All posts tagged: 1910s

Rate the Dress: 1910s blue, bustling & stripes

If there was a complaint about last week’s Rate the Dress, it was that it was prim, buttoned up, and while extremely fashionable, also extremely safe. This week I’ve picked a dress that is also extremely fashionable, but definitely a bit wacky. What will you make of it? Last Week: a ca. 1880 wedding dress It’s always interesting to do wedding dresses as Rate the Dress options. Do you rate them as a fashionable dress of that era, or as a wedding dress. Should a wedding dress be an excuse for extravagance and ridiculousness, or be conventional, safe and modest in its outlook towards fashion? How the ratings on last week’s dress fell depended partly on how you felt on that front – and then on whether you liked the disparate elements of that dress. The Total: 7.8 out of 10 Not really the score a bride would hope for! This week: a early-mid teens dress in bold stripes and bold cut The Goldstein Museum of Design dates this dress to 1915-18, but I think …

Spring Styles for 1915, thedreamstress.com

Spring Styles for 1915 from the Standard Mail Order Co.

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m out of posting inspiration for the time (or, more accurately, I’ve got lots of inspiration, but I’m out of the mindset that allows me to sit down and pursue an involved research idea), so I’m turning to the catalogue stash for blogging material again. Up today: two pages from the Standard Mail Order Co ‘Spring Styles for 1915’ catalogue. The Standard Mail Order Co was an American mail order company that operated in the 1900s-1910s. They sold men’s, women’s and children’s clothes, hats and shoes, as well as a range of toiletries, trimmings for hats and clothes, and a few other small personal items. As far as I can tell, it had no relationship the Standard Pattern Company, which put out the Designer Magazine at the same time. Based on other mail order catalogues in my collection, Standard was low-midrange. Their pricing is slightly higher than Sears (the ultimate budget mail order catalogue), but significantly lower than Bella Hesse & Co, the creme de la creme of mail order fashion magazines. The priciest frock …

Pictoral Review, April 1916 thedreamstress.com

Fashions for Staying at Home, 1916 Style

Published by The Dreamstress

Today was the first day of New Zealand’s lockdown. It will go on for at least 28 days. I work from home a lot, so other than Mr D being there, it wasn’t much different from many days: except I knew it was. It’s night now, and I’m feeling a little melancholy. Mr D is out taking groceries to someone who can’t go out at all, and the stress of the last few weeks has gotten to me. I’ll get past it. I know how incredibly privileged I am: we’re financially stable, we have a lovely warm house, a yard big enough to hang out it, and the lockdown rules allow us to go for walks in our neighbourhood. And it’s a pretty neighbourhood (pretty much all neighbourhoods in Wellington are pretty. It’s a very pretty city). But, like so many other people, I’m worried about family and friends, and grieving for those already lost. For now, I’m going to keep doing what I do: working on ways to help practically, just working (because I’m …