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The 1960s Suit Before the Fall of Formality
I saw this suit at the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, MA which shortly shut after my visit in 2015. I was shown around then by Curator Karen Herbaugh, and one of the joys of my public talks is that I see the collections held in the storage areas.
This suit is a refined example of the kind of suits I used to see in charity shops when I was a graduate student. The suit was a standard part of women’s wardrobes for most of the 20th Century. It was worn, in various guises, for city work, for travel, and for daytime events like luncheons, and even for what were called informal nighttime events like dinner parties. Here a rich red textured wool is trimmed in real fur. Many times the fur was mounted on a separate removable collar that was then attached with strong buttonhole thread hand stitching which accomplished two things. It made the suit wearable for less formal events, which didn’t warrant a fur color, such as city work wear, and it made it easy to have the suit cleaned.
Notice that this one has bound buttonholes, real pockets, and large matching buttons. I suspect the sleeves are cut in one with the suit front and back. They may then have had a gusset under the arm to ensure easy movement. I do wish I had taken more pictures.
After the mid-1960s, the women’s suit went into decline as the rules of dressing for the occasion were discarded as oppressive. It either disappeared from most wardrobes, or it became very simple garments with none of the details which made a suit both practical and more flattering. Collars disappeared, throwing the wearer on her own resources to figure out how to adorn the neckline, pocket flaps were sewn to the front of jackets without pockets beneath them, and the bound buttonhole disappeared. Suits in junior sizes disappeared from ready-to-wear, leaving young women without an entry into formal, but non-party dressing, for work or for important events.This puts them at a disadvantage because suits for men, although no longer required in some fields of work, have always been available for young men to adopt as they moved into manhood and the working world
The rich variety of women’s vintage suits offer so much to our design vocabulary.
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Профили моды. Две модели маленькой шляпы, которая носится оригинальным образом.
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Vintage Fashion ~ Festive Plaid & Vintage Sweaters ❄️🌲❄️ lots of great pieces in the shop see link ~ free domestic shipping thru December
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“Artistry!” Christy Turlington by Patrick Demarchelier for Harper’s Bazaar, September 1993
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Ann Sheridan in costume for her role as Lorraine Sheldon in The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1942). Costumes for the film were designed by Orry-Kelly.
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