Making Vintage 1950s Clothes for Women E-Book

Theresa Parker

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Nothing epitomizes the look of the 1950s more for women than the hour-glass silhouette of the tightly fitted bodice and full skirt. This ubiquitous style - first introduced in 1947 with Dior's New Look - was so widely adopted by the mid-50s that it came to define the decade. This practical book introduces and explores the styles and construction techniques used in the 1950s. Step-by-step instructions and photographs demonstrate how to achieve a well-finished and authentic look using equipment easily obtainable at home. Chapters explain the processes from fabric selection, cutting out and preparation through to garment assembly using traditional techniques for creating the silhouette of the day. There are photographs and analysis of original pieces from private collections and museum archives and scaled patterns that have been standardized to a modern size 12 and can be graded up and down in size. With patterns and instructions for making your own bullet bra and girdle, each project includes a materials and equipment list and a section on specialist stockists and suppliers. Additional chapters include practical advice on measuring and fitting, and how to create the 1950s look. Aimed at students, teachers of costume, re-enactment societies and costume designers for TV, theatre and film and superbly illustrated with 300 colour photographs and 14 patterns.

Leseprobe

Making Vintage

1950s

Clothes for Women

THERESA PARKER

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2018 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2018

© Theresa Parker 2018

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 436 0

Contents

Introduction

1 Tools and Materials

2 Measuring and Fitting

3 The Bra and Girdle (Belt) Set

4 The Petticoat

5 The Strapless Cocktail Dress

6 The Town Suit: The Soft Tailored Jacket

7 The Town Suit: The Chalk Line Skirt

8 The Bow Tie Blouse

9 The Housewife’s Kimono Shirt with Detachable Collar and Cuffs

10 The Self-Neatening Gathered Skirt

11 The Manteau

12 Creating the Look

Stockists and Suppliers

Suggested Reading and Information Sources

Acknowledgements

Index

Introduction

Paris has two profiles – wide, out-flowing: ‘l’ampleur douce’ – and slim, self-contained: ‘le droit-fil’.

UK Woman’s Journal, February 1952

In this book I have tried to identify what I think are the key silhouettes for the decade. I have applied the same research process as I would employ when designing a wardrobe for a character in a film or creating a fashion collection. The inspiration for the projects has come from a variety of different sources with some elements that are completely true to the originals and some that have required a degree of interpretation to figure out. This is normal when all the information needed cannot come from one source alone. For example I have frequently referred to my own collection of vintage magazines, especially the British and American editions of Vogue and Woman’s Journal, to identify the fit of key looks for the period, even though I could not always see the construction processes in the photographs. I have also used museum archives to examine garments at first hand for a more tactile investigation into construction and fabrication but as they are of historical interest and need to be conserved I could not try them on to see the fit. I have also referred to a variety of original 1950s paper patterns, which did not always come with markings or instructions, and so half toiles frequently had to be made to identify fit or order of manufacture stages (‘toile’ is the French term for a test garment and a half toile is literally one half, or slice, of that garment). I also frequently had my nose in vintage instruction manuals for pattern drafting, construction and finishing techniques, which I also tested in calico before committing anything to the real fabrics.

Two silhouettes from UK Woman’s Journal, June 1952. (Author’s own collection)

I have been inspired by the ingenuity of garments made by both couturiers and home dressmakers. The quality of manufacture is incredibly varied and obviously down to the skill and competency of the seamstress and her experience with the equipment at her disposal. For some women that was only a needle and thread, whilst others would have used hand sewing machines or treadle versions and some had treadle machines converted into electric models.

Cover of UK Woman’s Journal showing a painting of the Duchess of Haddington in a Dior gown, June 1952. (Author’s own collection)

Behind the scenes at the Worthing Museum and Art Gallery.

Vintage pattern. (Author’s own collection)

Pattern manual. (Worthing Museum and Art Gallery)

Instruction manual. (Author’s own collection)

I had extensive access to the archives at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, which has influenced the projects selected for the book. The focus of the archive is specifically on maker/owner pieces, catalogue buys and garments made by local tailors and less about pieces made by well-known designers of the time. That is not to say that the latter’s aesthetic did not influence what women chose to make or buy as the garments effectively fell into two key silhouettes already identified in Vogue as the Paris profiles most of us already associated with clothing of that era. The looks have clearly been inspired by the work of couturiers as have the frequently sophisticated quality of finishing; for example, many of the garments are fully lined and turned through at the shoulders. This construction method enables raw seams to be covered and encompasses a neat way of completing tiny shoulder straps. Archive pieces from the late fifties have sometimes incorporated a zigzag stitch, no doubt speeding up the neatening processes and allowing women to machine their own buttonholes for the first time. It has also been interesting to see examples of pinking employed both by the home dressmaker and couturiers.

House of Youth/Dior kimono jacket lining. (Worthing Museum and Art Gallery collection)

House of Youth dress with pinked finish on seam. (Worthing Museum and Art Gallery collection)

The New Look

The overriding silhouettes of the decade originated in Paris with the couture house of Christian Dior being particularly influential. Dior constructed his dresses based on his observations of the female body and the desire to idealize its proportions. The names he chose for his lines reflected the dominant silhouette from each show, such as the Corolla, the Zigzag, the Oblique and the Sinueuse, to name but a few. The lines were described in great detail in press kits, providing journalists with a commentary on the latest fashion innovations.

The name of Dior’s first collection for his own fashion house was La Ligne Corolle. Dior was very much inspired by nature and the name was actually a botanical term referring to a circlet of flower petals, a concept he endeavoured to capture with his designs. Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, cried out in delight when she saw it, declaring ‘It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian ... It’s such a New Look!’ The style became pivotal to the way women dressed during the decade and changed very little throughout that timespan. Set against a background of shortages of food, materials and fuel in war-torn Paris, Dior took the softer feminine shape of a round sloping shoulder line, narrow waist and spreading skirts to the extreme. Harper’s Bazaar published detailed line drawings of the New Look’s construction, demonstrating how skirts with 23 metres (25 yards) of fabric were supported inside. The style lines were also illustrated in Vogue and L’Officiel. The Bar Suit was one of the most popular and most frequently copied models in Dior’s La Ligne Corolle collection.

Author’s sketch of the New Look skirt turned inside-out.

The ateliers were, and still are, the cornerstone of the House of Dior. The atelier’s role has always been to turn ideas into reality, using the designer’s sketches as a starting point. From 1947, Marguerite Carré was the technical director at the House of Dior and she was the person to whom Dior’s sketches were first given. In turn the sketches were distributed to two other colleagues – the head of flou (dressmaking) and the head of tailleur (tailoring). The ateliers created toiles (test garments) based on the drawings and Madame Marguerite would present them to Dior, famously enquiring each time, ‘Have I correctly expressed your vision?’ The toiles deemed worthy were kept, fabrics for the season attributed, embroideries placed and accessories chosen during the numerous fittings, not as an add-on at the end of the process. It is still done like this today, even with the current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri. It was and is still common practice for seamstresses to put in over a thousand hours of work to perfect one design. The garments are incredibly labourintensive, but this is considered normal practice in the world of haute couture. It is really not surprising, then, that only the wealthy social elite have ever been able to afford it.

The scope of the New Look was staggering and impacted uncompromisingly across the Western fashion world for a decade. Age, size and body type made no difference as the look trickled down from the couturiers through department stores and patterns for dressmakers all over Europe and the US. The fashion commentator Peter York is famously quoted as saying, ‘There was no alternative’. This element of conformity is very different from what we know and see in our more pluralistic society today. For example, regardless of budget, the bodice was always darted and close-fitting to show off a tiny waist. This new nipped-in waistline was raised to its natural position – a significant change to the more austere fashions during World War II – and accentuated with a full skirt, often bolstered with layers of petticoats or small hip pads. The prominent tight waist was often accentuated with belts, and the skirt, depending on the occasion for which it was being worn, had varying degrees of flare or was very straight and stopped mid-calf. Luckily for the home dressmaker and her tight budget, the two skirt silhouettes could frequently be bought in the same pattern envelope and styled with a duster coat or box jacket over the top.

Magazine advertisements from UK Vogue, November 1952. (Author’s own collection)

Fashion involves change, novelty and the context of the time, place and wearer. That change is truly effective when ideas can be disseminated widely and understood easily by a large consumer audience. The fifties saw significant advances in technology as a direct result of the war: among these were more sophisticated colour printing presses for publications and advertising, improved techniques for printing cloth and the introduction of TVs and electric sewing machines in many households. Parallel with these was the burgeoning film industry which drew huge numbers of people to the cinema, and all of these impacted on how fashion products were distributed and consumed. American culture was dominant in Europe, with prominent film stars such as Audrey Hepburn setting fashions in etiquette, make-up, hair and clothing. Hepburn had a very specific relationship with the French couturier Hubert de Givenchy who was responsible for many of her key film looks. Although it was still unlike today’s immediate online access to high fashion catwalks, the general public had wider visual access to this imagery for the first time. The fifties was also the golden age of fashion photography. Dior’s spectacular and highly photogenic style attracted magazines and top photographers like Irvine Penn, Horst P. Horst and Richard Avedon who consistently created stylish and sophisticated imagery with models in awkward and uncompromising poses. In Britain, the royal family were popular stylistic influencers and bucked this trend. In 1951 Princess Margaret’s official twenty-first birthday portrait was taken by Cecil Beaton: she chose to pose for a series of photographs in a bespoke New Look Dior gown that had a tightly fitted bodice and layers of tulle for its full skirts. She was a devoted customer and helped to cement the label’s popularity and style amongst the wealthy British elite of the time. The iconic images went global in a commemorative hard and paperback book, easily obtainable from bookshops and department stores.

The Importance of the Paper Pattern in the Fifties

Anthropometry, or the science of recording human measurements, had been developed in the US to create a standardized measurement system for the garment industry before World War II. This became more finely tuned in the 1950s, allowing more garments to be successfully sold in stores or by mail order without customers trying them on first. Many women’s technical skills, or at least their confidence in them, greatly increased as a result of their war efforts either with ‘make do and mend’ or from making uniforms in factories, and a new type of more innovative and demanding consumer emerged to reflect the zeitgeist. This highlighted the critical contribution made by the humble paper pattern and dressmakers’ ability to interpret and adapt it to the styles of the decade.

Vintage Vogue pattern. (Worthing Museum and Art Gallery collection)

Re-issued and updated copy of Butterick’s Walkaway dress. (Author’s own collection)

Vogue patterns had been available from department stores since 1916 throughout the US, Canada and the UK, with special editions being produced for publication in Vogue magazine – a tradition that had been running in the US since at least 1899. Although this went against the grain of the editorial ethos of exclusivity of the publication, it sowed the seed of fashion for the masses in the years to come. Vogue licensing reached Australia in the 1920s and ownership of high-quality printing equipment made it possible for the Condé Nast group to publish the Vogue Pattern Book six times a year, each issue featuring around 350 uncut printed paper patterns.

Through the Utility Clothing scheme (1942–52) high-end European fashion designers/couture houses produced styles for the masses for the first time and rose to the challenge of creating desirable looks that complied with civilian rationing and the safeguarding of raw materials. Vogue bought out the ‘Couturier’ line in 1931 and by 1949 Mr Nast of Condé Nast – Vogue’s owner – became the first and only licensee authorized to duplicate and sell ‘Paris Original’ patterns from eight famous French couturiers including Schiaparelli, Paquin, Balmain, Fath, Molyneux, Lanvin and Heim. By 1956 Vogue had incorporated the international designer pattern into their Couturier lines along with millinery and accessories and included patterns from Yves St Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy and Emilio Pucci.

Not surprisingly Vogue patterns were frequently criticized for being too complex for the average home dressmaker to follow properly. In response, dressmaking pattern manufacturers such as Butterick, McCall’s and Simplicity, along with magazines such as Woman’s Journal, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly, began creating stylish and more accessible dress patterns that retained the essence of the looks created by the couturiers in Europe but promised a New Look silhouette in under three hours for even the least experienced dressmakers. Butterick’s famous Walkaway dress was so popular that production stopped on all other patterns to meet demand for this one.

The Haslam System of Dress Cutting

This method of dress cutting was designed by Grace Haslam in Bolton for women who wanted to draft their own patterns from scratch rather than use and adapt existing ones. The system was trend-driven and provided women with over eighty books of draftings throughout the forties and fifties. To use it you first had to invest in the Foundation drafting book which taught women how to measure themselves properly, how to make accommodations for different body types and how to use the accompanying Haslam Chart – a sort of vintage pattern master or elaborate set square – to draft a set of personal basic blocks or ‘base’ drafts specific to your own measurements. The drafting books could then be used as an instruction manual to manipulate the base draft into a variety of designs and different garment types starting with underwear for women and children. The system more or less guaranteed a bespoke fit regardless of your body type. The instructions for construction were not that detailed – more pointers in the right direction – but the visual instructions were communicated clearly. She also toured the country teaching her system of dressmaking, which is how my mother, an enthusiastic home dressmaker, used a Miss Haslam book to draft a pattern and make her own wedding dress.

Pages from The Haslam System for Dress Cutting, reproduced with permission from My Vintage Wish.

Author’s parents’ wedding photo, March 1953.

Working with Vintage Patterns

The photos and illustrations of the fifties we see in magazines and on film, as with all advertising, are designed to show a product at its optimum. Models were cinched in with shape wear and then padded out within an inch of their lives posing in unrealistic positions to get the right shot. The majority of women didn’t live or dress this way and they too were frequently seduced by the cover of a designer pattern only to discover that it didn’t fit without significant adjustment and the right underwear. For the woman of today it is frustratingly hard to get a good fit from an original vintage pattern or garments even though they are very easy to get hold of.

Sketchbook pages with notes for the House of Youth Kimono jacket.

Vintage patterns are generally cut slightly smaller and tighter than modern-day patterns to reflect the average female physique of the day. There is plenty of research on this subject, especially by mannequin manufacturers, showing that the women of today are significantly bigger than our female counterparts of the fifties. Vintage bra specialist What Katie Did says the average vital statistics in the fifties were 37-27-39 by comparison to 38-34-40 today. Obviously these are only mean averages, but there is no denying that over the last sixty years women have got bigger! Women ate roughly the same number of calories as we do today, but only around one-third of it was from refined sugars and processed food. Effectively we carry more belly, boob and back fat as a result of our modern diet! Women in the fifties were also less sedentary than women today and could easily burn off up to 1,000 calories going about their daily chores, which were significantly more physical, such as putting their washing through a mangle or managing wet sheets in and out of a twin tub, walking to the shops, and so on. It is better to accept our differences and look for ways we can achieve the look without drastically changing our lifestyles.

Moulage and Pattern Drafting

Most costume designers and cutters I know will take a pattern from an existing garment if it is relevant. It will involve pricking along all the seams with a tracing wheel and then toiling up and making minor adjustments to the garment on the stand. As much of my source material has been museum artefacts this technique is obviously not an option. Working with museum pieces requires careful handling and the wearing of white cotton gloves to prevent the transference of grease from hands to the textiles. The research has been done with the garments laid flat, usually on a table covered by tissue paper, and photographed. I have kept meticulous notes on each garment and made sketches that include as many measurements as possible. Where I can, I have stuck to these proportions for the patterns in the book. With regards to conservation, archive pieces are often delicate and can not withstand much manipulation handling. As with many pieces in museum archives they only fit the wearer so putting them on a mannequin is not an option. As a result I was not able to see any of the source material on a body before I started the patterns. With the vintage patterns that belonged to me, I photocopied the pieces and joined them together to test them out in calico rather than risking ripping 65-year-old tissue paper, and I would actually recommend this method to anyone who has vintage patterns themselves. With the patterns from the museum archive I photographed the front and back of the envelopes so that I had an illustration and technical drawing and whatever instructions, if any, that came with the pattern piece. I am used to developing patterns from a garment design or sketch so to me this has seemed the most logical approach, regardless of whether or not it was my sketch.

Pink Christian Dior ball gown, made in England by C.D. Models (London) Ltd, No 07929. (The Cosprop Archive)

Moulage and pattern development for projects in this book.

Pattern making for fashion is normally based on a flat drafting system using a series of basic blocks derived from a series of measurements standard to industry. These are then graded up and down into different dress sizes. Initially I could not visualize the impact the use of a conical bustline would have on a flat pattern block or see how it would then impact on the shape or position of darts through the waist. Likewise I could not visualize how steep the curve from the waist to hip might become to accommodate hip pads. Instead I used a 3D technique used by couturiers called moulage to develop the patterns. This process allows patterns to be developed by directly draping fabric onto a mannequin, adjusting the fit and then transferring the information from fabric (usually calico or muslin) to paper. This creates a master pattern for a first toile in calico, which can be made up and tried on a fit model or back on the mannequin. This pink Dior gown worn by Madonna for the film Evita, where she played the part of Eva Peron, is a good example of the technique in practice. The foundation garments were made first to create the desired shape of the body then the fabric was draped in a continuous piece on the bias over the foundations to create the silhouette of the dress. In this instance the original was modified to fit her specific measurements and new duplicates made in her size using this traditional method. It is likely that the dress stand used would also have had to be modified to accurately reflect her size and create the right silhouette for draping at the outset.

My career in film and TV has very much been about interpreting the style and fit of an era as accurately as possible, whilst adapting it to suit a modern physique. For the purpose of this book I have worked directly to a modern industry size 12 mannequin in a remodelled B cup bullet bra to accommodate the bigger bust waist and hip. When I was satisfied with the fit and silhouette, I draped the outer garments over the bras, girdles and petticoats, allowing me to see how the fabric moulded over such a conical bust shape or from a tiny waist to a more curvaceous hip line. I could also see the effect gravity had on the hang of the fabric before committing to the final pattern. I also only draped on the wearer’s right as half toiles, only transferring to the left half when I was happy with the pattern. I appreciate not everyone is a standard size 12 but the patterns in the book can be graded up or down to increase or decrease the size as desired. I have listed some excellent resources for this in the final section of the book and there is a chart for basic alterations to lengthen or shorten and add or reduce width in Chapter 2.

Pattern Abbreviations and Terminology

The scale used for each pattern is indicated next to the pattern. There is no seam allowance included; everything is nett. The following abbreviated terms have been used:

CF – centre front

CB – centre back

SS – side seam

SG/Straight of grain – the direction of the selvedge edge

Selvedge – the finished edge of your fabric (usually more tightly woven than the body of cloth so might need cutting off to avoid distortion)

RS – right side of the fabric

WS – wrong side or back of the fabric

Notches – denoted by a small bar on the edge of the pattern pieces so that you can match them together – you can add more if you wish

Darts – denoted by a broken line, each dart is an area of suppression that shapes the garment over the contours of the body

Fold – where the pattern piece should be placed along a folded edge of the fabric.

1

Tools and Materials

It is important to have the best tools for the job. Most of the tools only need to be very basic but make sure they are the best quality you can afford, especially your scissors. I have split this chapter into categories based sequentially on the processes where you are likely to need the tools and have included my favourite suppliers in the Stockists and Suppliers section at the end of the book.

Pattern Making and Alterations

These will be needed if you want to adapt or amend one of the existing patterns.

Pattern drafting tools.

Propelling (mechanical) pencil: the lead must always be kept sharp. Sharpies (fine-tipped permanent marker pens): have two different colours in case you want to re-mark style lines.

A tracing wheel allows you to mark off (on paper only) any seam or style lines. Note that you can use it in conjunction with carbon paper if you want to trace lines directly onto cloth.

A pattern master is a clear plastic template with both curved and straight calibrated edges. It is really useful for perfecting your armholes and bra cups or any curved hems and necklines, especially after making alterations. The pattern master also has the advantage of having measurements and right angles for marking off grain lines and for seam allowances.

Scotch® Magic™ tape or equivalent matt finish adhesive tape: if you are making alterations this keeps any cutting and sticking neat and accurate and you can draw over the top of it with your propelling pencil.

Tailor’s chalk is really useful for drawing on fabric, marking off darts, buttonholes, etc. It brushes out easily without leaving a residue and can be sharpened with a scalpel to produce a fine line.

Measuring

The tape measure: this may be in centimetres on one side and inches on the other: stick to one or the other. Tapes are prone to stretching so replace yours every few years.

Tape measure