Miss Blankenship’s Clothes

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Lynn

I never liked Madmen.  There’s enough sexism in daily life to make watching more on TV a chore.  Since I quit after a few episodes, I never got to know Ida Blankenship.  She was an older secretary, assigned to Don Draper in Season Four as a punishment after he slept with all the younger ones.  Tipster extraordinaire Davrie Caro sent me a YouTube clip of all her scenes. 

Was Miss Blankenship incompetent or sadistic?  She announced to callers when Don was asleep or in the bathroom.  She also let everyone know what a big drinker he was.  The joke was that she had been something of a sexual adventurer in her youth.

But we are here about the clothes.  She appeared most often in a suit, although once she wore a sweater jacket.  The suits were usually dull colored, like grey, oatmeal, and beige.  The exception was a purple one that seemed to be a favorite.  None of the jackets fit her well, giving the impression that she once had had a bigger chest.  Perhaps a sly allusion to her wicked past?    

The costumers had fun imagining an older office lady with all the accessories that went with that stereotype—sensible shoes, cat eye glasses on a string, bouffant hair sprayed into immobility, and dainty pins.  Her white blouses were always buttoned up to the neck, often secured with yet another pin.  Some had lace trim.  After an eye operation, she started wearing sunglasses.

Other than a brief mention her past, Miss Blankenship is presented as someone with no life at all outside the office.  Perhaps it was fitting, then that she died at her desk.  At least she was wearing a favorite outfit—her purple suit, a ruffly high necked shirt, and a circle pin. 

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Molly Goldberg Dresses, 1950s

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Lynn

Will I ever get over my fascination with half sizes, that now forgotten size range that fit many older bodies better?  In my research on this topic, I came across another celebrity line from the 1950s that targeted a very different audience that Gloria Swanson’s Forever Young dresses.

While Gloria Swanson is still a name many people know, Molly Goldberg is not.  The line was named after a beloved Jewish-American character, Molly Goldberg, written and played by Gertrude Berg on the radio beginning in 1929 and on television starting in 1945. Learn more about this fascinating woman here.  On her role in American media, see Emily Nussbaum’s recent article in the New Yorker, “The Forgotten Inventor of the Sit-Com.“

Berg was an extremely popular entertainer when the line started.  Although she was American born and solidly middle class, the character she created was a big hearted, big chested Jewish immigrant in a working-class family in the Bronx. The show followed the everyday challenges faced by Molly, her husband who worked in the garment business, and their two children. 

A scene from the TV show The Goldbergs

The Molly Goldberg dress line was a clear instance of life imitating art.  Selling in half sizes up to 32 ½, the line was aimed at larger women. The majority were cotton housedresses with lower prices. References to the home were everywhere. Most included a picture of Gertrude Berg leaning out of an apartment window, a signature scene from the TV show. Ad copy often made it clear that larger women were the intended audience. “Molly knows what a big woman wants in a housedress,” asserted a 1951 ad in the New York Daily News. “She wants deep hems that can be let down, comfortable gussets and yoke back. And she wants smart styling at a low price.”

Although it had its heyday in the 1950s, the line lasted until the late 1960s when half sizes themselves began to disappear.

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Mother of the Bride, mid 1960s

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Lynn
Found photos

I think these two have gone for a “mother/daughter” look, although not quite as obvious as exact copies.  They have both chosen high-neck dresses with long, puffy sleeves cuffed at the wrists.  Their dresses are both of shiny fabric.  Perhaps they were even the same color—these eBay snapshots were so discolored that even after using Photoshop I can’t really tell what color the mother’s dress is.  White? Yellow? Green?

Wedding dresses in the mid 1960s were much more modest than the strapless versions so common today.  Long sleeves were common.  However, this bride is so covered up that her mother looks slightly racy in comparison.  The mother’s neckline is not so high and the shape of her arms are visible.  Since her dress is short, you can also see her legs.

I’ve learned that the unusual hat the bride wears with her veil has come to be called a French hood, although the original French headgear lay flat on the head.  It is very similar to the Russian kokoshnik, which could stand up very tall.  These headpieces are quite common in traditional Russian costumes.  Somehow I imagine the bride looking to France rather than Russia for her inspiration.

What a nice shot of the much shorter mother stepping up on a chair to crown her daughter on her wedding day.  I looked a lot different when I was mother of the bride.

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A Summer Wedding

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Lynn
Found photo

I think this happy woman is attending a summer wedding.  What other reason could there be to get so dressed up during the day?  The dress looks white here, but it could be any other light pastel color. 

Another outfit with tucks and pleats!  The sleeves on the bolero jacket and the jacket itself indicate it also might be from the late 1930s.  The blog Witness to Fashion shows many similar bolero styles, including sewing patterns, from the same era.  If this woman made her own outfit, she did a wonderful job.  Her gauntlet gloves are another thirties touch.

Maybe she is a favorite aunt, gifted a corsage to match the wedding flowers. Or is she perhaps the bride herself?

Posted in 1930s | Tagged | 5 Comments

Seeing Double—Picture Postcards, ca. 1900

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Lynn
Found photos

These two studio photographs were apparently taken on the same day. Take a close look at the clothing and you will see it is the same except for the woman’s collar.  I wonder if this often happened—that sitters got their pictures taken in front of different backgrounds and decided later whether they were in the mood for a subtle setting or a tropical locale.

The husband is at the center of things here, with that broad expanse of white shirt and vest to draw in the eye.  His wife stands in the background in a supporting role.  Her dress comes from the late 19th or early twentieth century, with its high collar and puff sleeves.  The hat is also typical for that time period.  Note that she is wearing the “big black dress” common to women of her age.  Her hourglass shape was undoubtedly enhanced by a stiff corset.

Both photos are printed on postcard stock so that they could be sent in the mail.  According to Robert Pols’ informative book, Family Photographs, 1860-1945, the practice of using photos for postcards started in the mid-nineteenth century.  By the turn of the twentieth century, studio photographers had all the materials handy to print up cards for their clients, as well as the backdrops to change the mood.

Which copy did the couple send out?  I would have recommended the plainer one, where the man doesn’t appear quite so pleased with himself and the is woman not as unhappy.  She looks like the last person on earth who would enjoy a trip to the tropics.

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Easter Sunday, 1960

Posted on June 7, 2025 by Lynn
Found photo

I love Easter photos because they show women in their dress-up clothes and give you a sense of what the codes for proper attire were at the time. In this photo, taken just as the fashion revolution of the sixties was getting started, many elements are in transition. Both women have on floral hats, marking both Easter and Spring. Both wear coats on what looks like a breezy, somewhat chilly day.  Their coat styles are quite different, however. The younger woman on the left has on a dressy version made from a shiny material with a wide collar and elbow length sleeves, covering up her lower arms with very long gloves.  Her older companion, most likely her mother, wears a more traditional cloth coat but no gloves.  Although I imagined that fashion rules of the time would dictate that shoes and purses should match, note that hers do not. She also has no trouble wearing white shoes before Memorial Day.

Unfortunately, we can’t see anything of the older woman’s dress, but the coat length is certainly consistent with clothing from the fifties. Her companion, however, reveals that skirt lengths were on the rise. 

This is as much a car photo as a fashion shot.  On the back is written, “Easter Sun., April 17, 1960. 1960 Plymouth.”

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Tucks and Pleats

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Lynn
Found photos

Even plain colored dresses can be made interesting through the inventive use of tucks and pleats, a common feature in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  These dresses share other distinctive elements of the era, especially the puffed sleeves that certainly don’t flatter every figure. 

Sears catalog, 1939

The dress on the left has similar details to those found in Sears catalogs from 1939. Note, however, that our woman’s pleats are much fancier, showing an inserted printed fabric. It must have looked wonderful when she moved.

Sears catalog, 1942-43

The picture on the right was taken during the Second World War, evident because of the two stars in the window.  They indicate that the family had two children in the war.  Let’s hope the stars were blue; gold stars would have meant that the children were dead.  Her look is somewhat simpler, adorned mainly with the decorations on the high chest. I wonder if the dress was news or if she had bought it before the war. The longer skirt length was no longer in fashion, but not everyone cared to follow the latest trends. 

These women certainly look related, although I didn’t keep careful enough track of my eBay purchases to note if they came in the same batch.  I’m even wondering if it could be the same woman, aged by her experience in the war.

Posted in 1930s, 1940s | Tagged | 2 Comments

Pearls at a Picnic, Redux

Posted on May 23, 2025 by Lynn
Found photo shared by James Zurek

What would you wear to a picnic?  I don’t expect older women of the 1950s to dress as casually as we do today.  Nonetheless, I’m surprised that a beaded necklace and earrings are part of the wardrobe.  These semi-dressed-up feasts of yesteryear puzzle me.  Are they perhaps post-Church outings?   My family was not very big on church, so I don’t have similar experiences to share.

At any rate, the older woman wearing white beads sports a well-coordinated outfit—a brown and white gingham dress, a white sweater, and a matching brown coat.  Her beads and earrings match the button decorations on the dress.  And note her wonderful glasses with clip-on sunglass frames.  She is certainly the belle of the picnic.  The older woman on the right is plain in comparison, although she also wears jewelry. 

The food looks delicious, with fried chicken and pie on the table.  The gentleman to the left appears to be enjoying a big piece of chocolate cake, caught forever on the way to his mouth.

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A Visit with Grandmother, 1936

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Lynn
Found photo

It’s no mystery that these three are related.  Just look at their noses!  The grandmother and mother share the same body shape and the little boy tilts his head just like his mom. 

Was the grandmother’s dress homemade?  If you look closely, you will see that the design on the skirt is not aligned across the panels.  The belt is made from the same fabric, but rectangles are set horizontally, not vertically.  To my eye, this disrupts the pattern even more.

There are interesting differences between older and younger styles.  The older woman covers up more of her upper arms, an area long considered problematic for the older set.  She wears tried-and-true oxfords, while the daughter has on casual saddle shoes, already very popular in the 1930s.  The grandmother’s dress is slightly longer, also indicating a more conservative style.  Both like ruffles, but the grandmother likes them more.  However, in one area, the grandmother’s outfit looks a bit more modern to me.  Her dress has an interesting geometric pattern, while the daughter has chosen small florals, more common on the old. The little boy is right in style with his swim shorts.  He looks bit impatient—when will he get to the water?

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Mother’s Day Without a Mother

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Lynn

My mother died over a year ago, just a few months before her 100th birthday.  Last year I didn’t pay any attention to Mother’s Day, but this year it suddenly hit me that there was no place to bring flowers.   

Born and raised in Illinois, my mother signed up for nursing school during World War II and worked in Chicago hospitals when she finished.  That’s where she met my father, then a graduate student at the University of Chicago.  He had just returned from the war, after flying missions all over the world as an Air Force navigator.

They married at the University of Chicago Chapel in 1947.  All the wedding pictures I found are very fuzzy—apparently hiring professionals was not yet part of the marriage ritual.  I don’t know where or why the picture above was taken, but this is the only good photo I have of the two together.  Where did she get the frilly blouse?  I wonder if my grandmother, an expert seamstress, made it for her.

When I was six, my father died in a car crash.  At just 32, my mother was a single mom raising three children aged 2, 6, and 8. After the tragedy we moved to be near one of her sisters. When my uncle got a new job in Southern California, we went with them and moved into the house next door.  I remember most of my childhood as a fun time with my siblings and five cousins.

When I was in high school, she remarried another Air Force pilot.  I remember her Chanel-esque suit and silver necklace.  Although she outgrew and gave away the suit, she kept the necklace until she died.   That happy union gave her four stepchildren.   Mother said that one of her proudest achievements was making sure everyone went to college.

Her two sisters were her best friends.  They met as often as they could.  The picture above, taken in 1984, shows my mother’s preference for comfortable clothes as she aged.

By happy accident, my husband and I got jobs about an hour’s drive away from her soon after our daughter was born.  Even though she was already in her mid-sixties then, she was a loving and energetic grandmother. 

The two had a wonderful, close relationship.

She treasured her little house across the street from the ocean, the scene of so many family celebrations.  The picture above with her sisters was taken just a few months before she had to move to a board and care home.  It was very difficult transition, but she worked hard to keep up her good spirits.

My mother loved the ocean, white orchids, and the color blue.  How fitting that my brother arranged a burial at sea and my sister brought armfuls of orchids to toss in the water.  My mother’s ashes, glinting in the water, offered up a brilliant blue.

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments