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Tag Archives: sizes
“Stout Figures Present an Interesting Problem,” 1914
What is the cause for the problem of stoutness? Aging. That is the analysis of the editors of The Home Pattern Company 1914 Fashions Catalog, republished by Dover books. “When a woman begins to leave youthful slimness behind and sees … Continue reading
The Stretch & Sew Empire
Ann Person of Stretch & Sew was a brilliant business woman. Her franchises were a self-contained sewing empire, offering patterns, fabric, notions, and classes. On the women’s pages of local newspapers, she gained notoriety as a hugely successful entrepreneur. One … Continue reading
Can We Talk About Bodies?
Since several fashion lines have chosen older women as their public face, the most recent being Joan Didion for Céline, some fashion writers have decided that it’s finally hip to be old. That’s why I appreciated yesterday’s New York Times … Continue reading
Stylish Stout in the 1920s
In the era of the pencil slim, boyish flapper, plus size clothing gained a real foothold in the American clothing market. Perhaps this isn’t as much of a paradox as it seems at first glance; larger women who wanted to … Continue reading
Half Sizes, Part 4: What Not to Wear
Evelyn Veronica Mason had a low opinion of ready to wear clothing for shorter, wider women. In her Master’s thesis “A Study of the Clothing Needs of Women who Wear Half-Size Dresses,” (University of Rhode Island, 1964), she chided clothing … Continue reading
Half Sizes, Part 3–The Martha Manning Brand
Although I don’t yet know when or how half sizes were invented, by the 1940s there were a number of clothing lines devoted to the older, shorter, wider woman. One of the best known was Martha Manning, a clothing company … Continue reading
Hunting for Half Sizes, Part One
When I started writing this blog I didn’t know anything about half sizes, a special size range for women who were a little shorter than average with a wider and shorter waist. But while tracking down Mrs. Exeter in Vogue, … Continue reading
Mrs. Exeter Also Knits
Will Mrs. Exeter ever cease to amaze me? She had her fingers in so many pies during the 1950s. While conducting a random search for her on ebay (she is almost always there, although usually out of my price range), … Continue reading
Mrs. Exeter’s Favorite Brands
Have you forgotten Mrs. Exeter, Vogue’s older fashion adviser? I just discovered another way to investigate her influence. A dear friend put me in contact with her uncle who worked in the garment industry all his life, beginning with the … Continue reading