Young Fashion Zone

BlogMap

Contact Us

PALE PEACH-PINK CONFECTION: A 1940s trousseau nightgown for sale at Saturday’s annual Methodist Social Services heritage linen sale.

It started life as about two yards of pale peach-pink crepe de chine, a delicate length of romantic cloudy-sheer sheen. It finished as a trousseau nightgown, floor length, with every stitch of work in it painstakingly set by hand.

Glenys Groucott, vintage clothing expert for Palmerston North’s Methodist Social Services’ annual heritage linen and clothing sale, points out the narrow bias-cut bands finishing the V-neck edge and forming the gathered-in hems of the short puffed sleeves.

“And look at these side-seams, all French seamed, by hand,” she says.

“Look at that tiny back-stitch. It’s so even.”

The nightgown has smocked shoulder panels that form a graceful fullness over the bust, and a 15-cm-wide band of the same smocking right around the waist, to draw it into a slender size 10. The smocking’s all hand done, in red, green, and blue. Hand-threaded shirring elastic gives the waist a touch of stretch.

“You can imagine the lass making it, probably for her wedding night. It’s 1940s, you can imagine her stitching away, maybe waiting for a soldier fiance to come back from the war,” says sale vintage accessories expert Val Dittmer.

The gown’s just one of dozens of items of vintage and retro clothing for sale this year. Vintage clothing was introduced to the linen sale as a sideline when it first started over a decade ago, and now it rivals the linen for buyer appeal.

Lila Matheson, whose expertise is in christening gowns and Victorian garments, spreads out a black panne velvet frock, made of either silk or rayon, which would have been a “best dress” for its 1930s maker.

It’s been cut with a wealth of dressmaker detail; pieced sleeves with quilting and rouleau loop decorative details, and the bodice of the garment cut in points to lend waist interest. The back bodice features a self-fabric half belt, attached with a self-fabric buckle.

A black velvet godet gives a Russian asymmetric line to the front neckline, and a lace jabot artfully covers the front placket, held closed with hidden black domes. The same lace is appliqued on the sleeve cuffs, and a detachable collar – those 1930s white collars and cuffs that were removed from the frock for washing – is made from the same lace. An art deco shoe buckle has been converted to a brooch at the neckline.

The detail is typical of the era, when dress making was all about fit and cut. Garments were individually tailored to fit the wearer; there was none of today’s quick manufacturing, cutting in squares and rectangles, and relying on stretch fibres in fabrics to create shape.

Similar Posts:

• But Dita Von Teese was the belle of the ball
• The sweet and feminine style of Zooey Deschanel
• Choosing stylish women’s activewear
• How to flatter a full figure
• All Saints Lorient shorts

-->