"The British Show A New Snap" (Life, August 15 1955)

 A decade before the "British Invasion" and the invention of Swinging London, a few American fashion buyers started to sense that something was happening with British fashion.  At this point Life magazine sat up and took notice, and the result was this article.  Notice how the models are all photographed against tourist-friendly typical English backgrounds!

U.S. BUYS FALL'S SLEEK STYLES

Best known in the U.S. for sturdy tweed suits and ball gowns designed for curtseying, Britain is coming across this fall with some slicked up stitching.  A group of U.S. fashion leaders, detouring to London on their regular trek to Paris, were pleasantly startled at the new styles show by London's regular wholesale manufacturers who sell their clothes "off the peg" (ready-made) at extremely reasonable prices.  Without losing any of their traditional workmanship, these highly wearable British clothes have added splashy colors, textured woolens, clinging jerseys and light-weight tweeds.  They are made into daringly form-fitting dresses or elegantly handsome coats and suits.  Enthusiastic word of London's fashion renaissance was traveling fast among buyers still in Europe and in a few weeks the first clothes would be in the U.S. to speak for themselves.

TIGHTLY FITTED DRESS made of flecked lightweight tweed has scoop neck and a beltless middle.  Made by Starke of London, it will cost $40 at Gimbels.

BULKY TWEED ENSEMBLE from Dorville consists of snug dress and coat (Gimbels $180).  It is worn outside house where Painter-Poet Rossetti lived.

LONG FITTED TORSO and gathered skirt make up a red wool jersey dress from Horrockses (B. Altman & Co., $50).  This is the Thames embankment with Houses of Parliament visible in background. 

BRITISH TAILORING is shown off in Matita's neat little suit of Yorkshire worsted in shepherd check which has a velvet collar and inset waistcoat (Filene's $100).  This is in the Burlington Arcade.

 FLECKED TWEED is used for Starke of London's two-piece dress with loose overblouse and knit sleeves (Gimbels, $40) worn with knit cap.  Striding figure is doorman of Connaught Hotel.

BRASH STRIPES of black and shocking pink brighten a classic knit blazer from Dorville Boutique (Filene's, $18) worn with a knit derby.  The scene is a cricket ground in Motspur Park.

 SPONGY TWEED is used by Spectator Sports for suit with leather tabs (Lord & Taylor, 100) worn here in a bright red outdoor phone booth.

It's just a shame that Life couldn't photograph these outfits in colour, because it sounds as if their vibrant colours were a large part of their fashion appeal!

Weldon's Ladies' Journal (March 1926)

 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!

"...de JENNY" (Modes et Travaux, September 1933)

 One of the pleasures of browsing old fashion magazines is discovering things and people that were well known to their contemporaries but somehow never make the cut into the standard histories.  With that I give you the designer "Jenny", who we first encountered in an article from 1922 I quoted at length earlier this month.  In it she is given equal space with her great contemporary Chanel, but unlike Chanel she has not become the subject of multitudinous biographies and exhibitions.  However she did make the cover of Modes et Travaux in September 1933 with this deceptively simple dress in velvet.

According to The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers Jenny's

"...House opened in Paris in 1909 by Jeanne Adele Bernard (1872-1962).  Specializing in elegant, aristocratic evening clothes and day dresses, throughout the 1920s Jenny successfully attracted a clientele of American and European women.  The house merged with Lucile Paray in 1938 and closed in 1940."

"The Great Ethnic Movement" (Elegance with Fashion, January 1971)

 According to my stats, a record number of people visited my blog in January.  While I have a long way to go before I reach influencer territory, I'm delighted that people are reading my blog—or at least looking at the pictures I've posted!  So here's a big "thank you" and "hello!" to everyone reading this.

Now to the meat of this entry.  The fashions of the early seventies were extremely eclectic.  Women had a choice of clothing ranging from doubleknit polyester pantsuits to "ethnic" inspired garments like the one below.

It is described in the magazine as an "African-style cotton dress in a brown, gold and maroon Batik print with a patchwork look wrapover skirt... by Anne Tyrrell at John Marks". 

Some people today might describe this as cultural appropriation, but in 1971 designs like this were clearly influenced by the countercultural movements of the era.  Members of the counterculture were seeking a more authentic, natural and liberated way of life.  This often went hand-in-hand with a romanticised view of the past and the developing world.  The movers and shakers in the fashion industry weren't necessarily interested in alternative lifestyles, but they happily appreciated (and appropriated!) the hippie aesthetic.  Hence designs like this, which combine patchwork prints, batik, beads and bangles into a chic and expensive "bohemian" look.

100 Years Ago (The Delineator, February 1922)

 The skirt suit made its way into women's wardrobes at the end of the nineteenth century and has been a staple ever since.  The February 1922 issue of The Delineator  illustrated some of the latest variations on the idea—as available in Butterick patterns, of course.  From left to right we have the classic skirt suit, a dress with matching caped jacket, and a suit with "knickers" for sporting wear.

 

For women looking for information on what kind of suits the fashionable were wearing in Paris and New York, the magazine had the following advice.

On the Subject of Your Spring Suit
By Eleanor Chalmers

Do you think it is too early?  Winter is here to-day and weather that is too warm for Winter clothes is upon us tomorrow.  Now is the moment to choose, to weigh and to decide on what you really need, for if you let the first Spring days come upon you unawares, you are likely to be stampeded into a hasty and unwise  choice.  The smart thing this Spring for the street will be the suit.  There will be dresses worn, of course, but the suit is the first choice of the Parisienne and of American women of fashion.

The skirt can be dismissed with a word.  It is always narrow and always fairly short, though not in the knee-length meaning of that word.  In Paris it is cut straight and in one piece.  In New York many women prefer the two-piece skirt, for this takes away some of the fulness from the waistline.  

When it comes to the coat there are several distinct types.  Three that are typically French are made by those great Paris designers—Jenny, Bernard and Chanel.  Jenny makes the mandarin coat, rather long, very narrow and with her characteristic narrow sleeve.  She also makes many of the box-coats, especially for young girls and younger women, but the Chinese coat is peculiarly her own.  Bernard, one of the master tailors of Paris, makes the classical tailored jacket, fitting the figure smartly, flaring a bit at the hips, with what the English call "the step collar" and which we know as the notched collar.  Chanel, who first made a fashionable success of sports clothes, uses the little soft jacket with a narrow string belt.  The belt had practically disappeared in Paris last Spring but it came back with the short fur jacket this Winter and it is most suitable for jersey materials, crȇpe silks and the new satin suits.

The patch-pocket sports coat is more American and is used a good deal with knickers for golf, riding, etc. in the country.

Satin is the newest material for the Spring suit, but it is only appropriate for costumes of the more elegant type.  The classical tailored suit is always made in wool material, usually a gray or beige mixture, or Oxford, a velours check, the navy serges, and blue or black twills, tricotine repp, poplin or broadcloth.

The patch-pocket coat suit is also made of these wool materials and of wool jersey.  The Chanel and Jenny suits are made for the most part of satin, crȇpe silk or the serges, light-weight velours, repps and occasionally broadcloth, and their colors are pretty well limited to black, dark blue, gray or beige.

The Chanel and Jenny suits are frequently composed of a jacket and dress and when they are made of wool the body of the dress is usually made of satin, crȇpe silk, printed silk etc., to make a more comfortable costume for Spring.  The patch-pocket coat is also used with a jumper dress or rather a jumper skirt as well as with a separate skirt.  Very frequently there is a short cape to match the suit of this type, an excellent arrangement for motoring, travelling, etc., when one needs an extra wrap.

Motoring Modes (The Lady's Realm, February 1904)

 In 1904 "motoring" was still very much a recreation for the well-to-do.  It was also a fairly rugged pastime, as many early automobiles were completely open and roads were mostly unsealed.  Protective clothing was order of the day.  A smart lady motorist would require an all-enveloping dust coat to protect her other clothing—such as this example in moleskin, illustrated in the February 1904 issue of The Lady's Realm.

"Motoring modes have done a great deal for the economical woman who does not motor, for she can avail herself of the cosy fur coats in opossum, pony skin, musquash and several of the lesser furs which have been revived with new and improved dressings, and many of which are quite smart enough for ordinary occasions, as well as for travelling, motoring, driving, etc."

"London and Paris Fashions": The Lady's Realm, December 1904

 

The lady motorist would also need to protect her hair, either with a hood (as illustrated above) or by tying her hat on firmly with a veil (also illustrated above).  

However, problems in staying clean and tidy while motoring apparently had their 'up' side.  An article on the Ladies' Automobile Club appearing in the December 1904 issue of The Lady's Realm actually opined that women were slower and more careful drivers, because "very high speed... destroys a woman's every vestige of beauty and neatness"!

Man-Made Fibres V: 'Ban-Lon' and 'Helanca' (Vanity Fair, May 1962)

 Picking up where we left off a couple of months ago, we come to the fibres trademarked under the names Ban-Lon and Helanca.

Ban-Lon, 1962

"'Ban-Lon' and 'Helanca' are both stretch yarns made from specially processed Nylon which becomes soft and bulky.

"They can be used on their own but they also blend very well with wool and other fibres.

"Used for stretch pants, socks, underwear, swimwear, jersey fabrics and knitwear.  Have all the easy-care quality plus super-fit."