Handbags and Gloves, October 1936

“Let’s Concentrate on Your Bags and Gloves,” Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1936, page 32.

Let’s Concentrate on Your Bag and Gloves

In October of 1936, the Ladies’ Home Journal devoted an issue to articles about coordinating your wardrobe, including brief articles like this one about handbags and gloves. Similar attention was paid to coordinating your stockings to your shoes, and both with your dress, and to hats. A longer article suggested a coordinated wardrobe of dresses, coats, etc. By 1936, The Ladies’ Home Journal featured Vogue patterns instead of its own brand. These accessories look upscale to me, but the magazine had a Depression-era emphasis on planning a coordinated wardrobe. These bags can go with more than one outfit.

Now You Can Swing Your Bag By Its Handle

Bags and Gloves, Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct. 1936.

These small, neat bags, many with top-stitching, also have something the editors thought worth mentioning: “Now You Can Swing Your Bag by Its Handle.” Only three, as far as I can tell, are “envelope” or clutch bags.

“Two shades of black, calf and patent in the bag, kid and patent in the gloves, make a nice contrast to a gray tweed in the upper left corner. They would also be nice with green or any strong shade. The most exciting thing about this season is the tan shades, [right] and the way they combine with black as well as brown. The diamond-shaped bag, hand-stitched, and its matching gloves are in a pinkish-tan doeskin, for contrast with the tan-flecked black tweed. This shade is also delightful with navy, green or all-black.”

Bags and gloves, Oct. 1936, Ladies’ Home Journal.

“The gray buckled envelope bag is conservative in its size, but its matching gloves have exaggerated cuffs. Worn here with a gray herringbone tweed. With the brown tweed mixture [right] is carried an oversize brown calf bag with white stitching and short brown capeskin gloves with leather knob buttons closing the slit of the wrist.”

Tucking and Stitching Make Gloves Look New

Handbags and Gloves, Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1936.

“We might as well get used to it — suede is practically the only bag material for your more formal town clothes, and for afternoon. With it, suede or doeskin gloves. But handbag and gloves do not necessarily match each other.”

“The gold-buckled very deep bag to the left above takes red-brown gloves with an S-shaped stitching, against a black costume. White doeskin gloves [right], corded on the back, lend further formality to the black suede bag with gold bar and slide fastener.”

Bags and gloves, Oct. 1936.

“The shell-topped bag [probably real or imitation tortoise shell] of brown suede has matching gloves, longish, the cuffs buttoned and nicely tucked. Notice how well this brown goes with a brighter brown costume. But black may also be worn with this shade, as you see in the suede bag with the ruffled edge, on the right, the gloves piped at the top with the red-brown of the dress.”

Oddly, the articles on bags, gloves, shoes, etc.,  did not name the manufacturers. Perhaps that information — for all the articles –was located on a page I didn’t photograph at the library.

These illustrations make wearing brown accessories with black clothing seem like a fresh, sophisticated idea.

Vogue Pattern 7250: The Personality Dress, 1936

“The Personality Dress.” Vogue pattern # 7250, featured in Ladies’ Home Journal, Feb. 1936.

The Woman’s Home Companion joined with Butterick in 1936 to publicize Companion-Butterick patterns, which often were selected for their versatility with accessories. But, in the grim financial situation of the 1930s, The Ladies’ Home Journal also recognized that many women had to make do with just one or two ‘good’ dresses, adding inexpensive accessories like detachable collars, “Vestees” (also known as “dickies”  — basically just the collar and front part of a blouse, which takes the place of a complete blouse peeking out from your jacket or sweater,) plus an assortment of scarves, belts, and costume jewelry.

Vogue Patterns in Ladies Home Journal

The Ladies’ Home Journal had produced and sold its own patterns earlier in the century, but it featured a few Vogue patterns, instead, in every issue by 1936 — possibly earlier. This particular Vogue dress pattern, # 7250, is described as “a frock that’s hard to find, and we thought it up especially for you!” Vogue # 7250 has a top-stitched button front from high collar to the waist, with an apparently false placket that continues down to the hem for a very long, slender look. (See top photo) For maximum versatility, preferred colors are black, brown, gray, and navy, but royal blue, dark red, green or yellow, and white “of course” are also suggested. Available in sizes 14 to 42.

“Then you add or subtract, as your mood, the weather, or the occasion dictates. Demure for shopping, you may wear a cleric’s vestee of white sik or linen [A], with handbag, belt, and gloves possibly of red suede. Or, if there’s a dash of derring-do in you, wouldn’t you like brown with black — brown alligator belt and bag, and brown suede gloves faced with kid? On other days, let a pair of rhinestone clips [B] carry the burden of dresing up your frock. A monogram clip fastened to one side of an open white vestee [C] is an individual touch.  A sports handkerchief, [D] knotted or pinned with a wooden or copper scarfpin, will lend dash when you’re running into town some morning on the 10:10. . . .”

It’s hard to tell whether the one I’ve labeled E is a very large pin or a bunch of flowers.

“For a special luncheon date, baste in a lingerie frill of white [G] and put on a velvet belt with a handsome buckle.  For another day, in the spirit of Salzburg, you may devise an amusing bolero of Tirolese ancestry [F]. Play at being your own designer and you’ll find it’s fascinating to experiment with one dress. . . . It’s a dress that even your best friend won’t tire of!”

Making the Best of Things

Although suede and alligator accessories sound extravagant (and probably most women only dreamed of such luxuries,) this article has a sort of sad gallantry about it. Even as a woman struggles to maintain the image of a person with adequate income, she should think of it as “fascinating” “play.” Her best friend, of course, will notice that she has to wear the same dress every day — but she “won’t tire of” it!