Petticoats, Pearls and Gloves...

Can you imagine dressing like this everyday?  Wearing hats and gloves when you went out? Being bound by girdles, itched by petticoats and wearing pearls on most all occasions?  Having clothes that needed to be starched and ironed?

Jackie Kennedy O., style maven, seemed mark the peak of the fashion before it shifted, big time. Suddenly the hats were tossed, the gloves were lost and things started getting loose.  It wasn't just the clothing that became less stiff and starched. Culturally, women began to let it all hang out.  In becoming more natural, did we become less feminine? Or just  more practical?

Girdles became a thing of the past as women put on the panty hose.  Bras were burned and pants began to replace dresses. 

This dress pattern reminds me of my mother, when she was young and still had her swirls of her girlhood youth around her and I was little and wore saddle oxfords.  Do you know that the sales of sewing machines, especially the top-of-the-line expensive ones, are seeing a significant increase?  (Use it or lose it -- I tossed my Bernina in the garage sale before our move to NYC.  The last things I remember sewing were either Christmas pageant angel/shepherd costumes or Beanie Baby sleeping bags for my childre...).

My youngest daughter is drawn to dresses that look like this.  She recently bought a dress with a petticoat. Hello? Isn't it interesting how things come 'round again, just reinterpreted.  Women had to take so much time to be...feminine then. Fashion is a reflection of our culture.  Do you wonder what will come back? 

Yesterday Cheers...Tomorrow's Jeers.

Flickr image: dress pattern 4

Comments

[Rhea]

I remember when I was a kid watching my Mom struggle to pull on her girdle, and all I could think was, God, I'm gonna have to do that when I grow up. I wonder how many women wear girdles these days.