1950s summer ensembles, via
"Clothes crises, like dog days, have a curious affinity for the summer months."
American
Vogue, 1 June 1961
Clothes crisis? Not me, I thought as - at the first sign of summer - I went skipping off into the London sunshine wearing blue, red and white striped top accessorised with
my matching headband with
white open-toed sandals.
I had to think again when I read Ann Freeman-Saunders critique of British summertime dressing in
The Intelligent Women's Guide to Good Taste, published in 1958:
"I can only suppose that the
Englishwoman is basically downright miserly about clothes. Only meanness
could account for the kind of clothes
she bursts out with exuberantly the moment the sun shines – balloon-skirted
monsters in Union Jack colours topped by winter jackets or mackintoshes.
Please."
Red, white and blue 1946 summer fashions from the Kay's Catalogue, via
And I had to reassess entirely when I read former
Vogue editor
Edna Woolman Chase's address to the Shoe Fashion Guild in 1939:
"Open-toed shoes may be worn
for dress occasions, afternoon, dinner and evening. Also for resort and country
wear.
Not for walking in the city if
you have understanding of the true essence of smartness of which the first
essential is suitability. They are inappropriate, unsightly and dirty."
So, if I wasn't dressed in true summer style, what should I be wearing? I now really was having a clothes crisis. I turned to my vintage fashion books and magazines to try and glean some direction on what a stylish woman should be wearing in the city. I looked at over 80 years of advice. And what did I learn? That I should wear sandals. That I shouldn't wear sandals. That I should wear shorts. That I shouldn't. That I would look best in black. Or white. Or pineapple.
Want to decide for yourself? Here are some of my favourite (and often contradictory) pieces of advice. Let's start with the shoes:
ON CITY SANDALS
"From the beginning of this fashion in 1937, when women first began to appear on the city streets with their toes sticking out of their shoes, I have felt it was distinctly bad style."
Edna Woolman Chase's address to the Shoe Fashion Guild, 1939, quoted in
Always in Vogue
"I couldn’t believe what I saw. In the summer, every woman wore diamond clips on crepe de chine dresses. And they all wore silk stockings – this was before nylons – under these hideous strappy high heels ... It was
unbelievable.
For years in Europe I’d been bare-legged and thong-sandaled once the heat came on."
Diana Vreeland, talking about the 1940s, in
D.V., 1984
"My personal bias in shoes is for courts with lowish heels- those high-heeled strappy things are exhausting to walk in, not cool at all, and rub blisters on the toes."
Ann Freeman-Saunders,
The Intelligent Women's Guide to Good Taste, 1958
"Go barefoot when you can, or barely sandalled."
'Real Life Dressing ... The Real Cool', American
Vogue, 1 June 1971
"Summer is full of wonderful distractions, but co-workers' toes shouldn't be one of them."
Emily Post '
What Not to Wear to Work in the Summer', accessed 2013.
Two Women in White Shorts, New York City, 1973. Photo by Paul McDonough, via
ON CITY SHORTS
"As for
flagrant bad taste, there aren't too many examples. Shorts on a city street …
shows a lack of self-respect and a contempt for the people who are properly
dressed."
Anne Fogarty,
The Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife, 1959
"You can go to town in bare legs and a short short
skirt ... Here you are with those all-American legs of yours getting
nice and brown ... and you haven't worn shorts in town yet? Don't let another
minute go by! There's never been a season when shorts - and short, short skirts
- looked so absolutely correct and adorable."
'Real Life Dressing ... The Real Cool', American
Vogue, 1 June 1971
"She typified the girls who are wearing
shorts in town this summer. She was asserting to wear them with such militancy
that it was clear she had not thought to pause and wonder whether her legs
should merit such display."
Kennedy Fraser, 'On the Avenue', 1971, reproduced in
The Fashionable Mind
"Many workplaces adopt a casual dress code
for summer months but, even so, there is a list of hot-weather wardrobe
wipeouts that lead to certain self-sabotage: shorts, runnings shoes, sweats,
logo t-shirts, cut off jeans, overall, mini skirts, low-cut or see-through tops
and high, strappy sandals."
Robin Keeler, '
Wardrobe Consultant: Summer Dressing in the City,
National Post, 2011
Horrockses Fashions advert 1951, via
ON MATERIAL
"In spite of the great competition of
cotton, I think linen is the top material of summer. It is cool and fresh and
at the same time just as rich as silk or wool."
Christian Dior,
Little Dictionary of Fashion, 1954
"White
organdie; this 1955 summer evening essential is not 'just for
debutantes' any more - it has a worldly new look, a wonderful new
authority since the Paris spring collections."
'Vogue's 1955 Summer Textbook', American
Vogue, 1 May 1955
"If you must have the kind of summer outfit
which will pass muster on the Costa Brava and Bond Street both (a feat which is
almost impossible) choose a straight sheath in heavy, crease-resisting cotton
or linen, in a dark/clear colour, and wear it with a matching jacket, caraco,
or some such, to cover up the bareness."
Ann Freeman-Saunders,
The Intelligent Women's Guide to Good Taste, 1958
"Velvet with cotton is my favourite
combination for midsummer city chic."
Anne Fogarty,
The Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife, 1959
"Wearing a pure-cotton skirt in summer,
with bare legs and sandals, is one of the coolest ways to make it through a hot
city day. The cotton dirndl skirts designed in the fifties for dancing at the
hop, walking along the boardwalk, or meeting a date for a soda can be updated
and worn now. The fitted waists, bright colours, and lengths – from just below
the knee to above the ankle – make for breezy dressing."
Harriet Love's Guide to Vintage Chic, 1982
Betty Barclay dresses, 1951, via
ON COLOUR
"In hot weather for town wear nothing is
nicer than a linen suit in a dark colour."
Christian Dior,
Little Dictionary of Fashion, 1954
"A new pastel way of dressing (for town, particularly) that
started this spring with pale-tinted tweeds and pearly chiffons; that, in pineapple
tints, will be a basic fashion fact by the end of the summer."
'Pineapple, Slicing Through Summer Fashion', American
Vogue, 15 April 1955
"In the evening, for dining in a
good London restaurant or hotel, you will need New York clothes too, with
perhaps fewer black dresses, more coloured ones, bright or pale. An
Englishwoman we know explains it thus: 'we have such a short summer in England
that when it is summertime, we like to wear colours. There's plenty of time to
wear black the rest of the year'."
American
Vogue, 1 June 1960
Ingeborg Day extols the virtues of white for summer in Cheap Chic, 1975, via
ON WHITE
"White
shoes are out of place in most big cities unless they match a white dress."
Anne Fogarty,
The Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife, 1959
"In the summer I don’t buy
things that have to be dry-cleaned. If you wear white and have three of each
thing you can manage, even writing the subway and bus every day. I bought a
white hat and a white skirt, and I wear white espadrilles. White is more
practical than yellow, brown or even black, because you can use nurse’s white
shoe polish on the canvas – with any other color, there’s nothing you can do if
you spill something on them or someone steps on your feet."
Ingeborg Day, office worker quoted in
Cheap Chic, 1975
"A dressier lace camisole with a white
petticoat can be the answer to an afternoon wedding or a garden party."
Harriet Love's Guide to Vintage Chic, 1982
1950s summer dresses, via
ON HOLIDAY WEAR IN TOWN
"Ideas change about city summer clothes ... Very often, the only difference between a town dress and an out-and-out country one lies in its accessories. By your hat (which is a classic shape), by your gloves and jewels, you identify the locality as - town."
'In Town This Summer' American
Vogue, 1 June 1947
"A resort dress is a resort dress. It cannot be worn in the city with that bane of the British, a cardigan, added for the sake of modesty."
Ann Freeman-Saunders,
The Intelligent Women's Guide to Good Taste, 1958
"If a dress is strapless, it's either a cocktail
dress that should be worn after five or else it's a sun-dress and should stay
in the sun."
Anne Fogarty,
The Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife, 1959
"London in August is quite a different city
from London at any other time of year … More particularly there is a slackening
in dress. …. In Brook Street, Grosvenor Street, and Berkeley Square, the
usually silken-sheathed, stiletto-heeled executives walk to their office in
cotton dresses and resort shoes, giving the impression they have just been
called back from Spain to an urgent conference … In the privileged residential
districts expensive looking wives step out to the florist’s or delicatessen
wearing the slacks and sandals they wore in Palermo earlier in the year, with
beach bags for their shopping."
Alison Adburgham, 'London in August', the
Guardian, 4 August 1961
"The appearance of bare backs and midriffs
this summer marks the death of the principle that clothes appropriate to city
life are quite distinct from those for the beach."
Kennedy Fraser, 'On the Avenue', 1971, reproduced in
The Fashionable Mind
"This is the season of the dress – but most
are not office appropriate. Generally, dresses that breeze in at the beach
should never appear in the boardroom."
Robin Keeler, '
Wardrobe Consultant: Summer Dressing in the City,
National Post, 2011
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Really, after all this reading, what I learnt was that anything goes in summertime dressing, and I shouldn't really listen too much to other people's opinions - in the heat of the summer, it's only likely to make you even more hot and bothered. But I'm still open to suggestions: what are your personal rules on summer dressing?
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