A fashion spread from the Delineator, 1909. Each dress had a number with a corresponding pattern. Still, it is unlikely the Nicholson women made such fancy dresses. Of course, in those days, a woman would have one or two nice dresses, no more. We are used to seeing these fashions in movies, like Titanic, on gorgeous actresses portraying wealthy women. Let’s face it, the fashions in movies like Easter Parade or Gigi are half the fun.
With the Academy Awards coming up Sunday, or the Oscars, it is interesting to observe that the women in these early fashion magazines were fantasies to aspire to, much as the modern actresses parading the red carpet are, today, 100 years later. For the Academy Awards are all about fashion, right? (Of course, this year they’ve nominated more popular movies as well as the art house movies like An Education which critics like but few go to see in the cinema. (Well, I do.)
(I hope my favourite actor Colin Firth wins best actor for A Single Man, despite the fact I have very mixed feelings about the movie. I don’t even believe, as most critics do, that Firth outdid himself in this movie. He’s always worthy of a nomination, I think, anway. Oh, and I tried to watch the Olivier Pride and Prejudice last night, taped off Turner Classic Movies, but I couldn’t. Those ridiculous hats and dresses! Not Regency at all! I’m just so used to the Colin Firth P and P.)
My next chapter of Flo in the City, a story based on the letters of http://www.tighsolas.ca/, will be about fashion, which means I have to ‘study’ this Delineator to absorb the lingo, the fashion jargon, which is Greek to me.
(I’m watching Richard III on my big screen, right now, and Olivier is doing his winter of discontent speech, in a silly wig..very distracting.)
Here’s a bit from this Delineator…Society Page, in honor of the 2010 Oscars, because, since the 1910 era, actors (and singers) have taken the place of society people in the the heart of us dull normals as people to look up to.
Not in one’s wildest flights of fancy could one call New York a deserted city, even during this deadest and dullest season on the year. Fifth Avenue alone feels the defection of its householders and the sightless eyes of its closely boarded windows turn a vacant stare on the quiet and sunny street.
The city has been taken over by an ever changing flow of visitors, who are here to enjoy the amusements which New York affords during the Summer Months. These women, or girls rather, for they are still girls, with their love of youthful pleasures have been planning for these days or weeks in the city and have used all of their ingenuity to be gowned correctly for all occasions.
Our concern is with the women who lead in the matters of fashion. Newport, Narragansett, Manchester, and the other cities by the seas are at the height of the season, and there seems to be no dearth of amusement if one is fond of polo tournaments, tennis matches and yacht races. The older women of the social world are apt to be a bit bored by the never varying program that repeats itself each Summer, but if one is young and not too much troubled by temperament, I believe the point of view is somewhat different (Sic!) Nothing is or should be a bore to someone of one and twenty, although one gloomy young person who is dragging through the first year of society assured me, when she came to order her summer frocks, that another winter she intends to take a flat on the east side and work among the poor so that she can get a little rest. However, I noticed that once she became really interested in the question of summer silks and chiffons , the slums seemed to slip a little into the background.. (PS. for some reason this excerpt of August in the Cities by the Sea by Mrs. Simcox, written in 1909 and therefore in the Public domain disappeared off my blog. Hmmm. Ghosts?)
(Hmm, I love this…It was OK for society matrons to take an interest in social problems, but clearly it was not encouraged in the young. A young woman concerned with more than her appearance was deemed ‘dull’ and too troubled by temperament. The media, in this case, magazines, provides a kind of conditioning, with a few well-chosen words. (Does this happen today? But of course.)
Now, I gotta go to IMDB and see if Richard III won any awards for costumes. I hope not. They are awful!! Gielgud looks like he’s wearing a woman’s wrapper from that 1909 Delineator I have on hand. But the acting, ahh, that’s a different story.
