A Fashion Budget From 1942....Interesting

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From the May 1942 Issue of Mademoiselle. This issue was devoted to the 'new' career gal.

This was based on an average weekly income of $25.00

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And this group of illustrations was included in the article:


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Sue
 
Wow!

To go back and time and go on a shopping spree!

Socks at 2 pairs for .50, I could afford to replace all the socks I have lost/ruined/gone missing in my entire life for only pennies!
 
I was talking to my grandfather yesterday. he is a retired carpenter and told me that someone who was on a job with him did major snow removal in a downtown area for $5. that was with labor, lots of mark up, etc...
 
Actually that seems like a lot

I looked up these facts

Other Facts from 1942
President:
Franklin D Roosevelt
Average income $1,885
New car $ 920
Loaf of bread 9 cents
Gallon of milk 60 cents
Gallon of gas 15 cents
Dow Jones Average 107


So <u>just your basics </u>with eight prs of stockings which wouldn't last long

it came to 131.45

So that would be like 5 weeks worth of wages just for a housewife to dress herself.

Now depending on how much a person likes to spend to dress themselves the average woman wouldn't need to spend 5 weeks worth of salary just for the basics.

Of course I said the average woman I am not speaking of Anne here.
 
When my mother started work (1950) she had two wool twinsets and skirts bought for her as the core of her working wardrobe. That's it.

Actually, I'm looking at this list thinking 'hmm, got a few gaps in my 1942 wardrobe to fill' :D

Anyone read Geneveieve Antoine Dariaux's 'A Guide to Elegance'? I recommend it. About 15-20 years further along, but still adhering to very strict wardrobe rules. Her 'Ideal Wardrobe' entry actually itemizes clothing by the <i>hour</i> in each day:

WINTER, 6 pm: 'A black wool dress, not very decollete. This is the triumph of the haute couture and the uniform of city dwellers. It will take you everywhere from the bistro to the theatre, stopping en route for all the informal dinner parties on your social calendar'

WINTER, 7 pm: 'A black crepe dress, this one quite decollete, for more formal dinners and more elegant restaurants'

Oh, and re: the cost. I guess we have to remember that women on an average or lower income would still make all their clothes as a matter of course until the late 50s at the earliest. At least, that's how it went in the UK.
 
My paternal grandmother was in a typing pool for the women's auxillary, and wore a uniform suit to work (so i guess she got off easy on the clothing budget!), and she quit when she married my grandfather. I bet that a lot of young working gals did the same thing at that time.
 
I think many women saved money by buying or finding second hand stuff and remaking it too. My grandmother used to go to the second hand shops in the 20's, 30's and probably during the war too and buy old dresses to remake into newer styles. From what I gathered at the time, they were all Victorian and Edwardian dresses so she probably used to cut up the massive skirts :(

Lei
 
That's just like us with our love/hate relationship with maxi dresses. (edwardian being as old to people in the 20s/30s as the mid to late 70s are to us) . The exceptional ones or big names aside, a lot of people are just not sure yet what to do with them or some hostess outfits. A lot end up getting shortened. There are exceptionally made or exceptionally labelled or exceptionally beautiful ones of course, but on the whole i don't think most people know what to do with them quite yet. I am not going to start the should we or shouldn't we alter maxidresses subject again, but i can see what the mindset would be of your grandmother.
 
Wow! I wished that I could find this stuff brand new for those prices. Damn! One pair of size 10 1/2AA shoes now $100+. My little ol' pocket book would not have moths flying out of it!
 
It will take you everywhere from the bistro to the theatre, stopping en route for all the informal dinner parties on your social calendar

Oh yes, that was my dilemma too!

Life is tough.

Deb
 
Well that was supposed to be a hysterical face with Debs name after it!
 
Chris.... if you're going to go back in time for a shopping spree, better make it spring or summer - as by fall of '42, war rationing had begun and alot of the items on this list would either not be available, or you would be significantly limited in your choices.

If I recall correctly, my mother graduated high school in 1939 and spent the next three years working as a bookkeeper to earn enough money to pay one year's tuition at the University of Washington. So you can be sure she wasn't spending much money on clothes. And I really doubt she was making any where near $25.00 a week. I expect she wore her clothes till they were threadbare as she didn't keep any of them. I have many of her clothes in my closet, but the earliest date back to the late '40s.

Once the rationing began, my mother couldn't find a pair of shoes anywhere to fit her narrow feet. They just didn't make them. She resorted to what she did as a child of the depression... used cardboard in the soles when the shoes wore out. Her stepmother even took her shopping for shoes, but no store in Seattle had any in her narrow/slim size. You can guess what the first thing she bought was when rationing was over...

I know that my mother's main working wardrobe consisted of separates. Skirts and blouses that could make different outfits. She had some great belts (sadly I didn't keep them) which really pulled her outfits together. She liked to have a few things that could be made into a variety of outfits. Plus, if she spilled her lunch, it was alot easier to rinse out the blouse in the sink that evening rather that wash a dress with all that fabric. My mother was very practical and didn't like spending time on cleaning chores (who does?) Important to remember that doing laundry was much more of a chore in those days and I understand that the wringer washers could be somewhat dangerous.

It's an interesting article, but I expect it didn't really apply to the average woman of the day... just something to dream about.

carol
 
Carol,

Those are excellent points. One would also have to remember that the magazine that this was in was Mademoiselle, and if it is anything like it is today, the recommendations were geared more to a higher price range. I am for spending a bit more and getting better quality clothing, but for the average woman buying Mademoiselle magazine today, they are not jetting to New York or Paris and buying what is just off the runway, nor are they in most cases paying $800+ for a dress at a high end department store. Sure, some readers might be head to toe in designer duds, but for most ladies who pick it up at the grocery store, they attempt to copy the look with more economic alternatives and read to either do so, or to live vicariously.

The lady who was "living the Mademoiselle lifestyle" so to speak would not be the lady working her way to go to school, but a young lady who was from a bit more priveleged/from a socially well connected family so thus may have been in line for those jobs. And/or she probably would have lived in a major city or a sleepy country club town.

Chris
 
Yes, you're right, the Mademoiselle gal would be from a priveleged background. My comments were to show that it is important to take a piece of Ephemera like this in context of what was happening at the time.

carol
 
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