All posts tagged: 1910s

Evening dress, Lucile Ltd, Paris, France, c.1918-1920, Silk, gold-embroidered net, satin binding, silk flowers, National Museums of Scotland

Rate the Dress: Hope personified by Lucile, c. 1918-20

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s Rate the Dress looked towards autumn, so this week I’m balancing the globe and showing a dress that evokes springtime.  Last week’s dress also beat the rating of the dress of the week before.  Can this one do even better? Last week: a pleated polonaise gown in rust brown I hadn’t realised how much people loved this dress until I started tallying the ratings, where it quickly became evident that almost all of you thought it was wonderful.  It was just such a flattering, elegant, universal dress, that it received almost universal acclaim.  I’m sure I can’t be the only person who is now on the lookout for rust coloured silk… The Total: 9.6 out of 10 Even better than the 18th century not-a-polonaise!  AND it got 10 scores of 10/10 in a row! This week: a late 1910s Lucile dress This time of year is usually the darkest, grimmest bit of a New Zealand winter (although it’s been eerily non-dark and grim this year), and, from what I hear, it’s the hottest, …

The Pictoral Review, July 1916

Lingerie frocks from the Pictorial Review 1915 & 1916

Published by The Dreamstress

Following on from my terminology post about lingerie dresses and lingerie frocks, here are a few more advertisements featuring lingerie frocks from the June 1915 and July 1916 issues of the Pictoral Review magazine. These illustrations show patterns sold by the American Fashion Company.  The detailed images give ideas for fabrics and trim, while the simple line drawings show the basic dress lines. Pictoral Review June 1915 Pictoral Review June 1915 Pictoral Review June 1915 The simple line drawings also show other pattern variants, like the fancy puffed mameluke sleeves of 6203, instead of the simpler sleeves shown above. Pictoral Review June 1915 The July 1916 page shows fashions for spectators and sportswomen.  It should be pretty clear which is which! This page is quite interesting, because it shows how garments were considered ‘frocks’ or ‘dresses’ even when they were two-piece garments. (side note, how adorable are those hats?  The sculptural ribbons on the one with the plaid dress, and the little tipped-up bergere revival hat on the far right… delicious!) Check out how the …

A G & E Spitzer of Vienna embroidered pink chiffon and ivory satin gown with day and evening bodices, circa 1910 Sold by Kerry Taylor Auctions

Rate the Dress: Titanic era pink chiffon

Published by The Dreamstress

From bold stripes to delicate embroidery, from bell shapes to slinky slim numbers: we’re shaking things up on Rate the Dress with a Titanic era gown with two formal bodice options. How will the rating shake out in comparison? Last week: 1850s purple stripes and tassels Well.  It got compared to a circus tent.  Multiple times.  And lots of you really, really don’t like tassels.  And false fronts.  And the purple was hardly universally popular – not to mention there were diametrically opposite opinions about which possible shade was better! Some of you even disliked it so much that I had to remove a comment because it veered into being mean and insulting to people who did like the dress.  🙁  Please remember to be respectful of other commenter’s right to have different taste from you in Rate the Dress.  The fun is seeing how we all ‘see’ a dress: no one’s opinion is wrong. While most of you weren’t huge fans, it also got called ‘luscious’, and some of you thought it was really …