Newsflash! More Fancy Pants in the Worcester News!

Our exhibition Fancy Pants hit the headlines for the second time this week in the Worcester News! Here we are posing with some of the exhibits before we set them out for display. 

1930s Fashion

In the Thirties hemlines fell as well as the economy, with the stock market crash of 1929. From now on hemlines would be seen to reflect the general state of economic affairs. The difficult years that followed for many, finished off the flippant flapper-era and ushered in a more grown up decade. 

The 1930s took over the fashion reigns from the revolutionary Twenties and the explosion of the modern, media age developed women's clothing into new, and glamorous never before seen styles. Where the Twenties nada been about suppressing a woman’s natural shape, the Thirties were all about embracing it.

Construction of clothing saw great innovations with new, manmade and synthetic fabrics and the first commercial use of the zip in clothing manufacture. Despite this, it’s still quite rare to find a zip in everyday, handmade dresses of the Thirties. Side fastenings using press studs or hooks and eyes are the most common. The popularization of bias-cut dresses, which gave fabrics more stretch provided clever new concepts for fit and drapery. 

The Thirties have been dubbed the 'golden age' of Hollywood. Every women looked to the stars of the silver screen for fashion inspiration as well as escapism. It was the first time that designers in Paris we’re not the trendsetters as Hollywood studios didn’t want their stars to be seen in dated fashions once their films were released, so designers for the studios became famous for creating looks that every women wanted. 

Large ruched and ruffled sleeves are a key feature on day and evening dresses of this era. The 1932 Joan Crawford film 'Letty Lynton' is famous for influencing this look with a dress designed by Hollywood designer Adrian.

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Ordinary girls longed for the revealing, clinging gowns of the starlets, to make an entrance at their local dance hall. Although hemlines had dropped there were still outrages to be caused: this was the first time that women’s clothing was overtly sexy and newly favoured were strappy, backless, figure hugging gowns for evening wear. 

Ruffled sleeves on what would have been a handmade dress, showing the
influence of Hollywood styles on everyday fashion.

Waists returned to the natural waistline during the Thirties and one of the most famous styles from the decade that encapsulates the era, are the pretty day or ‘tea dresses’ in feminine florals, often with bows at the neck and thin belts with bakelite buckles.

The best-dressed gals about town would take afternoon tea in this style of dress, whether they were homemade by mother or by a well known dressmaker. The outfit wouldn’t be complete without the essential matching accessories of bags, hats and gloves, especially the gauntlet shaped gloves of this period

 

Gauntlet shape 1930s glove with Bakelite detail

The ubiquitous Cloche was quashed in the Thirties, and hats became much more adventurous coming in all shapes and sizes including berets and pillbox hats, as well as more structural forms embellished with feathers or flowers. 

See Hollywood influenced gowns and some fabulous 1930s hats at our exhibition Fancy Pants: A Celebration of Style 1920 - 1945 at Worcester Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 12th July.

Fancy Pants, Read All About It!

We were asked to contribute in the fashion special in our local paper this week, with all things 'Fancy Pants' on our minds we had a feast of things to talk about! With 1920s style being huge this summer, still down largely to the huge success of Downton Abbey no doubt, it seemed an obvious focal point! 

These dreamy stylish scenes have set the theme for many a wedding, birthday or celebration so looking the part is a must. We show a few sneaky peaks of the beaded and lace delights being displayed from Saturday to help fashionistas get the look!

Jo is looking great despite it being halfway through a busy prep day, spot the resemblance with her Great Aunt pictured bottom right. The 1920s beauty and our modern day gal have similar faces, especially smiles don't they?

As a blog reader we'd love to see you at the private view this Friday evening from 6.30pm. Cocktails and Ukeleles will accompany the first viewing of the county collection of 20th Century style, hopefully see you there! 

1930s culture at Madame Tussaud's!

Madame Tussaud's is one of our favourite tourist attractions, there is something slightly macabre seeing effigies you recognise from history books to Heat magazine all immortalised meticulously in wax, getting to pose next to your favourite movie star or perhaps serial killer makes for a great photo for the mantlepiece! 

This morning, at the local Carboot sale I found this fabulous original tour guide to Madame Tussaud's. 

In great condition, I imagine this was a souvenir kept for years from a special day out in London, as we might do today, put into a cupboard and forgotten about, but too good to throw away! I studied the museum during my art degree, and always felt there was more to it than the slight 'side show' appeal for the curious public, there's a great quote at the beginning of the guide saying 'the proper study of mankind is Man' I feel Fancy Pants is of the same vane, original clothing worn by real people is a fantastic way to see what was happening in the past, what people wore to work in, to dance in or even sleep in is a reflection of the era, and tells its own stories.

One of the things that fascinates me especially about these waxworks is how despite the hours that have gone into them, that they are now pretty transient, moving onto the next big celebrity quickly to keep people coming through the doors to get that make believe snap next to a pop sensation, 'ohh I thought he'd be taller than that!'

Flicking through this catalogue it is an interesting social comment to see those who were chosen important or interesting enough to portray in wax. 

As you can see, the 'music, stage and screen' section is very small in the museum, as is the sports section. The most part of the exhibits are historical, political or religious figures, far more serious and educational than the celebrity  driven tastes of today! Although I think the royal hall, and presidential section still reflects the layouts I remember..

As often with old printed matter there are some brilliant adverts throughout

And my favourite...

What a handsome chap! 

We have a busy week at Fancy Pants HQ coming up now, five days until the opening party, 6.30pm until 8.30pm, hope to see you all there!

Full Steam Ahead!

There's just one week to go until our exhibition opens and that means it's literally full steam ahead now to get all the preparations finished and ready for display.

 This week we teamed up with costume conservator specialist Althea Mackenzie. It's been great working with Althea who works for the National Trust, is an author and is super knowledgeable about how best to steam and display delicate fabrics!

We've been working in the fantastic Chemist's Shop area of the Museum and Art Gallery, until we can install next week. It's been great to see all the costumes on the dress forms.

Here's a sneaky picture of behind the scenes. These are just some of the dresses waiting to be steamed and the dress forms waiting to be 'dressed' and made uniform:

A glamorous 1930s crepe gown waiting to be de-creased in the Chemist Shop:

Althea and Clare having a closer look at this 1930s bias cut crepe:

A delicate job: working with 1920s lace:

Next week we'll be prepping the hats and shoes before the final installation day and opening soiree! Stay tuned for more peeks behind the scenes before our official opening!

Beaded Flapper Dresses

Whilst researching the County Costume Archives for our forthcoming exhibition, one of our favourite discoveries were all the original 1920s beaded, fabulous flapper dresses!

Sadly not all of them were suitable to be displayed as these were some of the oldest and most delicate pieces from the 1920s and it most cases the heaviest too with all that beading! So unfortunately we couldn't risk the dresses not standing up to hanging from a dress form and possibly shedding beads and deteriorating the already delicate fabric.

Luckily though we found a few more robust pieces in the collection and these will be on display in our flapper corner, and some more intricate beading on display in a case.

Flapper dresses are only part of the story of 1920s fashion, but one that seems to have really caught people's imaginations and have become an icon of that era.

If you are lucky enough to own your own original 1920s flapper dress then it's worth knowing a few things about storing it properly to preserve its life. Remember to store it flat in a box wrapped in acid free tissue paper, away from heat or light sources, as the museum does. These dresses don't survive if hung from hangers as the weight of the beading will eventually cause tears at the top of the dresses. Never be tempted to wash these dresses especially if they have sequins on them, these will dissolve in water (and just heat!) as early sequins were made from gelatine!

Here's a few teaser photos of just some of the amazing 1920s beaded dresses in the County collection. As you can see the vibrancy of the glass beading and embroidery hasn't faded and some of the designs are so intricate!

You'll have to wait and see which ones we've chosen when the exhibition opens on

Saturday 12th July!

1920s Weddings

Our vintage fashion exhibition Fancy Pants will look at themes of celebration in each of the three decades covered. For the 1920s we decided to focus on a wedding celebration. The County Costume Archives has some wonderful examples of 1920s wedding dresses that we had to narrow down to just a couple to show. We will also be looking at the wider wedding party and what would have also been worn by mothers, sisters, aunties and friends etc, as well as the blushing brides themselves.

Here's a selection of original 1920s wedding photos to give a flavour of a 1920s wedding and sets the scene for our big day when Fancy Pants opens!

Note the fashionable, daring shorter length of this wedding dress. This looks like a well-to-do young couple, check out the groom's shiny top hat and spats! The vignetting in the photo is a nice touch by the photographic studio too:

This couple look a little sombre:

These cheeky looking chaps are the groom and friends at a working class wedding in the 1920s. We love the jaunty angle of his bowler!

Here's a 1920s smart day dress and hat, just the job for a guest at a wedding:

This dapper nautical/sailor look for little boys and girls was very popular during the 1920s. This is Jo's great uncle Alf: