1952 Time Capsule

I recently had an appointment with a private seller who told me she had some 1950s nightgowns and gloves she wanted to sell. Great!

I turned up to the address I was given which turned out to be an old block of units in inner Melbourne. The outside was not at all interesting.
Inside, I eventually worked out, was the unit belonging to the lady's mother, who had died a couple of months previous to this. The nightgowns as well as gloves, handbags, handkerchiefs and some shoes were laid out on the couch for me to look at, and they were lovely.

Pink nightgown with lace and applique

Ivory nightgown with lace inserts

Peach nightgown with lace inserts

Ivory nightgown with applique and embroidery

The clothing had all belonged to the lady's mother, who had travelled from New York to be married in Melbourne in 1952. There were six of these gorgeous rayon nightgowns, all different colours and with different sleeves and trims, but all bias cut with the same basic style of bodice. These had been custom made for the trousseau in New York and for whatever reason the lady had never worn any of them. (Maybe she didn't like ironing!!).

There was also this beautiful satin bedjacket:

Pink satin bedjacket with coffee lace

And two green glass jars stuffed full of grey seamed nylon stockings. The lady told me that for some reason, on the journey the customs men made her mother take the stockings out of the packets and throw away the boxes. I later thought this must have been because she had so many, they probably thought she was going to sell them without paying import duties or something.

The unit itself did not appear to have been changed since the newlyweds moved in, in 1952.  The lounge suite was fabulous, and cobalt blue! All of the bedroom furniture was original and built in, custom made for the unit. The cupboards and wardrobes were still full and the lady was happy to show me through the contents of the wardrobes.

We found her mother's bras. This lady had all her bras custom made in Melbourne. They are made of beautiful cotton jacquard with padded silk straps. The lady told me there had also been longline bras but that she had cut them up! ):

Custom made bra

And what a collection of fabulous handbags! These two are snakeskin:

And the little evening bag:

And gloves! The lady had a friend in the industry and must have owned at least 40 pairs.

Unfortunately, my pockets were not deep enough to take away all of the treasures, but the lady's daughter has promised to save them for me until the next time I may be passing! One day soon I will go back for the evening gowns, shoes, knitwear, 60s slips and more amazing handbags! I was thrilled that the lady's daughter shared this with me, thank you.

Gloves For Dainty Hands

Vintage Knit Patterns at Etsy.com

Is it just me, or are vintage gloves really small? I can rarely find a pair that I can actually get my hands into. Is it just that 21st century people are larger?
Actually, I think it's genetics. I clearly come from a long line of scullery maids and farm labourers, with big, useful, working hands. Some of my friends have elegant, aristocratic hands with long, slim fingers. Clearly their ancestors were more used to sitting about drinking cups of tea and arranging vases of flowers. It was my great-great-grandma out in the kitchen scrubbing the pots.

I have just had a flip through my history of fashion book, and the first picture I can find of anyone wearing gloves is at the marriage of William the Second and Mary Stuart in 1641, and it's the men who are wearing the gloves. They are then a firm necessity throughout the next three centuries, until they are ditched in the mid 1960s.

Here is the Parisian Fashion page from the Royal Ladies' Magazine in 1830. Note the fingerless gloves. Apparently, at that time "a Parisienne " insisted on having pretty shoes, pretty gloves and pretty ribbons - the dress in those days was just an accessory." (Batterberry p.223)
Victorian ladies always appeared at a ball with long white gloves above the elbow. Their popularity continued well into the 20th century.

Chanel - Little tweed suit, 1930.
 Suit with green jersey jacket, 1931

In the 1920s they appeared commonly as day wear. They were also standard evening wear (unless you were a flapper). They figure prominently in the designs of Coco Chanel from the 20s and 30s.



"The profile hat and the three-quarter length glove:
 Madame Martinez de Hoz, famous Parisienne hostess and
 beauty, dressed by Vionnet, photographed at
Chantilly in 1935

 By the thirties, the three quarter glove was in fashion for day wear.







In the 1940s gloves continued to be a staple of the well dressed woman's wardrobe. Many of the glove patterns in my collection are from the 40s. My most popular pattern has been  mentioned in a previous post, http://vintageknitpatterns.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/crochet-in-fashion.html and was published in the 40s. Here's another lovely one.

Crochet Lace Gloves - 1948

Crochet Lace Gloves - 1940s

And I think this pattern with the black contrast is very elegant:









Gloves in the thirties, forties and fifties were made of leather, felt, crochet, nylon, rayon and knitted and crocheted in wool as well as cotton.


I recently had a tragedy when I learned that you cannot wash fine leather gloves. What were a lovely pair of above the elbow 50s evening gloves in the softest "kid" leather turned into a pair of potato crisps when I submerged them in soapy water - well, they shrank first, then dried into crisps. How do you soften leather? I thought. I couldn't help thinking of stories I'd read where Inuit women chewed leather to soften it. Needless to say, this idea was quickly dismissed. I found that rubbing the leather repeatedly did soften it, it also rubbed the skin off my fingers. If you have any ideas about how to restore fine leather, PLEASE add a comment.

Gloves seem to become even more popular in the 50s. My mother, who was a teenager and later a bride in the 50s, says she would never go anywhere without gloves. As a school girl, she had to wear her gloves to and from school on the tram, because if someone reported her to the school, boy was she in big trouble. This even applied in the hottest days of the summer. I notice that three-quarter length gloves were popular for day wear in the 50s, as well as "shorties".

Christian Dior's "New Look"
 for 1947.

I love this photo of Audrey Hepburn in 1958 in

Givenchy. How different are the ballerina flats (and stance) with such a gown? But of course she carries it off brilliantly. And the gloves, of course. I would never have thought to wear white gloves with black gown and shoes.

Gloves feature in some of my books from the early 60s, but Jean Shrimpton sounded the death knell of the glove as a fashion accessory at the 1965 Melbourne Cup. Not only did she dare to wear a mini skirt to Flemington, but she wore no stockings, no hat and NO GLOVES! Just look at the expressions on the faces of the disapproving matrons in the background, and the admiring smiles of the young women, (gloved and hatted).

I can see that I will have to test my crochet skills and try to make some of the patterns in my shop. Maybe I can make them in thicker cotton so that they come out BIGGER!

Reference:

Michael and Ariane Batterberry; Fashion - The Mirror of History; 1982; London; Columbus Books