My 1940s dress - got some questions

Midge

Midge

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Ok, here's my second find from Humana from last weekend which I spent in Vienna. It was all a bit crazy - half-way down Neubaugasse, I got a call from a friend and agreed to meet him downtown for coffee an our later. Nope, I hadn't really though I still wanted to got the Humana shop at the end of the street and then dash back to my hotel to load off the stuff I'd bought :lol: .
But I made it. And I got this dress and the rust-colored one in the other thread in just 15 minutes. I zoomed in on their dress-rack, which has been re-organised by colors (which you can probably tell by my finds!) and this was the first thing that fell into my hands. And it fit! Okay, it's a little wide in the waist, but nothing that the belt can't help... It cost only 15 Euros, which is definitely less than I expected from that shop. And so I fulfilled my dream of finding a wearable 1940s dress!

40sdress7.jpg

I gave it a quick ironing this morning - it was really, really crumpled (and I had to take it home in my handluggage, which didn't help either...). But otherwise - no problems, no defects.

Style-wise, my first thought was post-war? Or am I wrong and it's earlier? The skirt is rather wide...

40sdress1.jpg

It is a bit short, but then I'm not the shortest girl... Maybe the hem was taken up later, it is quite wide, but I can't really say. I do ask myself though if they would really have spent so much fabric on a hem in the 40s?
40sdress6.jpg


As to the material - no idea. Might be wool... It took the wool setting on my iron to achieve anything ironing it, and it does feel a teensy bit scratchy (it's of course not lined).

It has a side opening, which closes with two metal snaps and a metal hook.

It even has a label:
40sdress2.jpg

At left I think are some kind of intertwined initials, and the rest says "Genuine Viennese Work". Intriguing! I have thought I might write to the Wien Museum, which has quite a fashion collection - maybe they would know this label. The focus of the collection is on clothes that have something to do with Vienna, so I might be lucky.

40sdress3.jpg

Button and buttonhole - nicely made!

40sdress4.jpg

Another nice touch - the shaping of the sleeves at the elbow!

40sdress5.jpg

And the shoulder pads!

Karin
 
Oooh - What a great dress! Fabulous Color & I LOVE the details!

I believe - from the pics - that the hem was almost certainly shortened.

And without actually touching the fabric, it appears to be a rough cotton or blend. Could that be right?

Once upon a time there was a fabric known as "Hopsacking". While it may not have been used for dresses or even used at all in the 40's, that's what the pictures remind me of.
 
That a cutie pie Karin (you too!)~

If you can snip a few threads and burn them you can tell if it's wool - wool will smell like hair burning.

There's a chart of what different fibers smell like and ash like when burned but I lost my bookmarks a while back and haven't rebuilt them~ sorry.
 
yes, that hem has been taken up.

GREAT color on you, and i like that length on you, too, actually

and yes, do a burn test, if you google "fabric burn test results" you should be able to get at least a couple of good sites with guides
 
This looks to be from the early 1950's and has been taken up. Boleros were popular around 1953 and the circular skirt (I can't quite see panels from your pictures) is very typical.
 
It looks like there is a ridge under the hem you have pictured so it might have been turned up twice? It looks early wartime to me, c. 1941ish,as it exists now but its difficult to figure out how long the hem may have been. The skirts are generally fuller on the continenent than they are in England or the U.S. for daytime clothes but if the original hemline is 6 or 8 inches longer then this has to be post war. The fabric could be a weird blend of hemp/rayon or wool/sisal - or any mixture of real and synthetic fabric - the lack of enough real fibre made blends very common. It is certainly well made!
 
I can see some elements that might reflect fashion during the Second World War period in Austria and what did throw me originally was the bolero which along with the floral embroidery gives this suit that 'Tyrolean' feel which during that period identified with the social and political influences of the time. That Tyrolean look did continue and of course has always been popular in that region of Europe.

Can we see the closures?

Karin, good reference on fashion in the war and post-war period in Austrian on the net appears hard to find. I'm sure libraries have periodicals and photos from the period but for example you can't access images from the fashion collection at the Wien Museum and it is not open to the public?? If you know of any good links to references could you post them?

Here's the sort of thing I'm after too - a great little site;

http://tinyurl.com/yc6otzc
 
Thanks for all your comments!

Well, I'll see if there's anywhere that I can snip a bit off for a burn test. They certainly didn't waste material on this dress, so I'll have to give it a good look...

Jonathan - yes, you saw that right, the seam has been turned under another time, and that I guess could be the original seam. That bit measures about 3.25cm or 1.28 inches. If I suppose that that is the original seam, then the original length from the waist would have been about 67cm or 26.37 inches. Measuring that on myself, that would make it end just below my knees, which I think makes sense. So the turned up bit is about 9cm or 3.5 inches.
I have noticed in those German sewing magazines from the early 40s that I have, that the skirts are rather wider than one is used to usually when it comes to 40s fashions. I have been wondering what kind of weird mix the fabric might be - I think your ideas are very interesting and it might well be something like that. As I said, it does feel a teensy bit scratchy.

Yep, the skirt is a circular cut, it has only one side seam, which leads over into the side opening - here's that pic of the closures:

40sdress8.jpg

Two black metal Prym snaps and one black metal hook.

vertugarde - I didn't think of a "Tyrolean" influence in the style, I thought of it more as a "bolero effect" which I do associate with the 40s somehow...
The Wien Museum (basically it's the museum of the City of Vienna) doesn't have an image library of their fashion collection online, but there's a contact and I will write to them. This is one of my very favorite museums in Vienna and I hope they'll be as good in answering questions as in doing exhibitions.
I have seen two exhibitions with clothes from this collection at two different museums in Vienna already, and I have the books to go with them, but one was on the 1860-1900 era, and the other one, though being on the 20th century, was relaltively small and didn't show any 40s dresses that look like mine. I've only just found out that they're supposed to have on of the biggest fashion collections in Europe, so if they had any kind of accessible library, that would be hugely interesting. I'll see what I can find out.

Karin
 
I can't offer anything helpful beyond what all the experts have said already.

But Karin, you look a-m-a-z-i-n-g in it! :USETHUMBUP:

Is this the dress you found in a 15 minute speed-shopping trip? Damn, you are good!

Sarah
 
I just got a very nice e-mail from the museum in Vienna! I'm not quite sure about the role this lady has at the museum, it wasn't specified on their web page, but she was mentioned as contact. Anyway, she writes she supposes it's some kind of wool fabric, and so far, she hasn't come across this label, but she will keep looking out for it.

Karin
 
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