"French Fashions Reflect Events" (Woman's Journal, December 1939)

With war clouds gathering, there were plenty of "events" to "reflect" in late 1938.  However, the writers of a fashion column in a women's magazine weren't really interested in reflecting on them (in their Christmas issue, no less!)  Instead, they wrote about the latest designs from the great Paris fashion houses—including the fashions illustrated below.

The dress and coat that will lunch you charmingly in town then transport you to the country—still looking in the picture—are a difficult couple to find.  Molyneux's ensembles have just the right touch of perfect simplicity.  There is this pleated shirt frock of brick woollen, or the purple three-piece of a neat jumper suit beneath an equally neat fitted coat.  Very charming is also the beige jersey dress that shows its pleats under a delightful coat lined with moleskin and complete with hood.

From the mid-1930s to the end of World War II, Molyneux was a London-based designer, with branches in Monte Carlo, Cannes and Biarritz.  He began his fashion career working for Lucile in the years before the First World War.

"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.