Five tips for summer fashions from June 1933. Left is Butterick 5149. Delineator, page 61.
I seem to be spending a lot of time in 1933 lately. Marian Corey, writing in Delineator, June 1933, offered a full page of advice about summer fashions: Five ideas starting with “Yes” and five with “No.”
As the really hot weather approaches, here’s one topic Corey thought we all have on our minds: Gloves!
Glove advice from Delineator, June 1933.
“… Gloves of all sorts of queer fabrics. Printed silk gloves to match your frock and sometimes sold with the dress! White organdy gloves to wear with your dark dress that has white organdy touches on it. White piqué gloves to wear with your tailored suit. Lastex gloves. Fit? They don’t have to . It’s smart to wear them big.” (Lastex stretch fabrics were introduced in the early 1930s — which is different from Latex, which was sometimes used for rubber bathing suits!)
Matching print fabric gloves, hat and bag — all made from Butterick patterns. Delineator, August 1933, p. 52.
Organdy gloves and handbag, “to wear with your dark dress that has organdy touches on it.” August 1933, Delineator, p. 52.
Three Butterick dresses with organdy accents, Delineator, June 1933, p. 64. Notice the sheer areas in the sleeves. 5186 used a heavier, stiffer organdy.
It should be noted that fashion advice from Delineator magazine — not coincidentally –often mentioned Butterick patterns. Delineator was part of the Butterick Publishing Co. empire.
White piqué hat (Butterick 5256,) gloves (Butterick 5225,) and bag (Butterick 5274.) Delineator, August 1933.
Maybe Ms. Corey mentioned that gloves no longer needed to fit [“like a glove?”] because making gloves is difficult. Store-bought gloves used to come in a wide range of sizes, not just S, M, and L. Here’s what she said in a longer article: “…Don’t worry if your gloves do not fit closely. They are not supposed to.”
Glove advice from Marian Corey, Delineator, August 1933.
Butterick glove pattern 5225 from July 1933, Delineator. This pattern was featured in both July and August.
“At first the loosely fitting glove seems clumsy…. All are worn big.” The gloves worn with these summer dresses are more like gauntlets:
Dresses worn with gloves made from Butterick 5225, July 1933. Delineator.
Gloves and a bag made from taffeta; Butterick patterns, August 1933.
More accessories made of piqué ; Butterick patterns from Delineator, August, 1933, p. 52. The illustrator is Myrtle Lages.
OK, I confess, the “No” paragraph about gloves was not really the first paragraph of the article about Summer fashions. The first paragraph was a “Yes” — about fur!
“Silver fox and blue fox are the furs” for trimming summer dresses,” or rabbit if your budget is more modest. Delineator, June 1933.
Butterick summer outfits trimmed with fur: From left, patterns 5176, 5178, and 5168. Delineator, June 1933, page 62.
Another “Yes” for summer was the white piqué swagger coat:
Butterick coat pattern 5164 from June 1933.
Everyone who owns a dark printed silk dress… should have a white piqué swagger coat to wear with it.” Butterick 5164; Delineator, June 1933, p. 62.
This style was only available in smaller sizes — an early use of “Junior Miss” patterns.
So, fur and gloves aside, what more practical fashions for summer were recommended in 1933?
Bicycle clothes, tennis dresses, beach pajamas, slacks and shorts — all coming up in Part 2.
witness2fashion 
Furs and gloves for summer! I am laughing as I read this, but my grandmother used to wear “driving gloves” all year round LONG after they fell out of fashion. She had BEAUTIFUL skin all the way into her eighties. No sun damage for her. 🙂
I’m perspiring as a write this, but am about to go for a walk wearing gloves. Dr’s orders.
I feel for you! I’m so sensitive to the sun. I feel like a beekeeper out there wearing a long-sleeved cotton shirt to do yard work in the summer. Hubby calls it vampire gardening. LOL
Vampire gardening! I love it! I hate the way sunscreen makes the dirt stick to my arms. A Japanese $1.50 store called Daiso carried a sort of sleeve — lycra with elastic at bicep area and wrist area — that covers the part of my arms that my shirt and garden gloves don’t cover. Not available online, apparently, but I could just cut up a thrift store long-sleeved knit shirt and put elastic in the top of the sleeves. In 1978 I was able to visit Greece — wearing a wide brimmed hat, long sleeved shirt, and long trousers while visiting ruins — but I forgot one part of my body: I got blisters on the backs of my hands!
“They look very ‘gracious lady.'” And here I thought Sears made up the term “gracious lady” for their clothing line aimed at the older set. It turns out that it must have been a common saying!
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