Print Dresses for Spring, 1934

Print dresses for Spring, 1934. Butterick patterns 5494, 5527, 5507 from The Delineator, Feb. 1934.

Eighty-one years ago, these print dresses were illustrated in The Delineator magazine, a Butterick Company publication. Print fabrics were suggested for both day and evening wear. I’ll show some close-ups of each dress, because the details are so lovely.

Butterick 5494

Butterick pattern 5494, Feb. 1934.

“The fruit prints are very charming, especially the berry, apple and pear ones.  A raspberry print is used for dress 5494, a frock distinguished also for its new type of high cowl neckline, buttoned to one shoulder and its sleeves that go just beyond the crook of the elbow.” — The Delineator, February 1934, p. 72.

What I really like about this dress is the unusual cut of the bodice and sleeves, and the way the diagonal seam is carried down into the skirt.

Butterick patterns 5527 and 5507

Butterick patterns 5527 and 5507, February 1934, The Delineator.

The large, swirling, abstract print on number 5527 is quite a contrast to “fruit prints.”

Dress details, Butterick 5527 and 5507, Feb. 1934.

Butterick 5527:  “Light rust is the newest color for prints, and best-looking when the design is in white, as in the hood frock 5527. In front the dress has a high neck, but it is its back that is the important thing.” [That’s right: A hood!]

Butterick 5507:  “Neat little unimportant designs, spaced apart, make the smartest looking dresses after all, as 5507 with its entrancing laced and buttoned scarf, proves. This is the kind of print that is definitely high fashion for spring.”

Top details of Butterick 5527 and 5507, Feb. 1934.

Big bow/collars like No. 5507 were also popular in white. Notice the way the sleeves echo the curve of the bodice.

This print dress with a contrast collar/bow is Butterick 5609, from April 1934:

Butterick dress pattern 5609, April 1934, The Delineator.

It also has fullness gathered into curves on the sleeves, like No. 5507.

A print fabric was also featured in this dress from a Lane Bryant  catalog advertisement in February:

Lane Bryant catalog for stout women ad from The Delineator, Feb. 1934.

Print for a Spring Evening Dress

Butterick evening gown patterns 5534 and 5526, Feb. 1934. The Delineator.

 Butterick 5534:  This jacket dress would be hard to beat — for being terribly good-looking and practical, too. It’s suitable for Mama and Daughter alike.  Wear it informally with the jacket.  Take the jacket off and you have a covered-shoulder, low-backed frock …. Designed for sizes 12 to 20; 30 to 40.”

Butterick 5526:  The skirt of this dress is all one unbroken sweep of the satin, with a single seam down the back — no side seams! For this, you have to use 54 inch satin. There’s a built-in brassiere, so all one needs to wear underneath is a girdle and step-ins …. Designed for sizes 12 to 20; 30 to 40.”

Details of Butterick patterns 5534 and 5526, from Feb. 1934, The Delineator.

Number 5526 doesn’t use print fabric, but that description — a single seam bias skirt and a built-in bra — is pretty interesting!

A Vintage Print Evening Dress, circa 1929

While reading about these prints for spring — one of them in  rust, which is not a “springtime” color anymore — I remembered this vintage dress which I photographed — badly — several years ago:

Vintage print evening dress, circa 1929.

It is several years earlier than the patterns from 1934; it has a handkerchief hem which is much shorter in front than in back. 

These transitional gowns were popular around 1929 — this example is from Paris, by Lucien Lelong.

Navy Taffeta Gown by Lucien Lelong, pictured in The Delineator, August 1929.

A closer view of the front of the vintage dress shows a dropped waistline, too. It is made of print chiffon over a silk lining. Like many gowns of the 1930s, it depends on a bias cut for its effectiveness.

The use of bold, printed fabrics spanned several decades.

 

Day Dresses for November, 1934

Butterick dress patterns for “High Noon,” November 1934. Nos. 5961, 5955, and 5857. From The Delineator magazine. Photographer not named.

High Noon

“If you sit in the lobby of any smart luncheon place at high noon, you’ll see these smart women come in. The one who wears a tailored tweed dress, 5961 [left], with careful details — small collar, pockets, buttons, pleats, stitching.  The one who wears a black wool dress, 5957 [right], with slits in the streamline skirt and a shining satin sash.  The one who wears a bright crepe dress, 5955 [center], punctuated at neckline and wrists with black. There’s a look of Jodelle about the lovely, simple lines. . . . Cheney fabric. Delman shoes. Lilly Daché hat. Furs from Jaekel.”

Butterick 5961

Butterick pattern No. 5961, Nov. 1934, The Delineator magazine.

I confess that this is my favorite. It has so many great details, including that yoke extending into sleeves; the intriguing pocket shapes, copied on the skirt; and the big button accents. On the other hand, matching the large-scale plaid was undoubtedly easier for the illustrator than it would be for the home stitcher!

“5961:  The kind of tailored clothes that came out of Paris are the kind with interesting details — stitching, slot seams, amusing pockets, slit skirts. As Agnes-Drecoll uses details, we used them in this plaid wool dress. For 36 (size 18), 3 yards, 54-inch wool.  Designed for 12 to 20; 30 to 42 [inch bust measure.]”

Not what we think of as a ‘slit skirt’ today: Butterick #5961, 1934. It wouldn’t make walking much easier….

Butterick 5955

Butterick pattern No. 5955, with Lilly Dache hat. November 1934 The Delineator magazine.

“As Jodelle grows familiar, you recognize the simplicity of her lines. Like our dress with its convertible collar, they suit everyone. . . . Designed for sizes 12 to 20; 30 to 40 [inch bust measure.] “

Butterick pattern No. 5955, The Delineator, Nov. 1934.

That’s certainly an interesting sleeve (although likely to swoop into the soup at lunch). The article gives no alternate view to explain how the collar is “convertible.” Here’s a closer look at the Lilly Daché hat, with its brim of pleated velvet:

Black velvet hat from Lilly Dache. 1934.

I had to increase the contrast to show the hat details. According to Lizzie Bramlett, writing for the Vintage Fashion Guild, Lilly Dache’s first hat under her own name was also made of velvet. Fashion trivia fact: “In 1958 Daché hired Halston as a hat designer.”

Butterick 5957

Butterick pattern 5957, The Delineator magazine, Nov. 1934.

“5957  A new French house called Robert Piguet slit the skirts of trim wool dresses and filled them in with pleats. We make a dress like that and tie shiny satin around the waist. . . . Designed for sizes 12 to 20; 30 to 40 [inch bust measure.] ”

Slit with pleats in the style of Robert Piguet, 1934. The Delineator.

Writing for the Vintage Fashion Guild, emmapeelpants says that the house of Robert Piguet, founded in 1933, was “the training ground for Dior, Bohan, Galanos, Balmain and Givenchy. ” That’s quite an alumni group! Like Butterick No. 5961, this dress has broad shoulders and a yoke, which makes the upper body look wider (and the hips narrower by comparison. Also notice how much the length of the thigh is exaggerated in this fashion illustration.) The finishing touch on this dress (described in the copy as “a black wool dress,” but illustrated in red) is an exceptionally long rhinestone dress clip at the neckline, added in the illustration to continue the vertical CF seam.

1930s rhinestone dress clip from RememberedSummers.

I thought this vintage clip was long — over 2 inches — but it’s nowhere near as long as the one illustrated. The collar of #5957 would look quite different without that big piece of jewelry.

Not Quite Designer Fashions

You’ll notice that all three patterns are described with reference to specific Paris designers, but none of them claims to be an exact copy of a Paris design. “As Agnes-Drecoll uses details, we used them in this plaid wool dress.”  “There’s a look of Jodelle about the lovely, simple lines.” “Robert Piguet slit the skirts of trim wool dresses and filled them in with pleats. We make a dress like that . . . .” The Butterick Publishing Company maintained an office in Paris, partly for the purpose of reporting on the latest fashions. Back in the 1920s, it was raided by the French police on behalf of Madeleine Vionnet; they indeed found evidence that her dresses were being copied in the workshop. Vionnet sued. (Source: Betty Kirke’s brilliant book Madeleine Vionnet.)