Two Vintage Dresses

As promised in my last post, here's the photo's from the rest of my photoshoot with Elie. These last two dresses are vintage dresses from my collection. The pink one is a 1960's evening gown, and the blue is 1950's.

The interesting thing about the first one is that it seems to be home sewn. Everything is finished quite neatly on the inside, but you can see the pinked edge on the inside of the hem between the lining, and the selvage is only folded over on the front edges of the top layer of chiffon.

I came across this dress at a Goodwill Outlet store and paid maybe $0.60 for it since they charge by the pound. It has a few stains and holes, some of which someone attempted to patch at some point (my guess is the original owner since it looks like the patch is from the same pink chiffon as the outer skirt), but overall it's help up well.

This second dress is one that I purchased on Etsy several years ago. This one is 1950's and is in a little bit better shape than the first dress. With the exception of the blue chiffon layer of fabric around the arm holes having been cut out, it's in great condition and definitely needs to be worn more!

I paired some fun accessories that haven't been photographed before, which include a vintage aligator purse, pink hat, and pearls. The hat was a gift from my great aunt, and it's super cute, however I haven't found or made a dress that matches it yet so it's never been worn. But I felt like the tone matched the dress well enough for the photo's.

The purse is one of two that was recently gifted to me by a friend at a vintage event. She knew I collect vintage pieces and wanted to give them to me, and I gladly accepted. Not only are the purses she gave me cute, they're practical and handy to have when wearing vintage at events.

Misconceptions of Women and Pants in the 20th Century

Last month I attended a camera convention with a friend where we attended a class about cinemagraph's and how to make them. The instructor had a live model and backdrop so he could demonstrate the process from beginning to end, and it was really fun to see the process of making these moving photographs.

His set up was an Amelia Earhart theme with a vintage plane backdrop and the model wearing a leather jacket, helmet and a pair of tan slacks. It wasn't at all historically accurate, but it got the idea across

She was adjusting her clothes as she got in position for the photo and she made a remark about women's pants as she pulled them up higher to try and get her (low cut) pants to her waist. The remark she made was something about how pants were worn higher, and then she followed that with something along the lines of "pants were worn higher up because they didn't make them for women, so they didn't fit well." and "Women didn't wear pants back then."

Being a historical costumer and having recently researched women in aviation specifically, I wanted to scream.

"No! None of what you just said is true!"

But I sat still, cringing inside instead.

It got me thinking about women and pants and just how long we've been wearing them. I've assembled a collection of women in pants dating as far back as the Civil War in the 1860's, proving that average women did in fact wear pants.

Sears Catalog c. 1918 displaying an array of pants options for women.

Women in pants c. late 1920's 

Woman in trousers c. 1930's

Catalog displaying women's trousers from the 1940's

Ginger Rogers wearing a pair of trousers in the 1940's 

Dr. Mary Walker wearing pants in during the Civil War.

As you can see, women most certainly *did* wear pants in the first half of the 20th century, and no, they weren't men's pants.

I want to address a couple of misconceptions that were expressed by the model that day, and that I'm sure other's have thought too.

1. "Pants were worn higher because they didn't make pants for women."
Not true. They were worn higher because that's what the fashion was at the time, for both men and women. And just like men's pants, you could find women's pants in clothing stores and catalogs. Or, you could always make a pair yourself.

2. "They didn't make pants for women."
Also not true.  To continue off my first point, they most certainly did make pants for women, as is proved by the numerous catalogs for women's trousers throughout the 20th century (not to mention the endless photographs showing women wearing pants).

In Conclusion:
It was common for women to wear pants for sports and physical activities such as horseback riding, hiking, and flying. In the 30's, another style of pants called beach pajama's were common, and were a very wide leg trouser made from comfortable fabrics.

During WWII women began wearing denim trousers more as they entered the work field, as comfort and mobility were needed, though it wasn't until the 50's and 60's that it became common to wear pants on a daily basis.

This is only a brief explanation of women and when they started wearing pants, there's a lot more to it, but that's all I'm going to cover for now. Hopefully this clears up some misconceptions that some people may have.

1940's Swing Dress Photo's and Details

After my post about Vintage Aircraft Weekend I wanted to dedicate a specific post to the dress I made and wore to the dinner dance. As I mentioned in my previous post, I used Simplicity Pattern 1587 to make my 1940's swing dress.

After reading some reviews online I opted to only use the pattern for the top half of the dress since the reviews I read (and the pictures proved) that the skirt looked really frumpy and more 90's than 40's, so I made a few modifications.

Changes I made from the pattern:

• I used my own 6 gore skirt pattern in place of the skirt that was included with the pattern.
• I cut the sides of the bodice front and back 3 sizes smaller to fit better and to remove the gathers at the waist.
• Instead of doing a keyhole opening with an interfacing in the back, I put in an invisible zipper in the back.

I also decided to make a matching belt, which was a quick and easy addition and really completed the look.

The fabric I used is a Rayon-Challis blend from Fabric.com. It's a beautiful pink/purple/plum color, and looked like a perfect color for the era. While I was searching for fabric I looked at a lot of fabric swatches, which Vintage Dancer has a very helpful article with lots of examples, which I used for reference to select an appropriate color.

1940's  fabric samples, via Vintage Dancer

I'm so happy with how my hair turned out! I have naturally straight hair that is hard to curl, but I did a practice run a few days before the event, which helped me figure a few things out. I made sure to put extra curlers in the back section to make sure it was just as curly as the front, and I also added some curl defining hair gel when I set the curls.

I'd like to do a tutorial sometime since I learned a bit about setting and curling hair for a 1940's look.

For the accessories, I wore a pearl necklace and matching bracelet, a vintage velvet cap, a matching belt, and seamed stockings. The shoes are a modern pair with a vintage flair I bought several years ago. Eventually I want to get a pair that's more accurate, but they're pretty comfortable and easy to dance in and work for now.

Vintage Aircraft Weekend 2017

I hope you all are enjoying Labor Day! This weekend was Vintage Aircraft Weekend, which is an event I've been going to and volunteering at for the last 5+ years. The weekend always kicks off with a big band dinner dance on Friday night, which has a live swing band, fantastic food, and of course lots of vintage dresses and uniforms. On Saturday there's an air show and more live music. This year we had a Bob Hope impersonator as well as an Andrew Sisters tribute group perform Friday and Saturday.

For the dinner dance on Friday night I wore my new 1940's dress, which I finished up the day before. Whew! I'm usually one who tries to have everything ready to go at least a week before an event, but with my busy schedule I wasn't able to to get the materials I needed for the final piece (a matching belt) until a few days before. The dress itself came together pretty quickly, and I had it done in a couple of days. I'll write up a post with more details soon.

I paired my dress with a pearl necklace and bracelet, and also wore a vintage velvet cap I've had for several years now. I'm not sure if it's more 40's or 50's, but it's a dark chocolate brown and matched the outfit so perfectly I had to wear it.

On Saturday I wore my 1930's Aviatrix outfit, but since the weather was so hot I opted to leave off the sweater and coat. Even so, it was a little too hot to be comfortable. I styled it in a slightly more 1940's fashion with my hair and makeup since my hair was already curled from the night before. Which works, because this style of outfit was pretty much the same from the 1920's-50's.

I didn't bring my good camera with my to the dinner dance on Friday night; I was determined to look as period correct as I could, and I didn't want a giant camera hanging around my neck all night. But I did make sure to bring it out a little bit on Saturday.

From the dinner dance on Friday night.

From the dinner dance on Friday night.

From the dinner dance on Friday night. My dad (to the left of me) with the "Andrew Sisters" and "Bob Hope". 

  

  

 At the end of the day one of the pilots took me out to his bi-plane to take some pictures.

  

  

How did you spend your holiday weekend?

1930's Aviatrix | Costume Photo's

Paine Field Aviation Day

May 20th, 2017

Earlier this year I posted some of my inspiration of women's aviation wear from the early 20th century. Since then I've put together a 1930's Aviatrix ensemble consisting of a pair of jodhpurs, leather flight helmet, and knee high lace up boots, which I premiered at Paine Field Aviation Day in May. This outfit was really popular and it was so comfortable. 

Usually this event has terrible weather. It's always rainy, windy and freezing, so I was excited to finally have an outfit I could wear that would be warm and still fit the era. However, this was the first time I think in the history of this event that it was actually warm. Go figure. But this outfit was still surprisingly comfortable, even in the warm weather.

The event itself was fun, as usual, and it was a great day of volunteering and hanging out. At the end of the day I was able to get some pictures with one of the biplanes. The sun was really bright, so I'm squinting in most of the pictures, but they still turned out pretty nice.

I had a lot of people tell me I looked like Amelia Earhart throughout the day. As I walked by parents would point to me and tell their kids "look, there's Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot!" She wasn't the first, but she's one of the most famous. It was fun being Amelia for a day though.

Details about this costume:

• The jodhpurs/pants - made by me using Butterick pattern B6340. This pattern fit right out of the bag (which never happens), but it was a beast to put together. The instructions were so confusing and it has a lot of pieces and pockets. The mockup nearly drove me insane.
• The helmet and goggles - these are authentic British issued from WWII that I found at a local antique store. It was a great find and it even came with a picture and name of the man who originally owned them.
• The jacket - this is a modern jacket I found in a lucky stop at my local Goodwill.
• The boots - the boots are modern, purchased from Amazon and I love them!
• The rest of the items are modern pieces I either found at local stores or purchased from ThredUp. I was very specific in the modern pieces I used because I wanted to make sure they looked authentic. The piece I was most specific with was the sweater though. It was a little challenging to find something with the right knitted pattern and neckline that fit the vintage look I needed.

My plan is to replace most if not all of the modern pieces with authentic vintage pieces as I'm able to find them. But for now I'm happy with what I have.

Hangin' with Grumpy, the B-25 Bomber.

Not the greatest photo, but it's the only one I have without the helmet on.

I'm so proud of my hair. I set it in foam curlers the night before and that morning when I was trying to style it I just couldn't get it to look good, so I put in in a low ponytail and tucked it up underneath to create a faux-bob and it actually worked. It looked pretty good, if I do say so myself, and I got a ton of compliments on it.