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.   

Posted in 1960s | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

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

Kill Dirt, Says Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Posted on June 24, 2026 by Lynn
Duke University Library

Excuse this detour to another topic in the 19th century. I’m currently doing research into views of spinsterhood in the early twentieth century, background for a project on the dashing spinster Tish. One of the most outspoken on the topic was novelist and feminist theorist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. While trying to figure out more about her life, I discovered she studied at the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduation, she initially made her living designing trade cards, a popular form of advertising.

Her work is quite whimsical, different from other trade cards I have seen. I particularly liked this one, showing a young female archer attacking dirt. Was it perhaps the embryo of her future analysis of housework? She would go on to criticize the sexual division of labor in the home that put all the hard jobs in the hands of women. Although the bold sportswoman above is still in charge of cleaning, she is making quick work of it. Don’t you wish it were so easy to kill dirt?

Posted in Pre 1900 | 1 Comment

Those Forties Prints

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Lynn
Found photo

Sometimes I think that people can be easily divided into simple categories, like those who like the morning and those who prefer the night.  Fashion offers many such stark divisions, such as the rift between those who favor flowing styles and those who like crisp tailored looks.  And lets not forget the gap between flowered and geometric textiles.

According to Jane Dormer’s wonderfully informative book, Fashion in the Forties and Fifties, on many levels fashion went through a big shake up at the end of World War Two.  Not only did the boxy, tailored suits and crisp shirtdresses of the forties fade into the more flowing and curvy confections of the fifties, but textile patterns moved from geometrics to florals.  “Ín the forties small abstract patterns composed typically of dots and dashes were popular,” she writes. “In the fifties stylized flowers were among the most favoured designs.”

This mother daughter photo has no date, but it is easy to place it squarely in the forties.  Not only are the skirts short, but the fabric is clearly in the geometric camp.  On the right we have polka dots, a classic for older women.  On the left is what looks like an interesting kidney shaped print.

For the record, here are my preferences—morning, tailored, geometric.  You’ll never catch me wearing flowers.

Posted in 1940s | Tagged | 1 Comment

On the Sunporch, 1959

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Lynn
Midcentury in Color

Sunporches—a glassed in or screened in patio—are something I associate with the South.  When I lived briefly in Florida as a child, the family TV was on the sunporch.  My in-laws in North Carolina had one that wrapped halfway around the house.  This one is fitted up like a comfortable room, with rattan furniture and a wall-to-wall carpet.

These two women look like they are dressed up for a special occasion. Maybe there was a party going on.  The one on the left wears a necklace and earrings.  Her dress is low cut enough that it might have been set aside for evenings out.  The woman on the right also wears a fancy dress, decorated with clips on the bodice.  The only one in an everyday outfit is the collie.

By 1959, dress styles were changing.  Waistless designs like the chemise and the trapeze shape were coming out of Paris, marking a shift to the boxier looks of the sixties.  These two women, however, stuck to the fit and flare silhouette of the fifties, although the dress on the right seems to have a lot less flare.  I wonder what they would be wearing a decade later.   

Posted in 1950s | 3 Comments

Sonia Delaunay, My Textile Muse

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Lynn
Victoria and Albert Museum

I’ve written about Sonia Delaunay before, a Ukrainian born French artist who made magic from color and geometric forms.  Although she had many artistic talents, the one I admire most was her skill at fabric design.

Victoria and Albert Museum

I am a serious seamstress, making most of my own clothes.  However, it is only recently that I have thought of designing fabric as well.  It is very easy to do these days, with sites like Spoonflower offering sophisticated tools.  Instead of the perfection of computer created designs, I’m drawn to the handmade look of Delaunay’s creations. 

Here’s an early effort. It’s harder than it looks and I can’t claim any native artistic ability. 

Vogue Adria

But perhaps one day you will see me in a Delaunay inspired Mally creation—although certainly not a dress!  I’ll keep you posted.

Posted in 1920s, 2020s | Tagged | 3 Comments