#dressingbyage

While the character Agnes is besotted with her children although completely incapable of disciplining them -- as task left to their Nurse--she comes across as a bit of a mental lightweight in Angela Thirkell’s Wild Strawberries from 1934. And yet Agnes is also apparently wise on dress.

The Dress Doctors held that clothing choices should reflect the personality of the wearer which included their age and energy. A “soft flowery confection” was probably made of some kind of light weight silk which would flow around young Mary at the dance and make the most of her movements. the mid-1930s gown often had large, draped collars which echoed the flirty gores that flared out from the bottom of the gowns. In contrast, lace is a complicated and elegant fabric but not know for its drape; Agnes, as a young matron, had far less interest in dancing or in making a splash at the dance party, so she could sit looking lovely.

The year was 1939, and the situation was one of finding correct mourning wear to make the death of a relative. In this case, a cranky aunt who liked to bossy people around. The dress was originally Delia’s mother, but was not too tight for her. Delia and Nurse did end up agreeing on the shortening.

Notice how Delia was eager, at 19, to have a dress of her mother’s which clearly made her feel more important while she was wearing it. While during both dress revolutions of the 20th century--the 1920s and the 1960s--everything that looked young was envied. But in between those decades, young women longed to look older, to look like their mothers, to look more imposing and serious, and to be thus taken seriously.