"In this joyous June we are to celebrate an historic event with which the whole world is ringing,"
Weldon's Ladies' Journal was referring to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Naturally the readers of the Journal would want a pretty outfit to wear to the celebrations, and the magazine was happy to oblige with a selection of patterns for dainty, ultra-feminine garments. (Ironically, most of the fashions featured originated in Paris.) Below are a couple examples:
A decade further on, and we can see how the skirt suit continues to evolve in line with other fashions. These late Edwardian examples from Weldon's Ladies' Journal combine rather masculine jackets with straight skirts reaching the instep. The effect is severe, but the outfits are topped by some extravagantly feminine hats!
"In our variable climate a tweed coat and skirt is always a necessity to our wardrobe, and here is show a most useful style for spring and summer tweeds and suitings..."
"A smart little suit for morning, country, or seaside wear, made in spring tweed, serge, fancy or plain cloth... Three gored skirt and semi-fitting double-breasted coat."
"...the pleated skirt is an excellent model for tweeds, serge, homespun, etc. Four-gored skirt, pleated side and semi-fitting coat."
"One of the new coats for the new spring woollens... with velvet faced collar."
"A most useful style for cachemire, tweeds, fancy woollens, hopsack, serge, cloth, trimmed braid. Six-gored skirt, pleated panel back and front. Semi-fitting coat."
"A dressy coat and skirt for ribbed serge or tweed... Two piece skirt with inverted pleats at side. Semi-fitting coat."
These fashions graced the cover of the March 1926 issue of Weldon's Ladies' Journal, advertising two "gratis patterns" that came with the magazine. On the left is a "dainty afternoon dress" and on the right, a "smart house frock". The afternoon dress is described as being a "Paris model [with] the new long roll collar and a Circular Skirt", while the house frock is described as being "designed on the new Flared lines, favoured by the Smart Woman".
Both dresses display the latest fashionable silhouette for 1926 (as adapted for the home dressmaker). These include a knee-length skirt flaring out from the hips by way of "pleats, circular insets, flares and ingenious draperies", a "slim, almost tight-fitting bodice" and narrow sleeves. Nearly every costume in this pattern magazine follows the same lines with minor variations.
The editors of Weldon's Ladies' Journal take great pains to distinguish these latest styles from the dowdy fashions of 1925 which had straight skirts. Vintage fashion collectors with a taste for the 1920s might find this information useful if they want to date their finds!
Weldon's Ladies' Journal began (back in the 19th century) as a showcase for Weldon's patterns. Gradually it became a more conventional women's magazine as it added stories, articles and recipes to the mix. By the 1930s the pattern promotions had been separated from the main magazine into their own "Portfolio of Fashion" which accompanied each issue. Also accompanying each issue were a couple of free patterns—always for "Bust 36 inches, Hips 40 inches".
In March 1939 the patterns were for making a spring suit and a day frock.
Anyway, the "frock" and suit as the editors of Weldon's described them:
"Start spring splendidly with three smart outfits made from two free patterns! Yes, I said three smart outfits—first, the frock; second, the suit; third, the frock with the suit's attractive jacket. To get the best results, harmonize your colours; have the frock in grey, bound with wine, the suit in blue and wine check. Or have the frock in beige, bound with caramel, the suit a mixture check of beige, terracotta, blue and green. Wisdom says plump for a really good fabric when making a suit that you'll wear for at least a couple of seasons, so spend a little more than usual, and indulge in a real Otterburn tweed."
(I hope anyone who attempted these patterns heeded that last advice, because though they didn't know it, World War II was nearly upon them. That suit probably had to last for more than "a couple of seasons"!)
What is the difference between a bodice and a blouse? By the 1890s, not much:
In brief, the main difference seems to have been that a blouse could be worn with any contrasting skirt, whereas a bodice was intended to be worn with only one matching skirt. Most of the patterns illustrated below are described as "blouses", but it's quite easy to imagine a dressmaker making up a matching skirt for some of these and turning them into "bodices"."...by 1890 a blouse had become more than the occasional garment of informal wear. It became so much worn that in part it lost its original difference from the bodice, and many blouses of the 1890s are as rigidly boned as any of the dress bodices."Anne M. Buck Victorian Costume and Costume Accessories (1961)
In the 1930s as today, most fashions were designed for the young and slim. Sadly, many of us are old and fat—so it's with relief I turn to Weldon's Outsize Styles for Summer to see what the not-so-svelte among us were wearing.
And the trick as always to looking slimmer is vertical lines! The dress on the left is "tucked on the shoulders and at the waist; it has stitched pleats in the skirt which form a slimming panel." The second dress on the right uses draped revers to camouflage the bust and pleats and gathers to create a vertical front panel. Both dresses are made up in minimizing dark colours.
