McCall's August 1925 Fashion History McCall's Magazine Images
By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
August 1925
McCall's Magazine Images - C20th Fashion
History
The signature fashion silhouette lines of 1920's fashions were often
achieved by using McCall's or Butterick dress patterns. Similar free dress patterns
or trace outlines of fashionable garments were also given in other fashion,
needlecraft and sewing magazines of the day. You can read detailed text
on 1920's fashions here.
McCall's Patterns - August 1925.
These fashion images from magazines and
catalogues of the era are very representative of the styling of clothes
real people wore in the mid 1920s. Many styles were original
fashion patterns by designers such as Chanel and Lanvin.
When first studying costume history, students often wrongly
assume that every skirt fashion of the 1920s was short. Not
so. It was only in 1925 that the
fashionable skirt rose 14 to 16 inches
(45 to 50
cm) from the ground making the shorter hemline we associate with the twenties era.
Let's look at these fashion magazine images more closely. The main feature of 20s
fashions is that throughout the
1920's decade the silhouette was a
straight tubular column with dropped waist and no body curves evident,
making it a
boyish fashion silhouette.
Skirts were only really short in
1926 and 1927 and
after that they slowly began to drop or waiver in length. This is why
handkerchief and indecisive hemlines were so popular. Those who were
fainthearted could opt for an indecisive hemline and still be fashionable.
Aug 1925 - McCall's Patterns On White
Backgrounds.
In 1925 the fashionable skirt rose 14 to 16 inches
(45 to 50 cm) from the ground. Knees were still covered in 1925.
When printed
off these images enlarge to fill an A4 size sheet.
The examples below show this feature of skirts and the
dithering hemlines.
Paris Wears Evening
Frocks That Ripple 1925
One aspect
of the fashion editorial on this McCall's page is the reference to gloves.
It stated that Parisian women never went out in the day without gloves.
Although at night for 'artistic reasons' they went gloveless. The bare
gloveless arm was thought to be a visible and attractive feature of women
at night.
When printed
off these images enlarge to fill an A4 size sheet.
~
After skirt lengths dropped in 1930, skirts did not regain knee high shortness again until
the 1940s and the skirt rising above the knee would not happen until the mid 1960s.
Yet most individuals only associate the 1920's era with shorter skirts.
The selection of fashion history images above on this
page and in 1925 Part 2 are taken from a McCall's magazine dated August
1925. The original scans for the images I've presented here were
kindly provided by Cynthia McCracken of Florida who
sells vintage paper ephemera. I have extracted most of them into
their own pages on white clutter free backgrounds so you can clearly see
the lines of each fashion style for your own purposes. Original
images such as these look wonderful when framed and used as part of a
room scheme theme.
I hope to
feature more of Cynthia's quality images in the near future. You can read more detailed text about 1920's fashions
in flapper fashion. You can see
some 1920's wedding photos here.
More line drawings are available
here.
Use the gold navigation buttons above to see more McCall's and Good
Housekeeping coloured and monochrome magazine images.
Fashion-Era.com looks at women's costume and fashion history and analyses the mood of an era. Changes in technology, leisure, work, cultural and moral values. Homelife and politics also
contribute to lifestyle trends, which in turn influence the clothes we wear. These are the changes that make any era of society special in relation to the study of the costume of a period.
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