Hi all,
I’ve been spending some quality time with Grandma over the last few weeks. Mostly discovering what makes her tick. Well, it’s more a clicky whir if I’m honest. I have a video of her in action on Instagram.
The lighting is a little dark but if you watch with your sound on, you’ll hear the unique sound Grandma makes when she’s ticking over nicely.
It got me thinking about projects to make with her. We’ve already made some face masks but now I’m looking at bigger items. So we can really get some speed going on the treadle wheel.
Wouldn’t it be great to make a vintage inspired item on a vintage machine?
Ignoring the trench coat and skorts in my to-do pile, I started looking at fashion from the mid 1920s. A time when Grandma would have been approaching her teenage years. The style that caught my attention most was the flapper dress. A flowy, slightly boxy shift dress with a dropped waist and fringe detail.
Romantic images of carefree girls kicking their heels up as they danced the Charleston firmly in my mind, I started to look for inspiration to draft a pattern for a flapper dress. Or better still, find a pattern to make one from.
This is Simplicity 9088 from their costume collection.
Grandma would have been 8 in 1920. Far from being carefree, her generation and the world around them had already seen and been through a lot of upheaval and change.
The year she was born saw the world’s first unsinkable ship, the Titanic, hit an iceberg and, well, it did what they said was impossible. It sank.
Then 1914 saw the outbreak of World War 1. Also known as the Great War and the war to end all wars. No sooner had it ended in 1918, when BHAM! A global pandemic rocked the world. As if approximately 40 million killed during the war wasn’t enough loss of life, a deadly strain of the flu killed around 50 million more.
1918 also saw women’s suffrage. We girls finally got the vote. Due in part to women proving they could keep essential work ticking over while men risked life, limb, mustard gas and trench foot to keep the world safe. The cynical side of me also thinks it was probably due to a sudden lack of population available to actually vote.
With
all this as a backdrop, it’s no wonder the 1920s where seen as a
rebellious decade. The roaring 20s saw a monumental change in
fashion. Famous for flapper dresses, the Charleston and short hair,
the youth of the 20s were the first batch of teenage rebels. Gingerly
testing the water for later generations.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Brooklyn, New York, has an online collection of fashion. Click here to see an example of a dress from 1923. The link to the flapper dress above is also part of their collection.
The fashion breakthrough was a sedate one by modern standards. Although skirts got shorter, covering the knee was still important for modesty. Whilst the 20s may have been groundbreaking compared to the decades prior, the youth of this decade were still conscious of decorum and minding their elders. They may have pushed boundaries. But only so far.
By
the end of the 1920s Grandma, now in her late teens, was still facing
a world full of adversity.
Not only a depression era in the 1930s, but the “war to end all wars” ended up starting another World War. In 1939, a little over a decade since Armistice day in 1918, World War 2 broke out. Ending in 1945, it was a war destined to become known as the deadliest in human history. For good reason! An estimated 80 million people are believed to have died all around the world. Including those who died in the world's first atomic bomb raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The aftermath saw a whole new world emerge from the chaos.
One weary of conflict and overdue for a break.
Unfortunately, they didn’t get one. War was still prevalent.
Firstly, there was the Cold War, simmering since 1947. Then came the 1950s with two wars. Korea and the start of Vietnam. As if that wasn’t enough, the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962 had the world teetering on the brink of the very first nuclear war.
Which is probably why Grandma looks so frazzled.
It’s no wonder the 60s became synonymous with anti-war demonstrations. Nor is it surprising that it also became the decade for a renewed teenage rebellion. No longer content with following their parents, or putting up with the endless death, division and destruction, the 60s youth started to carve their own style.
A brand new culture based on peace, love and inclusion.
Change can also create conflict though. The transition was so fast many a teenage and parental head were banged together as each fought for life to continue their way. When you consider the youth of the 20s were probably the parents of youngsters in the 60s, this makes sense. It’s a double whammy of sheer stubborn determination. From both age groups.
The suffering of the early 20th Century had reached boiling point making the 1960s a decade of protests, demonstrations and civil unrest.
As teenage fury with their elders increased, fraying tempers got shorter. So did women’s clothing. The 60s were the age of the mini-skirt, the baby doll dress and slightly boxy looking shift dresses.
From experimentation with drugs, Beatlemania and hippie-fests like Woodstock in 1969, the young generation vented frustration and angst. Pushing the boundaries ever further for freedom to be themselves. They turned their backs on their elders and let go of society’s shackles, decorum and any intention of keeping up appearances. Or the status quo.
Everything they did was celebrated and chronicled for eternity through pop culture and fashion.
Lost deep within this rabbit hole of research, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. It isn’t just the backgrounds to the two decades that are similar.
There is a correlation between fashion in the 20s and the short boxy jackets and shift dresses of the 60s.
Both decades have column style or shift dresses, dropped waists, short hair, and almost boyish silhouettes. Although the 20s style was loose fitting and the 60s, more fitted and shaped, there is a definite comparison.
It’s almost as though the 60s are giving the 20s a nod of recognition for being the gentle turning point in a culture revolution.
Now over 50 years later and at the start of a new 20s decade, it’s a revolution continuing to influence culture, fashion and individual expression.
All thanks to Grandma and her generation.
Bye for now
Olly
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