How I Collect – 1930s

Some time ago I posted photos of my 1920s collection, and now I’m sharing with you the 1930s. I post one of the ensemble shots once a week on Instagram, so if you are curious about what I have from the 1940s, you might want to check into Instagram.

The internet evolves quickly, and now it seems like people are more in tune with a site like Instagram rather than blogs like this one. I have no plans to abandon this blog, but the truth is that a lot of the content that would have been posted here ten years ago, I now put on Instagram. So I encourage you to check out my daily posts there. You might like it, as there are quite a few great fashion history posters there.

Above is a lovely nautical themed dress from the early to mid 1930s. The matching hat and gloves were a lucky online find.

This early 1930s dress is one of my favorites, even though it’s not sportswear. It’s all hand embroidered silk. I still remember spotting it at the sadly now closed Metrolina Flea in Charlotte.  I got the hat there as well. You can’t see them, but there are more flowers beneath the brim.

This linen dress came from the estate of a prosperous business woman in Thomasville, NC. Elizabeth Blair had a very nice wardrobe. The jacket is knit wool, made by Bradley.

This early to mid 1930s bathing suit is wool knit, and came from JC Penney. It was the last of a dying breed, as lastex and rayon were about to revolutionize the woman’s swimsuit.  The beach shoes are from France.

Before there was Rose Marie Reid, there was Reid’s Holiday Togs. This little jumpsuit was one of Reid’s early creations. And there are those shoes again!

I’ve had that sweater so long I can’t remember where I got it, but I know I found it in a thrift store.

In the 1930s sweaters for women left the gym and became street appropriate. And that jaunty hat is one of my favorites. I found it in a local consignment store.

One of the things I’ve found to be really hard to locate is older tennis attire. This one is especially nice because of the matching panties. The set is labeled, “Tennis Queen”.

Here you see one of my chenille pieces that I recently wrote about in my review of Southern Tufts. The bathing suit is a popular Jantzen model from 1937 called the Up-lifter.

In the early 1930s, wide-legged, one piece pajamas became a very popular item for resort and beach wear. This one was made by Vanity Fair, a lingerie company.

Pants also gained ground as casual evening wear, when made in luxurious materials like this velvet pair, and with legs so wide they could almost pass as a skirt.  Starting in the late 1920s there was a fad for “folkloric” embroideries, which you can see in the Eastern European style blouse and the Chinese embroidered sandals.