Egyptian Beadnet Dress. c. 2100 -2300 BC. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [x]
This bead-net dress, presumably meant for an adult woman, was found in pieces and meticulously re-strung by conservationists at the MFA (think macaroni art). It was meant to be worn over a long, stiff linen shift, which was the basis of all Ancient Egyptian garments. While it looks narrow and constricting, clothing in the time period was generally meant to conform to the shape of the body. It is unknown if this particular dress was actually worn, or was made specifically for the burial of the tomb in which it was found.
If you build it they will come! We are building the multi level costume racks in our new Costume Shop. 12’ tall by 34’ wide using 1.5” schedule 40 steel pipe and 90* couplers. We bolted the flanges into the cinder block and added liquid nail today. We should be able to finish on Monday and have at least 77’ of costume hanging space with room to expand for future growth.
On this vintage photo from our archives, US Navy sailors are standing on deck wearing a mix of 1st Type (zipper) and 2nd Type (hook) N-1 deck jackets, circa 1943. The classic USN N-1 pattern was the inspiration behind the first Mister Freedom® “N-1H” Deck Jacket, released in 2008. The FW2019 version comes in “Burnt Umber” jungle cloth and features a 1950’s-style warm alpaca lining.
Andalusian women’s dress between 8th and 12th centuries was quite varied. I’m just focusing on Muslima dress, but Christian and Jewish is just as fascinating. And Muslimas were also from a variety of backgrounds. Many were from North African cultures - Berber, non-Berber Egyptians, Nubians, etc. There were also Arabs, Sub-Saharan Africans, converted Jews and Europeans, and many more.
The first thing to know about muslim dress is the difference between indoor and outdoor costume. Outdoor costume is what you put OVER your indoor clothes in situations where males unrelated to you might be present. Images with ḥijāb (head scarf) should be compared with European women wearing cloaks (and head-coverings, usually)*.
The earlier pictures show a variety of indoor dress. Women wear long gowns, some of them translucent. Pants are worn underneath. A few wear a shirt over top their gown. Some of them have light veils covering their hair, held in place with bands or filets. Many have decorative borders at the end of their loose sleeves, arm bands (possibly tirāz bands), and sometimes decorative collars. Bracelets and necklaces were also worn. Henna could be used to decorate the hands. Everything is loose and a variety of colours (and probably patterns) are used.
To go outside, women usually wrapped a long scarf over their head and upper body. This was often long enough to reach past their waist and seem to be loosely draped and held in place with the hands if necessary. These pictures don’t show much decoration. Sometimes an outer shirt/dress was added over their indoor clothes before donning the ḥijāb.
Dress was not uniform across the many cultures that made up al-Andalus. The second last image shows two (probably) Berber women, who have no ornamention on their dresses, and wear turbans over shear face veils in their outdoor dress. Also, notice the ornate head-dress of the noblewoman in images 1 and 5, and the varied ḥijāb and dress of the women in the third image.
(Images from the Hadith Bayāḍ wa Riyāḍ [set in ‘Iraq, but the manuscript is from al-Andalus] and the Libro de Los Juegos [made for a Christian audience in Toledo in 1283])
~~~Reminder that I am very white and have no history or fashion degree. All information should be regarded as slightly suspect~~~
*I feel this is really important to bring up. I talk about a variety of cultures, and the prototypical costume for each often can’t be compared directly. Heian Japanese women were rarely seen in public at all, and usually travelled in covered sedan chairs/wagons, only one trailing sleeve visible. Karaginumo (now called jūnihitoe, Heian era robes) is therefor indoor wear. Some cultures have no distinction like this. Some, like many European cultures, blur this distinction because the monk chroniclers and artists didn’t know it existed. Women probably donned wimples when going out and left them off at home, adding a cloak when it was colder.
English Costume History is the easiest thing to research ever, so this is just a quick set of scans from “English Costume from the Early Middle Ages” by Iris Brooke and William-Alan Landes. These outfits are from 900 to 1100 CE. Click the images to see dates.
Moche/Mochica/Chimú Women’s Dress. The Chimú were an Andean culture before the Inca. Chimú is often used for the period between 1200 and 1500 AD, while Moche or Mochica is usually used for the earlier period from 200 AD on.
Women cut their hair into bangs and covered their long braids with bright coloured wraps or string (not sure which). Necklaces were worn, and nose-rings, but most women are shown without earrings or plugs (common for the men).
It is possible that women painted a square on each cheek, seen on some figurines (not shown here.) Mummies have also been discovered with tattoos on their arms and legs.
Dress seems to have been a long shirt/dress, probably belted at the waist. Some of the figurines and images have a shawl over their head, covering all their hair except the two long plaits hanging down their chest. During the later Incan period, this was kept on with a heavily decorated string around the crown of the head - I’m not sure if earlier cultures did the same.
Please note that the shirts/ponchos in all the images after the first 3 depict male costume. I’m including them to show patterns and construction style.
The following images are ear spools, a necklace, a nose ring, and one sandal design from the period. (The ear spools were probably not worn by women, but they have LIZARDS on them and I needed to share the amazingness.)
(All images from the books “The Desert Kingdoms of Peru” by Victor W. von Hagen, “Ancestors of the Incas” by Federico Kauffman-Doig, and “Dress and Ornaments in Ancient Peru” by Gösta Monteli except for the slightly damaged checquered textile. It was found on an online auction site.)
(Please note that I am not a professional historian and nothing I say should be believed without confirmation from better sources.)
Phryne’s fourth outfit of “Framed for Murder” (Season 2, Episode 9) is a beautiful blue velvet coat with a matching cloche, over a black camisole and her classic silk faille pants with bejeweled blue heels.
An elegant follow-up to her gorgeous gold gown, Miss Fisher dons a coat made of an azure blue velvet with marabou down trim on wide lapels. The sleeves also feature the marabou down trim above the elbow before the velvet continues to her forearms and splits at the cuff. The coat is held closed by an ornate enamel buckle costume designer Marion Boyce found in an antique store.
Her hat is a matching blue felt cloche with an antique feather band. According to the official Pinterest:“While we were filming in Queenscliff, Victoria, a stranger donated a selection of her grandmother’s old 1960s hats to our designer. Luckily one of the felt hats matched Phryne’s blue velvet jacket perfectly.”
The hat itself was extended, made deeper, and reshaped to become a cloche. The designers took authentic 1920’s feathers from another hat and added a fascinator made of velvet loops and a metal button.
Underneath, Phryne wears a black silk camisole with scalloped edging and dark wide-legged pants. She accessorizes with navy gloves, teardrop onyx earrings, and glittering navy t-strap heels (seen at the Costume Exhibition here on Dayna’s blog).
Season 2, Episode 9 - “Framed for Murder”
Promotional photos from the official Facebook(x,x,x,x,x) and a variety of sources (x,x). Hat and coat buckle photos (x,x) from the official Pinterest.
The eighth and penultimate ensemble of “Blood at the Wheel” (Season 2, Episode 7) is Phryne’s white driving jumpsuit, worn with a cream scarf, embroidered with an ‘H’ in honor of her friend Gertrude Haynes, crochet driving gloves, and a cap with driving goggles.
Her racing clothes are accurate for the time, designed primarily to protect the driver from dust and grit from the road. Open air automobiles often required scarves and special gloves to keep the motorists warm while their car was at speed, with advertisers specifically pushing car owners to have pairs of “gloves for driving, gloves for wear when not driving, [and] gloves for working around the car.”
TheUltimate History Projectnotes: “Advertisers also recommended that women, who wore gloves on most occasions, adopt special driving gloves when riding in or driving a car. They were not, needless to say, told to buy gloves “for working around the car,” although many young women did know how to repair their own cars, simply because early automobiles were so unreliable.”
Caps and goggles with metal frames and glass lenses were used to protect the driver from flying pebbles, insects and other debris, with many racing caps designed with goggles built in.
Although uncommon, women racers certainly did exist in the early age of automobiles. Violette Morris was a national champion boxer who often defeated men, competed in a multitude of sports, include cycling and auto racing in the 1920s, where she won the 1927 Bol d'Or 24 hour car race. Hellé Nice was a French model, dancer, and competed in multiple Grands Prix and other races, won the Grand Prix Féminin in 1929 and earned herself the nickname “the Queen of Speed” and a bright-blue Bugatti that she competed in.
In short, Phryne’s outfit and participation in the car racing is period accurate and a nod to several extraordinary female motorcar racers.
A pair of terracotta boots from an ancient Greek burial. They were found with the cremated remains of a woman from the Geometric Period, around 900 BCE. Since most shoes and clothing were quite perishable, these replicas give us some idea of what Greek people would have worn to slosh around in the mud 3,000 years ago.
This is a modern dress with some vintage details. The length and flare of the skirt is reminiscent of the 1950s when a tiny waist and a large skirt were popular. The shirt-waist front bodice on a dress then coupled with a side opening was popular for much of the 20th century. It allowed for the kind of complex details you see here reminiscent of a shirt-waist or blouse–double-breasted button front, shaped neckline, and collar–without having to bring the buttons all the way down to the hemline. Instead, a snap placket in the side seam lets you pull the dress over your head. Here, a zipper is used instead.
Playing with stripes has always been popular as they are among the simplest patterns. By placing them on the bias and matching them for forming chevrons, you can create a playful and dynamic look as you see here. Imagine leaving the stripes all straight on a less-flared skirt and you can see that the entire dress would become much more sober in flavor.
Choosing stripes does mean more work matching the stripes. Careful cutting is key, and then basting and checking before final sewing is necessary. Still, I always enjoy bias chevron skirts in the summer as they seem to capture the spirit of the season.
Houndstooth is a little out of its wheelhouse on an evening gown, as it is a woven pattern best known in woolen tweeds for tailored suits and coats. Yet it makes for harmony as it becomes panels of glimmering pinwheels in this brocaded silk chiffon number. As the image indicates, it offers two kinds of flaring at the hemline, first circular flounces on the dress itself and then tiered circular hem flounces on the silk crepe underdress.
The ornate ornamentation on flat panels of the tubular silhouette was popular in 1920s, but these flounces shatter the tube and create poetry in motion. Imagine a woman wearing this as she spun across the dance floor, the metallic threads catching the light as they lifted and fell with her steps. These flounces with their rounded hemlines are the sophisticated version of our “handkerchief” hems which are usually only squares tilted to the bias which creates sharp corner. This makes them easier to make, but not as pretty when they move.
The reveal comes when you take off the bolero jacket and reveal the strapless dress beneath. Notice how the white, strapless version is clearly an important summer event. She has a flower corsage pinned to her belt and strappy, high heels. This fits with the fabric suggestion of taffeta, faille, or shantung which would have been made of silk. The blue and white version has straps and because it is gingham, it is not so daring in its appearance. Notice that the pink version has flat shoes too, an indication this might be a picnic or other low-key weekend event. This fits with the fabric suggestions of chambray, pique, seersucker or lightweight denim which would all be made of cotton.
This combination – bolero over revealing dress–was very common during the 1950s. It solved the problem of going out without revealing much until you got to your destination, or warming up when the evening turned cool. The bolero here is very simple. It has cut-on sleeves, little jaunty cuffs, a single buttons, and darts front and back to fit to the body. The dress is more complicated despite the “easy-to-sew” designation, as sign of a high level of home dressmaking skill at the time. Both the strapped and strapless version are supposed to be boned through the bodice, and both are trimmed with self-trim bias-cut fabric which is able to follow the curves of the neckline. The large pockets have fold-back flaps.
Of course, it was a look that was first popularized by Christian Dior in 1947, the New Look with soft shoulders, small waist, and long, luxurious flared skirts. The width of these skirts also indicates they were worn with a petticoat which fluffed out at the hemline. While lower calf lengths were the preference of Dior that year, the long skirts had crept up a inch by inch by the end of the 1950s. These fall a bit below the knee.
This “Sunback Dress” and bolero from Modern Knitting reflect the popular look of the late 1940s. Post-war American women embraced the New Look offered by Christian Dior in 1947 with fitted bodices and long, full skirts. The skirt on this dress is both gathered and pleated at the waist for fullness and then was knitted until it was 30 inches in length. This sundress also reflects the new prosperity and leisure that marked much of America in the era. Both garments were knitted of ¼ inch rayon or silk ribbon. Pretty fancy for a summertime dress, but pretty amazing to wear too, I would think. It would be cool to the touch and have the subtle glow which both kinds of ribbons can have. But it came at a cost.
They estimated that the price would be $50 in rayon ribbon which works out to over $580 today, or $60 in silk ribbon which is $799. This was unusually high for this magazine as the next page has a simple dress from a boucle wool fingering yarn which costs only $14.50 to make. The ribbon was wider and the knitting would have gone faster, so there was a time savings. But you can imagine that anyone embarking on this project would have had to think long and hard about how much wear they would get out of it to justify the cost.
Ribbon yarns are far more common now and made out of all kinds of fibers, but I suspect the silk ribbon version would remain the most luxurious and perhaps the most beautiful choice.
You see here Kirsty Dillon playing a policewoman WDC Stephens, recently made a detective, who is struggling with what to wear in 2009. One can see her problem might be endemic as female detectives were so rare in the UK police force that they were titled Woman Detective Constable while men were simply Detective Constable until 1999. This is her first day as a detective and she has on grey trousers and an unfortunate knit cardigan with ruffles at the hem and sleeves. She is pulling at it and pondering, and asks a colleague DC Jones (Detective Sargeant) played by Jason Hughes:
“Ben, what do you think? I mean, how plain are plain clothes supposed to be?”
He never gets to answer, but the idea that plain clothes, that is, not a uniform, need to be plain to the point of ugliness hangs in the air. As this episode proceeds, we see her character trying different looks, while DC Jones wears essentially the same suit and tie throughout. Which gives us an idea of the quandaries women have faced as they moved into new positions of authority with only men as sartorial role models. While she could certainly wear a suit, with trousers or with a skirt, a tie would have been considered odd so the male plain clothes uniform was not entirely suitable.
This was from Season 12, Episode 3 and called “Secrets and Spies.”
Perhaps because there was such a big shift of population out west during World War II, perhaps because of movies set in the old west from Hollywood, and perhaps because of new attention to leisure wear, this kind of simple, gathered blouse associated with the Southwest became a fashion trend during the 1940s. The fabric suggestions include gingham and calico which are simple fabrics often worn by very young women, as well as challis which would drape more easily, and just plain cotton. This re-issued vintage pattern comes in modern sizes.
Often paired with a full gathered skirt, or a tiered gathered skirt, which are another very simple kind of garment, this kind of blouse was very ease to make. The sleeves are raglan and the only tricky thing is threading the ribbon or elastic through the neckline and sleeve edges. At the same time this simple pattern allowed a girl or young women a lot of design possibilities: mixing or matching colors for the ribbon and lace trim, adding ribbons or braid along the the bodice and sleeves.
The blouse also allows for two very different looks. See how they offered the black and white sketch to make makes clear that the ribboned version offers both an everyday look and a flirtatious off-the-shoulder look for evening.
Were Fifties swimsuits glamorous or what? Yes, that is a white swim suit embroidered with gold lamé stems, and with gold lame straps. Another one with black lace overlay sprinkled with rhinestones, a more daring lingerie look. They really look more like something a chorus girl would dance in, but they were swimsuits.
True, it seems unlikely that gold lamé and rhinestones are really likely to survive a lot of time in the pool, but these were probably not made for meant for swimming laps. Can’t you image two women wearing them pool side, drinking tropical cocktails, looking flirty, and then announcing it was just too hot and dipping into the pool to cool off?
Augusta Auctions tells us the white one is made of a cotton/rubber/acetate blend and the black one, more vaguely, was synthetic. There are zippers along the center backs as designers did not have spandex to make them extra stretchy, so they needed some way to get you into a fitted garment. These suits cover far more than suits would later and were easier to wear as a result, but they do show off as much of the figure as anything that came later.
They were made by “Deweese Design, Swim & Sun Fashions Los Angeles California" according to the label. California had a post-war fashion cachet as the war industry had brought so many more people out west. Designers catered to the region’s longer seasons of sunshine which meant more people were spending time in outdoor living, including poolside. Postwar prosperity mean more people had the time and money to relax in the outdoors too. Yet, even sportswear, as you can see, could be fancy.
Square Sleeves and Round Yolk: The Music Class Blouse
This blouse at BurdaStyle is also dubbed Short Sleeve Blouse 01/2011 and comes as part of a collection called Music Class which has multiple vintage details on its blouses, jackets, and coats. This one in particular intrigued me. The original used loops for the buttons, but I decided to extend the front facings to center the buttons and use buttonholes. Other than that, I did no modifications.
While we don’t often see sleeve attached to blouses with square armholes, they can be found in patterns from the 1930s. We we find one here on a sleeve that flares over the top of the arm and narrows to nothing when it reaches the under arm. I attached the sleeve to the blouse on the vertical seam and then laid the sleeve over the blouse front along the horizontal seam, with seam allowance tucked under, and edge stitched it. Earlier pattern designers preferred laying a pattern piece (with seam allowances pressed under) on top of a another piece and edge stitched when they had a right of acute angle in a design.
Today, we are often told to reinforce the angle seam line with stitching, then clip to the inner corner and then sew the pieces together even as the seam allowance near the clip become TEENY TINY. This creates a far less stable seam and leads to errors during and unravelings after. Laying over was and is often wiser.
Another feature of this blouse is the fabric gathered to the yoke. We do sometimes see gatherings on blouses, especially to replace a dart with the fullness over the front bustline. But we don’t often see them on a rounded yoke to which both front and back and top sleeve edge is gathered. As you can see, you attach those pieces to one another, gather them along their edges and then attache them to the edges of the yoke.
This creates a very soft look around the shoulders, as you can see from their photo, so long as the fabric has a lot of drape. I am using a rayon challis, so it is working. Anything crisper and the sleeves would appear to be taking off in flight, rather than draping, and the whole might seem massive.
I will show you the finished product soon. Meanwhile, you can find this pattern for yourself here. This is PDF pattern that you need to print out, tape together, and add seam allowances and hems.
The aprons of earlier eras came out in an amazing assortment, various shapes, trims and edges. Lots of creativity was poured into designing and making them. Why? Because for most married women with children, aprons were their work wear because they were home women. Which meant they had to wear aprons everyday and who doesn’t enjoy some fashion variety? Here the variety is the color combinations and trims.
These aprons are from 1948. They all have some special feature, and the least detailed one is the one with stripes yet even then the stripes on the two pockets are cut exactly the same. No sloppy layout of the pattern pieces here. The red plaid has the most features, a pocket which matches the plaid lines of the apron, ruffles at the hem, and then baby rick rack as trimming at top, at hem, and on the pocket. They threw in the matching oven mitt padded with cotton batting and finished at the edges with double-fold bias tape. The other half apron takes a print and a solid to mix and puts the print for pockets and a band near the hemline. You can imagine a woman sorting through her box of cotton remnants looking for a nice color harmony to make this one.
Also notice how one model wears a navy dress and the other a blouse and skirt. There was no such thing as a t-shirt worn as outer clothing back then, and most women only wore pants for dirty work like gardening or painting, or for active sports. So the home woman would have been dressed in dress or skirt and blouse, and the apron would have served to keep her clean as well as cheerfully stylish.
I have blogged this dress before, but as I ironed it, I was thinking how much I admire the small prints on fabric of the past. The Dress Doctors always recommended them because they were easier to work with while dressmaking and they were not overwhelming to the average woman’s figure. This fabric was sold as a 1930s era reproduction.
See here how easy it was for me to match the print where the patch pocket was placed. There was almost no waste in cutting out the pocket either. Matching was otherwise a moot point where the ruffles at the neck and the tiers or flounce below and as a wrap, it made little sense to try to match along the opening edge.
Now if the flowers had been large, I would have had to think about where to place them so as to avoid the grotesque effect of two flowers over the breast or one landing at the crotch. And placing the pocket would have meant wasting fabric. I often am charmed with a print sold online, only to look at the photo with a ruler, realize the flowers are 3, 5 or even 7 inches across, and reject it.
I cannot decide if the textile designers like to work with larger prints, if large prints sell well because they look better on a small screen for web buyers, of if making smaller prints is more difficult in the manufacturing process. I do know that I will hold out for them.
You can find this pattern as a reproduction. It is a Hoover apron or bungalow dress, made famous during WWI when Herbert Hoover ran the government program on food conservation and the home economists designed an apron that wrapped and could be rewrapped when one surface became filthy. I know, kind of disgusting, but that was how it was made famous. Regardless of rewrapping, this makes for a nice summer robe, or even a casual daytime dress. Although wrapped dresses are not the most practical for wearing out of the house–fear the windy day–the length and amount of overlap makes it relatively secure.
I had DESIGN FINALS today for my devised production based on Enemy of the People. It’s about a doctor who discovers a contaminant in the local baths, the town’s main income source, and makes themself…. very unpopular by asking for it to be shut down.
Not topical at all.
Anyway, those of you familiar with Ibsen’s work may note that this has been cast gender-blind - one way of many we’re planning to engage with the already-rich text to find new ways to relate to it.
![Egyptian Beadnet Dress. c. 2100 -2300 BC. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [x] This bead-net dress, pres](https://64.media.tumblr.com/cd2cd2be37d9c596fa950b209dcb592d/tumblr_mgoj7zMvpg1rzspuzo1_1280.jpg "Egyptian Beadnet Dress. c. 2100 -2300 BC. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [x] This bead-net dress, pres")
