Designer Lingerie from Paris, 1920’s

I live so far from the life of people who buy couture that it never occurred to me that couturiers made underwear in the 1920’s. This little article from June, 1929 shows a royal bride, plus trousseau lingerie from the Houses of Worth, Doeuillet-Doucet , Philippe et Gaston, and Rouff.

Wedding dress and lingerie from Worth, Doeuillet-Doucet, etc. Delineator, June 1929.

I already wrote about the white chiffon velvet wedding dress made for Princess Francoise of France (click here.)

Worth wedding gown designed for Princess Francoise of France. Sketched in Delineator, June 1929.

This bridesmaid dress by Ardanse was not necessarily part of the royal wedding , nor were all the designer lingerie pieces sketched.

Bridesmaid dress by Ardanse. “Green taffeta with the yoke, tiny sleeves and skirt of tulle.” June 1929.

Below, left:  “The wedding nightgown of white crepe de Chine trimmed with Milan lace is netting edged. By Rouff.”

Nightgown by Rouff, chemise and matching panties by Doeuillet-Doucet. Delineator sketch, June 1929.

The nightgown by Maggy Rouff is surprisingly un-sexy (but perhaps the Princess was modest.)

Lingerie chemise and “pantalon” underwear from Doeuillet-Doucet. Delineator, June 1929.

“Pale pink crepe de Chine and pantalon for the going-away lingerie set.” Doeuillet was a known design house, and so was Doucet. When Doucet died in 1929, Doeuillet took over the house of Doucet; that explains the hyphenated name.

This similar set, probably not couture,  was not labelled, but very elegant:

Vintage underwear:  a pink silk chemise and panties or knickers.

Note the crotch fastened with buttons. I think of wide-legged undies like these as “tap pants,” since they resemble dancers’ rehearsal shorts from the twenties and thirties. Separates were replacing “combinations” or “Teddies” as waistlines returned to late nineteen twenties and early thirties dresses.

Silk bedjacket by Maggy Rouff, sketched for Delineator, June 1929.

“The bride slips this pale pink satin jacket over her night-dress for the ‘petit dejeuner’ in bed.” Married women were allowed to eat breakfast in bed — a luxury denied to the unmarried daughter or houseguest.  [Source: The World of Downton Abbey, by Jessica Fellowes.] Bed jackets were a common gift item, useful because a long robe would have been uncomfortable under the blankets, but even Great Houses and hotels were not well heated.

Chemise-pantalon (a teddy) by Doeuillet-Doucet, right; left, a long wrapped chemise that ties in the front, by Philippe et Gaston. Sketched for Delineator, June 1929.

The teddy — an all-in-one, step-in undergarment, would have had a crotch strap; the “trousseau chemise” that ties in front strikes me as a very impractical garment to wear under clothing — the bow would create a bulge — but is certainly trousseau-worthy for wandering around the honeymoon suite. (It almost seems designed to slip off gracefully….) The House of Philippe et Gaston rose rapidly in the 1920s. (See a fashion plate here.)

Left, Philippe et Gaston; right, Doeuillet-Doucet. Sketched for Delineator, June 1929.

This pale green, tucked teddy has a a crotch strap, barely visible. It stops at the edge of the netting lace.

Netting lace and tucks were both used on the wedding nightgown illustrated above.

I personally love the use of “cafe au lait” colored lace on vintage lingerie — and, of course, it could give the illusion of nudity under sheer dresses, depending on your skin tone.

Detail of lace on pale green silk undergarment, 1920s.

Cafe au lait lace on a pink silk undergarment, 1920s.

The extraordinary Vintage Textile website has exquisite 1920’s garments for sale; after an item is sold, its photograph is moved to the Gallery, where we can enjoy it for years to come (Thank you!) Click here for the 1920s Gallery.

A sample from the Vintage Textile Gallery: “France, 1925.”

Details of another lovely piece of lingerie attributed to Maggy Rouff can be seen here. Another famous twenties Fashion House was Boue Soeurs. See an example of their work by clicking here.

For dessert:

A step-in teddy from Pinterest…

… And a black peignoir from 1925, at the Vintage Textile Gallery– you really should take a look at Vintage Textile.com! It’s not just 1920’s clothing. Who knows what you might find in their “Treasure Hunt” pages!

 

 

High Low Hems for Evening — 1929 and Now

Maid of Honor and Bride, May 1929. Butterick patterns 2360 (left) and 2634 (bride.) Illustrated by Muriel King.

Evening dresses, as well as day dresses, had reached historic heights by the late twenties, exposing middle and upper class women’s legs to — or above — the knee for the first time in thousands of years. We know that hems descended rapidly in the early 1930’s, so it’s easy to assume that some women welcomed a return to the lengths they were used to from the 1910s. I’ve been writing about the high-in-front-low-in-back hems of the late 1920’s as a transitional fashion — a way of “easing” into a longer look. (Click here for Part 1.) (Click here for Part 2.)

Miss Jean Ackerman wearing a gown by Paul Poiret in Ziegfeld’s production of “Whoopee.” Lucky Strike cigarette ad, March 1929. Delineator.

Poiret was no longer a leading couturier in 1929, but top designers like Lelong, Molyneux, Worth, and Cheruit were all showing  what I’ll call High/Low hems.

Couture evening gowns by (from left) Louiseboulanger, Lelong, Cheruit, Molyneux, and Lelong; sketched for Delineator, May 1929.

Couture from Lelong, Louiseboulanger, Vionnet, and Vionnet. Sketched for Delineator, May 1929.

For those who love a sewing challenge, here’s a closer look at two 1929 Lelong gowns:

Couture gowns by Lucien Lelong, Illustrated in March and May, 1929. Delineator. I’ll link to some modern leg-baring dresses with sheer overlays later.

Worth designed this white velvet wedding gown for Princess Francoise of France in 1929. The gown is relatively simple so as not to detract from the yards of heirloom lace in her veil.

Worth wedding gown designed for Princess Francoise of France. Sketched in Delineator, June 1929.

Bridesmaid dress by Ardanse. “Green taffeta, with the yoke, tiny sleeves and skirt of tulle.” June 1929.

Commercial designs followed suit:

Wedding gown in Butterick’s Delineator; illustration for article, June 1929.

Butterick pattern 2632 has a coordinating jacket. May, 1929.

Butterick pattern 2634 dress and jacket; May 1929.

As I said, I’ve been thinking of these dresses with hems that are simultaneously long and short as “transitional” fashion. I know some readers really dislike them; I may have bad news for you. Here’s Sonya Molodetskaya in a gown by Vasily Vein – worn in San Francisco in September 2015. (Photo by Laura Morton.)

We have now been living in a long period of varied hem lengths — without the edicts of other eras that “this season the hem will be nine inches above the floor” or “Just at the kneecap.” So how am I to explain the reappearance of high-in-front-low-in-back hems?

These were seen at the San Francisco Opera and Symphony events in September, 2014 and 2015:

A red satin gown by Rubin Singer (click here.) (2015)

Designer Yuka Uehara in her gown for Tokyo Gamine (click here.) (2015)

Another super-short front and full trained gown worn by Sonya Molodetskaya  (click here.) (2014)

Komal Shah in Oscar de la Renta (Short in front, click here.) (Another view click here.) (2014)

Belinda Berry demonstrated her love of outrageous formal outfits by wearing her own high/low design . (2015)

Pianist Yuja Wang in mini-dress with long sheer overlay  (2015) proved that Heidi Klum (seen here at the Emmy Awards) (2015) wasn’t the only person wearing a short hem and a long hem at the same time. Fashion indecision? Fear of commitment? Anything goes? (Klum’s yellow dress from Atelier Versace, with a choice of hems and two completely different sides, seems a little too indecisive to me!)