Portrait with Yucca, 1928

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Lynn
Found photo

I puzzled over this photo for a long time.  Is she an older woman or not?  Her cropped hair is certainly a style favored by the young in 1928, and it looks like she might be pregnant.  However, elements of her face, particularly her chin and the lines around her mouth, make me think she is older. 

Perhaps it is a later pregnancy.  One article I discovered said that the average age for women to have their last child in the 1920s was 42.  This woman might have been on the upper side of that average, nearer to fifty. The shoes won’t help us determine her age. Those fabulous strappy shoes of the 1920s were worn by old and young alike.

Maternity dress or not, it is interesting that it has no waistline at all.  If you read through this informative post on the blog Witness to Fashion, you will see that even maternity dresses had dropped waistlines in the late 1920s.  Perhaps this was some kind of overdress, with the hem of another outfit peaking out from the bottom.  It is possible that she made it herself, current styles be damned.

Does the soapweed yucca give us any clue to where the picture was taken?  I have yucca plants in my backyard, so I originally thought might be California.  It turns out I am mistaken.  This plant originates in the grasslands and prairies of the US and Canada and is cultivated in many other places, so there is little chance of pinning the location down. I think she is posed to show just how tall the plant can grow.

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“Five Babushkas,” 1970s. A Photo by Rod Bradley

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Lynn
Photo by Rod Bradley

I’m slowly forgetting all the Russian I learned in my career as a historian of the Soviet Union. However, I do remember that the proper plural of the word babushka (grandmother) is babushki.  I suppose I should be glad that the photographer knew what babushka meant—it is not a term for a head scarf.  In Russia it is used for any old woman, grandmother or not.

I found this photo in a collection of poems, short stories, and photographs called When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple, named after the famous poem.  It is an inspiring collection with many wonderful pictures, but Rod Bradley is the only photographer  famous enough to find a life on the internet.  This one comes from a collection documenting life on Venice Beach, California.

When I first saw this photo, it was hard to guess where it was taken.  It could have been on Brighton Beach in New York City or maybe even a lonely beach somewhere in Russia. The women all wear light colored coats of various vintages.  Perhaps the one front and center with its giant buttons is from the sixties.  Two wear headscarves (a platok in Russian), two wear hats, and one is bareheaded.  Only the sandals on the left and peaking out on the right show that it is not dead winter. 

How interesting that only one is looking at the photographer and none looking at one another.  I imagine they came out every day just to sit in the sun, whether they had something to say or not.

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A Remade Sari Dress, 1971

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Lynn
Found photo, dated on the back

I was ready to call this remake of a sari an unwelcome appropriation of traditional clothing.  A South Asian woman on my block who sold her saris before she died expressed a final wish that they not be cut up into dresses.

Blush by Mounika

However, in my search for sari remakes I discovered that this is a practice in South Asia as well.  Why not reuse the stunning fabric in another design? 

Wikipedia

Sari fabric can be up to nine meters long.  One end, called the pallu, is highly decorated and traditionally worn over the shoulder.  The rest of the fabric has fewer decorative elements, but usually has a strip echoing the pallu along the side. 

With some knowledge of sari fabric, I think I can see how the dress was constructed. Whoever made it placed the pallu on the bottom.  The pattern of the fabric changes around the wrist, indicating a seam.  The dressmaker used the remaining fabric to construct the rest of the dress, embellishing the waist, sleeve and neck with the side trim.

What was the occasion for this dress?  I hope it was not for a costume party. If someone found it decades later, lets hope they reused the beautiful fabric again. 

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A Clutch Coat in the Early 1920s

Posted on January 9, 2024 by Lynn
Found photo

I’ve never understood clutch coats.  They are meant to be open at the neck, and sometimes you even have to hold them closed with your hand if no other fastener is provided.  But don’t you get cold around the neck, undermining the purpose of a coat altogether?  This one might be fastened somewhere around the hips, but it still leaves her throat and a good bit of her chest exposed.  Fashion—who can explain it?

Given the cut of the coat and the shape of the hat, this picture most likely was taken in the first half of the 1920s.  Skirt lengths rose and fell during the decade, reaching their longest in 1923.  Even so, the coat is quite long. Perhaps this older woman did not want to expose much of her ankles.  And here’s another puzzle–the trim is fur and heavy looking, while the main material appears somewhat flimsy.

Given the leafy trees and thriving lawn, it certainly doesn’t look very cold out.  Perhaps she is giving the coat a test run before the winter. 

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New Year’s Day at Ocean Beach in San Diego, 1918

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Lynn
The San Diego Historical Society via the Online Archive of California

Greeting the New Year with a dive into water is a tradition in many parts of the world.  In South America the water might be warm, while in Russia it is surely icy.  Although temperatures usually hover in the sixties in a typical San Diego winter, the Pacific is a cold ocean.  I suspect it took some willpower to pose for this photo.

It appears that at least two families are pictured here.  The oldest looking woman stands in the center in a long bathing suit with modest trim around the neckline.  She also wears a bathing cap.  The younger woman to the left of her has on a more interesting outfit decorated with stripes on the bottom of her suit.  Note her lace up gillie shoes, a style with no chance of coming off in the water.

At the moment this picture was taken, the adults look quite dry.  Do you think they made it into the ocean?

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Considering Mrs. Claus

Posted on December 25, 2023 by Lynn
Photo by Frances E. Brammer, Wyoming State Archives

A recent viewing of Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street made me consider the fate of Mrs. Claus (or Kringel), the often forgotten partner of Santa.  Her history stretches back to the nineteenth century, but she is almost always left out of real life festivities.  How many times have you seen her at the mall?

The Mrs. Claus above is an exception, appearing in a Christmas festival in Cheyenne Wyoming in the 1970s.  She an exception in another way as well.  When Mrs. Claus appears in advertising images, she is either fat and jolly or scantily clad and sexy.  The woman above is neither.  I can’t quite tell if she is old, but I like her outfit.  The fur trim on her coat is a nod to traditional Santa elements, while her go-go boots place her firmly in her era.  That must have been a fun parade!

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Christmas Tamales, 1960

Posted on December 14, 2023 by Lynn
Los Angeles Public Library via Calisphere

If you are lucky enough to live in an area where people have come from Mexico or Central America, you might know about the Christmas tamale tradition.  Although this sweet or savory confection is made for many different holidays, it is most closely associated with the Christmas season. 

“Tamalada” by Carmen Lomas Garza, 1990

Tamales have their origin in Mesoamerican cultures and predate the arrival of Christianity.  Making them is an elaborate process, often a group event called a Tamalada.  You can see the many steps above: washing the corn husks, spreading a corn paste called masa over the husk, adding a filling of almost anything, rolling and tying the bundles, and finally steaming them on the stove.  Many hands make light work.

Let’s hope the woman in the photograph above was not working all alone.  You can see her tying up the bundles, a stack of corn husks in front of her.  Although we know the photo was taken in 1960s, there is little to indicate the year.  She wears a polka dot dress covered by a cardigan, protected below by an apron.  It could be 1940, 1960, or even today.

Good tamales are my favorite food in the world.

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Statement Sleeves, ca. 1922

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Lynn
Found photo

Big sleeves are in style these days.  However, even the generous sleeves of today are no match for this creation.  It looks almost like a kimono sleeve.  Note the light and shadow around her top arm, though.  Is the sleeve is somehow attached to a cape in back?  Or has someone sewn another seam closer to the arm to keep the weaver warmer? I would love to hear what you think.

The fur is short and dense, a luxurious look.  It might be mouton, a cut sheepskin, or perhaps a more expensive fur.  The collar looks to be from another animal.  The amazing stripes draw attention to the sleeves—they truly make a statement!  It appears to be a clutch coat, a popular twenties style made without closures.  The big belt keeps it together.  Judging by the skirt length, the photo dates to the early 1920s.  Note that the skirt is slightly longer than the coat.  Since skirts rose constantly until the late twenties, the coat was probably a newer purchase.    

From the blog Witness to Fashion

The images above, from the fashion and sewing magazine The Delineator in 1922, show clutch coats with a similar tie waists.  They also have very generous sleeves.  Maybe our model went overboard with the current style?

Although I’m guessing, I believe she qualifies as an older woman.  We can’t see much of her face, given the low cloche hat.  However, the thin lips, loose chin and wide waist makes me think that she is.

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Dottie Quinn–A Life in Pants

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Lynn

I love being able to follow a woman’s clothing choices from youth to age, sometimes possible when I stumble upon a family photo collection online.  That was the case for Sylvia Dorothy Quinn, known to all as Dottie.  Her husband, Alfred T. Quinn, was a well-known educator in Santa Monica, CA.  Someone donated a collection of photos and documents tracing meaningful moments in his life to UCLA archives.  Some 35 pictures of Dottie appeared among them.  They clearly document a lifetime favoring pants.  While many are headshots with unknown bottoms, only one photo shows her clearly in a dress.

Born in Los Angeles 1924, Dottie was an early adopter of pants.  The picture on the left shows her in front of Venice High School.  The snap shot might have been taken when she was still in school or soon after she married in 1943.  At any rate, she was part of the move to pants during World War Two.

By 1960, many women were relaxing at home in pants—but certainly not all of them.  The middle photo shows Dottie in her mid-1930s.  She obviously favored pants for leisure wear. 

The picture on the right, taken at a family wedding, is the best evidence I found of Dottie’s love of pants.  While I wear pants to weddings, I am often the outlier and I wasn’t born in 1924.  Dottie is bucking tradition here.  One can see a glimpse of a gray haired woman behind her in a fluffy dress, a more common choice for the older set.

Dottie, 2005

The most recent picture in the collection shows Dottie in 2005, just a year before she died.  Although we can’t see it clearly in this photo, I would bet she is wearing a pair of pants.  By the new millennium, most older women had caught up with this trendsetter. 

Posted in 1940s, 1960s, 1980s, 2000s, General | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Thanksgiving Travel, 1951

Posted on November 22, 2023 by Lynn
Los Angeles Times Examiner

The caption for this photo reads: “92-year-old great grandmother Mrs. C. C. Adams of Hooker, Oklahoma, reversed the old saying ‘over the hills to grandma’s house’ when she decided to take her first flight via TWA Skycoach to greet part of her large family in Glendale, California for Thanksgiving Day.” 

This was a publicity photo for TWA, published in the Los Angeles Examiner in November 1951.  Looking past the staged elements, it is interesting to see what this spry 92 year old is wearing on her first airplane trip.  Of course her outfit includes a hat, a trimmed beret style, and gloves. Her simple hoop earrings go nicely with her round “granny glasses.” She is dressed for cold weather, with a dress and cardigan under her winter coat.  My eye, trained by sewing, was immediately drawn to the coat’s beautiful details.  That is a bound buttonhole, a feature that you rarely see today unless you make your own clothes.

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