Butterick 3126

Well, I’ve got a new sewing project to share.  Seems like I always gravitate toward those 1970s Butterick Young Designers, and this time was no exception.  I was looking for a fairly straightforward shirtdress, and this pattern from Daniel Hechter fit the bill.

As with so many designs from the 70s, the collar looked huge in the drawing, so when I cut the piece, I made it considerably smaller.  Still, after stitching up the thing, I still thought it was just too large.  If you are a sewer, you know that at that point, the thing to do is to take the collar off and recut it.  But after removing the collar, with the band still attached, I decided that I liked the look of the dress with just a collarband.

Too big…

so a whole new look.

And here is the finished product.   I didn’t make the self-belt.  They always come off as looking too matchy-matchy for my taste.  And I have about a dozen belts and scarves that will work nicely at the waist.  When I think of chambray, I automatically think of red accessories, but what other color would make this look a little fresher?

Ad Campaign – Budweiser, 1950

There’s nothing like it… absolutely nothing.

Charcoal glowing, sirloin sizzling, Budweiser bubbling – and you pouring!

Live life, every golden minute of it.

Paris – Post WWII

Only three years after the war was over, European countries were ready and open for the tourist business.  This great print was the cover of Holiday magazine in May 1948. The article talks about how people were getting over the sorrow of German occupation, and were getting on with life.

It also mentions the fashion business, and how the haute couture was struggling with various problems – the continuing fabric shortages, the high wages and taxes that must be paid, and the lack of foreign customers.   Many houses were pretty much surviving on the profits from perfumes.   And the article mentions a “baldish, stubby newcomer named Christian Dior” who was helping to bring the fashionable back to Paris with the introduction of his “New Look.”

Downton Abbey

As overdone as the talk about this series has been, I had to post about it today, if for no other reason than to carry on about Lady Mary’s hunting ensemble.  If this is not the British tweed of perfection, then I do not know what is.  I’m not much of one for shooting at birds, but otherwise I could put myself at that hunting party and be quite happy thank you.  That is, provided I could have an equally fabulous tweed outing suit.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the clothing of this era (1910s), but I do want to say a thing or two about the costuming.  The designer for the series, Susannah Buxton, says that the clothing is a pretty even mixture of actual vintage from the era, clothing the costume department has recreated from vintage fabrics and trimmings, and costumes hired from costuming companies.   On a site that I can’t seem to locate at the moment, a British blogger posts photos from Downton Abbey and photos from other costume dramas of the same period, and you can see how the costumes often led a prior life in other shows.

I’d like to have a score card to guess which costumes are actual period pieces.  It would be a fun game, don’t you think?

All through season 2 the women seemed to continue to wear their mid 1910s Poiret-inspired evening wear, so last night it was a jolt to see them suddenly sporting clothes from the early 1920s.  Unfortunately the show does not show them in London and Paris, shopping for the post war fashions, but it was pretty obvious there was a chunk of  Lord Lady Grantham’s money being spent on the Couture!

Before the shopping trip to Paris:

After the shopping trip to Paris:

I couldn’t find a decent photo of the new clothes, but you can sort of see what I mean in this dress worn by Mary.  Earlier in the show she wore a very unfortunate choice – a straight chemise that from the rear made her look about twice her size.  And just when are those girls going to cut their hair?

All photos copyright Carnival Films for ITV.

Vogue, March 15, 1942

A vest, properly worn.  Too marvelous for words…

1950s Play Hours

I was about to just give up on ever finding something I wanted on ebay and actually being able to buy it.  I don’t know if it is the influence of all the museum exhibitions of sportswear, but ephemera related to sportswear has gotten a bit crazy, pricewise.  Last week I was going to blow a whole $20 on a tiny little beat up and ratty 1919 Keds catalog.  Imagine my surprise when it went for $103!

To console myself, I went looking vintage Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs, being reminded by a recent blog comment that I probably do need to add a few of these overpriced gems to my library.  I was delighted to run across nine summer sportswear catalogs from Von Lengerke & Antoine, the Chicago Branch of A & F, at a very reasonable price.

Von Lengerke & Antoine was a longtime Chicago sporting store, and was actually a division of a New York store, Von Lengerke & Detmold.  This store was the competition of Abercrombie & Fitch, and in 1928,  A & F bought out the Von Lengerke stores.  That is why you will sometimes see the initials VL&A on Abercrombie & Fitch labels prior to 1960.

VL&A actually came with a bit of notorious baggage – the store was located in Al Capone’s territory, and it was the store in which two of the Colt Thompson machine guns used in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre were purchased.

But there are no machine guns in my catalogs, which start 20 years later, in 1949, and run through 1958.  According to the catalogs, VL&A carried the same merchandise as A&F.   In 1960s the Von Lengerke & Antoine name was phased out, and the store became known as Abercrombie & Fitch.

The catalogs are a delight for a lover of vintage sportswear, full of men’s and women’s clothing, picnic and travel accessories, sporting goods and just all around fun stuff.

Ad Campaign – Mary Quant Crayons, 1973

We tend to associate Mary Quant with the 1960s and the Mod look, but apparently her name was still selling in 1973 when this ad was seen in Seventeen magazine.  These body crayons in brighter colors came our a bit earlier – some sources say 1966, while others say 1969.   They were a sort of all purpose makeup, but it was also suggested that one could use them to draw designs on the skin – sort of a 1970s temporary tattoo.

And the back of the tin, with a Mary Quant Blush Baby.