The Lost Art of Dress

Fashion, dressmaking, and millinery, both vintage and modern, from a historian who practices the crafts. Linda Przybyszewski, Ph.D., AKA Professor Pski, teaches U.S. history at the University of Notre Dame. Her book, "The Lost Art of Dress" on the original advocates of slow fashion and the maker movement is out with Basic Books.

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Taking a Break For Now

Ten years again this fall, my publisher, Basic Books, asked me to start a Blog on Tumblr named after my book, The Lost Art of Dress. I would then re-post the post on Facebook (although the wackiness of that interface meant there are gaps over there).

So every week from Monday through Friday, I posted on the history of fashion and the crafts of sewing and millinery. Generally, Mondays were devoted to patterns, Tuesdays to reviews, Wednesdays to quotations, Thursdays to historical objects, and Fridays to exhibitions online or in person. All this took planning, preparation, and time.

I have enjoyed sharing my knowledge of fashion history, but I have lately realized that I need to focus all my energies on finishing a long over due book in legal history. And once that is done, I have a second fashion history book in mind already.

So, for now, I am taking a break. I realize that some of you started following this blog recently, but since there are ten years of Lost Art of Dress archives on Tumblr, there is still plenty for you to read and enjoy. And with any luck, I will have a new fashion history book to share with you in the future.

I chose this impossibly chic and slender lady from 1928 to sign off with. She is gazing into the future and so am I.

Happy fashion, happy sewing, and happy hatting to you all.

Yours,

Professor Pski

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Threads, Fall 2023

Threads is a magazine that specializes in teaching fine sewing techniques, everything from fabrics choices to fitting garments. It also has made an effort lately to offer one basics article per issue for newer dressmakers and tailors, which I find usually has something to teach me despite my years of sewing. This issue has the color forecasts for the coming cooler seasons along with suggestions for some patterns to match. 

The cover offers an example one of the hand details articles which are featured. the jacket is made of wool double-cloth when two separate fabrics are woven and then attached to one another. It allows for a warmer, thicker more luxurious feeling fabric and a variety of edge finishes. Debby Spence explains the care needed to work with such fabric, and I would second the need to experiment with edge seams before you even think about cutting. The one time I worked with such a cloth, I intended to separate the layers at the front edges and fold them in and hand finished. But then the edges the stretched out alarmingly after separated; I changed course and covered the edges instead with a contrasting, knitted wool binding. 

Technical articles explain the methods for more hand-made details. You  see here also from Youngmin Lee’s article on bojagi a textile for wrapping gifts from Korea that can be quilted or embroidered. Then, simple hand embroidery on a black knit shirt is part of an article on the basics of developing, transferring and embroidering designs on knits by Alex Woodbury. 

Fitting in nicely with this attention to detail is Maggie Raywood’s interesting account of copying gowns created by the Callot Sisters of Paris which are held in the Acton collection which belongs to NYU Florence. You see here the portrait of Hortense Mitchell Acton, a devoted buyer of the sisters’ work, and the gown she wears in it, both of which are on display at Villa La Pietra, Florence.  

There are more articles, on types of interfacings (the basics article), how people who are left handed can find ways to make sewing easier for them, and on making a vintage pocket feature. 

Find the issue at your local fabric store, bookstore, or online here: https://www.threadsmagazine.com/

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Not Going Anywhere Fast in 1950, Vogue 1964

This 1950 ensemble with sleeveless dress and matched caplet captures the other skirt silhouette introduced by Christian Dior in 1947: the long and narrow. We tend to think of the long, wide skirt as the New Look of the post-war era, but Dior also offered long, narrow skirts that year as well. Both had the small waistlines and soft shoulders you see here in a Vogue Pattern re-issued in modern sizes.

I was intrigued by the shape of this dress  The bodice has a deep horizontal tuck whose purpose seems two-fold: decoratively, it both echoes the deep stitching that holds the capelet’s self-lining in place and makes the waistline seem even narrower as the eye notes the pleat is wider than the bodice where it hits the skirt (that portion is gathered).

Then, the skirt of the dress has deep pleats at the waistline which create more space for the body and seems easier to wear. But look at the sketch of the pattern piece, and you see that the pleats are not meant to add walking easy. Instead, the skirt narrows from those pleats at the waistline down to the low hemline.

Looking at the fashion illustrations, we can see that walking was never the point. This ensemble was a dressy afternoon outfit, or an evening out ensemble. Think concert, cocktail party, dinner out. See the large, black hat and long, black gloves, the corsage, and pearls around the neck to the right, and the long white gloves worn with a veiled hat and again pearls on the right. Standing, chatting, flirting, and sitting were the main activities, not walking, which is why this is not a practical day ensemble with walking ease, but one where the waist pleats help show off the small waist and the roundness of the hips. A quiet, but effective means of drawing attention to the figure.

Find it at your local fabric store, or online here: https://simplicity.com/vogue-patterns/v1964

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Pronged or Not Pronged: 4 Vintage Buckles

I found this set of vintage buckles in an antique store. Though I had not exact plans for them, I sew and knit with brown and greens, and the blacks might come in hand too.

To actually use most buckles, you need an eyelet in the belt and a prong on the buckle. True, some buckles have a sash of fabric that pulls through, but unless there is enough fabric, they are unstable and may loosen up. But many vintage buckles are missing their prong, or you hesitate to use the prong for fear that pressure may break an old plastic that may be some 75 years old. What to do?

If you think of how many decorative bows are made, that they do not actually tie anything, you have an answer. You can pull a finished tube of belted fabric through the buckle, and leave that at the front of the belt, and then actually close the belt with a hidden metal hook and eye. This allows you to keep the buckle as a decorative feature and shift the pressure on the belt to the hook and eye. Of course, you may need to experiment a bit as to where you want the belt to open and close, but it is an effort I would rather make than risk a treasured vintage find.

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September 16–December 23, 2023 Please note this exhibition has a new opening date of September 16. Quilts, like maps, trace the personal sto

This show opens on Saturday, September 16th in Washington DC, but it was organized by the American Folk Art Museum of New York. Part of the exhibition is what they call a Community Quilt. And the curators explained "Visitors to the exhibition are invited to contribute to our community quilt. Stitch a place in the cartography of Washington, D.C., that holds special significance for you." I am not sure how that will work but I am intrigued.

I am primarily a dressmaker, not a quilter, but I have been inspired by beautiful colors and shapes in quilts. This show offers up traditional early-American quilts up to contemporary quilts. Click through to see m ore info and for some pictures.

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If you're hesitating between unraveling or using a quick fix that will leave a mistake in your work, ask yourself these questions: Will it be visible... or will you be the only to know? Will a quick fix bother you forever...? Is the idea of unraveling so demotivating....? Do what feels best to you.

These wise words come from Lovely Lace Knits by Gabrielle Vezina. It is one thing if a garment does not fit, if it chokes you at the neck or binds your arms. Clothing that does not let your body move the way you want it to move is a curse. But if the mistake is a purely decorative one, as is the case with lace knits, you need to ponder Vezina's questions.

Cause if you end up despising the garment and won't wear it, or end up refusing to finish it in frustration, there is no point to all the effort you have already made. Better to figure out what you can live it, and get on with it. I daresay all makers need to decide what they can live with.

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Mittens & Socks From Around Norway by Nina Granlund Saether

This book offers such cheery colors and patterns that I am feeling welcoming towards the cold weather which is headed my way.

I am showing the mittens, but there are as many sock patterns, more than 4 dozen patterns the book offered up. Most are based on traditional designs researched by the author who has been working on historical designs for a while now. As you can see from the images, there are more sober geometrics and playful flora and fauna. The range of colors shown runs from the grey on grey, to bright contrasts, and single-color harmonies, and, of course, you can substitute your own colors.

The book is a large-scale paperback which starts with instructions and images of the basic techniques, everything from Latvian braid to multiple ways to knit a heel on a sock. I have shied from the idea of knitting socks, yet the clarity of the explanations drew me in. Each pattern has a photograph and a colorwork chart along with notes on its historical origins where appropriate. Almost all are made with fingering-weight yarn, but since they are small, they are faster projects.

Although my own winter gear is mostly heavy gloves with leather-lined palms for coping with long dog leads, I am definitely coveting some mittens after paging through this handsome book.

Find it at your local bookstore, or from Trafalgar Books, the small publisher in rural Vermont: https://www.trafalgarbooks.com/product/famiso.html

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The Sweeping Ball Gown, Vogue 1963 

This glamorous strapless evening gown dates to 1948 that has been re-issued by Vogue Patterns in modern sizes. It shows all of the luxury of post-war prosperity that one hoped for from post-war prosperity. Just a year earlier, Christian Dior had shown the New Look which offered up day dresses with enormous width at the low hemlines, cinched waists, and soft shoulders. It was a break from the more practical looks of the war years, with hemlines around the knee and padded shoulders, and narrower skirts. This was a silhouette which would live on into the 1950s.

Evening gowns followed suit with even wider hemlines, and here you have one that is more than 7 feet around . To create the mass of the skirt, hold it away from the body, and  make the waist look even tinier, crinoline net is used underneath as interfacing, some 3 plus yards of it. An overskirt cascades down the sides, a feature that will ripple with the wearer's movement. Such an abundance of skirts means that the dress takes around 8 yards of fabric at 60” width. Yes, that is a lot of fabric.

The bodice, which is boned on the inside, is also cuffed on the outside, with a clever shaping so that the front points inward and upwards towards the face. A graceful line and a dynamic one that indicates movement and energy. 

They recommend faille, satin, dupioni, and taffeta, plus brocade, but brocade will probably weigh too much. Satin is beautiful but you can mar it so easily, or at least I can, so I would recommend silk dupioni or shantung whose texture will wear better and catch the light in interesting ways too. And there are soooo many gorgeous colors to choose from. They do suggest that overskirt may be made of a different fabric and the illustration of the back of the dress done in white hints at that. If you look closely, you will see a more textured fabric at the lower left, a lace perhaps? But a harmonizing color might work too. So many possibilities. 

This bodice will need a close fit, so you may want to muslin it in a test fabric. Although it may be possible to use the fitting of the lining to ensure the fit of the fashion fabric. Obviously, with so much fabric on the line, you want to make sure it is something you love. If you have to buy fabric online, I would indulge and buy more fabric than a tiny swatches to make sure. 

You can find this at your local fabric store or online here: https://simplicity.com/vogue-patterns/v1963

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Homepage - Museo del Tessuto

The Museo del Tessuto is the most cultural center in Italy dedicated to the enhancement of textile art and manufacture.

Italy, of course, has a long history of textile production and of fashion, but I only just learned about the Museum of Textiles in Prato, Italy, which is in Tuscany. It has two shows running at the same time, one called Two Centuries of Fashion and Textiles Design which runs plus a more focused show on Kimono - Reflections of Art between Japan and the West. Both are open through November 19, 2023.

Click through to find more information and some select images from the shows.

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Party Wear Early 1930s, Or Just Look at Those Seams (low whistle)

Fashion does not actually work by decades, so these early 1930s gowns for sale at Augusta Auctions have some of the hallmarks of the loose torsos that we associate with the 1920s, and the handkerchief hemlines too. But by the late 1920s, skirts were lengthening down wards from their mid-20s high point above the knee and belts had crept up from the hipline to reach the waistline again.

These two silks evening gowns are from the early 1930s, glowing in crepe back silk satin in what they call "ashes of roses" i.e. a greyed rose and in what they identify as pale pink which shows dark cream on my screen. I am featuring some of the close-ups, so you can see how they were draped just below the waistline, a feature that would draw attention to the sway of a woman's hips.

And you can see the complex piecing of the skirts. See how the cream dress has a diamond shape set into the bodice, and then multiple angles cut into the skirt which echo one end of the diamond. These look like cuts and seaming that include multiple bias choices which takes both careful cutting of the fabric and careful seaming so as not to overstretch the elasticity of the cut edges. By using bias-cut fabric around the hips, the designer gives a woman a bit more room to move, and also adds an erotic feature as her movements are closely followed by and revealed by the fabric. With such a sheen to the fabric, these movements would have just that much more slinky glamor in the days before stretch fabrics.

This is part of their Fall into Fashion Vintage Sale which you can learn more about here: https://augusta-auction.com/auction

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When you embroider, crochet, or knit, there are centuries in your hands. You are a maker, doing the same thing others have done for several thousand years. Their ideas created the techniques you now use. Who knows what pair of hands first cabled some stitches across some other stitches? Who knows where and when the first yarn over stitch was put on a needle to make an opening? All that matters is that they were done, somewhere, by someone. Now they are a part of the very ancient craft called knitting. This craft has endured, for the same reason that all such crafts endure: because people have loved it.

This passage by Barbara G Walker, one of the grandes dames of knitting, strikes me as both appreciative of history and dismissive of history at the same time. On the one hand, she is celebrating the long traditions which created, modified, and handed down so many marvelous methods of knitting. On the other hand, she does not give a hoot who exactly did what first. And yes, there are out there scholars, curators, and other such people who are keenly determined to hunt down first instances.

I would like to add to the quotation, "When you sew...." I see the wealth of dressmaking know-how in the many vintage books and vintage patterns I have and I marvel at the cleverness and creativity on display.

So, a toast to all makers, everywhere, in every era, and thanks.

This is from Walker's 1970 volume, A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, a stupendous collection of a large variety of knitting stitch patterns, and one of her many books.

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Lovely Lace Knits by Gabrielle Vezina

It will soon be fall, so new knitting patterns and yarns are showing up and so are some books. I decided to offer this one on lace knitting because, on the one hand it is knitting, but on the other it is lace knitting, that is, knitting with tiny holes to make patterns. So, you don't really want little holes in serious winter wear, but you can enjoy them in the fall.

The book explains the basics of lace knitting but presumes some skill. Almost all the patterns are marked intermediate and only 1 hat and matching mittens are advanced beginner. It offers 16 patterns: 2 sweaters, 2 tops, 4 scarves/shawls, 3 pairs of socks, and 2 hats, 1 scrunchie and 1 pair of mittens. The photography is beautiful as you can see, and the book offers exceptionally large and clear charts for the lace patterning.

You see here in green on the cover Pine Cone Sweater, then in Samara Cardigan in a greyed rose holding 2 yarns together, one of them mohair blend, Winter Wheat Scarf, and the Amarelle Sweater in blue with plenty of bobbles. The Solstice Top in yellow is a nice transitional piece in wool, and the Soft Breeze Shawl in mottled pinks and greens.

Here is the website which links to the sellers too: https://gabriellevezina.com/my-book-lovely-lace-knits/

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Nope, That Is Not a Blouse: Simplicity 9817

This set of re-issued accessories from the 1950s has some expected items and some unusual ones. Collars and cuffs that could be switched out, and thus give some variety to one dress, were a standard feature from at least the late 19th Century onward. Here, you see two rounded versions and one designed to look like lapels on a blouse.

Hair bows too date way back although this is a bow on a headband which was a newer look in the 1950s. The bias-cut sash, which you see on the bottom row in red and in green stripes is also a traditional idea and here it is pulled through a buckle.

A newer idea was the dickey that looked like a blouse. These were often recommended during World War II when fabric was hard to get. A woman could use just a small bit of fabric, maybe a remnant from a bigger project, and could give a new look under a dress that could not be replaced. It was also possible, as it is suggested by these illustration to wear a dickey under a suit as you see in the lower right hand corner with a two-color version. Yes, it looks like a wrapped blouse or a halter top, but this item actually has back and no sides and ties at the waist. I am not sure I see the point unless you had a desperate lack of fabric. Wouldn't it be no more difficult to make a halter top, or a sleeveless blouse? And surely, wearing an actual top would be more comfortable and less awkward, and allow you to doff your jacket if you liked.

You can find this pattern at your local fabric store or online here:

S9817

Simplicity Sewing Pattern S9817 Misses' Neckwear, Headband, Dickey and Sash-Belt

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2023 National Design Award Winners | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

The National Design Awards honor innovation and impact and recognize the power of design to change the world. Established in 2000 as a proje

Cooper Hewitt has named its National Design Awards for 2023, and the fashion design winner is Naeem Kahn. Click through and you can see a gallery display of his designs, focusing on his evening wear. But I think anyone interested in fashion design will probably be interested in all the winners' work.

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Peachy Keen: Evening Ensemble by Christian Dior, 1950s

This lovely ensemble is part of an upcoming auction on September 20th, 2023 at Augusta Auctions which specializes in vintage fashion and textiles. The color alone makes me sigh as I am soooo tired of black for evening wear and I am always charmed by the way silks catch the light. This color silk satin will make the woman wearing the cocktail dress and short jacket simply glow.

This is a clever way to pair a strapless dress with a jacket that keeps the neckline bare, but still allows a bit of coverage or of warmth when you want it. It has the clearly marked waistline that was so popular in the 1950s, coupled with the pleated skirt front and back that allowed a woman to worry a bit less about the size or her hips. And the pleats at the front of the bodice, paired with darts, help balance out the hour-glass silhouette then preferred.

The dress has a separate belt made of the same material which closes with a hook and eye. I have come to think that making matching belts for dresses, whether evening or day dresses, is the easiest way to finish them off. It avoids the sometimes fruitless fishing around your belt collection for something that harmonizes or matches. The large bow on the belt was created beforehand--in fact, almost all such bows attached to dresses were created beforehand from what I can tell--which saves the wearer trouble and the fabric wear and tear. This one probably has interfacing within it to keep that nice, large spread. These are practices well worth adopting when you want a decorative bow.

Augusta Auctions tells us that the dress is "lined in silk organza, boned bodice & interior construction typical of Dior couture." Partly this was to create the shape of the dress and partly for the convenience of the wearer. When an evening dress was custom made, the mark of haute couture, a woman did not usually have to search around for the right strapless bra to wear underneath it; the dress itself contained what amounted to a bra. Interestingly, the label tells us this dress was not made in France but in England and then it was sold by a Canadian retailer which tells you how easily Paris fashions crossed the Atlantic at a time when that city was still the center of all western fashion.

You can see this and more of the sale here: https://augusta-auction.com/auction/85

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Clothing coupons which looked such an imposing array when issued melted to nothing before the onslaught of a coat and skirt, or a winter overcoat. A new kind of gold-digging was evolved by women of all ages, who took up the attitude that their husbands, sons, brothers and men friends would never need any new clothes and so might as well let them have their coupons.

This passage was written by Angela Thirkell in her novel Marling Hall set in the countryside of England which came out 1942 in the midst of World War II. In order to prevent the price of goods from skyrocketing, the British instituted a rationing system whereby people got an assortment of coupons that would allow them to legally buy clothing. Thirkell saw the humor in the scramble to keep well-dressed and within the law. Gold-digger is an insult usually directed at younger women who cultivate older men with money in order to share some of their gold via marriage or other means. Here, Thirkell made every woman into a gold-digger, or at least a coupon- digger.

Clothing for public wearing was more formal, more detailed, and as a result more expensive than what we wear now, so the value of coupons to women was far more than it would be today. True, men's fashions evolved very slowly, but the fabric wore out just the same.

You can find Thirkell's novels at Virago Books: https://www.virago.co.uk/?s=thirkell

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Threads of Power: Lace from the Textilemuseum St. Gallen

This well-illustrated book edited by Emma Cormack and Michele Majer accompanied an exhibition at Bard Graduate Center gallery and was named best art book of 2022 by the New York Times. It is a serious study in multiple chapters by various authors covering the rise of lace as an industry in early modern Europe, going through the centuries and the different traditions and countries, up to the modern era. If you are interested in the development of lace, you will find it fascinating. It is being sold at a substantial discount online when I last checked.

Here you see a woodcut from 1556 that offers up a pattern for lace; then a needle-lace and bobbin-lace collar which may be date from 1600 and or 1880, which is the most intriguing dating; a portrait from the chapter on how lace showed up--stiff and regal--in Spanish portraits in the 16th and 17th; lastly bobbin-lace coverlet from Brussels which has palm trees as well as the more common flora.

The exhibition can still accessed online here and it offers many images as well as some video of lace-making: https://exhibitions.bgc.bard.edu/threadsofpower/