Last week, out of Elise’s gifts, I showed you an exceedingly quirky and romantic and feminine leaf-green velvet evening wrap  – a perfect illustration of the mid-late 1930s Medieval Revival.  This week I’m sticking with velvet evening wraps, but going to the other extreme, to illustrate another fashion trend of the late 1930s – the masculine look for women.  Thus an almost severe and mannish evening cape: You’ve already had a sneak-peek at this rather masculine monochrome evening cape: I wore it to the premier of  Porcelaintoy’s Monsters. I’m afraid the cape hasn’t photographed very well – the contrast of the black velvet and the white satin lining was just too tricky to balance.  I’ll try my best to tell you about it in great detail to fill in the gaps. Like most of the textiles Elise gave me, this cape dates from the late 1930s, as shown by the materials used and the broad shoulders. The cape outer is black velvet – almost certainly rayon.  It’s fully lined in quilted rayon sateen. The lining …

Silk and rayon velvets were very popular in 1930s fashion, particularly for evening wear.  Last week I showed you a devore velvet gown in royal blue (the most fashionable colour for velvet).  This week Elise’s gift is another velvet item, but in a much more unusual colour. Isn’t the colour scrumptious?  Silk velvet in that colour is top of my fabric wish-list at the moment. The jacket is a lovely example of the Renaissance influence on 1930s fashion.  You can see it in the puffed upper sleeves, and in the padded, sculptural collar. The sleeve puffs are controlled and structured over the shoulders with rows of gathering stitches. The controlled gathers at the top of the sleeve turn into soft, unstructured gathers at the bottom of the poof, so it droops gracefully over the slim lower sleeve. Lines of gathering stitches also keep the ruching of the puffed collar As you may have guessed from the elaborate and clever cutting and shaping of the jacket, this garment, unlike the blue devore dress, probably isn’t a …