"What IS she wearing!?" Unusual style in the good old days.

[Helen Troy]

My wonderful grandmother, who got married in the 40s, has never been like everybody else. As with all things in life, her taste in clothing was very individual. When she, a young, poor sculptor, married her equally poor painter, her weddingdress was something else. She recently showed it to me, and I was completely baffeled:

It is handmade, she made it herself from cheap cotton. It is simple in style, with a plain bodice attached to a slightly pleated skirt. Along the arms and neck, there is cute "petals" of the same fabric as the dress. The dress is not gown-lenght, but mid-length. And here is the strangest part: The dress is bright blue!

As you can understand, my grandmother did not do things the way other did, not even in her wedding. Bright blue wedding gowns was never a fashion for anybody else than her!

And that got me thinking: We are all more or less familiar with the styles and fashion of the masses, but what about the others? What about the women back then that did not want to be like everybody else? What did they wear?

If anybody else has stories or information about unusual clothing or individuals with their very own fashion sense in the "good old days,", please tell!

 

[NicolettaRose]

My grandmother never wanted to be like anyone else. My grandfather worked in the couture fabric industry from the 1920's-1960's, and always brought her the best that fashion had to offer at a very low price, he supplied the fabric for the design houses, so he got a discount. My grandmother was ALWAYS a lady, always had her makeup done, a nice dress, even into the 1970's-2000's, she NEVER wore pants, always wore a dress or a skirt, always had on heels, always had on nice, tasteful makeup with her hair done and her nails.

 

[Lauren]

I think Marc Chevalier posted last year sometime (maybe longer ago) that there was a subculture of people wanting to be like cave people! There was also a nudist movement! Then you had women like Kate Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich which helped start the shocking movement of women wearing pants. And there was the craze, expecially in the late 20's to 30's of having fancy dress parties, and parties where men dressed as women and women as men! And there were pajama parties, parties you dressed as babies, etc.

And don't forget, the average lady didn't look like a movie star! America in the 30's was in the depression, so you'll see lots of family snapshots of people out working the fields in old dressed and old shoes, you'll see people dressed their "best" in ill fitting clothing with hats that don't match. What they had, they wore! And, of course, in the 40's you had old fabrics being reworked into new clothing, so a color that would be long out of style could still be worn by a frugal housewife to help conserve for the war effort!

Here's a cute pic of some girls I found while trolling around

 

[ohairas]

Lauren, I partcularly like the pic of the gal on the right with the halter top on. Just goes to show that most eras take something from previous eras. Until I saw this, I thought halter tops like that were just from the 70's! I knew the 70's and 80's were greatly influenced by the 40's, but it's neat to learn more and more all the time just how much!

As for a blue wedding dress and it not being full length, I think that was *somewhat* common in those days. I would love to see a pic of that dress tho, it sounds really neat with the petals and such!
Does make one wonder how many woman truly wanted to wear white if possible, and how many just wanted to do their own thing.
Nikki

 

[Helen Troy]

As for a blue wedding dress and it not being full length, I think that was *somewhat* common in those days. I would love to see a pic of that dress tho, it sounds really neat with the petals and such!
Does make one wonder how many woman truly wanted to wear white if possible, and how many just wanted to do their own thing.
Nikki

I'll try to get a picture posted, it is really cute!

Blue wedding dresses was not common at all, it was unhears of, at least in my grandmothers little part of the world. But I think she really just wanted to shake up her father, the Priest.

 

[KittyT]

I was under the impression that a lot of women, especially when having a rush wedding with a soldier, wore whatever. My grandmother got married in a navy suit.

 

[Helen Troy]

I think it depends of the type of wedding, and where it was. To make your own dress, in good time, an making it blue on purpose, in a smaller town in Norway, was absolutely not normal! But then again, they were artists....

 

[Elaina]

You also mentioned they were both poor, and maybe your mrangmother wanted a dress she could use other then the wedding.

My grandmother was very much her own woman in the 50's, as was my G-grandma before that. All the women tend to wear what they like as long as it fits well and the color is good for them (which is why I wear orange out of "season" and you're likely to find any number of women in the family wearing colors considered passe.)

I wanted a red wedding dress, we went with teal because my sister (who was my maid of honor) looks awful in it, and the dress she found and fell in love with was a pastel aqua. My son also did not want the dark teal, the tie he found matched my sister's dress. So our color was more because of what we found vs. what I wanted. And maybe your grandmother's favorite color was that blue, and she could do it.

 

[Miss Sis]

One of my friends told me her grandmother was a bohemian art student in the 30s in London and she took to wearing her brother's old cast off flannel trousers tailored in to fit her. She never wore a skirt or dress after that!

That is very unusal for the time, especially in Britain. Women might have taken to wearing trousers sometimes but not all the time.