I showed one, low-backed evening gown from a 1933 article about Butterick’s “Wardrobe for Young Married Women” and Michele asked to see the rest of the article. When I looked for it, I discovered that the same issue of The Delineator magazine recommended winter wardrobes for The Business Girl, The Clubwoman, and The High School Girl, too. So, for comparison, here are the suggested fashions. I found a few surprises, and, as the highway signs say, “Wide shoulder ahead.”
Butterick’s Wardrobe for Young Married Women, 1933
Part of Butterick’s recommended wardrobe for Young Married Women. An evening wrap and an evening dress were also included. Delineator, October, 1933, p. 69.
Evening clothes for young married women, 1933. Wrap #5338 and Gown #5321, Butterick patterns.
Day dress 5315 and coat 5336, recommended for young married women. Butterick patterns from Delineator magazine, Oct., pg 69.
Clothes for a young married woman. Butterick patterns 5313 (afternoon dress) and 5311 (dinner dress), Oct. 1933 Delineator.
The “organ pipe” sleeves of No. 5311 and the “loop shoulders” of No. 5315 are among many odd sleeve and shoulder treatments from 1933, when wider shoulders for women were just finding their way into fashion.
Butterick’s Wardrobe for the Smart Business Girl, 1933
Four outfits for the “Smart Business Girl;” Butterick patterns 5339, 5346, 5341, and 5325. Oct. 1933, Delineator, page 68. There are two additional items.
Butterick pattern 5337 for the “Smart Business Girl.” Delineator, October 1933.
Detachable and interchangeable collars were very popular in the nineteen thirties.
Coat for the “Smart Business Girl,” Butterick pattern 5344, Delineator magazine, October 1933. The sleeves are widened with a detail resembling fish fins.
Butterick patterns 5339 and 5346 for the “Smart Business Girl.” Delineator, Oct. 1933.
No. 5339 has a “rim shoulder,” and No. 5346, a double-sided satin dress which goes from office to date, also has a rather experimental shoulder, perhaps inspired by the Elizabethans. This Elizabethan jerkin, at the Metropolitan museum, shows what I mean.
A velvet dress (Butterick 5341) and an evening dress (5325) for the “Smart Business Girl,” Delineator, October 1933.
The evening gown (No. 5325) is the new “mermaid silhouette;” both dresses are designed to make the shoulders look wider. The pointy diagonal accent on No. 5341 was seen in many variations. Click here for Joan Crawford in an extreme version, 1933.
Butterick’s Wardrobe of Patterns for the Smart Clubwoman, 1933.
Members of women’s clubs did not merely play bridge and socialize; in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century they were very much involved in improving their communities. “Women’s clubs founded kindergartens, settlement houses, school-lunch programs, health clinics, museums, and parks” according to this article about the Audubon Society.
“Clubwoman” was also Butterick’s euphemism for women who were older and not especially slender. (Lane Byrant catalogs called them “stout.”)
“Winter Wardrobe for the Smart Clubwoman.” Butterick patterns 5329, 5353, 5290, and 5350, from Delineator, page 71. October 1933.
The Delineator also suggested a Spring and Summer wardrobe for “clubwomen;” click here to read about it.
Outfits for “Clubwomen,” Butterick patterns 5329 and 5353, October 1933. Available up to 48″ bust.
A coat (Butterick 5290) and an afternoon dress (5350) for mature women. Delineator, October 1933. For sizes up to 52 inch bust.
The coat, like all the others, is enhanced with fur; in this case, the “mushroom collar” adds width to the shoulders, and the cut of the back is flattering to wide hips. These two patterns were available up to a bust measurement of 52 inches.
Butterick’s Winter Wardrobe for the High School Girl, 1933
Butterick patterns 5335, 5331, 5340, and 5333, recommended for High School Girls in Oct. 1933, Delineator, p. 70.
Just when I think I’m getting a feel for a period, something like this makes my jaw drop. People had to grow up fast in the Depression, but what ever happened to wearing a simple skirt and sweater? These are not “going away to an Ivy League college” clothes; the text says “High School Girl.” Surely dressing like this was cost-prohibitive for most. And, if schoolgirls dressed like this, how could you tell them from adults?
Dresses for High School Girls, Butterick patterns 5335 and 5331, October 1933 Delineator, p. 70.
“Flaming red faille taffeta” and “Low in back.” Not the “pretty in pink” innocent look. The school dress (5331) surprises me because it is so memorable — you couldn’t wear a dress like that every day without everyone noticing that you only have one school dress. All four of these styles for high school girls have the new, very wide shoulders and/or puffy sleeves. And they are designed for relatively small sizes.
A coat (Butterick 5340) and a red velveteen date dress (pattern 5333) for high school girls. Delineator, October 1933. p. 70.
No. 5333 has unusual off-center “clips” [ buttons (?)] “front and back.”
The hem lengths for the young married woman and the smart business girl are noticeably longer than those for the high school girl and the clubwoman.
Young Married Women and Smart Business Girls are shown with longer hemlines than High School Girls and Older (Club) Women. Oct. 1933 Delineator.
This could be because schoolgirls and older women were assumed to be shorter than young adult women. “Sizes 12 to 20” still referred to the old practice of selling young (and/or small) women’s dresses by age rather than by size. Click here for “Size 16 Years: What Does That Mean?” The patterns for older (club) women may say “Sizes 14 to 20,” but that does not equate to bust measurements 34″ to 52″! “Sizes 14 to 20” means “14 to twenty years of age,” and those patterns had different proportions than, and were made in addition to, patterns sold by bust measurement.
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