1952, When A Slip Was Almost a Dress: McCalls 9027More than once I’ve been asked, how did they keep

1952, When A Slip Was Almost a Dress: McCalls 9027More than once I’ve been asked, how did they keep those wide 1950s skirts so buoyant looking. These were the fashion after the New Look by Christian Dior debuted in 1947 taking advantage of the end of war-time shortages to allow women to luxuriate in flared skirts made of yards and yards of fabric. Partly the answer is the structure below. Of course, a dress made in a stiff or crisp fabric like silk shantung will have some structure in itself. Then, add a full slip made of another stiff fabric like satin or taffeta–two of those suggested for this pattern–and trim the bottom edge with a 3 and a half inch wide strip of gathered lace or eyelet trim and you add more structure. Or pouffiness, if that is a word.That eyelet trim is itself decorated with added ribbon and beads, see the illustration on the right. All that for what went UNDER a dress. Of course, one imagines that part of the reason for all that effort was the quick glimpses of the trim offered to the public eye as a woman kicked up her heels while dancing. Yes, very flirty. Notice that the rest of the slip is fit trimly to the body through the waist with princess seams, which allow for numerous modifications. The side closes with a zipper and the top edges have facings. This is why I say this slip was almost a dress. In fact, when slip-dresses appeared in the 1990s, they often had less structure to them. The designers must have envisioned this slip as serving under more casual dresses as cotton broadcloth is also suggested, and as under less buoyant skirts as nylon tricot, cotton batiste and lawn, and crepes are all suggested. The latter fabrics have little body, so a narrower silhouette would have been produced. A sign that despite the current fashion, some women preferred a different look. -- source link

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