1910s Yale Knitting Mills Bathing Dress

I’m in the process of photographing some of my swimwear for another project, and I found something interesting about this swim dress from the 1910s.  The dress would have been worn with bloomers, which you can barely detect in my photo.  The white trim at the hem is appliqued silk, as is the collar and the white  piping.  Even though this was made by the Yale Knitting Mills, the fabric is actually a fine woven wool.

What makes this interesting is that the seams were finished by an overlock stitch, a technique that is more associated with clothing made in the 1970s and later.

The overlock machine, or serger, was invented by Joseph Merrow in the 1880s, and it was manufactured by his company,  the Merrow Machine Company.  They have been making overlock machines ever since.

Even though the overlock machine has been around a long time, it was not until the 1970s that the use of it to finish seams became prevalent in the sewing industry.  Before the 1970s seams were often pinked, or they might have been turned under and stitched like a little hem.  Shirts and blouses often had flat-fell seams, and lingerie and blouses often had French seams.

Because overlocked seams are so seldom seen in older clothing, it can be confusing when you do see it.  Years ago, when I was pretty new to buying old clothes, I found a really great sarong style Hawaiian print dress at a thrift store.  It looked so much like a 1950s dress, but there was some serging in the construction and because I could remember when serged seams started appearing in clothes in the 1970s, I was really confused.  But fortunately I did buy the dress and then did a little research and determined that the dress was from the 50s.

Since then I’ve seen lots of examples from the 1960s and earlier, but this 1910s swimdress is the earliest example I’ve ever seen.  What is interesting is that swimwear seems to be one of the industries where the overlock was more commonly used.  I’ve seen quite a few older swimsuits that have overlocked seams.

The Yale Knitting Mills were owned by brothers Isidore, Henry and Joseph Hirschmann, and was located at 512 Broadway in New York.  They made wool bathing suits, sweaters and golf vests.

A sad note: Brother Joseph died at the age of 38 in 1916, as a result of “a complication of diseases.”  Brother Henry evidently drowned himself a year later, leaving a wife and eight children.  According to brother Isidore he had been suffering from melancholia for several months.  The last mention I can find of the company is in 1922.

The bathing dress has buttons on the side front to make it easier to slip over the head.

Great detailing on the sleeves.

A Winter’s Tale Retold

If you are expecting a rehashing of the old Shakespearean tale, I’m happy to disappoint you.  No, this is A Winter’s Tale from 1964, published by Glen of Michigan.

You might already know that Glen of Michigan a maker of sportswear, and from 1950 through 1970 they made the designs of architect  Bill Atkinson.  Atkinson accidentally found he had a talent for fashion after he designed a square dance skirt for his wife.  Made from eight bandannas, the skirt was a big hit.  Atkinson decided to make them to sell, and found a firm willing to take on his order, Glen Manufacturing, which was a maker of women’s housedresses.  In 1951 he released his first full line of sportswear separates.

This is a promotional piece, probably sent to store buyers in anticipation of the up-coming season.  They rewrote the final scene of A Winter’s Tale, and used illustrations of the clothing line to illustrate it.  It was a very clever idea, and I can’t imagine that many of these little “catalogs” went into the trash.  I do bet that many of them ended up in the homes of buyers, especially those who had little girls.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

In the back of the booklet there is a listing of the garments in the collection, and swatches of the fabrics used.  Note how they named the pieces, in keeping with the theme of the story.  Such a charming idea!

And I found reference to another Bill Atkinson storybook catalog - A Tale of Two Collections, in 1955.  I’m betting there are even more.

Here is a close-up shot of the velveteens used.  And here is a link to the Lady Anne dress, model 536, on sale now at eBay:

The seller, MidMod14, has kindly given his permission to post a photo of the Lady Anne dress.

Anyone know something about the illustrator,  Juliet McKellen?

White Stag and a Bit of Vintage Serendipity

Yesterday’s post opened with a White Stag ad from 1955.  I didn’t deliberately pick a White Stag ad, I only needed one that clearly showed the idea of sportswear separates. When reader April, owner of NeatBikVintage, opened my blog yesterday she did a double-take.

Without me knowing about it, the day before she had dropped in the mail a White Stag jacket, in a very similar style to the ones in the ad.  She thought surely the mail had not gotten to be that efficient and that I was posting about the jacket!  Pretty quickly she realized it was just a nice coincidence, an occurrence of vintage serendipity.

Back when the internet was relatively new, and eBay was the only selling game on it, quite a few vintage sellers and collectors gathered on the chat board that eBay was hosting.  It got to be a bit of a joke that “finds” went in bunches – one person would excitedly post about finding a Shaheen sundress, and then another and then another…  It got to where I was almost expecting to find the latest lucky designer whenever I was out shopping.  And once when the lucky designer was Bonnie Cashin, I found a super green leather tent dress designed by her.

I have another friend, Susan, who is all the time emailing me to tell me that I posted about something that she had been looking at just that day.  After I posted part one of the sportswear series, she emailed an illustration from a 1917 Delineator showing the work bloomers I’d written about.  I replaced my 1919 illustration with the 1917 one she had scanned.

It is just amazing, the subtle ways we influence one another!

But back to my new jacket.  It is made from the typical White Stag sail cloth, or Topsail as it was called by the fabric maker, Wellington Sears.  The edges are bound with white cotton braid and it has nice shell buttons and that cute little button tab.  In thinking about a date, I knew it was late 1950s, or early 60s.

The label is one I’ve seen only on early 1960s garments, but I don’t know exactly when White stag changed from a medium blue with white print label to this one, white with gold print.  But there was another important clue.

The moment I looked closely at the zipper I knew that this had to be from the 1960s.  The zipper was a nylon coil one, and Talon released their nylon zipper in March, 1960.

So many, many thanks to you, April.  This is a very nice addition to my sportswear collection.

American Sportswear, Part III, The Designers

Ad for White Stag Separates, 1955

And today, the conclusion of my series on American sportswear:

A very important development in women’s sportswear was the concept of co-ordinates, or separates.  These were garments made from the same or matching fabrics that were bought one piece at a time to mix and match.  Separates became very popular, partly because women found that with separates they could have more “looks” with less clothing.

Bonnie Cashin for Sills, 1957

Practical considerations were all important in sportswear.  For the first time, women’s clothing began to have pockets.  Some designers took pockets to a whole new level, as in Vera Maxwell’s travel jacket with plastic lined pockets, and Bonnie Cashin’s skirts and coats that had snap-purse pockets.

By the 1940s, sportswear designers were beginning to gain recognition. Claire McCardell was one of the first to make a name for herself, designing simple and easy to wear clothing.  Her “Pop-Over” dress, a wrap and tie kimono-style dress was made for years in dozens of different fabrics.

1946 Bates ad featuring Louella Ballerino

Many of the designers of the 1940s became known for their takes on exotic and ethnic wear.  Among there were Tina Leser, Louella Ballerino and Carolyn Schnurer. These designers scoured the post-WWII world for design inspiration.  Bathing suits, sun dresses and other play clothes had an international appeal, but with American style comfort and ease.

The growth of the movie industry led to Southern California becoming a vacation resort.  Pictures of the stars in Palm Springs and lounging around their own pools combined with a climate that allowed year-round outdoors activities gave rise to a certain casual lifestyle image. As a result, California became a center of sportswear manufacturing.

Catalina ad, 1957

Many of these firms, such as Catalina and Cole of California, got their start making swimsuits, and swimsuits remained an important part of the industry.  Other California sportswear names to remember are Addie Masters, Pat Premo, Agnes Barrett, Mabs, DeDe Johnson, Louella Ballerino, Alex Colman, Lanz and Koret of California.

Tom Brigance ad, 1940

As the biggest clothing making center, New York City had dozens of designers and manufacturers who made primarily sportswear. The best known are probably McCardell and Cashin, along with Leser and Schnurer. Also important were Tom Brigance, Jeanne Campbell for Sportswhirl, Clare Potter, Dorothy Cox for McMullen, Vera Maxwell, BH Wragge, Emily Wilkins, David Crystal and Joset Walker.

Pendleton ad, 1953

Sportswear was not confined to the two major centers. There were great sportswear makers all over the country – Bill Atkinson at Glen of Michigan, Lorch of Dallas, White Stag, Jantzen and Pendleton (all three in Oregon), and dozens of Hawaiian and Floridian makers.

By the 1960s sportswear was no longer a novelty.  Most Americans were dressing in an increasingly casual manner.  Today, the wearer of sportswear from the 1930s – 1950s would seem to be “dressed up” in many communities.  These clothes have stood the test of time and the casual wear from the mid 20th century still has a freshness that makes it a delight to collect and wear.

American Sportswear, Part II: Pants

As promised, here is part two of my article on sportswear.  Today we’ll be talking about pants.

For many working women, their first experience with wearing pants came in World War I.  And in the late 1910s and in the 1920s  many high school and college girls were wearing bloomer pants as part of their gym attire.  Women were also wearing knickers and breeches for outdoor sports such as riding and hiking.  But even though young women were growing up wearing certain bifurcated garments, trousers were still considered to be solely for men.

By the mid-1920s, daring ladies were wearing “trunks” under their sports frocks.  By the early 1930s they were called shorts, and they were no longer confined to being under a dress.  A garment called a playsuit, quite similar to the gymsuit, was a one piece shirt and shorts, and it came with a matching skirt that was removed for the beach or picnic, and then put back on for the return to town.  In the photo above the skirt is buttoned over top of the playsuit.

I’m afraid I can’t say who came up with the idea for the playsuit, but I feel certain that it did not come from the swimsuit.  In structure it is much more similar to the gymsuit.  But I do know that it first appeared in the very early 30s.   It remained popular through the early 1960s, and in the mid 1970s  and the 1980s made brief reappearances.

1930s beach pyjamas

Slacks for women appeared in the 1920s, first in the boudoir and on the beach as pyjamas, but by the early 1930s they were worn for skiing, sailing and other leisure activities.  Increasingly, pants and even men’s style trousers, were seen in magazines on actress like Katharine Hepburn.  By the late 1930s, women were seen wearing slacks in movies.

But it took World War II to really turn American women into pants wearers.  During the war slacks or overalls were a necessity for women working in factories and farms. When the war was over women continued wearing the practical and comfortable slacks for casual events and in leisure time.  And increasingly, shorts were acceptable for the most casual occasions such as picnics and beach parties.

1940s shorts set, by Lorch of Dallas

I’ll end this series tomorrow by talking about some of the post WWII sportswear trends, and some of the important sportswear designers and makers.

The Advent of American Sportswear

1881 Tennis Dress, Harper’s Bazar

Today I have an up-dated version of what was originally a workshop for members and visitors at the Vintage Fashion Guild.   I later put it on my website, but I get the feeling that the poor neglected site isn’t of much use to people.

Until the mid 1800s, for most people in the US were not concerned with getting exercise.   People led active lives where their work provided enough physical activity.  But the Industrial Revolution changed all that.  In changing from rural to urban lives, people became more stationary, and as a result, there was an increased level of diseases that are associated with a lack of exercise, such as heart disease.

In Europe, the idea of gymnastics had taken hold, and with the immigrants, this idea spread to the States.   Gymnastic clubs formed, and schools started programs of physical fitness, for both boys and girls.   At the same time, there was an increased interested in the healthfulness of sea bathing.   Special clothing was developed for both gymnastics and for bathing.

Along with  sea bathing and gymnastics, sports and games began to appear at social occasions.   Among these sports were shuttlecock (badminton), croquet, and skating. Later, women took up tennis, golf and bicycling.  The big difference between these activities and those of bathing (in the early days, at least), gymnastics and basketball, was that these sports were played in social settings with both men and women present.   For young, unmarried women, these were occasions in which to check out and attract the opposite sex.  And so fashion took precedence over function.  Looking pretty was more important than making the shot.

So, in the 19th century, women pretty much wore fashionable dress for sports.  There were a few concessions, made partly due to safety concerns.  Skating dresses were often several inches shorter than regular dress.  Skirts were sometimes hiked by the use of buttons or by an “elevator,” a mechanical device that lifted the skirt several inches, exposing the petticoats.

1919 New Idea Quarterly pattern catalog

By the dawn of the 20th century, special sports clothing was being developed for those wealthy enough to have the time for leisure pursuits.  Riding habits, swimsuits, gymnastic suits, bicycling ensembles, and tennis skirts were an important part of not only the  upper class wardrobe, but that of the growing middle class as well.

By the late 1910s, the word sportswear was being used not only for active sports clothing, but also for the clothing that would have been worn for “outings” or more casual outdoor activities.

In the years prior to WWI, knits became an important part of the sports wardrobe in the form of pullover and cardigan sweaters.  But it was the Great War which brought about major change; women needed comfortable clothing in which they could move and drive and work throughout a long day.  Chanel recognized this in Paris, resulting in her jersey knit dresses.  Even more radical, some women working on farms and factories began wearing overall pants or long bloomers in which to do their work.

From a 1917 Delineator, courtesy of Susan Grote

During the 1920s leisure increased, and so did the demand for more casual clothing.  More and more people had the time and money to golf, play tennis and take vacations. Many department stores had opened “sports shops” by the mid 1920s, in which tennis and golf dresses, riding clothing and even knicker ensembles for women were offered.

Increasingly, there was also “spectator” sportswear – casual clothing which was not for participating in a particular sport, but rather for watching.  These clothes were most appropriate for country wear, but were often dressy enough for town.  Some sportswear departments were even called “Town and Country” shops.

By the 1930s, the term sportswear had come to mean wear for casual occasions, not just clothing for active sports.  Fabrics were tailored and easy care – “tubable” instead of dry cleanable.  Cotton, in the form of chambray, shirting, pique, gingham, twill and increasingly as time progressed, denim, were used.  Washable linen was also popular, and for winter, tweeds, jersey, flannel, gabardine and Shetland wools were popular.

Tomorrow I’ll continue the story with how pants began creeping into women’s wardrobes.

Ad Campaign – Jantzen Sweaters, 1948

We want to pull some wonderful wool over your eyes… the finest !00% virgin worsted wool, to be exact!  We get it from Australia and we only patronize white sheep… we spin it, dye it in colors by the great color genius,  Dorothy Liebes, and knit it into luxurious sweaters… for you to give yourself and your best friends.

Jantzen was, of course, known first and foremost for their swimsuits, but starting in 1940 they also produced sportswear.  The sweaters shown were pretty typical of the types of things they made.

What I found to be surprising in this ad was the mention of Dorothy Liebes as the colorist.  Liebes was primarily a designer of home design textiles, producing textiles for the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright.  She was known for her innovative use of new materials.  She herself was a weaver, and at the time of this ad in 1948 she had a studio in San Francisco where she experimented with color and materials that were not generally thought to be the ingredients of textiles.  Things like leather strips, wood slats and metallic pieces.  She later moved her operation to New York and opened a studio on Lexington Avenue.

Liebes suffered from a heart condition and retired in 1970.  That same year the Museum of Contemporary Crafts did a retrospective of her work.  Unfortunately, Liebes died the following year.

Several years ago I ran across the catalog from the 1970 retrospective, so I read through it to see if there was any mention of Jantzen.  Sure enough, in the listing of positions she held over the years, it says she was a color consultant for Jantzen in 1947-48, and again in 1954-58.

I also learned that although Liebes is known mainly for her work in the home fashions textile industry, one of her last commissions was from designer Bonnie Cashin in 1969.