All posts tagged: 1930s

Rate the Dress: Vionnet does gold and bows

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I showed you an 1860s dress in buff alpaca with red trim.  I was sure  the lopsided bodice trim would be noticed, and wondered how much it would affect the rating.  While you all agreed it wasn’t ideal, I don’t think changing it would have hugely affected the rating: those of you who loved the dress liked it despite the wonky trim, and the rest of you found the dress boring, even with crazy tassels.  So the rating came in at 6.9 out of 10, which doesn’t really reflect how any of you felt about it! I actually thought the dress was rather awesome.  It clearly had some issues (asymmetrical tassels just over the bust is not a good thing), but every time I looked at it I imagined it being worn by an 1860s superhero.  It’s  Crinoline Girl!  She’s firing lightening bolts from the zig-zags on her arms!  Whipping  her Tassels of Doom (alas, I’m not very imaginative when it comes to naming weaponry) off from around her waist and using them …

Hallelujah textiles: A 1930s Hawaiian playsuit

Published by The Dreamstress

Do you collect vintage or historical textiles? If you do, you know there are the things on your wish list that you search for, and save up for, and eventually manage to get.  And then there are the things that are so rare, and amazing, and desirable that whenever they do show up for sale they are so ridiculously beyond your price range that it’s not possible.  Or the things that just never show up, because they were SO  rare in the first place. I tend to collect more by chance than design.  I don’t love shopping on the internet, which limits my options a lot, and I like the thrill of finding something unexpected at an op-shop or antique store.  And I like the unexpected stories that develop out of a less-planned collection. Still, there are some things that I desperately hope that one day I’ll get to love and care for and study.  My holy grails.  My ultimate wish list.  Hallelujah textiles.  I was lucky enough to be gifted an amazing quilted petticoat …

Fashions for Winter 1931, from The NZ Mirror

Published by The Dreamstress

Since it’s definitely hit winter weather here in NZ I thought you might enjoy some fashion inspiration for Winter 1931. These are from the August 1931 edition of The Mirror (because, of course, August is definitely winter in NZ!) First, some rather delicious coats, as they were ‘Favoured in Paris’:   #1 is a three-quarter ensemble in checked wool, trimmed with beige astrakhan (blech). #2 is “the new collarless tailored coat in tweed jersey.’   Looks, and sounds, very wearable indeed! #3 ‘The tunic coat…in navy serge trimmed with persian lamb’ (i.e. astrakhan by another name, still blech). #4 ‘The loose bolero coat, in black velvet, worn with a tweed or checked skirt’.  So fabulous, and also so very modern – nothing new in fashion at all! And to go with your chic coats, a lovely selection of blouses: I particularly like the asymmetrical number at top left, and the lower left number with it’s cunning cross details – though  I think I’d struggle to get away will all the frills and fuss. Can you …