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.

Looking Back 30 Years (Vogue Patterns, February 1991)

 Today I'm going to look at some slightly-more-recent than usual fashions from the Vogue Patterns counter catalog issued in February 1991.  Although the 1990s is associated with grunge and minimalism in fashion, these styles from early in the decade are still very much of the 1980s.  Big hair and BIG shoulder pads abound.  Only the colours seem a little more subdued than in  previous years.

Let's start off with a couple of dress patterns.

Firstly, short (knee-length) and narrow dresses.  The broad shoulders and lack of a waist give these a rather box-like shape.

Next, by contrast, this long and sweeping coat dress.  Only the shoulder pads indicate that it is from the same era—the same pattern catalogue!—as the dresses above.

Broad shoulders also made their way into patterns for evening fashions.  Not surprisingly there was only one pattern for a strapless dress in the entire catalogue—you can't pad out bare shoulders!

Here we have three variations on the same evening dress: with long or short sleeves, a "sweetheart" neckline, dropped waistline and a bell-shaped skirt which is longer in the back than the front.

Somewhat slinkier in effect, these evening dresses feature large, off-the-shoulder shawl necklines and narrow skirts.  

A decade after Prince Charles' wedding to Lady Diana Spencer romantic "fairy tale" wedding dresses were still in vogue.  This is a typical example (my sister-in-law wore one like it to get married in 1991) with puff sleeves and a long bouffant skirt.  The sleeves and the skirt would gradually narrow as the decade proceeded.

For more day-to-day activities, blouses were indispensable.  By modern standards, these shirt blouses are roomy, with big shoulders (of course!), large collars and generously cut armholes.  

 

Waistcoats for women were very fashionable—I owned a few.  Warmth and decoration in one package.

Of course shirts and tops need to be paired with bottoms.  Here are some typical examples: slacks and a pencil skirt.  The slacks are fairly high-waisted and wide legged.  Bumsters and skinny jeans still lay in the fashion future.

Coats.  Like shirts they were generously cut with big armholes.  Of all the clothes I have shown here, they probably had the widest shoulders.  Remember, in the coldest weather they might well have been worn over three or four layers of clothing—each with their own shoulder pads!

Here are some more body-conscious garments in the form of leggings, a unitard and bodysuits.  These would almost certainly have been worn as exercise gear.  (However, the figure on the left, dressed in all black, is giving me strange supervillain vibes!)

And lastly, for those leisure moments, women's shirts and pants.  Big and baggy, they are clearly designed for the wearer's comfort!

Vogue Knitting Book No. 38 (March 1951)

I had a lucky find the last time I visited Melbourne: I wandered into a charity shop to see what I could find, and discovered a plastic bag full of  vintage Vogue Knitting Books.  The asking price was $2 for the lot, so I left the shop loaded down with a pile of wonderful magazines like this one:

 

Bell Sleeved Jacket

On the cover, the wide sleeved jacket is shown in colour: a bright flash against fashion-right greys and neutral tones.  Try also jade, crimson.

International Vogue Pattern Book, Summer 1966

In keeping with the "summer" theme of my recent posts, here is a very 1960s casual pantsuit for lounging by the pool.  

Vogue Pattern Book, 1952

The theme of the Vogue Pattern Book for August-September 1952 was "Summer into Autumn", and a seasonable dress in tan and brown tweed illustrates this idea on the cover.

Ironically the sticker on the bottom left hand corner of cover indicates that this particular magazine was for sale in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - all in the Southern Hemisphere, and all about to experience the transition from Winter into Spring!

Vogue First-of-the-Month Collection, December 1946

A 'One-piece dress and jacket,"Easy-to-Make"', courtesy of Vogue Patterns.  Interestingly, this is clearly a summer dress - though it appears on the cover of a catalogue published in the U.S.A. in the middle of the northern winter.  Perhaps Vogue intended it to be made by those lucky souls who could afford to holiday in warmer climes - or perhaps it was aimed at slow amateur dressmakers who would need six months lead time to be ready for summer!

Vogue First of the Month Collection, February 1947

Judging by the size and style of this publication it was intended as a supplement to the big Vogue pattern catalogues displayed in fabric stores.

Though these patterns were released before Christian Dior sprang his New Look on a waiting world, it is clear that fashion changes were already in the air.  The lines of these suits are noticeably less angular than their wartime counterparts, the waists are clearly indented, and the skirts are longer and fuller than would have been seen a couple of years earlier.  The two trim and ladylike models in the picture are looking forward to the fifties rather than back to earlier in the decade.

Vogue Pattern Book, August-September 1957

I am reading a biography of Christian Dior at the moment, so naturally my thoughts turn to the 1950s.  This Vogue pattern S-4805 is not by Dior (alas!) though it is undeniably influenced by him.

This issue of Vogue Pattern Book contains a feature on the latest materials available for the home dressmaker - in "fuchsia" (shades of dark pink and purple), in "spice" (browny-oranges) and in "cactus" (yellowy-greens).

Vogue Pattern Book, April-May 1956

My latest acquisition!

There were two main fashion silhouettes in the 1950s: the bouffant skirt with slender waist and the tight and narrow sheath style.  (Both of which relied upon constricting "foundation garments" for their effect.)  This is an example of the latter as interpreted by "Vogue Patterns" in 1956.

Vogue Australia, Summer 1957 and Simplicity Magazine, Summer 1958

Though people today think of the 1950s as a very formal decade it in fact saw a huge growth in casual fashions.  More people had more money than ever before, and the leisure time in which to enjoy it.

Here we have two very similar beach outfits from the late fifties consisting of short shorts and sleeveless tops.

Vogue (US), 1940



Sadly this magazine is not in very good condition - pages have been cut out and someone has doodled over it in pencil.

By 1940 trousers for women were acceptable in limited circumstances - on the beach, for example, or for gardening.  During the war years women started wearing them in more public settings as they engaged in more traditionally masculine occupations and feminine fripperies such as stockings became harder to get.  The model on the cover of this issue of American Vogue still wears "slacks" in a peacetime garden setting, while across the Atlantic women were starting to wear them for war work.

Vogue (British edition) 1946

Photographed by Cecil Beaton, this sophisticated fuschia evening dress was designed by Peter Russell for the London Designers' Collections for Export.  This put it out of reach even for most readers of Vogue - clothes like this were designed strictly for export to help Britain's precarious balance of payments.  Meanwhile at home clothing was still tightly rationed and designs regulated.  Luxury wear like this would have been the stuff of dreams only.

Vogue Patterns, 1977

Look what I found in an op shop this morning!  And it cost me the princely sum of fifty cents.

This picture is one of a series of designs for the 1970s career woman.  Armed with newly minted equal pay and anti-discrimination legislation, she's about to step out of the typing pool and into the boardroom...

(But note the impractical shoes she's still wearing!)



Vogue Pattern Book, December/January 1938-39

A typically elegant design from Vogue Patterns.

The 1930s was the decade when the convention of floor-length dresses for formal or evening wear was established.  Though this example has a low neckline it also has covered shoulders, indicating it was probably intended for dining or theatre-going rather than dancing.

Vogue Pattern Book, 1955

Here we have the British edition of Vogue Pattern Book for June-July 1955, with a quintessentially fifties model on the cover.  She looks very fresh and cool in her summer dress - not to mention lady-like with her co-ordinating hat and gloves!