Showing posts with label January. Show all posts
Showing posts with label January. Show all posts

"Soon The Season of Tailors" - French Style in 1950

It's January, 1950 in France and les Bonnes Soirees magazine says you need a good tailored jacket. So many choices! But if that isn't enough we have some two-tone dresses (don't miss #422) and some designer goodies too. "Soon The Season of Tailors" is a google translation...I'm guessing one of you can do better. Please?





Her Last New Years Resolutions for 1937 - Me, Myself

Our smart Delineator gal saved the best for last. 

                            Me, Myself

  • To try to see the good points in my face, my figure, my disposition, and quit worrying about the flaws I can't do anything about.
  • To confine my raptures about Robert Taylor to my girl friends. 
  • To learn to drive like a man. 
  • To diet, if necessary, without talking about it.
  • To be aware of my high moments and give them all I've got without too much thought of tomorrow. 

Her New Years Resolutions in 1937 - My Home

Our Delineator gal makes New Year Resolutions about her home too. 


                          My Home

  • To have two comfortable chairs, each with a good reading light.
  • To smash - of course it was an accident - the hand-painted rose jar his former flame gave us as a wedding gift.
  • To have the furniture re-upholstered, at least once in my lifetime, in the gay colors I adore instead of the drab stuff that won't show dirt. 
  • To let the dust gather, occasionally, if the alternative is all work and no play.
  • To insist on modern kitchen equiptment even if his mother did make perfect biscuits on a coal range.
  • To have one large closet for myself alone. 

Her New Years Resolutions in 1937 - My Looks

The Delineator gal turns her resolutions toward her own mirror. 

                            My Looks

  • To buy a fresh supply of cold cream, skin tonic and hand lotion before the old is exhausted.
  • To get myself the face powder I want, no matter what my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas.
  • To cancel all dates, neglect the family darning and go to bed at sunset as soon as my mirror shows I'm getting a "death and taxes" expression. 
  • To take enough exercise so I won't look like a marshmallow.
  • To get a good permanent, or none.
  • To replace the liquid polish on my nails at the first crack.
  • To try a new way of wearing my hair at least once a year, and dye it yellow if I feel like it. 

Her New Years Resolutions in 1937 - My Clothes

For today's list our Delineator corespondent looks at her wardrobe. 

                                   My Clothes

  • To develop enough sales resistance to wave away that "too, too divine" feathery  hat which will make me look like an Englishwoman on the Riviera.
  • To own at least one dress or negligee which makes me feel feminine, clinging, luxurious and slightly wicked.
  • To wear good clothes, that fit, even if I have to learn to make them myself. 
  • To be firm with myself at the first sign of "doo-dad" disease (the yen to wear all my bracelets, earrings, clips, ect., ect. - at one time). 
  • To wear, always, the kind of underwear I'd be proud to claim as my own after the train wreck- if any. 
  • To face myself critically in a long mirror before I leave the house and deal promptly with yawning plackets, undecided hemlines and skirts that bulge over the derriere.
  • To risk having runs in my stockings rather than crooked seams due to loose gartering.
  • To get a lift in time at the shoemaker's when my heels start to run down.
  • To keep some dark gloves on hand so I'll never be compelled to carry the light pair that's too smudgy to wear. 
  • To get rid of shabby clothes before my economical streak convinces me they're "good enough to wear around mornings."
  • To tell neither my husband nor my friends what I spend on clothes.
  • To buy six pairs of silk stockings at one time.
  • To pay real money for a foundation garment if my figger needs a lift.
  • To have a tailor press my suits at least once a month.
  • To sew fasteners in my clothes to keep shoulder straps from slipping.

Her New Years Resolutions in 1937 - My Man - If Any

Continuing the resolutions made by the writer in the 1937 Delineator Magazine. Here is her list concerning the Man in her life. 


                                                My Man - If Any

  • To let him walk off with the morning paper because I've ordered another copy for myself. 
  • To flatter him to the point of believing he is a grand cook, so he can prepare the victuals when he invites ten people to dinner on the maid's night out.
  • To make him take care of his own dog even if I must resort to a little well-timed carelessness in feeding the pooch. 
  • To give him advance notice of anniversaries and birthdays, and subtlety be hanged. 
  • To admit I hate prize-fights and cigar smoke.
  • To admire his hair-cut and his new suits, willy-nilly. 
  • To be a veritable lamb and honey-child with women he's interested in, so they'll like me better than they like him. 
  • To develop a few personal extravagances when he starts squandering the family income on stag dinners, green fees and fancy fishing tackle.
  • To encourage him to have his secretary buy gifts for me, so he won't pay outrageous prices in gift shoppes for things I never can use.
  • To make him stop talking about girth and baldness and do something about it. 
  • To have for myself a handsome doctor and a fascinating dentist.
  • To keep him waiting, occasionally, for the good of his soul.
  • To expect orchids (all right, gardenias then) and get them or else---
  • To agree with him, always, in company, but be reasonably firm about my convictions when we're alone. 

Her New Years Resolutions in 1937 - Social Life


"New Years Resolutions, with a dash of enlightened selfishness, that will make a new woman out of you." 

This fine advice comes to us from the Delineator's Magazine in 1937. There is no author listed, but she was a pretty smart gal with good advice for then and now.                              


My Social Life
  • To be firm about not entertaining uninvited visiting relatives and friends who bore me. 
  • To teach my maid to lie with convincing charm so I can avoid dull callers and telephone conversations.
  • To keep a list of all books borrowed from me and send postcard reminders to all borrowers. 
  • To leave a dull party early, even if my hostess is counting on me as a fourth at bridge.
  • To yawn openly, start emptying ashtrays and as a last resort, slip into a negligee, and appear in the doorway rubbing cold cream into my hands, if any guests linger on after midnight on weekday nights.
  • To spend my free evening seeing "Lovers Alone" (or it's equivalent) at the movies if the local culture club meetings put me to sleep. 
  • To denounce swing music as cacophonous tripe if I prefer sweet jazz and symphonies.
  • To entertain to suit myself and my budget, no matter what the crowd does.
  • To remember funny stories and repeat them only if I, too, can make them sound funny.

(More tomorrow)

This Is Horrible! - Relief At Last!

"While I am unalterably opposed to corset wearing, I do not hesitate to say that the women who wear them will do well to substitute the Q.D. Clasp for those now in use." - Annie Jenness Miller, Dress Reformer.

If you'd like to more about the Dress Reformers click here

I learned that the movement started with corsets and underwear because it "could be modified without exposing the wearer to social ridicule". And did you know that "In the 19th century, poor women were known to wear corsets "boned" with rope, rather than steel or bone, to facilitate work in the field."

Myrtle Got A New Dress

"With such practical and becoming dresses available the housewife need not feel extravagant if she adds another to her wardrobe."

Earn A Shirley Temple Doll!

Every Good Little Girl Wants A Shirley Temple Doll. "Shirley's image," says her mother. And Shirley herself says "I love my doll and I play with it all the time. It is just like me."
You just need to sell six subscriptions!



Make this Charming Hat - 1936

This Winged Hat is from Home Arts Needlecraft Magazine in 1936. These instructions sound a little complex to me, but maybe you can try. The hat is worth it!

Do You Want A Heavenly Figure?

The Heavenly Figure All-In-One has wonderful "hold in" power that's comfortable and effective to properly shape your torso.
And you can order extra crotches at 49¢ each.


Styles for Any Season - 1959

Styles for Any Season, indeed! I only wish I had the pattern for that vixen dress. But looking closer it's not the dress it's self, it's all about how she's wearing it. The hair, the jewelry, and those shoes...the gal has it going on. And to think this was in a Workbasket magazine!


Glamour Magazine 1944 - Merle Oberon for Maybelline

The final image on the back cover is the lovely Merle Oberon. Actually before 1944 when this picture was published she had been in a car accident that scared her face and "Oberon suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures. The results, however, were only partially successful; without makeup, one could see noticeable pitting and indentation of her skin."[see link above] Yet with the help of Maybelline she looks flawless here.


Glamour Magazine 1944 - Girdlslax - Combines Utility with Charm

"Home Front Fighters choose Girdslax. You're millions strong, you feminine warriors! Your ammunition, the assembly line, the riveter's gun, the welder's rod! Your uniform, Girdslax...cut, for fit, like a man's slack...combines utility with charm."

Strong words for women! They also list in tiny print at the bottom "Trikskirts, Swurlskirts, Slax Suits as other work clothes for those feminine warriors.


Glamour Magazine 1944 - Everyone's looking at you...

...and of course you love it, you're so completely right in your Sporteens jacket and skirt.


Glamour Magazine 1944 - A Snap Of A Suit

Young Recruit for your Spring Offensive...a snap of a suit, a LEEDS HI-HO JUNIOR...for the young in figure, the young in heart, as well as the young in years.