Fashion Forecast: July 1917

What was the well-dressed young woman wearing in July 1917?

A lot of interesting things, as it turns out: there are several new trends in this month’s women’s magazines. First, this from McCall’s Magazine: the first set of patterns for war service-related clothing that I’ve run across: two nurses’ uniforms and two outfits for outdoor work, overalls, and a shorter skirt with bloomers to wear underneath:

On a related note, in this month’s The Ladies’ World magazine is a two page spread on “the New Ready-Made Clothes.” This page features fashions from The Hamilton Garment Co., The Bradley Knitting Co., and The Betty Wales Dressmakers:

As always, The Delineator has some beautiful color prints. I like the pink dress on the right, with the tassel variation on the barrel-style skirt:

And here’s McCall’s color plate for July. A rather different artistic style from The Delineator, no?:

According to McCall’s, gingham was the rage, and checks and plaids do seem to be popular this month:

More bold geometrics in The Delineator:

This being July, we have to talk about bathing suits. Here’s The Delineator’s beachwear for the month. Note the girl's suit at left--not much different from Mom's:

McCall's bathing suits feature less busy designs:

And I suspect "seeking comfort in kimonos" is code for maternity wear (McCall's):

Finally, some teen fashions from The Delineator:

And also from The Delineator (I love the title at the top of the page!):

What do you think of July 1917's fashions?

Fashion Forecast: June 1917

What was the well-dressed young woman wearing in June 1917?

June being the month it is, she might have been wearing white and carrying a bouquet. Here are a couple of pages of bridal fashion from McCall’s Magazine:

And from The Delineator. Anyone who has purchased a wedding gown in the recent (or not so recent) past might be amused (or enraged) by this extract from the description: “This bridal costume can be made for $7.94 in a medium size. It requires 2 7/8 yards silk crêpe 40 inches wide at $1.00, 3 ¼ yards satin 40 inches wide at $1.25, findings, trimming, pattern, .99. It will take about 12 bunches of beads at .30.”:

Some spectacular millinery is in evidence on this page from The Delineator...but even more interesting is the bloomer dress second from the right. Here’s the description: "The next step in the woman movement is the bloomer dress (design 9235). All women who both “spin and toil” will find this a very comfortable and serviceable garment that is attractive as well. If you would sprinkle the lawn or clean out the attic you might as well be practical about it as well as feminine. The soft fulness from the yoke, front and back is pretty, and if you are to lose yourself in dust why not turn up the convertible collar for protection and use a longer sleeve and cover the whole question with a sensible cap. Of course you need not have the pockets. Use gingham, percale, chambray, or Japanese crêpe." Note that she’s wielding a vacuum cleaner hose!

June also means the start of—you guessed it—bathing suit weather. Here’s a sight you won’t see in Ackermann’s! Recommended fabrics, by the way, include satin, taffeta, silk poplin, shantung, wool jersey, and mohair. Yessiree—a mohair bathing suit. Note that several are worn with stockings, though not all—and the young lady at left has hers daringly rolled half-way down her calves. (The Delineator):

An interesting silhouette you’ll see a lot this year is displayed in the dress at left in this page from McCall’s: it was known as “barrel” style, for obvious reasons:

Here are a few more general dress images, to give you a flavor of what was in (hint: parasols, do ya think?) From The Delineator:

The Delineator, again (love these color images!) Note the sheer blouses, or "waists" that require some of the products we learned about back in January:

  

And McCall's (the outfit at far right is definitely in the barrel style):

McCall's again:

June is graduation month as well, and McCall’s had a selection of charming dresses (in white, of course) for graduating young ladies:

More teen fashions from The Delineator:

And more, also from The Delineator:

What do you think of June 1917’s fashions?

Bathing Beauties

Summer is officially here, and, for many of us, that means time at the beach or around the municipal pool. Laying around in bathing suits and eying the opposite sex is as much part of the fun as actually cooling down in the water. Nineteenth century young folks flocked to water too, and for not-too-different reasons.

For one thing, bathing in salt water was supposed to be good for you. You’d pay a fellow with a specially designed cart covered in canvas to drive you out into the gentle surf. Inside you could change into your bathing costume, then dunk yourself in the water, safely hidden inside your little canvas tent.

If you look at some of the earliest costumes like these, you can see they aren’t much different from day dress. In fact, the caption on the one above reads “Evening promenade or sea bathing costume.” Later the bathing suits began to differentiate themselves from daily wear. For girls, they generally consisted of a short dress of cotton or flannel and flannel bloomers. Boys wore flannel one-piece units that looked a bit like long underwear. And forget any spandex. These babies sagged and bagged and dragged when they got wet. So there might have been some use to those private carts after all.

Of course, the main reason for seaside entertainment was to meet other young people. Many of the seaside towns hosted assemblies in the evenings, and the visiting families would throw balls or card parties or host picnics or teas. So if your Great-Aunt Ermintrude decided it absolutely necessary to treat her gout with a dip in the sea, why of course you’d accompany her for the chance to have a little fun too!

And speaking of fun, don’t forget to take a guess at Marissa’s mystery object in the post below. Correct guesses will be entered in a drawing for an autographed review copy of her upcoming release, Betraying Season, as well as a nifty tote bag that you can take with you to, um, the beach!