The Simplicity Design Guide, 2

The Simplicity Design Guide, 1

Help is finally here!

Girdles

Here is a cute little girdle with a side front closure.  The maker tag is gone.  It is still very stretchy, although a very small size.  It probably was not used to hold in as much as hold up.

Now this one is more substantial!  The tag is gone, but you can see it fits on my larger dummy, though I adjusted the hips a bit.  This is a beautiful peachy cotton with a fan design woven in.  There are stretchy panels on the sides, at the bottom front, and the top back.  A left side closure.

Here is the back.

A view of the inside.  There are more of those plushy strips at the bottom edge where the suspenders are sewed on, but the most interesting feature is the two-part back.  The upper part is separate from the bottom part so one can bend over without the stockings popping.

This next one is from the 1960's and is made of a lightweight mesh.  It "washes like a hanky".  Again, more made for holding up the stockings than controlling excess flesh.

Since I have not been getting any comments on this series I will start a new one that may be more interesting to some of you.  I still have lots of underpinnings left, so will be showing them later.

Not So Small

I found another Australian newspaper from 1923 advertising Gossard Longerlyne Brassieres, but there were no pictures. " The ideal brassiere for the not so small figures."  Well, mine IS a size 44.

It looks pretty bad.  I haven't washed it.  Perhaps I should!

Made of heavy peach cotton topped by a doubled cotton lace, and finished with substantial cotton straps, this bra is made for heavier use than the previous ones.  There are triangular inserts of elastic material at the bottom sides.  There is a nice dip in the back, leading me to believe this may be from the 1930's.  It still has the corset hook in the front, however.

Too much glare to read the penciled notation on the folded part.  It read 776, with a line under it, then 175.  That may have been the price.

The H W Gossard Company, of Chicago, IL, was listed in a 1917 trade journal as selling front lacing corsets and brassieres.  This ad is from 1918.

Here is an article about the Ishpeming, Michigan Gossard plant and how it became unionized.  Basically the workers were happy and did not want a union, but the ILGWU didn't like that they were getting more money than union workers and that the company wanted to move more work to Ishpeming because the workers were so much more efficient than union workers, so they sent an agitator there.  The vote went against the union three times.  As soon as they got the union in there, of course it went on strike.  It took a long time to force the company to give them the wages the union thought they should have.  Nobody likes to be forced to do something they don't believe in.  If they had just left them alone the workers would have been happy and so would the company, and things would have progressed normally.  I hate unions.

It seems the Gossard family moved to Colorado and bred livestock with the money from their corset empire.  An interesting history is here.  Go down to the bottom.

Eyelet and Netting

I love the fabric of this one--beautiful eyelet with embroidery around each hole and between the flowers, backed by a strong cotton netting.  The hooks and eyes are on tapes, the bones are covered, and lace beading surrounds the garment with pink silk ribbon.  The only thing I don't like are the straps.  Way too flimsy.

Sadly the manufacturer's tag is faded to white.

Blended Smoothness and Dragging Weight

This is a Bien Jolie Brassiere #20035.  Research shows this was made by the Worcester Corset Company of Worcester, MA.  It has silk satin ribbon straps, a pieced lace top boned and gathered to gathered pink silk, and a heavy lace bottom.  I don't think anyone noticed that the cameos are all upside down.

Here is an ad from 1916.  The descriptions sound like they might be made of similar fabric.

Here is an ad from 1914.  Mmmmmm.  Blended smoothness.  No unnecessary bumps.

Here is an ad from a New Orleans paper of 1920.  One certainly does not want the "dragging weight of an unconfined bust"!

And a store ad from a 1928 Australian newspaper. (I love the internet!)

Hmmmm.  I see that the entire picture did not copy.  The brassieres were on the bottom.  Oh well, you can see what else they sold.

Enhancing the Girls

People who think our ancestors were uptight haven't looked at the back pages of the popular magazines of the day.  People were just as concerned about baldness, weight, pimples, and the size of their - ah - embellishments.  All the ads below are from magazines dating from 1907 through 1909.

You'd think Skinny would wear a corset that fit!  Do you think anyone noticed the change?

This girl looks a little dubious.  I wonder how the medication was administered?  If you look in magazines today the sweat-it-off salesmen are still at it.

Skinny probably had  some of these, too.

Do you think this girl looks healthy?

You'll have noticed that all these women are wearing chemises under their corsets and that all the corsets stop right under the bust with no support unless the corset is a high one.  At this point in fashion history the corsets were getting lower and longer as the silhouette got slinkier with skirts that fit tighter around the hips.  Some women were designing proto brassieres for comfort and control, and had been since the 1880's.

This looks like a better alternative than the blow-up ones.  This also gives support to the bust and shifts the load-bearing to the shoulders, which the rational garment people knew all along.

This looks like a good idea.

Check this out.  Arthur Frankenstein!  How evoctive.  This one can be worn for sports without a corset!!  Horrors!

Now for something from my collection.  This is the College Girl Bust Supporter, size 36.  It is new old store stock and is nice and clean and crisp.  Made of cotton with a woven design, the little hangy thing in the front is to secure around a stud on your corset and also to hang your skirt waist from.  It held the garment down to make a clean line and also held the skirt up.

Straps are woven twill tape, and it hooks up the back.  I believe it is from the early 'teens.

By 1915 they are being called brassieres.

Notice that all the adult corsets are below the bust models.  Their extreme length made it hard to sit down.  I know.  I've worn one.

I'm wearing a chemise, but not a bust supporter.  Probably because I didn't have one at the time.  This was 26 years and several sizes ago.  I was doing a fashion show at a local house museum and the group (women) requested to see my underwear.  I wasn't too thrilled about it, especially when I came downstairs and there was a man there, too.  I don't have a picture of the beautiful midnight blue 'teens dress that goes with those stockings.  It has side panels faced in light blue silk that are connected under the hem.

Here's a beautiful silk slip.  There is a long lace flounce with hanging silk ribbons with ribbon flowers at the top of each.  That is a breakfast cap I'm wearing, crocheted by me.  I love the little dangly balls at the ears.  And make sure you notice the vintage shoes, though you can't see the steel seed bead decorations on the tops.  The stockings have embroidered flowers on them, too, because skirts were ankle length.  Once, when we gave a show for a nursing home I gave the old men a flash of ankle for a thrill.