9 June 1957 “Fashion: Ten Years Forward, Ten Years Back, 1947, 1957, 1967”

1947 introduced Dior’s “New Look”. It gave longer and fuller skirts. Nipped in waists and an overall 19th century femininity that had not been seen in ladies fashions since, well, the 19th century.

Though in 1947 most women were still wearing a more general war time 1940’s look.

Now, here in 1957 we have been rather used to the New Look for some time and the silhouette is the same, but the skirts are beginning to rise and we are getting closer to that early 1960’s “Mad Men” look. Though the everyday today is not much different from the New Look. Full skirts, waists accented, trim form fitting sleeves, skirts, jackets and so on.

Yet, in 10 years hence how the look shall change so drastically.
This split skirt or skort is new on the scene. And this lovely teal blue dress is adorable and wearable for any age.
This ad for teen knits seems very modern. The young man could easily walk about today and completely blend in.

We also have 1967 to thank for low rise trousers, or as they were then called “Hip Huggers”. I have to say, if you are Twiggy thin, these are adorable, or if you are a 12 year old girl straight as a pin. However, for the majority of women, this style is the worse. It gives today’s fashion ‘no no’ the “muffin top”. Yet consider, if you will, the joy of that same figure in a 1950’s curvaceous outfit, even a bathing suit.

We seem to have gone back to the 1967 body image today. Even twiggy’s odd angular clumsy child pose seems des rigueur today. Certainly her child-like ultra thin body seems the norm on Catwalks today.
Consider the 1947 New Look.

The model is thin, but with a woman’s body. She is grown up, mature, confident. No put on ‘childishness’ nor feigned innocence. I am not saying one is necessarily better than the other, but I am saying that the overall appearance and therefore ideal to be obtained has changed drastically from 57 to 67. Gone is the role of the mature strong woman, or even the motherly can do it all and we have, instead, the time of the Teen. The epitome of youth, which of course we know is an odd ideal as we are but such youths for a mere five years. Then, we are expected to be quirky innocent self obsessed posing vixens into our 50’s? Can you imagine a grandmother in this outfit, constantly modeling and hoping to be cool?

I have to say I love some of the 67 fashions. The more mainstream looks seem wearable yet quite adorable and certainly a granny or a teen would look lovely in this coat and hat, don’t you think?

Pierre Cardin was a big contributor to the Mod look of 1967. The fun and pop of brigth color and simple line. It has an almost comic book appeal. It is as if having been a part of TV and Pop culture now since the 1950’s, fashion and youth simply live in that colorful moment of TV and Magazine snap shots. Certainly 1967 is a closer to our modern day than 1957. That simply 10 year span could be hundreds of years apart. 1957 to those in 1957 might as well be 1867.

Here is what 1967 Mod fashion thinks we shall be wearing come the year 2000. We often hear talk of interplanetary living by 2000, as the space race lead us to the moon in 1969. However, such dreams seem as distant now as buggy rides in a surrey with a fringe on top.


Any way you slice it, fashion not only reflects societies views as a whole, but most likely helps to form the younger sets view and ideals of what is important. I won’t even begin to guess what these teen jeans pre-destroyed says about our current society or what we consider important.

Well, let’s close with this 1967 moment of Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones singing a duet.

5 January 1957 “1957 Fashion and Hair and The REAL MAD MEN.”

I thought we’d take a quick peek at some fashion and hair for 1957.
A darling sheath dress with the collar that is becoming increasingly vogue. This collar will continue into the early 60’s and actually get a bit taller. I love the little empire waist pleat in the back.
These great prints in the full skirt, dolman sleeve and no defined shoulder is still going strong. These are from a 1957 Spiegel catalog.
A Peter Jones dress for this year. Sweetheart neckline and the length is getting a bit shorter.
I love the conical straw hat.
Speaking of hats, the raised crown is appearing as is the brim. This will reach its peak in the mid 60’s with mod hats that look like 20’s cloche but worn very high. This style is becoming more apparent in high fashion. Click the image to get to see more hats from 57 at Cotureallure.com. Though the closer fitting smaller hat is still the dominant look here in 1957. This darling cloth number would be rather easy to make, I would think.
This Clairol ad from 1957 also shows how hair is beginning to lift off the forehead. After the 1940’s hair began to be shorter and tighter to the head. Though this is still a shorter style you can see how it is being lifted which will eventually become the bouffant by the mid 60’s. Here we see another Clairol ad from this year. Again, the hair is softer and less rigid than the decade’s beginning. Softer fuller waves, not unlike the 1940’s in some aspects.An interesting point about the Clairol ads, is I found out that their 1949 ad campaign, “It lets me be me” was dreamed up by a woman.
  A few years back, when Mad Men first came out, there was an exhibit at the New York Public Library highlighting ads and the Mad Men of the 50-70’s.
What is interesting to what we are shown on the show, is much as I have come to discover with my own project: what we are told about that time and women’s oppression is often over-exaggerated.
A quote from one of the influential women in advertising, Phyllis Robinson,(the woman who came up with the 1949 Clairol ad) was interesting:

“It seemed very simple and straightforward and not pretentious,”(the ad) Robinson, 86, said in a telephone interview from her Manhattan home. Robinson said no one held her back because she was a woman.
“Not in the least,” she said. “I slid right in and did my stuff.”

HERE is an interesting article about Phyllis.
Another influential Mad Men ‘Women’ of the time, Mary Wells Lawrence, started as a copywriter in the 1950’s and founder her own agency, Wells Rich Greene, in 1966. She said:

“People are always saying, ‘Wasn’t it a male business?’ It was not a male business,” Lawrence said. “You would think that we were all cowering under the desk.”

I think it is just another example of how we get so much of our current knowledge and therefore idea of history FROM TV that we have a distorted view of it. Of course it is more drama to have such a divide between the women and to portray ALL the men as womanizing chauvinists. Yet, we seem unable, nowadays, to really separate reality from fiction. Our real history is almost being re-written by TV/movie fiction writers.
I think that is one reason I am glad I am studying a time when some of the people who lived it are still alive to set us straight. There is something almost ‘whiney’ about a modern person saying, “Well, we couldn’t do that then because it was how women were perceived”. Yet, throughout history there are women who in SPITE of what was perceived still succeeded. And today, the concept of the oppressed homemaker is also a nice crutch for people to feel no need to be accountable for their homes and lives. “I can’t be bothered to be organized or pay attention to what I and my family eat, I’m not a Stepford Wife!” A term, by the way, invented for a film that seems to hold more truth for women today about their history than the actual truth of women who did enjoy and feel proud to have chosen a career as a homemaker. Obviously, women had the option even then to go off to New York and work in offices and, yes, even become Mad Men.
I think we do , we modern people, sometimes have trouble separating TV/movie fiction from reality. In some sense it gives us such a distorted sense of what life should be like, we are often depressed or striving for things unattainable because they are not real. The sad thing is it makes the REAL things not even in our range of decision. I have come to find out by disconnecting myself from that modern machine, the joy and happiness in that actual, the truthful. Odd, then, that I had to find it while ‘playacting’ house wife in the 1950’s.
In a way, that very indulgent aspect of my ‘pretending it’s 1950’s’  much like a reality show even points out to me how much I was and am influenced by media and modern programming. It seemed normal to try such a project because ‘normal’ is skewered towards fictional in the modern world. Though, I am happy for it and in my ‘fictional’ 1950’s actually feel more happy and ‘real’ than I did before the project.
Also, as an artist, walking that line of reality and imaginary is often par for the course. So, in some ways, it was probably just easier for me to do it. But, my point ( I do have one) is that we need, we modern people, to try and appreciate TV/Movies for what they are, entertainment. Yet, realize that real life and living is often nothing like what we are told on TV. And, in that as well, our history is not anything like an AMC Drama. We can appreciate the show for what it is, a ‘dramatization’, but we should also take the time to look at the real history and understand where we came from. It helps us see where we are going and how best to get there.
Happy Homemaking.

19 December 1956 “Q & A Sunday: Am I Beautiful”

This month I have tried toying with little bits of the modern world to see how I feel. Dipping my toe into the pond, if you will. Checking the water and seeing if I want to dive in. I also often get questions about how I feel the modern world is in regards to a woman’s image compared to the 1950’s. Many see the 1950’s as a very oppressive time for women. In the kitchen in the apron at their husband’s beck and call or given bad role models in schools and university. I am finding that what we have today on a very subtle level for women’s body image is actually dangerous, even to the point of death for some.
One of the things I have done this month to test out the modern world was watch this Documentary HERE. (You will have to sign into HULU as it says it deals with adult content. However, I found it interesting that there was not really any nudity and no language. It was almost as if they didn’t want young people to see what it is they are being exposed to so that they could still BE exposed to it.) Please, if you have some time, watch it. I think it is rather well done and it deals with beauty image and worth watching. If you have a daughter, perhaps watch it with her. I think it is really eye opening.
It, however, made me repel a bit. Just as my flipping through some modern magazines at the store the other day or a foray through racks of clothes while out Christmas shopping. I am rather timid about the modern world and rightly so.

This is a 1947 cover of Vogue. Certainly the model is thin, yet she seems a real person. Now go back to this 1940 Vogue image. This model is beautiful, but i can tell you today there are many Photoshop areas that would happen. The little bit of arm flap on her raised arm would be removed. The little curve of skin under her forearm would be gone. The rippling on her neck and the slightest little line on her throat would all be gone. That mark above her eyebrow would disappear.
These lovely ladies in the 1940’s are very healthy looking. But today they could not be high fashion models. These girls legs would be considered too fat and not toned. The girl on the right, a healthy weight, would feel bad about her little tummy and the extra ‘fat’ on her upper arm. Why wouldn’t she if she lived in today’s world, where even if she was not looking at high fashion magazine’s but simply shopping for swimsuits on a site she would encounter this. This is not even a high fashion shoot. It is an ad from a site where you can purchase this suit. This girl’s thinness, with her ribs fairly easy to see, is built like a 5 year old thin boy. Her high fashion counterpart is no only very thin but obviously so because she is most likely 12-14 and has not hit puberty full on. Boyish hips and skeletal legs. This seems very familiar to me. Fashion shot? No, child starving in Darfur. Is it beautiful? Is it the ideal?
And, if we think this warped body image is only affecting teens, take a look at this runway show.Compared to this 1950’s Life photo shoot of little girls on the beach. One say’s let’s play and have fun and the other, well I don’t like to say what it says, particularly when it is being applied to a girl under 10.
This is amazing to me because this element of being ‘plugged’ into the media of the modern world doesn’t only work on your physical feelings. As I almost exclusively look at magazines printed no later than 1959, I have, in the past few years, become less enamored with things. A flip through a modern magazine makes me feel not only bad about my body, but covetous of things. A woman’s magazine or an architecture magazine today is an instrument of covetousness. Not that the old magazines weren’t selling you things, but in the 1950’s ladies magazines there are countless ways to make and create your own idea and ideal of the perfect home. It isn’t all stainless steel and granite kitchens full of high end restaurant appliances despite the fact that most families only use their microwave, or oven to heat up prepared foods.
In a way, these past two years have been an almost psychological cleansing for me. By simply depriving myself of any modern advertising and tv, it is amazing how over time my idea of happiness and my desires have changed drastically. Yet, give me a modern magazine for a few minutes and those old feelings come rushing back. I think we honestly do not know how much power all the modern media we are plugged into have on us. Even simple tv shows we might watch are full of subtle hints at what we SHOULD want and that pursuit of some happiness or ideal that is just out of reach. If we stop looking or striving for that happiness, we would stop buying and start looking around and living. We would enjoy what we have and who we have around us. We would even think, what of those who have less than I? And community might begin to reform.
In so many ways it is just easy to live in the modern world. We can just plug in and watch and covet. It can be harder to break free, yet once we do we begin to see how much easier it actually is to live outside of it. I mean to say, it is easy to go and buy prepared food, sit and just veg rather than read or play games together or plant a garden, but once you begin to the those things and try to go back to the other, you find them empty and vapid. It is as if the ‘hard work’ we think is involved in really living is actually easier work that is more inviting and engaging in being alive.
I know for me the more I disconnect from the modern world via media the more I feel connected to myself and those I know. Although in so many ways, when I am out and about I do feel a disconnect from those around me in shops or generally, in that I cannot understand them anymore. The impetus that compels them, though once my own, now seems so alien as to seem as if I have actually travelled here from another time.
So, back to the point of our body image: It is obviously distorted. What was once considered beautiful would now be considered chubby. And what once appeared in magazines would no be air-brushed into a way that is not possible. Why is it that we do value looks more than brains? Why is it that it is mainly on the women than the men that such advertising is based? We women certainly seem to be the sex which wishes to please and so find ourselves, without rhyme or reason, buying into whatever body image is presented to us. We might scoff at our corset wearing Victorian ancestors and then go continue to obsessively read about how to lose weight, how to eat to get thinner. And the irony in the entire situation is that we are all more fat than before. Our models were once a bit thinner than the average, but overall similar in size, now they are anorexic and we, as a nation, are dangerously overweight?
You see the more we are feed an image to strive for, very very thin and then advertised to fatty and unhealthy foods to eat because they are easy, we are on an endless cycle that will GUARNTEE consumers. If we keep finding ourselves heavier than the ideal, then we will buy more products to get thinner, we will also drastically change weight, needing to purchase more clothes and as clothes are so cheap we will buy things smaller in the ‘hope’ that we will wear them. The modern world of consuming is specifically set up to make us unhappy, because that makes a better consumer. We want more and then we need the shopping to feel good as well.
All I can say is if I had a daughter today I don’t know what I would do. How could one shield her from the very world? Where can one go that is NOT plugged into the world? Wifi and TV is even in some of the most remote areas now. If you have watched the documentary you will see the results of body image in one generation to the native people. Their ideal of a heavier woman, such a normal cultural part of their ideals, changed when tv was introduced and the next generation of native girls were throwing up to be thin. It is a powerful tool and when we think it is okay for our children to simply be allowed to be plugged in all the time and then wonder why they do what they do, it is almost a blind naiveté, yet what can one do? We are IN the modern world surrounded by technology. But, ask yourselves why? Why did you let it in? Why, when it knocked at the door did you say, “Come on in, have a seat, of course we all need cell phones, hand held computer devices, tv’s in every room, video games piled to the ceiling, movies at the drop of a hat”.
If we look around our home and our lives and really stop and consider, how much is media and modern outside sources affecting my and my families life? Now consider the 1940 family. The radio is there, the first outside intrusion into the privacy of the family, but no tv and in many cases not always a phone. How did they live? Were they Neanderthals clubbing one another on the head going about in loin cloths? When is it enough? Will we always need just one more device, just one more way to be entertained or aided, “I can’t drive without a machine telling me when to turn right or left”. When? I think, as we approach the day that in our country has become the most consumerist day of the year, it is worth thinking upon. And to ask ourselves not only are we ‘un-happy’ with our bodies, but are we happy with our lives? Do all the things we have make us happier or more well adjusted? Are we better off than our grandparents generation because of all we have? Are we more connected with our children or each other?
Let me know what you think. If you can prove me wrong, I will be very happy. I would love to find a way to return to the modern world in some way, but fear to give up the calm and connection I have found by simply unplugging myself. I know that sounds odd as I am typing this on my computer, but this is a machine I use to set down my thoughts and make creative objects as I would a typewriter, an encyclopedia or a canvas and paint. It is not my window into the world. But, is it realistic to think that we, as a people, could ever live that way en masse? Or is it simply to easy to just sit back, plug in, buy and ignore ourselves and those around us and continue being covetous and simply gratifying it with a click of the mouse and Paypal? I don’t know. Watch the Documentary and let me know how you feel about it.

18 December 1956 “A Cocktail Party in Photographs”

As we are all, so have I been rather busy this Christmas season. I threw a cocktail party this past Wednesday and did manage to get some photos. I always have good intentions of getting many, but once you get enjoying the night, you forget. I didn’t get all the ladies dresses, bad me. All the cocktails looked so lovely, especially the champagne cocktails fizzing away in my silver rimmed cocktail glasses with cherries in, but no pictures.
This first shot I made black and white. Doesn’t it look like an old photo?
 But, it isn’t, but one of my lovely guests donning her wonderful vintage cocktail coat. Here we see some mingling going on. My friend joked she was a ‘two-fisted’ drinker in this shot, as she was finishing a Manhattan when I handed her a grasshopper.
Another lovely shot of guest and grasshopper, they were a popular drink. And no wonder, they are SO yummy. My friend by the nibbles. I placed them on the piano, so that our table was free for cards and visiting. Here hubby relaxes with the dogs, he had his jacket off at this point. The dogs enjoyed themselves, as they love begging and therefore receiving food from all.I made a new dress, of course, and though I had intended to use a silk, this satin worked better for me. The silk was not in the right color. I think the over skirt turned out rather well and can be worn either opened in the back or the front. I wore it tied in the back, apron style for the night.   Here I am with my friend who had the most wonderful hat, very Mag Wildwood from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
My other friend also had a dress with a sheer apron style, though she wore hers open in the front. In the picture of people mingling you can see the pleated back of the this sheer skirt I believe.   As I said, I had most of the food on the piano. We had so many lovely things. This baked brie with home-made Apple pie jam baked in was lovely. These little darlings were easy and quite good. Just chive cream cheese on cocktail bread with smoked salmon and fresh dill. I can’t forget the deviled eggs, now can I? And it always gives me the excuse to use my egg plate that is part of my Temporama vintage dishes. Little egg, chive, and mushroom quiche. Here are assorted cheeses, labeled and so good. I just thought one of my egg cups filled with colored toothpicks seemed so 1950’s.Here are the popular Grasshoppers. To add red to them for the holiday I ground up candy canes in my coffee grinder and sprinkled on top.
I had 40s and 50s music playing all night and we played cards and laughed and really enjoyed ourselves. We had such a lovely time and there were so many more wonderful photos I could have got, but as I said, I was too into my party. As this second year ends and I have been diligently documenting my project, I find myself having to more and more remind myself to keep documenting it. My life has become so normally 1950’s that I forget all the little moments that might be enjoyed by you, but are so normal to me I have begun to take them for granted.
I also beg pardon for my rather shoddy posts this month. As I said, the second year of the 1950’s is ending for me and I am really thinking and planning and trying to digest the past two years to best find the way to go forward starting January first. We shall see what we shall see.
I hope all are enjoying these days leading up to Christmas and having fun with friends and family. Happy Homemaking!