Do you remember the long dresses of the late 1960s and early 1970s, brought to us courtesy of the hippies? In my circle, they were called granny dresses, especially if they involved any kind of frills or lace. Despite the name, these were the almost exclusively worn by young women who wished to look dreamy and comfortable. Sometimes they were homemade out of Indian bedspreads.
But here we have what looks to be a real grandmother wearing a long granny dress. Her hairstyle is from the sixties, but the photo could be from the early seventies as well. (It would be helpful if I could place the print on her granddaughter’s outfit.) The dress has a yoke at the top and is gathered underneath, a style sometimes called a Mother Hubbard. Looking through her crocheted sweater, which comes from an earlier era, it appears to have short sleeves. My guess is that the fabric printed, not really patch work.
Was she following fashion, or did she come up with this solution on her own as a way to feel comfortable in her wheelchair?
Are you sure the grandmother’s dress is actually long? She may be a relatively short woman, just wearing the typical zip up the front cotton dress that hasn’t been altered to accommodate for her height. Because she is seated, the dress may be pulled to the front, and the volume covers her knees and shins.
I’m going to say Holly Hobbie for the print on the girl’s dress, but you probably figured that out for yourself, and I can’t be more specific than that. The Strawberry Shortcake theme, which is similar, didn’t come in until the 1980s, and this is earlier.
There was a time (1960s?) when any voluminous, loose-fitting pullover dress worn around the house was called a muu-muu, whether it had a Hawaiian print or not. They usually had a yoke. They were popular in hot weather, or with women who were generously proportioned and unwilling to wear constrictive underwear. A muu-muu could be worn bare-legged and sometimes barefoot. My Aunt Mae wore very bright muu-muus.
Yes, we need a better terminology to describe these dresses.
It is most definitely Holly Hobbie on the little girl’s nightgown. Holly is wearing a poke bonnet and bending over watering flowers with her watering can.
I think both ladies may be in nightclothes, or at least “house clothes.”