Fashions for Daytime, October 1928

“Clubwoman” in an ad for Quaker Oats cereal, October 1920.

You could make your own version of this coat with a Butterick pattern:

Butterick coat 2243 from Delineator, October 1928. Tweed with  a lynx collar is “the smartest sport coat.”

To wear under it, Butterick offered a range of classic Twenties’ dresses:

Left, a two-piece dress with a bi-color hip band, Butterick 2267. Right, a more complex cut, with pleats falling from a diagonal zig-zag; Butterick 2279.

The collar of the dress on the right becomes a loose scarf — a detail often seen on late Twenties’ dresses.

As usual, these dresses are pleated in front but plain in back. The skirt length is appreciably shorter in this ad:

An ad for Diamond Dyes suggests that your high-school or college-age daughter can wear dyed dresses instead of new ones. Delineator, October 1928.

The school girl’s two-piece dress is inches above the knee and has a dynamic Art Moderne repeated V in front, plus a pleated skirt.

The high-school girl’s skirt exposes her knees completely. 1928. Her belt is two-toned.

I was about to comment that the dress does not look “long out of style,” but dresses for girls were always shorter than dresses for women, so perhaps she did wear it when she was 13 or 14.

Although the picture isn’t really clear, this dress for young women has a vertical zig-zag button placket closing. Butterick 2258. The pleats are cleverly inserted into a point at front and side fronts.

Butterick 2275 is a typical, simple Twenties’ style. The surprise is the neckline, which ties in front and in back. Once again, the skirt part of the dress only has pleats on the front. If you look closely, you can see a vertical line of buttons at the side of the top, just at the hip. This allowed a pull-on dress to be fastened tightly at the hip.

Butterick 2281 and 2245 are day dresses in the normal range of women’s sizes. It looks like pleats were chic in the  Fall of 1928; they go all the way around in dress 2245, right. Delineator, October 1928, p. 121.

Prints and plaids for daytime. The pleats at left are top stitched, but would not be if the fabric was printed velvet. The dress on the right (2245) is probably waistless.

The next dress could be made for size 52:

Butterick 2283: all the interest is in the front.  The pleats are top stitched for several inches. This dress was recommended for large sized women — up to 52 inch bust.

The cuffs echo the band with decorative button at the point. There are no figure flattering diagonal lines in back, however. The two dresses below are also for larger-than-average sizes. Can you figure out why?

Butterick 2227 (left) and 2249 (right.) October 1928.

A closer view of Butterick 2227 and 2249. This modern velvet comes reasonably  close to the printed fabric at left. a description of the dress at right is below.

The thing all three dresses for larger women they have in common is: Surplice (i.e., diagonal) lines.

This simple afternoon dress calls for printed velvet; here is one source. Printed silk rayon would work, too. Rayon is one of the first synthetic fabrics, often used in the Twenties.

A simple afternoon dress, October 1928. Butterick 2253.

October clothes for schoolgirls were very similar to adult clothing:

A coat for girls and a dress to go under it. October 1928. Butterick patterns in Delineator.

Butterick for schoolgirls ages 8 to 15, October 1928. Their knees are not covered at all.

 

Paris Couturier Designs, December 1926

The latest styles from Paris, December 1926, as described in The Delineator magazine

This is a two-page spread on the latest Paris Fashions of 1926. Coverage of the Couture collections was a regular feature in The Delineator in the 1920s; Butterick Publishing maintained an office in Paris, and used several sketch artists, including Soulié, who also worked for L’Art et la Mode. These illustrations are signed Lages. The designers featured in the article are Paul Poiret, Lucien Lelong, Louiseboulanger, and Molyneux. [Louiseboulanger is always written as one word.] The gowns pictured on these two pages could be purchased in New York: “Models on these two pages imported by Mary Walls.” Mary Walls’ shop was located in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Page 40: “French Designs for the American Season”

Evening frock by Poiret, 1926

Left:  “An evening frock from Paul Poiret is an uneven swirl of black velvet below a sequinned bodice on which multicolored flowers are worked in brilliant shades of rose and blue and green. Ends of Chartreuse velvet fall from the bows at the hip and the hem is faced with silver ribbon.  The Gothic outline of the décolletage is new and interesting.”

Hostess Gown by Lelong, 1926

Right: “In a hostess gown designed by Lucien Lelong, arabesques of gold and silver trace a gorgeous pattern on the transparent tissue of the body.  The narrow skirt of black chiffon velvet opens over a panel of gold lamé, and gold and silver ribbon square the hanging sleeve and outline the deep V of the neck.  The Parisienne wears a gown of this type at home and for informal dinners.”

Dolman evening coat, Lelong, 1926

Left:  “Body and sleeve merge into one in the medieval cut of ‘Christmas’, an evening wrap of black chiffon velvet faced with white velvet and trimmed on the collar, sleeves and scarf with clipped white cony [rabbit.]  Furs, shaved or clipped to absolute flatness are new, velvet is smart, and black, in a somewhat florid season, remains the most distinguished of colors. From Lucien Lelong.”

Page 41: “Brilliant Frocks that match a Holiday Mood”

Some 1926 dresses had asymmetrical hems, longer on one side, or some trailing fabric that dipped below the normal hemline. The descriptions below show that some thought them a precursor of lower hemlines, but in fact. skirts got even shorter in the late 1920s, before descending to new lows, along with the stock market, after 1929.

Evening dress with a train at the side, Louiseboulanger, 1926

Left:  “In trains many prophets see the re-entry of the long skirt and the exit of the knee-length fashion, while others find them only the charming contradiction that is so much more entertaining than the jewel of consistency. Louiseboulanger girdles the slender hips of a sheath frock of violet velvet bound with silver with a great bow of purple velvet placed over a train at the side.”

A sheath dress by Molyneaux, 1926

Above right:  “Captain Molyneux preserves in the heart of Paris the essentially English tradition of evening magnificence. His gowns are almost invariably sheaths of classical simplicity made splendid by fabric, lace, or beads. A frock of gold, green, and red brocade is absolutely untrimmed. A brocade scarf is thrown over the head is looped at the hip and trails behind in a long and graceful train.”

An evening dress with skirt covered with spangles, by Louiseboulanger, 1926

Right:   “Gold metallic ribbons place the waistline of a delightful frock from Louiseboulanger. The skirt is slightly gathered, slightly flared, and entirely covered with long spangles of black and gold which weight it and cause it to sway and undulate in motion. The former are used on the brief skirt, the latter suggest a hip yoke. Models on these two pages imported by Mary Walls.” [The Metropolitan Museum has a gown by Jeanne Lanvin with the label: “Mary Walls/Branch Shop/Waldorf-Astoria/South Lobby/East 45th St./New York”]