Mary Brooks Picken

  

Not too long ago, Lizzie at The Vintage Traveler wrote up a post on prolific author Mary Brooks Picken. Picken wrote many, many texts on sewing techinques and fashion from the Teens into the 1950s. My favorites are her texts on style. She was adamant about colors one could and could not wear, and she was quite strict on proper dress for the occasion. The charts are amazing. Sort of a What to Wear and What  Not to Wear in box chart form. As Lizzie said, she was on a crusade to stamp out Ugly.

Lizzie's post made me go to the bookshelf and get out my copy of Picken's 1918 Secrets of Distinctive Dress. And lo and behold , here is Ms. Picken herself: 

 

The text is sprinkled with photos of young film actresses, some of them not more than starlets, and a few opera singers of the day as examples of  beautiful dress and desired feminine qualities of  the time. One of the prettiest ensembles is on Marion Davies. She is about 21 years old  and had made perhaps 2 or 3 films at this point. I wonder if her inclusion was part of the big Hearst build up of her career?

 

bits and pieces, bits and pieces

  

First up , there's a great new resource for vintage clothing fans at the VFG. Maggie Wilds of denisebrain.com has been the catalyst for an ongoing fabric identification project, and now, after 5 years in the making, the Vintage Fashion Guild Fabric Resource has gone live. It's a great companion to the VFG Label Resource. You can look up a fabric term, you can look up fabric by fiber, by it's look or by it's use. This is  one of the handiest things I've seen in a while for those of us who handle older textiles.


And if you love Vintage eye candy as much as I do, be sure to check out the VFG Decades project, with submissions from the 1900s - 1980s. The 1920 - 29 section is especially nice, if I may say so.  VFG Fashion Parade: The Decades Project: 1920-1929
 
And my friend Lizzie makes some excellent points about the Olympic Uniforms dustup at her blog, The Vintage Traveler  
 
And because I couldn't possibly have a blog post without photos of dresses, here are two 1920s dresses we added to the site this month:

 

 

left,1920s Brocaded Lamé and Rose Floral Rose Chiffon Party Dress, right
1920s Navy and Gold Ethnic Style Woven Wool Dress

 

Heat leads to thinking.

It's a hot Sunday here. Too many days in the 100's  to be energetic. So most of the efforts expended lately have been on restoration,i.e., sewing in front of a fan. Photography will not happen here until the high drops down somewhere in the 80s and the photo lamps can come on again. 

So many hours stitching has led to some thoughts on current attitudes toward sewing and altering clothing. On the down side, I spend a lot of time taking out poorly done alterations in vintage clothing. Some done in the period or shortly thereafter, some done recently. Many are almost irreversible, and and quite a few leave permanent marks that down grade the value of the garment. That doesn't count the permanently cut off hems.

On the positive side, vintage clothing was made with enough seam allowance to be altered and the seams edges were finished separately so they could be easily unpicked. Not serged together, which is a little bit of hell to get apart. Manufactured clothing was good enough quality to be worth spending time and labor on to keep in it the closet and wearable when sizes and even fashion changed. 

I came to wonder how many women today would even consider shortening a hem, or taking a waist in? Clothing is seen as disposable, and is generally so cheaply made as to be unalterable anyway. Do people even mend their clothes now, or just throw them away? Much less make clothing for themselves?

Just yesterday I was bemoaning the lack of good fashion fabric stores in my area - everything is quilting, crafting or home decor. And then today I read an article that mentioned the sales of sewing machines were up in the US. It gave me hope that the art will survive. 

So what am I saying?  That while I love to find vintage fashions that  are unaltered, and I don't really enjoy resetting zippers and re-hemming skirts back to the original length, I think a world where clothes are valued enough to be worth investing labor in to fit properly and continue to wear over time  is a good one.

And if you want to think some more on this topic I recommend: The Vintage Traveler

Now, we can't leave without a pretty garment or two. And these are so nice for summer. 

L., Black & Pink Embroidered Taffeta 1950s Party Dress & R., 1960s Soft Lemon Yellow Linen Day Dress

July 4th

 

 

 Enjoy your "pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations"!

More 1920s Hats, and a Happy July 2

 

First up, today is the day the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a Resolution of Independence from Great Britain. This artwork is ca 1910 - rather cool, yes? I think we should call this Resolution Day.

Them, today's pretty hats, courtesy of a private collection and all now available at Past Perfect Vintage. The first three show the variety of crown shape used in 1920s cloches. Some were slightly square at top, some very round and other completely hugged the head. Brims could be small and turned up, wide and dropping or non-existent. Generally speaking, the higher,squarer crown is earlier, the brim can be large or small, but the simpler hat such as the knit would be later in the decade. And last, a very late 30s, early 1940s funnel shaped navy straw with white flowers and evil . A great hat from the period. 

    

   

L.  1920s Brown & Grey Deep Crowned Cloche, 

R. 1920s Peach Garden Party Summer Cloche by Mardé

 

 

 L. 1920s Green Knit Cloche with Yellow & Black Emblem,

R.  1930s Navy Tilt Hat with White Rose & Veil from NY Creations 

as always, size and price information is available at  Pastperfectvintage.com