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The ‘waiting for bluebells’ winter 1915/16 day dress

I’m extremely excited to be showing you a fully done, properly photographed, newly sewn historical outfit. It seems so long since that has happened!

Too long…

This outfit was also a long time coming. It was on my list as a wardrobe hopeful for my Fortnight in 1916 experiment, based on fashion advice articles which extolled the virtues of jumper dresses over skirts and blouses, as a wool jumper frock was more durable, and could be worn for many more days than a cotton blouse without needing washing.

I based my own ever-so-practical jumper frock on this page from The Pictoral Review Monthly Fashion Book, Dec 1915:

I loved the double-button detail, and the asymmetrical crossover bodice, both so typical of the mid 1910s. It just seemed to period-perfect, but also so classic.

I also liked the severity, especially with the grey, black & white colour scheme, though the palette on these pages is so limited that it’s not the best indication of what colours the frocks would be made up in. I’m quite certain the ridiculous historicism laced-bodice number at the back was not meant to be grey!

I got the skirt part of the dress cut out and started before my Fortnight in 1916, but stashed it in the PHD pile when it became clear that I didn’t have enough prep time to make it before the experiment started, and I didn’t need to to have a complete wardrobe.

For my dress, I used the same gorgeous Tasmanian merino wool twill that I used for my Bluebell trousers (and which I still think Lynne gave me!). It looks grey in real life, but comes up very purple in photos.

Last May, while doing more research, I noticed that the pattern for my inspiration dress also appeared in the January 1916 edition of the Pictoral Review, only in black, with red touches and hidden buttons:

I really liked that this print showed it with a hat and muff, confirm it could be worn out.

(can we take a moment to swoon over the ridiculous-fabulous hat worn with the brown checked dress?)

My started dress came out in the run-up to Costume College, and with a lot of help from wonderful Wellington friends like Nina of SmashtheStash & Zara of Off-Grid Chic who came and spent a day helping me sew, and wonderful new Costume College friends like Carolyn of The Modern Mantua Maker who literally sat in a class and sewed buttons for me.

(a moment of silence and awe for how awesome these people are and how lucky I am!).

I got the dress done enough to wear at Costume College, but I wasn’t 100% happy with it. The front of the skirt was hanging slightly oddly, and the seam allowances around the armscyes weren’t finished.

So, after Costume College I did a bit of unpicking and re-jigging and got the dress just right, as a late Historical Sew Monthly July ‘Fashion Plate’ challenge, and just in time for the Sew Weekly ‘Make this Look’ challenge.

Then Mr D & I went and had fun taking photographs at the Sir Truby King gardens. We happened to be there on a house open day, but there were no volunteers around, so we didn’t go in, but he got some good photographs right in front of the house.

We only got one good photograph of the back of the dress, with the interesting collar detail that was a happy intentional accident – I split the mock-up collar to work out what to add to the curve to make it look right, and we (the amazing sewing crew) liked it so much that I incorporated that into the final collar.

In many of these photographs I’m carrying a white camellia: the symbol of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand.

By 1915, New Zealand women had had the vote for 22 years, but were still fighting for the right to be elected for office.

The white camellia is still a relevant symbol, because we’re still fighting for equality: a major new study has shown that sexism (not time taken for maternal leave, women’s over-representation in poorly paid industries, etc, etc.) is the main cause of the pay gap between men and women in NZ (we make 84cents to the $ in the same jobs).

Overall I’m very happy with this make. The bodice is a tiny bit long in back, and maybe a tiny, tiny bit fuller than it ought to be, but generally I really like it.

I’ll do a follow-up post next week with construction details. For now, here is the Historical Sew Monthly info:

What the item is: a 1915-16 day dress based on a Pictoral Review illustration.

The Challenge: #7 Fashion plate

Fabric/Materials: 3-4m of grey-purple Tasmanian merino wool twill (a gift), 1m of white cotton voile for the under-bodice (probably about $5), scraps of black linen (thrifted, $2 for enough to make a 1910s blouse and the collar and cuffs here, so .20cents!)

Pattern: Based on 1910s magazines, sewing books and patterns in my collection.

Year: 1915-16

Notions: cotton thread, buttons, hooks and eyes and snap fasteners,

How historically accurate is it? Quite good, though I’m not 100% convinced I got the waistband application correct.

Hours to complete: 9 of mine, another 9 from friends (have I mentioned how amazing they were?_

First worn: Costume College, Sat 29 July — not quite finished, and then again last weekend for the photoshoot.

Rate the Dress: A dress for the summer before the war

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week fabulous fabric triumphed over something-missing styling, little tassels which creeped most of you out, and truly terrible gloves to deliver a very impressive 8.8 out of 10 for the butterfly ballgown.

Today’s Rate the Dress is a tiny bit late because I purposefully scheduled it that way to give yesterday’s post a little time in the spotlight, and even later because I chose a last-minute RTD substitution for reasons.

Picking an alternate RTD was easy, because I just stuck with the theme of my recent posts on the ideal WWI figure, and my original idea for an all-one-colour, not super exciting fabric gown.. So let’s look at an evening gown designed to flatter one of those ‘ideal’ WWI era figures:

Evening gown, 1914, Satin (possibly of or including rayon or another artificial fibre) & silk chiffon, Musees departementaux de la Haute-SaÃ´ne, 1951.4.190, via Wikimedia Commons

This peach on peach confection features the small, slightly raised waist of 1914, with a draping, gathered bodice which would sit nicely over a low, soft bust (and is rather fighting with the high, stiff bosom of the mannequin its displayed on), and a chiffon over-tunic to the skirt, which would flow over the angle of the ‘ideal’ bottom, and cascade off its fullest point (and isn’t quite done justice by the flat bottom of the mannequin).

Robe de Soir, 1914, Satin (presence de fibres artificielles?) mousseline de soie, Musees departementaux de la Haute-SaÃ´ne, 1951.4.190

Evening gown, 1914, Satin (possibly of or including rayon or another artificial fibre) & silk chiffon, Musees departementaux de la Haute-SaÃ´ne, 1951.4.190, via Wikimedia Commons

The draping off the skirt & bodice give a nod to Japonisme and the influence of the kimono, and to Classical Grecian drapery: both design elements which were extremely fashionable in the 1900s and 1910s.

Evening gown, 1914, Satin (possibly of or including rayon or another artificial fibre) & silk chiffon, Musees departementaux de la Haute-SaÃ´ne, 1951.4.190, via Wikimedia Commons

Intriguingly, though the museum records indicate that the construction of this dress is very well done – indicating an extremely skilled dressmaker, and, likely, a well-off client – the satin may be made of a manufactured natural (rayon, etc.) or a blend of silk and rayon (which did happen).

Evening gown, 1914, Satin (possibly of or including rayon or another artificial fibre) & silk chiffon, Musees departementaux de la Haute-SaÃ´ne, 1951.4.190, via Wikimedia Commons

What do you think? Would the wearer of this dress be pretty in peach, or just a bit meloncholy?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10.

Pictoral Review, April 1916, thedreamstress.com

The Ideal WWI era figure: Part II

Published by The Dreamstress

I started my series on the fashionable ideal of the figure in the WWI era (specifically 1913 to 1921, the years covered by the Scroop Rilla Corset) with a look at a Gossards Corset ad which showed a whole variety of ‘ideal’ figures:

While these figures look diverse, they all have some traits in common, so let’s look at what they are.

The fashionable figures shown in magazines and advertising ca. 1916, whether they are tall or short, large or small, all tend to feature the following:

Low, moderately full busts (larger at the start of WWI, reducing as the war progresses)
Small but not tiny or exaggerated waists
Full, sloping bottoms, with the fullness quite low (as opposed to the modern fashion, which tends to favour high, pert bottoms).

I call the WWI figure a ‘slight hourglass’ – with a gentle transition from bust to waist to hips, rather than the extreme curves of the early Edwardian era.

Here is the low, full bust:

Pictoral Review, April 1916, thedreamstress.com13

Quaker Oats ad featured in the Pictoral Review, April 1916, thedreamstress.com

Notice how much lower the bust sits compared to where it would sit when held with a modern bra, and how little support the chemise provides. Notice also how full the bust is: that’s not a B cup!

This same line is echoed in the fashionable dress of the time, even in illustrations of dress for young girls:

Young Girls dress featured in Pictoral Review, April 1916

At the start of the war the slimmer skirts of the early 1910s were still in fashion, so there was still emphasis on slim hips to match, but by 1915 the skirts began to widen, so hip size became inconsequential.

Some corset advertisements, like Gossards, still regularly showed fairly slim hipped figures as their ‘average’ figure:

Gossards Corset Ad in Pictoral Review, April 1916

But many others showed figures that were proportionally much curvier – a rather lovely demonstration that there has always been variety in the ideal, and that even in advertising the ‘perfect’ figure depended on the brand, the taste of the photographer or illustrator, and the final selection of the editor:

Kabo Corset advertisement, Pictoral Review, April 1916

And photograph advertisements which depict women with the ideal figures of the time in knit combinations or swimsuits show quite definite hips and bottom curves:

The Designer, October 1916, thedreamstress.com

Setsnug ad in The Designer, October 1916

Notice the low, full bust again.

This one shows a youthful figure, so the bust is smaller, but the waist definition and low-angled bottom are clearly visible.

Pictoral Review, June 1915, thedreamstress.com

Grape-Nuts advertisement, Pictoral Review, June 1915

The full, low bottom was a carry-on from the early 1910s fashion for clinging frocks which cascaded off the angle of the bottom:

Dinner gown by Doeuillet, 1910

Actress Else FrÃ¶lich, 1910, via DigitalMuseum.no

One of the women most known for her figure throughout the 1900s & 1910s was swimmer and actress Annette Kellermann, famous for popularising the one-piece swimsuit.

Kellermann sold programmes for developing the perfect body throughout the 1910s, and used her own as the ‘ideal’ model, giving us a very good idea of what was considered desirable in a body:

Annette Kellermann advertisement, Pictoral Review, June 1915

Next up in the series (after a little break for Rate the Dress and some of my sewing), a look at the way the fashionable figure ideal changed from 1913 to 1921.

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