newest fashions from the United States.  They even built an auditorium, which hosted many events, including fashion parades, Christmas pantomimes and farewell dances for soldiers during the Second World War. 

During the war, Grace Brothers' premises was commandeered by the Federal government for use as General MacArthur's headquarters.  This was not quite the disaster for the store that it first appears, as the compensation they eventually received for it enabled Grace Brothers' postwar expansion.  They expanded their suburban empire, introduced an in-house credit scheme (Graceway Home Credit), started a removalist service (still going strong today) and a travel bureau.  They were even the first retailer in Australia to install a computer—a "massive" IBM in 1967.

Grace Brothers was listed as a public company in 1960, which lead to a strange turn of events in 1983.  Grace Brothers moved in on its Melbourne rival Myer, taking over its Sydney and country stores, only to see Myer turning the tables and taking over Grace Brothers in turn!  

Like most other big department stores, Grace Brothers' main business was selling clothing and acessories.  These things figure prominently in their catalogues and in their magazine "The Model Trader".  In the beginning, most of the clothing they sold was made-to-measure, with vast workrooms hidden behind the scenes in their Broadway store.  By the First World War the workrooms were being replaced by stockrooms as people started buying ready-to-wear. 

Plaid Waistcoat (British Vogue, November 1945)

 In the austere 1940s even Vogue was not above suggesting a bit of creative making do and mending.  Here, from the tail end of the war years, is a pattern for making a warm waistcoat from "the unworn parts of a plaid rug, an old tweed suit or coat, or ¾ yd. of 36 in. fabric".

Materials—¾ yd. of 36" material, one buckle.  For bigger measurements, enlarge pattern on dotted line.  Cut front twice, taking care to cut once for left front, and once for right, and back once, from diagram allowing ½" all round for turnings.  Be careful to match pattern.  Make darts in front pieces.  Join shoulder seams and 2" of side seams up from lower edge.  Turn under ½" round neckline and armhole and hem.  Mitre one end and attach buckle to the other.  Join upper edges of belt to waistcoat, easing back into belt to required size.  Press all seams well.

Australia's Lost Department Stores IV (Murdoch's, Spring-Summer 1942)

 Unusually—perhaps uniquely—Murdoch's began as a store selling menswear.  Opened in 1893 as "Murdoch's, Hatter and Mercer" on Park Street, Sydney, it catered exclusively to men and boys for the first thirty years of its life.  (They advertised a wonderful line of goods for "Our Boys in the Trenches!" during the First World War.)  Women began to edge into the picture in the 1920s by way of ladies' "Surfo" brand "bathing costumes".  By the end of the decade it was possible to buy women's accessories from Murdoch's, including gloves, handkerchiefs, handbags and perfume!

Murdoch's was no doubt aware that women did a lot of the purchasing for their menfolk when they placed this advertisement in 1939:

Ladies!  When you alight from the tram, train or 'bus at Park Street to meet a friend, make Murdoch's Rest Room, on the Second Floor, your rendezvous.

Murdoch's introduced a ladies' tailoring department in July 1939, but it seems to have only fully embraced selling women's clothes during World War II.  Perhaps with so many men off fighting, or "making-do" with the clothes they had at home, Murdoch needed to find new customers.

THE 3 SMART GIRLS on FRONT Cover

THE LASS IN PINK—wears a most attractive frock of Sundek linen ... a splendid garment for everyday, Summer wear.  Built on tailored lines, with smart V piece inlet into bodice.  Trimmed with covered buttons.

HER COMPANION looks smart in frock of Striped Wemco Sheer.  Popular shirtmaker style with pockets, contrast buttons and buckle.  Pleat in back of bodice to give extra freedom.

THE YOUNG LADY on the extreme right is smartly clad in a guaranteed "Betterknit" frock... an up-to-the-minute style that you won't be able to resist!  Beautifully cut in shirt style, with two-way neck.

R.A.A.F.—(As illustrated on front cover.) Craftsman's Blue Cheviot tunic and trousers.

Murdoch's was purchased by Waltons Department Store in 1951, which was in turn taken over by Sears Roebuck (yes, the American firm) in 1955. Walton-Sears continued trading at Murdoch's old address until it closed in 1987.

Australia's Lost Department Stores III (Farmer & Co., Autumn & Winter 1940)

 Farmer's called its twice-yearly catalogue a "Fashion Book", so it's easy to tell that its main business was selling clothes.

It began in 1840 as a shop on Pitt Street, Sydney, offering "a well selected and fashionable stock of drapery goods".  The store prospered, moved to progressively larger premises over the years and becoming a limited liability company in 1897.  By the beginning of the twentieth century shoppers were visiting a large, six-storey building on the corner of Market and Pitt Streets; a decade later Farmer and Company had acquired land and expanded into adjacent George street.  By 1937 Farmer's was able to boast that its store occupied one and a quarter acres of land!

Lest you think that size was all the Company had to brag about, they also proudly announced an art gallery (the Blaxland Galleries on the eighth and ninth floors of the George Street store), a commercial radio station license (from 1923), escalators (installed 1927) and from 1936, air-conditioning!

The cover of Farmer's Autumn & Winter Fashion Book for 1940 illustrates:

Left: UB40—A casual Swagger Coat, from cosy wool-boucle coating.  This swinging-style features square shoulders and neatly stitched collar.

Right: UB41—Swinging Swagger Coat in a soft, supple-wool coating.  Featuring Peter-Pan collar, square shoulders and four flap pockets.

Centre: LB55—Tailored, knitted Jumper Silk of pure wool.  Features smart straight neckline; yoke is trimmed with two tabs.  Plain, tailored skirt.

Sadly, after the war things didn't go so well for Farmer's.    Among other things, their customers were moving out to the ever expanding suburbs, making it harder for them to get to Farmer's city stores.  Farmer & Company tried following their customers, opening their first suburban branch in Gordon in 1960.   However, that didn't save the business, which was taken over by Myer in Melbourne in 1961.  No longer an independent entity, Farmer's continued trading in Sydney as "Farmer's" until 1976, when Myer re-branded its Sydney stores with its own name.

For those wanting to investigate further, Farmer's Spring and Summer Fashions catalogue for 1897 is available online.

Women Wearing the Trousers in WWII

 By the start of World War II, "slacks" were well established as casual and leisure wear for women in the Western world.  However, they were not considered suitable for street or work wear, and certainly not for formal wear.  Would the World War change these attitudes?  Would a combination of shortages, war work and the threat of air-raids make more practical clothing acceptable?

Changes came first to places where the war was closest:

So if you would like to know what the autumn London fashions are I'll tell you.  Smart women are wearing the slacks and sweaters and scarves they bought to wear on holiday abroad or in the country, because if they are in London they are busy working, and those sorts of clothes are quickest to put on and stay neat.  Or they are wearing the uniform to which their training has entitled them.

The Home: An Australian Quarterly, November 1939

Vogue Pattern Book, August-September 1941

However, a whole year later, bifurcated garments were still being depicted as leisure-wear in Australia:

The Trouser Trend...

Basking on the beach ... in a bare-midriff pyjama suit of striped jersey... For summer lazing—voluminous red slacks printed with huge white and yellow leaves... Designed for active sports... deep blue slacks in a heavy shantung... Entertaining at home in a Persian-inspired pyjama suit...

The Australian Women's Weekly, November 20 1940

Wakes catalogue, Winter 1942

In June 1942, the Australian Women's Weekly surveyed "business girls"  to find out how they planned to dress on clothing coupons:

Only a little more than half favour slacks for work, even if employers favoured them.

Miss Audray Stafford of Marrickville, junior clerk, would wear a slacksuit to the office if her employer allowed her.

"But as I'm not sixteen, although I've been dressing myself for nearly two years, I'd probably have to ask my mother for the coupons."

Australian Women's Weekly, 13 June 1942

Walter Field catalog, Fall 1942

Trousers were a practical way of dealing with stocking shortages, but women were still (mostly) reluctant to wear them in an office setting.  Reporting from England:

Woman continues to be a contrary creature.  She clamoured for trousers at work.  'You can wear trousers,' says Whitehall, 'you have our full permission.  Does she wear them?  Certainly not.  'They are not the thing,' she says.  Someone had the curiosity to comb through Whitehall's government departments the other day and found three girls out of many hundreds working in trousers.

At the other end of London, one of the girl bus conductors put on a pair of trousers instead of the regulation skirt because she had no more coupons to buy stockings and she lost her job.  It's a mad world.

ABC Weekly, 14th of February 1942

Wakes catalogue, Summer 1942-43

For heavy or industrial work women started wearing overalls.   

Why don't designers of overalls for women use a little common sense?  Women's overalls are designed the same as men's.  A woman's body is not designed the same as a man's, but designers of overalls apparently do not realise what vast anatomical differences there are.  For a start, women's overalls should be made with a tailpiece similar to kiddies' rompers instead of buttoning down the front.

The Australian Women's Mirror, November 23 1943

McCall Style News, April 1943

For your shift on the assembly line, for your gardening, for just plain sports—a slacks suit in three pieces.

McCall Style News, April 1943

The Australian women's weekly decided to present their own, more feminine version of clothes to be worn on the factory floor:

Briskly tailored, yet ultra-feminine coveralls made of sturdy cotton.  Note the capacious pockets and ankle straps to prevent slacks from catching in machinery.  Note too, the cheery flashes of colour.  In pre-war days you would have included these overalls and slacks in your holiday wardrobe.  Now they are ready, like the women they clothe, to do an important job of war work.

The Australian Women's Weekly, 13 March 1943

(Note: I have yet to see pictures of women actually wearing this design.  Perhaps working women had neither the time nor the materials to make "ultra-feminine coveralls"!)

Montgomery Ward, Spring-Summer 1944

Married in Overalls 

MANY wartime brides dispense with formal wedding dress, but few are quite so informal as a lass who works as a welder at one of England's biggest shipyards.  She was married during the lunch hour.  She wore blue overalls, a leather jacket, and an orchid.  The groom, a ship fitter, wore khaki overalls and a steel helmet.

The ABC Weekly (December 25, 1943)

National Bellas Hess catalog, Fall-Winter 1944

By the end of 1943 some "fashion leaders" were forecasting for postwar fashions:

It is safe to predict that many women will adopt the mode of wearing slack suits.  Before the war slacks were restricted to sport and country wear.  To-day millions of women throughout the world are wearing slacks.

The Australian Women's Weekly, December 25 1943

However, in more conservative neighbourhoods, "slacks" never quite caught on:

There are, however, still places in which slacks are taboo and where the the sporting of them brings the wearer up against quite a few problems.

Believe it or not, the first drawback, according to the slacks wearers, was that they were conspicuous.

"Surely not!" I scoffed.  "Not in this day and age."

"Just you wear a pair into town on a weekday," they said.  "On a Sunday or a holiday, anyone can wear slacks to town and no one takes notice, but to wear them into town on an ordinary shopping day is to call attention to yourself in no small way."

Matronly shoppers, they contend, turn, stare in disapproval, and make the rudest remarks.  Kindly old gentlemen sitting next to you on trams turn and give a lecture on womanly charm.  Sailors, home product and allied, seem to be attracted to slacks-wearing women, and whistle and talk as though the slacks were the bell-bottomed ones that made male and female fellows-in-uniform.

The Australian Woman's Mirror, December 12 1944

The article goes on to describe the difficulties "slacks" wearers encountered in courts, union meetings and restaurants!  With attitudes like that, it's no wonder that women had to wait nearly thirty years after the war for trousers to become normal wear.  Instead of adopting "slack suits", women's fashions became exaggeratedly feminine in the immediate postwar years.

Found Online: Winns Catalogues V (Late 1940s)

Welcome to my second-to-last look at Winns catalogues (as made available by the State Library of New South Wales).  Starting from here we've reached the last days of World War II, and will be moving into the post-war period.

Autumn & Winter 1945

This catalogue would probably have been issued a couple of months before VE Day, and still been current at VJ day.   We really have reached the end of the war!  Winns has decided to showcase some of its more casual styles for women on this cover.  From left to right the models are wearing an all-wool twinset (pairing a short sleeved jumper with a long-sleeved cardigan), a boxy sweater coat in heavy wool ribbed knit paired with "all wool flannel slacks for leisure or labour", and at the right, an all-wool knitted pullover with a polo neck paired with a flannel skirt.

Spring and Summer 1945-6

 It's peace, but alas not yet prosperity.  Clothing is still rationed in Australia (and will be until 1948).  This Winns cover shows fashions for females of every age, from the small girl wearing a "dainty frock and bloomer set" at the far left, to young woman next to her in a floral frock, the "maid" (i.e. teenager) in the insert wearing a "two piece tunic suit in chalk stripe Art Silk Rayon" and her younger sister wearing "an Attractive Frock in the popular peasant style".  At the bottom right is a "Glamorous Shady Brimmed Picture Hat" worn by a mature woman.

Autumn & Winter 1946

One thing about these catalogue covers is you can see what the younger generations were wearing as well as the grown-ups.  The problem is, their clothes are very like their elders'!  Teen subcultures were clearly not yet a Thing, and teenagers were not yet considered worth marketing to in their own right.

Here we have a woman in a double breasted diagonal tweed coat, a teen in a wool two-piece tunic suit, and a little girl in a double-breasted coat cut on princess lines.  Apart from the size of the clothes, what chiefly distinguishes these models are the accessories and details: the grown woman wears her hair above her collar, while the girls wear theirs down, the little girl's hat resembles a bonnet, and the woman wears high-heeled pumps, the teenager flats, while the little girl wears mary-janes and ankle socks.

Spring and Summer 1946-7

Though the artist has posed his models on a beach, he's dressed them in outfits more suitable for a trip to town than a stroll by the shore.  On the right we have a dress made in imitation silk linen, trimmed with Cornelli stitching.  On the left is a "smart two piece costume of crease-resisting Imitation Knop Linen" by Adelyn.  

Autumn and winter 1947

Judging by these covers, women were dressing less formally than they did before the war.  While we have a woman in a "Smartly Designed Dressmaker Suit... attractively trimmed with fur" in the middle of this group, at the left we see a model more casually dressed in an "All Wool Ribbed Twinset" and an "All Wool Tartan Skirt".  Page 2 of the catalogue makes this postwar informality even clearer, with a colour picture of a woman in a sports jacket and flannel slacks.  Earlier in the decade outfits like that were relegated the middle pages of the catalogue and illustrated in black and white!

Though clothes rationing has about a year to run in Australia, the coupon price of clothes is starting to come down.  The suit is now available for 11 coupons, the skirt for a mere 4, while the twin set requires no coupons at all!

Spring and Summer 1947-48

Dior had launched his "New Look" earlier in the year, and while it was yet to be adopted by the world at large, elements of the style were creeping into popular fashion.  In this picture it's clear that ready-to-wear clothes manufacturers have adopted the narrower waists and fuller skirts of the New Look.  However, shoulders are still broad and skirt lengths still moderate.

Left: "Smartly Tailored Two Piece Jacket Suit in a Rayon Like Linen... Jacket is elaborately trimmed with Cornelli."  Right: "Style and Value in this Attractive Frock in "Marveloon"... Bodice opens to waist and is effectively trimmed with drawn thread and Cornelli."

Autumn & Winter 1948

In April 1948—mid-Autumn in Australia—a reader wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald:

Sir—Recent visits to a large number of inland retail businesses revealed that a very serious clothing and coupon problem exists. 

The stock of frocks at the end of the summer season is, in the aggregate, enormous, caused by two successive unfavourable seasons.

The Government belatedly recognised this, and reduced the coupon rating from 8 to 5 until April 30.  This is inadequate to shift the accumulated frocks stocks, and especially so with the advent of the "New Look" styles, and winter frocks coming in.

The solution may be to abandon all clothes rationing, to help the sale of the abundant stocks and new manufactures, then to review the other articles of cotton (which is definitely scarce in and from most world markets, though the garment trade offers a substantial second choice).  Rationing of the other articles essentially of cotton could, perhaps, be reviewed every six months until rationing can be entirely abandoned.

E.C. BRUCE MIDLANE. Sydney.

Meanwhile the clothes featured on Winns Autumn and Winter Catalogue for 1948 are very like the clothes on the cover of their 1947 catalogue.

Spring and summer 1948-1949

Histories of high fashion in the late 1940s make it seem as if styles changed in an instant.  Looking at publications like this, however, it becomes clear that fashions worn by ordinary women were only changing by increments.  Once again, Winns has decided to illustrate its summer catalogue with a "Smartly Cut Frock in Marveloon" and a "New Look Rayon-like Linen Two Piece Jacket Suit".

What has changed, however, is that these clothes are no longer valued in "coupons".  After six years, Australian clothes are no longer rationed!

Autumn and Winter 1949

For once there were no fashions illustrated on the cover of Winns catalogue—the store decided to use the space to sell bedspreads and curtains instead!   I took this picture from one of the three coloured pages at the beginning of the catalogue instead (the other two advertised lingerie and hats respectively).  The formal coats and suits have been banished to the black and white pages a bit further on.  By this stage the look is decidedly early fifties, even for casual wear!

Spring and Summer 1949-50

And so we reach the end of another decade.  Once again Winns chose to feature a "frock" and a "jacket suit" on the cover of its summer catalogue, but one only has to look back a year to see how popular fashions have changed.  Waists are nipped in and skirts flare out and fall to calf-length in these grown-up and ladylike outfits.

This Charming Frock is a "Hodgson" production garment... featuring the latest in new pleated back and bow belt... Smartly cut square neck line with embroidered trimming on collar...

SNAPPY JACKET SUIT... that you will be proud to wear.  The snappy little Jacket is effectively trimmed with White Collar and Cuffs; a generously cut skirt swings from the waist.