The good old days; what our parents wore in the early 1950s
My father Druce Barlow second on the left, with what looks like Princess Margaret, and my mother on the far right, next to Johnny Clough, the short man to her left. The picture was sent to me by Simon Buckley whose parents are also in this photograph. His mother Paddy is in the centre of the sofa, and the shot, and her husband Graham is two to my mother’s right. I spoke to my mother about this picture and she said that her dress was emerald green. How wonderful.
When they weren’t wearing dinner jackets and ball gowns how did the youth of yesterday dress? Here are some more everyday pictures of my parents from the 1950s.
I have a second picture of her in the same suit, caught by a Galway street photographer, when she and my father went to look at a horse. I love this photograph as it is one of the few in the collection that is not posed. Here are a young couple just walking down the street, both with tailored (not off the peg) suits, in grey. Both of them look composed and serious, business-like but companionable. My mother is wearing a jumper, a small peal necklace and a brooch. We can see that her jacket and skirt are both rather long. It also has got quite exaggerated shoulder padding and the silhouette is rather masculine. The skirt seems to have four box pleats to make for ease in walking. She has a plain leather handbag. Father’s trousers have turn-ups, which were fashionable at the time. He is wearing a slim, dark tie, and carries a package – maybe a newspaper. They appear to be wearing sturdy lace-ups, suitable for walking, rather than fashionable shoes. Maybe his have crepe soles?
I don’t know where this final picture is taken, but Mother is in the same outfit she had on in Ireland, but Father is now wearing a sports jacket and dark trousers, with a wide tie. They look really happy. I am sorry the photograph is so blurred. It is a very small photograph and doesn’t zoom out well, but you get the effect. She described wearing cardigans back to front so that they looked like jumpers!
My mother loved clothes and I think she had quite a few, certainly for the time, and compared to less well-off families. But the fact the suit is in each of these photographs implies it was the only one she had and that it would have been an expensive item. She told me that “We all wore suits then. We thought they were practical.” I agree that suits are practical and I wear them all the time, often separating the skirt and jacket. I have set myself the task of making three or four over the next 12 months to replace my rather worn out wardrobe staples. This is a big job and will keep me busy. I just read on Pattern Pandemonium that Jay has sewed 46 patterns over the last month. I am in awe of her efforts – she is such a brilliant seamstress – but I just wonder what you do with so many clothes!
Do you want to find your perfect lipstick?
It’s nice to wear lipstick, perhaps not everyday, but when you want to look a bit more obvious. It can pull an outfit together. And it draws attention to your face, which is important. All this discussion about clothes and body shape – the most important part of your look, the part humans are fascinated with from birth, is your face.
Yet choosing the right shade can be very difficult.
One of reasons is that putting colour on the back of your hand doesn’t really help. We do it because we have seen people do it from time immemorial, but all it does is make your hand stained and sticky. Not nice. The only way to select a lipstick that suits you is to try it on – on your lips. This however is a health hazard. If you pick up a tester lipstick at a station or your local Boots, and put it on your lips (and often they don’t provide a mirror to discourage this rather disgusting habit) the best you can without seeing what you are doing, germs-wise it’s like kissing a total stranger.
The alternative is to go to a good department store where the assistants are trained and ask for help. I would recommend MAC, but you may have alternative brands that you like. Certainly they should sterilise the stick of lipstick before you try it. The assistant will offer her view, which may or may not be reliable. She gets commission, remember. But some are very good, and honest and I have had good experiences with MAC. Then go for a walk and see if you like what it does for you. Look in mirrors for the rest of the day. In addition try and gauge other people’s reaction to you. You might find everyone staring at you and you will have to decide for yourself if this is in a good way or not.
It maybe easier to start with thinking about what colours are most likely to suit you. My advice is to determine your personal colour direction first. You may need help from a colour analyst, or maybe you can use rely on a book, or your own eye. The six primary colour directions already introduced on this blog can be your guide to choosing a good lipstick. The shades here are just indicative – you will find lots of similar shades in your favourite brand. But always try the colours on because lipstick sits right in the middle of your face and it has to work for you, and you have to feel comfortable with it, or you won’t wear it.
Deep Colouring
These are the most saturated shades, including the strongest (not necessarily the brightest) reds, and can include wine-like and beetroot juice colours as well. You can wear the matt colours if you want a really dramatic look.
Light Colouring
For people with light colouring the lipsticks need to be diluted – light reds, reds diluted with quite a lot of water. Imagine a few drops of red ink in a beaker, or watered down Baby Ribena or cranberry juice. Look at the sheer lipsticks or lip glosses.
Cool Colouring
Look for lipstick colours – pinks and reds – that have a blue undertone. You can go as light or deep as you feel suits your overall look.
Warm Colouring
Look for orangey-reds, or the oranges and peaches that are available. Go lighter or deeper depending on your secondary colour direction.
Bright Colouring
If you have a bright colour direction can and should wear lipstick often. They can choose the brighter reds, oranges and pink, depending on their secondary direction. “Brights” can choose the true, pure reds – falling precisely between orange-red and purple-red – pillar-box red. This red is clear and unsullied by grey or white. It sings.
Muted Colouring
Muted reds and pinks are the toned-down reds and pinks – they can also be a little bit browny, or purpley.
Lipstick can really help us feel glamorous, which is why it is perfect for evening and occasion wear. Not everyone wants to look to “out there” with their everyday make up. If in doubt look at the colour just inside your lips, where the skin is wetter. This will be a good colour for you – and you can wear a shade that looks like you, but just a bit more even. This would be my default position on day time lipstick. Or try a gloss or sheer version of one of your colours. An obvious lip-liner line is old-fashioned and ageing, although for older women it can help prevent your colour “bleeding” into any lines you may have. On its own, used over the whole lip, it can provide a subtle, matt look that lasts.
Baroness Warsi and the Sari – did it help her to “flounce”?
Warsi flounces out in a fit of righteous fury over Gaza: Muslim Foreign Office minister quits.
Daily Mail 5 August 2014
There has been a Twitterstorm about the word “Flounce” on the basis that a resigning man would not flounce out. The Daily Mail chooses its words carefully and no doubt “fit” (as in epileptic) “righteous” “rage” and “fury” implied she wasn’t just a female flouncer, but also an enraged religious one. I will come to that. But let me start on Flounce.
As a keen seamstress I know what a flounce is. According to the dictionary it is “a strip of material gathered or pleated and attached along one edge, with the other edge left loose or hanging: used for trimming”. Apparently the origin of this word comes from the an aliteration of frounce, from Middle English, pleat. Here is a diagonal flounce from waist to hip (on the left) in this 1940s Advance pattern. Incidentally on the right is a peplum.
The other meaning of flounce is “go or move in an exaggeratedly impatient or angry manner, eg ‘he stood up in a fury and flounced out’. (C16, Norwegian flunsa to hurry) And this is what Warsi is accused of doing. Flounce may be sexist but it can also describe a dramatic, petulant and hot-tempered person. The dictionary and the Mail both match flounce with fury – perhaps not such a feminine characteristic.
Of course Warsi is female – she more importantly she is the youngest person in the cabinet, of Pakistani origin and Muslim. She comes a poor, working class background, and she comes from Yorkshire. All these features are an important part of who she is and we need more diversity in Parliament and politics. But additionally I am sorry to see her step down because I was fascinated by how she dressed. Is that me being sexist? Or just interested in how a powerful, prominent Asian Muslim woman manages her image.
Firstly it is worth noting that Warsi frequently wears “Asian” dress. On the day she attended her first cabinet meeting she wore a “traditional” outfit consisting of salwar (trousers) kameez (overdress) and scarf worn with the tails at the back. The outfit was only casually coordinated (traditional outfits are often sold as a group and very carefully matched by both merchant and purchaser). She then put on a pair of heeled tan sandals, a beige mac, and slung a very large black bag over her shoulder. What was she saying with this outfit?
- Pink – female.
- Asian outfit – traditional.
- Haircut – modern
- Coordinated pink outfit – but not too matchy-matchy.
- Interested in clothes, but also don’t care that much – maybe the coat, shoes and bag reference Yorkshire.
She knew she would be photographed – why the messy look?
While Warsi favours a flouncy Asian outfit she can also be found in Kirsty-Allsop style Torywear. The use of bright primaries with black actually looks really nice on her and it is a good, strong look. I think a cardi is just about OK for a cabinet minister but it does emphasis her youth – maybe a good thing if youth means energy, challenge, passion and commitment. Less good if it emphasises your inexperience.
It is very hard to be the “first” black MP, out gay CEO, or female-Muslim cabinet minister, as you have no role models and you are expected to be one. You want to fit in, but you feel very different. You can disguise it or celebrate it. I respect people who wear their national or religious dress with conviction; London is full of muslim women who look stylish rather than slavish. Here are some images of Warsi doing Muslim dress.
So what could she do instead?
- ditch the beige, the pastels and the muted shades. Stick with black and other deep colours, matched with cool-bright shades
- fitted outfits look a lot better than flouncy ones on Warsi
- consider blending the looks
- a fitted dress in an Asian textile
- a chemise top over more fitted trousers in deeper shades
- a smart navy suit with a beautiful embroidered Pakistani scarf in pinks and purples
- a fitted red dress with black and silver embroidery
- an elegant sari with a smart jacket (saris were declared unIslamic by General Zia but no more so than western dress)
- try a warm Nehru-style jacket with fitted trousers in cold weather
- wear traditional jewellery with a fitted evening gown in say deep purple
- buy a really classy coat that fits well and is long enough to cover your skirt
- work with young Asian designers to create great looks and promote their style
- when attending religious services cover the hair in a less severe way (Benazir Bhutto shows how)
Fabric Printing Swap – inspiration
I have been allocated a client – or a “buddy” – to print for. She is Amandine – a beautiful French girl with thick red hair. She lives and works in Brighton, and has a blog called Fleur de Carotte.
Amandine has warm colouring – in total contrast to my own cool shading. I will relish the opportunity to experiment with yellow based colours and create something beautiful. We love France and go every year. A couple of years ago we did a home exchange and ended up with a marvellous country house in Dinan, Britanny. Here is a photograph of Esme and Shane, who suddently appeared at the window to give Ted a surprise as he played outside with the cat. I really like how this photograph is framed.
Then I came across this photograph of Pablo Picasso, also framed in a French window (“La fenêtre” is one of the few things I remember from school). He looks so cool in his French sea-fareing Breton top, his large artistic hands displayed, his penetrating eyes focused on the photographer, and us – his audience.
Despite its ubiquity I still love the Breton top, and I have a few. My inspiration for Amandine’s fabric therefore include:
- the sea
- living by the sea-side
- France
- stripes
- sunshine and warmth.
Here is a colour swatch I have developed for this project. No idea where this will go, but I am keen to start experimenting!
How to make a baby carrying sling
The carrier I made for Kit is similar to the Moby sling, which costs around £40. Because I am stingy and a dab hand with a sewing machine (one seam) I offered a homemade version.
If you want to make one yourself it’s quite a simple business. You take 3m of cotton jersey and cut it into thirds of around 20cms deep along its length. Take two of the 3m pieces and seam them securely along the short ends of the rectangle to produce a 20cm x 6m piece of cloth. I tried to do a diagram with Illustrator which I am learning at the moment, but resorted to a felt tip and piece of paper. Sorry.
I then roughly dyed this long slim piece of fabric in some blue dye to make a kind of tie-dye effect (ie I chucked it in a bucket of dye).
The edges are tapered towards the ends of the sling, so that it can be tied securely around the body. The edges are not finished and do not need to be. The whole thing is very soft and nice to wear and is suitable for very small babies. There are all sorts of different ways of tying it on, which can be found on the internet.
The square of cloth in the middle was a piece of white cotton onto which I printed my “small flints” design. I then coloured in the white sections using watered down fabric paints in greens, yellows, turquoise, and blue. If you buy a ready made sling this is where they put their logo so you walk around advertising their company everyday. On this version I put attatched this small piece of self printed fabric over the flat felled seams. This adds reassuring strength, and indicates the centre, that covers Baby’s back. I made up a little bag with the cut off corners and attached another piece of home printed fabric on it. I inserted elastic into the top so that the sling can be folded away when not in use as it is an ungainly item.
Reduction Printing – pushing the boundaries with Lino
Bust of a woman with a hat
Here is a marvellous five colour print made from just one piece of Lino by my favourite artist Picasso.
And you can use the same technique at home to produce a four or five colour design from one piece of lino. You can produce several copies but the work is altered after each colour is printed. It is such a fun project and I will describe what I did in case you feel like having a go. You print each colour and then cut the lino some more so that by the end you just have a little bit left with which to print the final colour. You cannot then go back and produce it again, meaning uniqueness is guaranteed. No problem for Picassso who produced at least one art work each day.
I drew a picture of a girl with a bob hairstyle, wearing a collared, striped top. She sits inside a room with a window, patterned wallpaper, a dado rail and a lamp. The picture is composed of white, yellow, green, red and dark brown, in that order. The white bits are carved out of the lino and it is printed with yellow ink. Then the bits that are to remain yellow are cut away and the green ink is used.
Then the areas that are to remain green are cut away and the red printing ink is applied.
By now most of the lino is cut away to leave the small piece (shown above) which is used to print on the final colour, in this case a dark brown.
I also did one without the red, just to see what would happen.
I used the print on T-shirts for myself and the grandchildren.
I am taking part in Marilla Walker’s Hand Printed Fabric Swap, and am very pleased I have been partnered with Amandine from Brighton who has a blog. She is French and works in a school. She has thick red hair so I am looking forward to developing a colour palette for her and then using it to create 1m of fabric that she can make into something.
 |
| http://marillawalker.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/hand%20printed%20fabric%20swap |
256 shades of Grey
Grey is perhaps a low-energy, Mr Nobody type of shade. Grey haired men in Grey suits. The ultimate bureaucrat. The men that stop us doing things.
But conversely it is a reliable, respectable, efficient colour. And for many of us who don’t suit black, it is the ultimate neutral. I love grey and apparently we can see around 250 versions of this colour (rather than just the 50). Grey can be silvery, and a wonderful shade for summer. Dark charcoal is almost black for people with deeper colouring, but it can also shimmer with hints of other colours – there are greenish, brownish, whitish, purplish, bluish greys. There is a whole colour direction based on the elegant, greyed off colours – the Muted set of shades.
One thing I like to do with grey is use it to make an outfit more conservative, especially if I am wearing a bright shade. In fact I wear this cheap Uniqlo jacket so much: I need to make a light grey jacket in a decent fabric to replace it.
Would you put the English football team in grey Marks and Spencer suits with white shirts and diagonal, purple ties? Did this do anything for their chances? What were the image makers thinking – although it sold suits, as English fans flocked to buy one too – they looked like sixth formers rather than elegant, poised and determined. A group of men with well shaped bodies could have looked a lot better, if you ask me.
Grey seems to be a very popular colour for weddings. Here are George and Bianca at their Church ceremony in September 2012.
Deep v Light?
Cool v Warm?
Bright v Muted?
I have quite a lot of grey in my wardrobe, but most of it is RTW. And because I had good supply of my main neutral I have mainly been making garments in colour. But plan to make a grey suit, and have managed to find some high quality, low cost fabrics at Simply Fabrics. They look pretty dull and unappealing here but I am hopeful that they will work well for work wear. Somehow I just can’t get excited about sewing with neutrals. Am I the only one?
Customised cloth – surface decoration
One reason some of us like making our own clothes is that it allows us to be ourselves. We get the fit, the colour and the style that we like best, and clothes that suit how we look. For me, the shops just don’t cater for what I want. I find shopping boring (retail is more purgatory than therapy, if you ask me). My idea of therapy is sewing something lovely.
As part of my course – City and Guilds 780 – I was introduced to the idea of surface decoration by Mrs Tregelles. Various techniques were used to change the colour or texture of our raw material. This included:
- Machine embroidery
- applique and patchwork
- smocking
- painting on fabric
- dying and printing
- pin tucks and decorative darts
- bleaching
- beading
- layering and distressing fabric
- quilting
All these techniques allow us to produce what didn’t exist before. They also slow down the process of making a garment considerably. But we end up with something special – a work of art, perhaps? This was the best part of the course for me as it introduced yet another layer of personalisation. I could get exactly the colour/pattern/scale that I desired, creating a textile that I would subsequently make into a garment.
I have been impressed by Marilla producing her entirely hand sewn jeans. This slowing down is meditative and so much more enjoyable than searching crowded high streets, struggling into ill-fitting garments, and the ultimate dissatisfaction and disappointment that result from shopping. To me making your own clothes, especially clothes that take time, is like cooking your own food. Of course you can buy a cheap loaf anywhere. Or artisan bread, which costs a lot more. But there is nothing nicer than bread you make yourself (ahem, my husband does the bread-making in our house). You soon get used to the flavour of the real thing. And, for me, it’s the same with clothes. I love tailoring as it takes ages, and as you shape your garment you put some of yourself into it, in the same way as when you cook for people you love.
When I was introduced to machine embroidery – being required to produce an embroidered waistcoat in 1985 – my first thought was “what a naff project”! However on a small piece of grey flannel I started to experiment, not with embroidery stitches that your machine can manage, but a simple zig-zag stitch. I bought some wonderful, lustrous machine embroidery threads in blues, greens, turquoise (to look like the sea), and covered my little top in colour. To replicate the waves I added a bulkier light grey thread, some silver too, and then added some orangey-brown shades of a swimmer’s body. In the end I was so happy with the idea of an embroidered waistcoat that I made another one for my daughter, taking the colours from a dress I made, and putting them into a black, cashmere waist coat. I think it has some thick yarns couched on, and hand-made frogging. I don’t have a photo of the first item, but I do have Esme in her dress.
I also got to like smocking which I had associated with hippy clothes, rural smocks and small toffee nosed children. For my lingerie project at college I produced a little dress for Esme (who was about 18 months at the time), with matching drawers (or knickers). This was made from very light white cheesecloth – a crepey cotton. I then used a range of blue embroidery threads from deep to palest blue and smocked the bodice and sleeves. I edged the knickers with the lightest narrow cotton lace. Esme wore this lovely outfit for my father’s 70th birthday (March 1988). Here she is, investigating the olives.
So this summer I decided to have a go at smocking again. This is the pattern I had in mind.
It’s a 1940s pattern I got for 99p on the internet. During the second world war, when materials were short, surface decoration techniques, such as smocking could transform an old sheet into a baby’s dress or a splendid blouse. And even after the war was over clothes were expensive and still rationed. Making do and mending was the name of the game, due to necessity for hard-pressed Britons. Families had far fewer clothes in those days and stitching, knitting, mending and embroidery were essential skills. Making your own outfits was the norm for most working class women. Today we have the opposite problem – far too many clothes (which compete with our living space) and hardly any skill or time to make our own outfits.
Men’s style – Is it OK to wear jeans for work?
I have never worn jeans for work. Except maybe the day we had a spring clean in 2010. Since my time in the Girl Guides I always follow the old BP motto Be Prepared. If a customer, board member or councillor needs to see me I wouldn’t want to be inappropriately dressed. Some dress codes insist on no denim; others say no jeans. There are codes which say smart jeans are OK but not distressed, bleached or fringed (excuse me, when were these policies written?). My take is this. Jeans are inevitable, and in many circumstances fine for work. Many people find them comfortable. Styled well, on the right person, in an appropriate role. Not for senior managers but fine for the front line team. Let’s have a look at what men at Notting Hill Housing are wearing these days.
Last Friday (which is not dress down day at Notting Hill because every day is dress down day), I talked to a couple of Housing Officers who look after our tenants. Their job involves meeting customers in their homes, making sure they pay their rent, getting repairs organised and all other matters. They need to be approachable with just enough authority to show they know their stuff without being intimidating or too “official”.
Here is Housing Officer Ade who I think looks very nice in his jeans. Even though he has teamed them with a denim shirt he has a great sense of style and the whole look is composed and beautiful. His use of colour is very pleasing – cool blues with fashionable brown shoes. He wears a smart, but informal shirt rather than a T-shirt, and it is done up to provide a neat neckline. The narrow turn ups on the jeans individualise and smarten them, bringing the lighter blue in to echo the shirt. This outfit on someone with deep-cool colouring is harmonious. Ade is very slim and quite tall, with a straight body outline. The horizontal lines – turn-ups, contrasting shoe colour and fairly stong contrast between shirt and trousers provides a great look for Ade.
Now let’s meet Chris. I know it was a Friday but I don’t think this outfit is really acceptable for work. And the jeans aren’t the problem are they? It’s the footwear and the comedy T-shirt. The trainers look like he has cloven feet, or perhaps they are inspired by Geisha? And what exactly does this T-shirt say? When I asked him Chris mentioned a film “that your kids must have seen” – but I don’t think a humourous T-shirt works at work. It is saying “I am young and fun!” Finish it off with a hoody and we have a relaxed weekend look for a handsome family guy. Chris has a good haircut, beard and glasses and could certainly carry off a more grown up look. In this outfit he looks a bit too unstructured and possibly unprofessional. There are visual lines going vertically, horizontally and even diagonally (even on his shoes) making Chris look chopped up and more like a diagram than together.
Chris has a sense of humour and he is a great member of staff, but if he turned up at my house to encourage me to pay my rent I would wonder if he knew what he was doing. He reassured me that he was just working in the office on Friday and would not be meeting any customers.
Now meet two people in our marketing team. They are generally office-based rather than customer-facing. If you look at these two they have basically created a long, dark, slim line. In some ways this is the most flattering way to dress if you want to look taller and slimmer but it can be very predictable and samey as the men go round looking like dark blue or grey pencils.
Hello Mohsin. Mohsin told me he used to wear a suit or at least a shirt and tie, but has felt peer pressure to dress down. He feels so long as you wear a collar (a shirt or a polo shirt) with jeans that makes them OK for work. Mohsin’s colour scheme is quite nice but I think the whole outfit needs a bit of a lift. The shirt has epaulettes which have an authority association but the sleeves are rolled up in a casual way. And I like the colour the subtle check gives him. He could experiment with a wider range of deep colours in his shirts and try a better quality, slim fit style. Mohsin could also try leather shoes and belt. These two elements would allow him to become a bit more expressive in his style, and give him more authority, especially if he feels under pressure to dress down. And the turn up are OK because the whole outfit is one, deep tone. But on a shorter frame it is best to avoid horizontal lines.
Andrew, whose marvellous teeth can not be English (he’s #Canadian – yay!), is also involved in marketing our homes.
Andrew looks smart in grey-blue jeans and toning suede sports shoes, with a light coloured sole. His shirt is elegant and his whole well-groomed look is neat and attractive. And yet Andrew who has much lighter, and warmer, colouring than my other “models” is wearing the same deep blues and greys. Its beginning to look like a uniform! Andrew might like to try some lighter and warmer shades for work – pastel shirts with his jeans perhaps? Cream, lemon or peach would look great. As he is tall and slim Andrew could carry off a bit more contrast between his shirt and trouser shades. Perhaps wear a light blue shirt and blue jeans but try tan brogues and belt to bring out the light warmth of his look.
A piece of advice I received was to dress for the job you want, rather than the one you have. If you desire to be taken more seriously, and be considered for a move to a more senior role begin to act like you are already doing it, including looking the part.
Printing on Fabric – Part Two – Vogue 1638
My printing on fabric experiments are only an excuse to worship at the shrine of DVF Originals. This is a nice one – perfect for holidays, but maybe for work when its really, really warm.
I showed you my Red “Blades” dress. The beauty of making a lino print is that you can change the colourway, just like in a factory. The DVF Blades fabric originally came in red, green, black, and I think in brown. But I really wanted green.
I printed a few metres of soft white Indian cotton lawn. I used green fabric paint with blue in a ration of 2:1 to produce a slightly bluer green. I used this to make up DVF’s Vogue 1638 with the printed cotton lawn. I lengthened the pattern a little in the bodice and shortened it considerably in the length. The main change I made was to omit the narrow tied straps and to add slightly wider fixed straps, making it a little less beach-like. And because I wanted to be sure to cover the bra straps. It has a self tie belt but looks quite nice with a leather one, or loose and unbelted as in View B. Because the lawn is fairly transparent, it is lined with the same plain white, unprinted, lawn. This is such a comfortable dress, especially when you need a little air to circulate. And I am learning that old DVF likes zips. This dress has a zip – if you make the tie-shoulder version I doubt you would need one.
I have my cardigan on today as the weather can always change.
I had quite a lot left over. So I made some PJ bottoms for me, and a pair of trousers for the baby too.
You must be logged in to post a comment.