Oh to be in England

It is one of those sunny days in an English spring when a young girls fancy turns to summer dresses. Proper summer frocks... no doubt influenced  by what you wore as you grew up..floral, pastel, sash for a bow at the back, cap sleeves and a square neck. Horrocks made them for older girls and now I think about it my school summer uniform was this pattern, but with a Peter Pan collar and a belt that did up with buttons at the front.
There was something about a summer dress and white ankle socks and of course, your special summer white cardigan. It was all about wearing the correct clothes at the correct time and/or event. In some ways it was so much easier. Everyone knew what to wear when. As with a lot of things this has plus and minus sides. Yes, its freer and more casual now..but then the agony of what to wear to an event is doubled. I have been to a black tie dinner where a lady wore trousers...(not 'evening' trousers, cloth ones) and to weddings where guests look as if they are on their way to the shops. Does it matter? I think so. Not everyone has the money, inclination or time to 'dress up', but surely a special occasion should just be that?
I began with summer frocks and seem to have veered off into 'it was all different in my day'. Every time I do this I feel old. And whats more I now know that whatever you swear you are not going to do when you are older, (because you parents did it mostly), you do. And saddest of all, you sometimes don't even know you are doing it.
Time to go and moan at some modern music on the radio I think.....

LE CHARME DE BRUXELLES..... MODUS VAN BRUSSEL..... FASHION FROM BRUSSELS

Glamour

30’s Fashion Expo

Brussels Costume Museum

March 2015

Link to Museum web site (in English)

http://www.museeducostumeetdeladentelle.be/en/home/

The ground floor showcased the daytime, the garden party and the weekend. The first floor featured the wedding and the evening.

The second floor presented in private.

So much to see at Brussels Museum of Costume and Lace. A fine illustration of the metamorphosis of fashion and females from the roaring 20s to the late 1930s when the lights began to go out again all over Europe. The decade’s style evolution was plain to see in the first tableau. A drop waisted bright yellow crêpe 1920s dress stood beside a 1930s dusky blue bias cut velvet evening gown. It made it easy to see why flappers favoured short boyish hair whilst 1930s ladies strove to be sophisticated with perms and waves. The hairstyles just went with the clothes and would have looked quite wrong the other way round. You could argue that any ten year period in popular fashion would show the same level of variation. Hindsight can be cruel, but looking at the clothes in this exhibition from a distance of many years it is sobering to trace how the more unsettled the political landscape, the more swirly and luxurious and embellished and totally impractical fashion became.

The daytime collection reminded one that even in the 1930s women strove to follow fashion with whatever means were at their command. Hence those who could not afford expensive furs, bought moleskin or dormouse or lamb or rabbit… which had been treated to look anything rather than rabbit…If you had the time and money to change in the afternoon, you had plenty of choice of what to wear. Afternoon dresses of silk faille, of navy blue crêpe and of aquamarine cotton printed with anemones, tulips and wild flowers just awaited a 1930s summer day. One dress in this section, described as a formal dress from the late 1920s, was so like the clothes I wore (or wanted to find and wear) in the 1970s I had to have a second look. It really was hard to believe that the dress was over eighty years old. Round neck, full sleeves, mid calf, decorated with embroidery, smocking and a beaten copper belt buckle …it fitted the bucolic style from the 1970s perfectly. The garden party collection brimmed with taffeta, muslin and floaty crêpe. It can be summed up by ‘pale and pastel with a parasol’ (and a wide brimmed hat). Imagine a sleeveless white polka dot organdie dress, flounced hem, lace ribbon and a green velvet belt lining. Very languid, very Hollywood and very chic.

If the garden party hadn’t left your sensibilities too fatigued, there was always the weekend to look forward to. For every activity there were special clothes. A riding habit. Beach pyjamas, a swimsuit. Summer hats, matching bags and of course a parasol…

Up to the first floor and there they were…dresses for a Girls Big Day, one of the big social events of any Season…The Wedding.

Again a marked contrast between dresses ten years apart in fashion years. (which is a lot of years) There was a dress very like the one worn by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1923. Ivory satin, mitten sleeves, silver lace, a long scalloped train. Ah… but the 1935 crêpe confection beside it was pure film star. Long sleeves, a draped belt made of triangular panels cut on the bias and a draped cowl neck. If the wedding gowns were fairytale, then the evening gowns were storybook. Mauve crêpe stood next to lavender crêpe. Draped necklines, black sequins, silver lamé, machine made lace, silk velvet, bows, paste trimmings and little capes. (Nb. Not all on same dress) High class dressing up for glamorous people.

It’s not only these days that slim people get the best clothes. An early 1930s black sequined evening gown and a Chanel sheath dress constructed of mother of pearl sequins were very slim. I can only assume these women did not eat all evening (or sit down). The one piece I would like to have taken home to wear was a silk lamé coat in figured gold and green. The green lamé had slits to allow the gold lamé to show through. From Lanvin, winter 1926/27. Sublime. As memories of wearing mourning dimmed a little after the First War, black came to be seen as quietly elegant. Chanel and her lbd from the 1920s was copied widely and the 1930s embraced the trend. Helped by the popularity of Hollywood films and the perceived elegance of the actresses in those films, black became an essential for your wardrobe. I saw what Schiaparelli did in the 1930s to put her own special stamp on this trend with a floral satin cowl neck top with long full sleeves worn with a floor length black skirt. One striking example of the couturiers art appeared at first glance, to be a dress and bolero. It was in fact one piece, made in black satin crêpe and white satin silk. The bolero, lapels and cuffs edged with black and white fabric petals.

The second floor presented In Private. The lingerie and nightwear that went under and with these beautiful clothes. Powder pink rayon bras and girdles from the 1930s. Nightdresses in the same pink, with v necks, shoulder flounces and quantities of machine made lace. Plus the wearer’s initials embroidered on the bodice. A silk kimono in blue and yellow worn over sleeveless blue silk pyjamas…this ensemble included a matching clutch bag. Bed jackets in powder pink taffeta, slips, a dressing gown and a pair of red silk stockings from a chic city centre shop.

And that was that. Three floors of captivating clothes.

Yet again Brussels Museum has assembled a sumptuous exhibition, one that reminds us that not only did Belgian couture epitomise faultless elegance, but rightly takes its place in the Age of Glamour, which is so beautifully displayed here.