Fashion – Page 10 – Old Magazine Articles

The Rebirth of the Corset?
(The Nation, 1929)

This article is an editorial by an anonymous scribe at THE NATION who responded to a fashion article that appeared in the 1929 pages of THE NEW YORK TIMES declaring that skirts and dresses would once again sweep the floor, sleeves would button at the wrist and the corset was making a comeback after so many years on the lam:

There is in this genuine cause for mourning. It is too bad that modern women should again be salves to fashion; it is a pity that the female form, happily free of entanglements for half a dozen years, is in a fair way to go back to them.

Helena Rubenstein on Youth, Beauty and Commerce
(The American Magazine, 1922)

Prior to the creation of cosmetic surgery, with odd procedures like tummy tucks and butt lifts, there was Helena Rubenstein (1871 – 1965), who had a long and stunning career in the cosmetic business and who is remembered for once having said:

There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.

In this interesting 1922 interview, the matron saint of cosmetics made some very bright remarks on the issue of beauty, glamor and vanity.

Model Children
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

The children whose pictures you see on the advertising pages of national magazines often launch their careers when they are scarcely larger than their social security numbers. Blonde or brunette, freckled or glamorous, these famous boys and girls help sell you everything from automobiles to safety pins. As accustomed to to a camera as a top-flight movie star, they enjoy their work partly because it satisfies their fondness for ‘make-believe’.

Nice work if you can get it. But the maestros of the modeling agencies, John Robert Powers and Harry Conover, emphasize the fact that finding juvenile models is a difficult assignment.

Anita Colby
(Pageant Magazine, 1946)

For a time, Jinx Falknenburg shared the high ground as the best-paid fashion model with a lass named Anita Colby (1914 – 1992). She was restless and highly ambitious beauty who recognized that her exulted position in the fashion world was only a temporary one – and by the time that the clock ran out on her, Colby’s resume would boast of numerous high-profile positions such as publicist, syndicated columnist, movie studio executive and T.V. talk show hostess.

This article pertains to her brief stint at the Selznick Studios as some sort of perfumed Über-Stylist who lorded over all the other glam-squad proletarians on the lot.

Her book, Anita Colby’s Beauty Book, has become a classic on 1950s style.

Pants in High Fashion
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

1953 was the year that designers from both Paris and New York included pants in their respective evening wear collections – even their homely little sister, Los Angeles – the new fashion capitol of sportswear, provided a pair of pants for dinner occasions.

The Shoes of ’52
(Quick Magazine, 1952)

Click Here to Read More Articles About 1950s Fashion… KEY WORDS: ladies heels 1952,early 1950s shoes for women,delman shoes 1952,Delman

Jeweler to the Stars
(Quick Magazine, 1954)

The fabulous jewels worn by the stars in movies look like the real thing, but they are all paste. Most of this fake splendor is produced by Joan Castle Joseff of Hollywood (1912 – 2010) whose factory turns out 90 percent of the jewelry used in pictures. Sometimes an order must be filled in twenty-four hours, to avoid holding up a costly production.

The Pajama Ascendency
(Literary Digest, 1923)

The pajama is ascending to glorified heights. Long the black sheep of polite private life, this garment has been elevated to the four hundred…Men are drugging their senses with batik designs in sleeping apparel and inhaling the stimulation of contrasting shades in underclothes.

What the well-dressed man will wear when going to bed is one of the burning topics of the immediate future…By and large, the thirst for color permeates the accessory field from linen to lingerie. The picture might be said to be complete. Man has achieved his zenith.

Read about a pajama fashion innovation that never quite caught on…

That 1960 Look for Men
(Pageant Magazine, 1960)

Some call it the Mad Men Look, others may simply label it that late 50s/early 60s look – but either way high praise should be dolled out to costume designer Katherine Jane Bryant who so skillfully brought these fashions to the attention of millions of men through her work on the T.V. show Mad Men (AMC).

For those lads pursuing an advanced degree in pulling-off that look in their daily attire, we recommend this handy list of fashion’s Do’s & Don’ts from 1960.

Much Talk of White Waistcoats, Shoes and Shirts
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1921)

When the smoke cleared following the close of that dreadful unpleasantness that spanned the years 1914 to 1918, there remained much work to do; bodies to be buried, cities to be rebuilt. Men and nations prepared to face the new realities that came with the new social structure; many weighty subjects had to be addressed that had been ignored for so long a time. The most pressing of these topics was deciding which was the proper combination of white waistcoat and dinner jacket? In an age of industrial slaughter, which was more suitable: double-breasted or single-breasted? and what of ties, shoes and overcoats?

The Paris Purses for Autumn
(Vogue Magazine, 1919)

A VOGUE editorial from the Fall of 1919 praising the swank of six nifty Parisienne purses -each created from different materials and each displaying the industrious fingers of skilled craftsmen.

Click here to read about happy Hollywood’s discovery of plastic surgery…

The Well Dressed Man in Winter
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1921)

Illustrations of fashion’s offering from the Fall of 1921: great coats, semi-great coats, overcoats and ulsters; raglan and otherwise.

Chez Poiret: the Hot Social Ticket in the Paris of 1919
(Vogue Magazine, 1919)

The post-war publicity machine of French fashion designer Paul Poiret was in fine form when he saw to it that his minions invited the Paris-based correspondent from American VOGUE to his house for a grand fete, seated her comfortably, drink in hand, right on the fifty-yard line in order that she might be better able to report to her handlers back in New York that Paris was back.

The correspondent who was not invited was the fashion journalist from FLAPPER MAGAZINE; American flappers did not approve of Poiret one bit. Click here to read what they thought of him.

The Duke of Windsor Influences
(Men’s Wear, 1950)

MEN’S WEAR MAGAZINE printed a few paragraphs on the heavy hand that the Duke of Windsor had in the world of manly attire:

No one completely personified English qualities in attire than the Prince of Wales…Whatever he chose to wear was considered correct and in good taste and was accepted by millions of others in America and elsewhere. Following are a few of the styles that can be traced right back to the Duke of Windsor, either because he wore them first or was responsible for their spread…

-they include such fashion innovations as the Panama hat, the spread collar and brown buckskin shoes among others.

More articles about the Duke of Windsor can be found on these pages.

Paris Fashion: Summer, 1916
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)

Paying no mind to the continuing unpleasantness that was taking place somewhere around the Somme (ie. W.W. I), the taste-makers of Paris soldiered-on and created garments for mid-summer that were original and feminine and bore the mark of Paris’ characteristic opulence.

Legendary fashion designer Christian Dior had a good deal of trouble with people who would illegally copy his designs; click here to read about that part of fashion history.

The Fad for Felt Fashion
(Quick Magazine, 1951)

The fad for skirts fashioned out of felt began with college girls when it was discovered that a flattering silhouette could be achieved when the fabric was cut on the bias; the attached article shows the color image of a felt ballet skirt as a case in point.

Sub-standard fabrics play a part in fashion’s march from time to time; in the Sixties there was a short-lived craze in some circles to wear dresses made from paper or vinyl.

The Look for Autumn
(Quick Magazine, 1952)

The ‘costume look’ has developed into a strong fashion idea for fall and winter. The news is in the mis-mated fabrics and colors used in this year’s go-togethers. Highly-textured (and often noisily patterned) coats and jackets are sold frankly as suits with solid color dresses or skirts… Mismatched colors as well as mixed fabrics were used by Vera Maxwell in her coat and dress team [pictured]… Ben Zuckerman offered another example of fashion’s new doubling-up with black hip-length coat over a two-piece red wool jersey dress [pictured].

Lace
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

Less dependent on the whims of fashion than almost any other fabric, lace blooms perennially in designers’ collections. Because it has an ageless quality, which makes it look well on women of any age, its uses are varied. This season it is treated in new ways by some of the top couturiers. It is embroidered, used as applique, beaded or scattered with sequins… There is variety in lace itself; it may be gossamer sheer or rich and handsome in design. But whatever its form, it is a universal fashion favorite [for now].