Fashion for misses

[ShoreRoadLady]

Offhand, I'd suggest watching a few Deanna Durbin movies from the '30s and early '40s to see what she (and the extras!) are wearing. I believe she was around 15 in 1936, when she made Three Smart Girls, and she's definitely a *girl* in that one, not grown up at all. By 1941, in It Started With Eve, her costumes/clothes are distinctly grown-up.

 

[BlancheDubois]

Another good movie for youthful fashion is the 1945 version of State Fair with Jeanne Crain. Her dresses are adorable!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Good catch on Deanna Durbin -- she was the classic example of how a "young miss" would have looked. Early Judy Garland pictures of the "let's put on a show!" era will show the same sort of styles, and like Deanna, she wasn't allowed to dress her age onscreen until well into the mid-forties.

A really good resource for how post-teenage pre-married-life women dressed is "Mademoiselle" magazine, which started in the late thirties billed as "The Magazine For Smart Young Women," mostly college and just-post-college gals. The fashions you'll see there definitely have a younger edge than you'll find in Vogue or Harper's Bazaar of the same era, but are just as definitely not the sort of thing you'd find on a high school girl.

 

[Laura Chase]

Ladies, I will watch some Deanna Durbin movies, take still photos from them and post here! Thank you.

In the meanwhile, I searched for Deanna Durbin and found a few photos of outfits I find very youthful:

 

[MoxieGrl]

I think maybe today's term would be junior. Yes, junior is sized from 1-15 and a miss 14 can probably wear a junior 15, but she would look like "mutton dressed as lamb".

I haven't found that accurate with modern clothing scales. While I am a 10-12 in modern "miss", there isn't a juniors item on the planet that fits my curves! I've been under the impression that junior is cut for less-developed (ie, little to no curves) while miss is cut for developed figures? In their ideals, anyway!!

 

[Laura Chase]