topazera
Registered Guest
So, thanks to a lucky find in a thrift store last year, I happened to get into embroidered peasant blouses! I’ve been keeping my eye out and have picked up a couple new additions over the course of this summer and I’ve been wondering if anyone had any tips for distinguishing between the decades?
I’ll start with the one I’m wondering the most about dating atm. It’s made of a fine, sheer cotton with hand embroidered flowers on the front and sleeves and smocking done at the neck, sleeve and bottom. It has French seams and small rolled hems. The smocking is evenly spaced but it does seems to begin and end at random places. The smocking is also looser at the sleeve and bottom than the other examples I have. It has small bound holes for a matching tie at the neck. There aren’t any press snaps on the side of the bottom band.
The difference looking at an older blouse (like this one) vs one from the 60s/70s seems pretty clear but what about distinguishing between the 30s and 40s/50s? Do you mainly go by the type/quality of the fabric and the embroidery when trying to date? I’ve seen 1970s Hungarian blouses that look really close to a 1930s design but they’re on a much thicker cotton (or cotton/poly) and the embroidery has been simplified in comparison. Or are there silhouette changes between the different decades? For example, I’m not sure if there’s certain times they did a collar more than the embroidered band around the neck or had the press snaps at the side bottom vs not. Or are these difficult to specifically date as a handmade, folk item?
So many of the examples I’m looking at online get labeled as 1930s but I’d love to know if anyone has hallmarks they look for that really say 30s vs 40s vs 50s vs later! Thanks so much for any help!
I’ll start with the one I’m wondering the most about dating atm. It’s made of a fine, sheer cotton with hand embroidered flowers on the front and sleeves and smocking done at the neck, sleeve and bottom. It has French seams and small rolled hems. The smocking is evenly spaced but it does seems to begin and end at random places. The smocking is also looser at the sleeve and bottom than the other examples I have. It has small bound holes for a matching tie at the neck. There aren’t any press snaps on the side of the bottom band.
The difference looking at an older blouse (like this one) vs one from the 60s/70s seems pretty clear but what about distinguishing between the 30s and 40s/50s? Do you mainly go by the type/quality of the fabric and the embroidery when trying to date? I’ve seen 1970s Hungarian blouses that look really close to a 1930s design but they’re on a much thicker cotton (or cotton/poly) and the embroidery has been simplified in comparison. Or are there silhouette changes between the different decades? For example, I’m not sure if there’s certain times they did a collar more than the embroidered band around the neck or had the press snaps at the side bottom vs not. Or are these difficult to specifically date as a handmade, folk item?
So many of the examples I’m looking at online get labeled as 1930s but I’d love to know if anyone has hallmarks they look for that really say 30s vs 40s vs 50s vs later! Thanks so much for any help!
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