"The Ten Commandments of Dress and Grooming for Smart Women" (1925)

This is an article from a 1925 issue of Photoplay magazine on how "to" dress and how "not to" dress. It is hysterical!

The writer, Grace Corson, really rips into the poorly dressed specimen in the bottom half and I get a giggle each time I read it. She really hates those shoes saying, "And shoes - if such hideous affairs as these she wears can be called shoes..." and I also love the "vulgar jewelry" and "gaudy handbag"! LOL!

Click to enlarge:





I dunno. The lady in the bottom photo looks like she could be from the 1980s and her shoes could be worn today without an eyelash batted.

But lets talk about those "Ten Commandments" shall we? How many do I break? Well, the first one cracks me up in that it mentions "good breeding." *snicker* I'm glad we working-class poor folk don't have to live up to a "good breeding" standard today. That phrase makes me think of humourless snobs who think having fun is shocking and beneath them! "Good Breeding" also makes me think of horses.

I can get with numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5. Totally.

Number 6 I break terribly. I wear bright red eyeshadow with cat's eye eyeliner and painted-on thin eyebrows. Or bright purple eyeshadow, or yellow, blue, etc. Any fun colour. But since it's 2011, I haver NEVER EVER received an "unfavorable comment." Hehe.

Number 7 I break like there is no tomorrow!! But I don't purposely seek it out -- I just PREFER loud and extravagant clothing. Even if made in all solid black material, a dress from a 1930s pattern is going to be "loud and extravagant" and will attract attention!

I'm just beginning to adhere to 8. I don't wear foundation garments, but I'm realizing what a properly-sized bra can do.

Number 9, eh. Not really into fads and novelties.

Number 10 -- I could care less what my "type and colour" is! I'll wear what I like and what makes me feel comfortable!

So, which Commandments do you break?

Butterick 7451 - The Client Dress

I've been working on a dress for over a week now. It still needs buttons and a better collar (the one it has on now I messed up on.) I don't know if I want to put pockets on the boobs or not. I tend to avoid boob pockets because I'm a DD and I don't like more attention drawn to them :(



This was made in gray gabardine from a 1930s Nurse's uniform pattern (Butterick 7451, given to me by Miss Andrea Kamikat!), but I wanted to give it a more militaristic look. My main inspiration are the dresses worn by the women in the electronic band Client:



I'm going to change mine up a little. I'm leaving the whole front open because I like that. I still don't know if I want hip pockets (instead of boob pockets!)

One thing about this dress is that I actually took my time with it. Andrea traced the pattern on interfacing so I could pin it together, put it around me, and then determine how much fabric I needed to cut. The original pattern was a size 33 bust -- LOL! After I cut the fabric to the proper size I then pinned the pieces together and put the dress on -- pinning in where needed! Perfect fit!

My downfall is alterations. As you can see by what I just said, I have a ghetto way of doing them! I was never very good at resizing, especially DOWNsizing (taking things in). UPsizing always seemed much easier, but I had to be careful not to leave too much bagginess in the shoulders (from the bust alteration). Yup, alterations were never my thing. The funny part -- I could probably do them on someone else. Haha.