While I'm not into retro clothes in the sense that I'm not trying to dress according to the fashions of the 1950s or to recreate Victorian styles or some such thing, I still think that there are a lot of things we could learn from yesteryear. Most people who are seriously into vintage will try to copy a certain look or design, as for me, I'm trying to follow vintage principles and philosophy of dress.
In the past people used to dress much more formally than now and to stress rather than conceal the male-female differences. They also wore clothes according to the occasion and sometimes would change them several times a day. I have been collecting vintage ads and magazines for quite some time now, and when I look through them, Í'm always impressed by how well people tend to look even in the most casual situations, so I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the pictures with my readers.
Here we see a lady relaxing in the garden with her dog. The fact that she is wearing a dress doesn't seem to prevent her from enjoying life.
Above is a 1940 ad which shows a family apparently having a picnic. Notice how they all are dressed. They look wholesome to me. I'd like to have them as neighbours.
This is another ad featuring casual shoes. It shows a neatly looking young woman with a bike, but did women actually ride the bike in a skirt? Yes, they did, and here is the proof:
The man manages to look like a gentleman, too, apparently with little effort on his part. While in the XXth century women started wearing trousers for some sports, it was still not unusual to go ice-skating in a skirt, like this girl:
Apparently her dress didn't hinder her from having excercise. Now tennis is one sport which the women still participate in while wearing a skirt of some kind, though it has become ridiculosly short. However, as the ad below demostrates, you can play tennis in a normal length dress, too:
I'd like to end with another picture showing a young lady apparently going on a hike. She looks self-assured and confident, and determined to have a good time, all while wearing a skirt:
Casual clothes don't have to look slovenly or unfeminine.
I really enjoy reading your blog. I hope you don't my asking where you live? I live in Texas and it's so interesting to find others with the same thoughts about society in general.
ReplyDeletehttp://julie-rants.blogspot.com/
On the other side of the ocean:) In Holland, to be precise.
DeleteNice pictures. I enjoy looking through vintage magazines when I get the chance. Oh, the women looked so lady like even when they were gardening or cleaning house. When I was kid growing up, women were truly the fairer sex. I recently looked at a picture of my family and I at an outdoor event where there were a lot of people and every single woman was wearing a dress, not one in pants. That was in the late 60's.
ReplyDeleteEven in the 1980s women and people in general still dressed much more formal than now. It all went downhill in the 1990s with grunge style, it seems.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at pictures from my wedding shower 16 years and noticed that with the exception of a handful, the majority of quests were in a dress, myself included.
DeleteNow, no matter where I go, even to church weddings, more women than ever are in pantsuits or dress pants.
Jenny
Dress pants are still better than Chairman Mao suits aka jeans which young and old are wearing nowadays to all sorts of events, even to funerals:)
DeleteI LOVE this post! And you are right about the bikes, that's why women's bikes don't have a bar going across as high as the men's bikes do.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hadn't really thought about it, but the 1990's was when everything changed. I was a teen in the 1980's and wore jeans and rarely wore dresses, but we did dress up to eat out and even for holidays.
Michele, I ride the bike in skirts and dresses and never had a problem with it so far. A skirt shouldn't be very long and wide, though, otherwise it could lead to an accident. I'm an 80's child, too, and while we all wore jeans, we also wore skirts and dresses, especially for formal occasions.
DeleteI mean girls, of course:)
DeleteI wear long and full skirts and ride a women's sport bike. It has a bar that slants, not a straight across bar like a man's bike. I have to be sure to safety-pin my dress to keep things safe, though.
DeleteAnything is possible in a dress!
Jenny
Yes, I have a ladies'bike, too. I agree that anything is possible in a dress. Women from Little House On The Prairie managed to do all sorts of work while wearing one, and of course, dresses in those times were more cumbersome, so to say.
Delete