JR Brown is right, even up to the 60’s. My mother made extra money by sewing for women who didn’t have the skills, time or equipment. She paid off her sewing machine in a couple of months with the amount of work she got just doing alterations, simple summer dresses and kids clothes. She could do far more impressive work, but the basics were the best cash/effort ratio.
Most of our clothing was sewn or hand knitted (I made my first knitted top at eight y/o or so). Overcoats and “fancy” clothes were bought. We might get two bought items in a year - this was mid 60’s. Other kids we knew didn’t have so much hand made stuff, but their clothes weren’t as nice as ours because cheap, bought gear was nasty. Everything below ‘best quality’ was patched until it fell apart. We have photos of our family in successive years, showing the same wool - first as a jersey for my dad, then my brother, then mum, then me. It was my job to unravel the old jerseys because I was good at retrieving as much useable yarn as possible.
Nowadays it’s cheaper to buy ready made. The wool or material actually costs more than the finished product. Knit and polar fleece fabrics have changed the whole dynamic.
One other thing: men’s clothing was never made at home. It needed to be more rugged and lasting, and fit more exactly. This means it’s a lot harder to make. This, plus the fact that it was for men, made tailoring a skilled trade occupation.
My granny told me that growing up, she had four dresses that she constantly rotated, and that was RICH in central Louisiana. Four dresses was unheard of! My mom has a sewing machine that was my great grandmothers, and we keep it because back in the day, when they needed new dresses because sailors coming in at New Orleans would appear at the dancehalls, great grandma would sew until the sun came up and my granny and her sisters would sit at her feet moving the pedal back and forth because she would be so tired, but the dresses had to be made! Gotta get those seven girls married!
Back on topic, yes, they dressed well, but they wore the hell out of what they had. That sewing machine goes to me as soon as I have room, and will keep moving along in the family. I think what you were wearing changes depending on how well someone could sew. My family was full of great seamstresses, and my granny was never caught dead in anything but head to toe adorableness. Even pics of my mom in the 50’s show her wearing petticoats underneath her little china doll dresses, and nothing but the best patent leather Buster Browns you could buy. Maybe that was just my family, but if they were poor, buy God, they weren’t going to look like it!
Dammit, several people beat me to it, but yeah- men’s clothing was tailored by professionals, women’s clothing was either made at home or by a dressmaker or neighbour who was good at sewing. Thinking about it, I don’t think most women’s clothing was really mass-produce-able (except for some things like separate skirts and shirtwaists, after they came in in the 1880’s and '90’s). Women’s clothing was just too picky in fit and blasted complicated to be reliably made in a factory until probably the early 20th, and I would say post-Edwardian era.
Anyone know when the big catalogue companies really got going? Sears, Simpson’s, Eaton’s?
The 1910 Sears Catalogue showed that ready-made dresses, etc, were available and squeezing out home made stuff. But you’re correct that men’s clothing was available well before women’s.
JFK’s hatlessness at his inauguration is generally cited as the deth of men’s hats.
My parents (b. 1915) were a mis-match on so many levels, but:
yes, when going downtown (to Rike’s Dept. Store) mother brought out the heavy guns:
Girdle (when was the last time you saw one of those?)
Stockings (seams straight!)
White gloves (with seams on the back - those seams also had to be straight
“warpaint” (makeup)
base coat of something white (yes, we’re of European origin)
Rouge for pink cheeks
lipstick
Nothing for the eyes, that I recall
Father - I never saw him in a suit - he did clerical work, so white shirt and dark tie, no jacket.
As to why folks posed for pics are dressed up: self-selection! You didn’t “waste” film except on semi-special occasions. About all the pics of us kids have us lined up on the steps right after Church. Very few of us just playing or being kids.
And yes, until we freaks started wearing jeans (rebellious), they were worn ONLY by farm and factory workers - it was shocking to see the middle- and upper- class kids wearing the uniform of the working class.
After JFK killed the hat (it was already dying), everything else became fair game. The hard-soled shoe was a hold-out, iirc - it was still common even in “business casual” shops.
for the record - I have owned 3 pairs of jeans (all used a grubs), and wore only real shoes until the 1980’s. I was the guy at the demonstration in a button-down shirt.
You see them all the time still. They’re just made of modern stretch materials and marketed as “shapewear” instead. Spanx are nothing more than fancy girdles.
