Experiments in Hat Design, 1940

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Lynn
Bella Hess Catalog, 1940

Is it really part of fashion history if no one ever wore it?  I have seen a lot of pictures from the 1940s, but nowhere have I seen a pie plate turban.  Nonetheless, it is my sense that clothing catalogs generally followed current trends rather than trying to invent something new. I wonder who came with the idea this strange combo of turban and hat that “perches over one eye in the most becoming way!”  And the bow in the middle, as if the pie plate weren’t enough on its own.

I’ll keep my eye out for a photo and hope you will do the same.

Posted in 1940s | Tagged | 1 Comment

Three Generations in Florida, 1952

Posted on August 28, 2026 by Lynn
From the collection of James Zurek

Such vibrant colors in this photo, and such a clear delineation between generations.  The daughter looks quite stylish in her plaid shirtdress.  I love the creative use of the plaids—some skillful pattern matching went into the stitching of the dress.  I was reminded of some of the outfits of Claire McCardell, who also loved to manipulate plaids.

The mother/grandmother wears shirtdress in a much more expected, old lady style.  The lavender color had been recommended to the older set for decades and the faint flower pattern fades into the background.  It does have pockets, though, something missing from a lot of modern women’s clothing.

The happy red headed child is in a Taylor Tot stroller—quite valuable if you happen to have one in good condition in your garage.  It looks like it’s made entirely of wood and metal.  The age of all plastic had not yet arrived.

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Helena Modjeska of Poland and California

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Lynn
Santa Ana Public Library via Calisphere

One of America’s leading Shakespearean actresses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was born in Poland and spoke English with a pronounced Polish accent.  Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) was famous on Polish stages when she immigrated to California with her husband in 1876. After a false start as would-be farmers in Anaheim, they bought a ranch in nearby Santiago Canyon. Since the ranch made no money either, Modjeska took to the American stage to support her family.  Eventually she founded her own traveling troupe, introducing cities and towns in the United States to an elevated repertoire of Shakespeare, other classics, and contemporary plays. The Los Angeles Herald called her “the queen of Shakespearean tragedy” in 1905.

Fashion is an important subject in a recent biography, Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America. “Like other stars of her era,” writes the author Beth Holmgren, “she chose costumes to suit her role, flatter her figure, and show off the latest fashion” (156). Once Modjeska took total control of her acting company, she changed her approach to stage costumes.  She did detailed historical research and designed all the costumes herself.  To engage her fashion obsessed audiences, she always included one contemporary element in her designs. “The Renaissance garb she designed for her 1895 Viola sported the puffy leg o’ mutton sleeves popular in the 1890s.”(192)

In 1905, at the age of sixty-five, Modjeska began to slow down.  She launched a national “farewell tour” starting at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Printed interviews always included a description of her clothes. As one enthusiastic New York reporter noted, “She wore a wonderful creation of a tea gown in which changeable pink and gray taffeta was combined with pale blue velvet, butter colored lace and storks in Oriental embroidery.” Too bad I couldn’t find a picture of that creation.

When she died in 1909, Modjeska’s body made its way across the United States and met with respectful grieving crowds. By this time she was so famous that she had inspired china patterns, perfumes, and specialty candies.  There are still many traces of Modjeska’s vibrant life here in Southern California, including Modjeska Canyon, where her house “Arden” is now a museum. 

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Betye Saar’s Jeweled Eye, 2019

Posted on August 13, 2026 by Lynn
Betye Saar and Neil Lane at LACMA, November 2, 2019. All images from Lets Get it On

Celebrated Los Angeles artist Betye Saar died recently just before her 100th birthday.  In addition to her work as an assemblage artist, she also had a long career as a costume designer and maker of original clothes.  This aspect of her life in art is documented in the new book Let’s Get it on: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar.  To my disappointment, there wasn’t much about the clothes she made for herself and it was short on pictures of her as an older woman. 

However, one short article was worth a blog post.  She and her friend, the jewelry designer Neil Lane, decided to make a signature jewelry piece for her to wear at the opening of her 2019 show at LACMA.  To adorn the turban she planned to wear, they collaborated on a piece that would evoke the Eye of Horus. 

This symbol, which for Saar signified protection, restoration, and insight, appeared in many of her assemblages.  Together Saar and Neil planned every element of the jeweled eye, including the size and color of the stones.  Did she wear it again before she died?

This story made me think once again of signature jewelry pieces. What should mine be? A charm bracelet with a sewing machine and a computer? A pin made of fabric covered with writing? And what about yours?

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The Cheerful Granny of 1974

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Lynn
Ebony, December 1974

Here’s another twist on the cheerful granny used as an advertising tool. As in other ads I’ve found, the grandmother is depicted inside the home. However, this ad in Ebony magazine shows an extended African American family at a holiday dinner.  It is also a photograph, not a drawing, giving us much greater details about how the older women’s dress fits in with other family members. 

To my eye, three elements mark the woman at the center as older—her graying hair, her slightly old-fashioned glasses, and her button up shirtwaist style dress.  While we can see the same elements in earlier ads with grandmothers, I think this photograph does not set the older woman so far apart from the others.  Her graying hair is in a loose natural style—this is after all the seventies—not radically different than others at the table. Her glasses look a little like the jeweled cat-eyed shape of the fifties, but she does not stand out that much from the others.  While her light blue dress has the cut of an older era, the colors fit in with younger family members. 

Although she might have worked hard to get the dinner on the table, this grandmother is at ease in the center, surrounded by loved ones.  She is not working to earn her keep; she is celebrated as the heart of the family.

Posted in 1970s | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Dressed to the Nines, Late 1950s

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Lynn
Found photo

This put-together older woman looks like she heading to a fancy affair.  She has the necessary elements of a dressed-up 1950s style, including a hat and gloves.  For an extra dash of elegance, she added her fur scarf.

Vintage Sewing Patterns

I’m dating this photo to the late 1950s because of the skirt length that skims the bottom of her knees, as is shown in the 1959 Vogue pattern above.  By the start of sixties, fashionable skirt lengths started to rise.  Of course, the photo could have been taken well into the 1960s. Perhaps, like many other older women, she decided shorter skirts weren’t for her.  The photo shows that she kept styles she liked from earlier eras.  The fur scarf is just one example.  The peep-toe shoes, a little chunky in the heel, are another.  I think they look more like shoes from the 1940s.  While the style made it into the 1950s, popular versions were sleeker and usually had stiletto heels.

I love this woman’s confidence, stepping out with her cane and ready to face the day.  She looks like she’s wearing clothes she loved, no matter when she acquired them.

Posted in 1950s, 1960s | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

World War Two Style Headscarves

Posted on July 22, 2026 by Lynn
Found photo

Headscarves were a popular accessory for women in the World War Two era.  I’ve read a few different explanations.  Women at work in factories, ala Rosie the Riveter, needed to keep their hair out of the way of machinery.  Since many women were in charge of both wage earning and family, scarves were an easy way to stop fussing with their hair.  And perhaps the headscarf just became a practical style.  That might be the case for these two older women, most likely out of the workforce, pictured on a windy beach.  Maybe they turned to scarves to keep their hair in place.

Like neck scarves, headscarves could be tied in different ways. The woman in the dark dress wears hers in a common style, with the bow in the front.  The one on the right has a more exuberant construction, perhaps an attempt at a turban?  From a 21st century perspective, it looks a little like a bike helmet. 

The woman on the left wears a typical “old lady” outfit, with granny glasses, a lace collar, and sensible shoes.  In fact, she looks very much like the “Gracious Lady” in Sears catalogs.  Maybe she had a job after all.

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Burda Magazine, 1978

Posted on July 17, 2026 by Lynn

Burda is a famous name in the sewing world.  For over seventy-five years, the company has published a monthly fashion magazine with sewing patterns included. It was begun by Aenna Burda, wife of a German publishing magnate, in 1950. By the mid sixties it had a subscription base of over a million. During the Gorbachev reforms, it was translated in Russian and published in the Soviet Union, the first Western fashion magazine to achieve such a status. In 1995, the first Chinese edition was launched. Now it is distributed all around the world and published in seventeen different languages.  These days Burda Style also has an active on line presence.

A German friend brought me two old Burda Moden (Burda Fashions) from her mother’s extensive collection. They are a fascinating read. While today’s Burda Style deals almost exclusively with clothes, in 1978 it was more of a typical women’s magazine. It opened with a letter from Aenne Burda on edifying topics—in my two issues they are on the wisdom of ancient philosophers and the dangers of alcohol. Alongside dress patterns are recipes, kitchen designs, and even an exclusive Burda diet. 

And what about older women?  Although age is never mentioned, there is a section called “In a feminine Style,” (“Im fraulichen Stil”), a phrase could be decoded as a synonym for “old.” These included larger sizes. The pattern for the dress above came in a European size 50 (46” bust, 38” waist, 48” hip) and a size 21 (36” bust, 29” waist, 39” hip) designed for shorter women.

I love to look through Burda Style, but I don’t often use the patterns because you have to trace them yourself. Today’s Burda users often complain about the complicated pattern sheets, but they are much simpler now than they were in 1978. The little heart diagram aside, doesn’t this look like a plan an explosive device?

Posted in 1970s | Tagged | 3 Comments

Installing the Sybil Ludington Statue, 1961

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Lynn
A Mighty Girl, Facebook

This picture showed up unbidden in my Facebook feed and unlike the many unsolicited ads that come my way, I was happy to see it. I knew nothing about the brave Revolutionary War heroine, Sybil Ludington.  Her ride through Putnam County, New York to rally troops against the British rivaled that of Paul Revere. 

The photo shows members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who solicited the statue, at its installation in Carmel Hamlet, New York.  The women range from old to young, with a remarkable collection of outfits among them.

The oldest looking woman, second on the right, has on clothes that give a nod to the early decades of the twentieth century.  The skirt is long and she wears a man’s tie, a common look for the feminist inclined in that era.  The woman third from the left has one a suit that might be from the late 1930s or early 1940s, with a boxy fit and broad shoulders. Her small “doll hat,” worn at an angle, comes from that time period. The young girl on the far left wears the common shirtwaist style of the fifties, complete a full skirt probably held up by many petticoats.

That leaves three older women (second left, fourth left, first right) wearing clothes that are right in style.  Did they buy their outfits specifically for this special occasion? Note that two are without hats, and one even without gloves.  The codes defining “well dressed” were changing.   

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Country Club Dress Codes

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Lynn
Instagram

A friend was recently invited to a pre-wedding event in the dining room of a local country club.  The invitation included an extensive dress code, something I had never heard of before. Here it is in its boldfaced entirety:

DRESS CODE

The Club expects the attire of its Members and guests to be in keeping with the generally accepted standards prevalent in comparable Clubs. All persons entering the Club are to be appropriately dressed for the occasion. The Club reserves the right to deny access to the facilities to anyone dressed improperly. The following guidelines assist Members and guests in maintaining a standard of good taste that is necessary to maintain the dignity of the Club.


ACCEPTABLE GOLF COURSE ATTIRE

All clothing should be changed in the locker room. Soft spikes or non spiked athletic shoes are required for all golfers. Women’s shorts and skirts are acceptable provided the outer seam measures no less than 18 inches and is no more than 5 inches above the knee. NO DENIM ALLOWED. Sleeveless shirts must have collars. Men’s shirts must have a collars and must be tucked in at all times. Shorts must be within 4 inches of the knee. Banded shirts and full buttoned shirts that are evenly hemmed may be untucked.


ACCEPTABLE CLUBHOUSE ATTIRE

Denim is not permitted in the dining room or on the course at any time. No stocking or bare feet in the dining areas.


UNACCEPTABLE ATTIRE

Denim, cut-offs, baseball hats worn backwards, t-shirts, cargo shorts, warm up and athletic wear, hooded sweatshirts, flip flops and sandals.

Of course I had to research the phenomenon.  Was it true that these strict rules were really “generally accepted standards prevalent in comparable clubs”?

Waterlefe River Club

It turns out that some clubs are even stricter.  The code above bans all shorts from the dining room.

Were there codes from the beginning, or just when clothing in general became more casual?  In some commentaries, I read that clubs were trying to encourage the look of “old money,” presumably the aesthetic of original members (or what the original members were imagined to be).

Instagram

Do the rules enforce modesty?  If we take this photo taken at the Scranton PA club as an indication, apparently, they do not.  No skirt length rules for the club house!  Or might this dress qualify as shorts?

Posted in 2020s | Tagged , | 3 Comments