• Blog
  • All Labels & Designers
  • Categories
    • Labels & designers
    • Outfit of the day
    • Antiques
    • Old houses
    • DIY
    • Los Angeles history
    • Vintage shopping
    • Interiors
  • Build a vintage closet
    • Determine your style
      • Building a vintage closet, Step 1: Who are you?
      • Building a vintage closet, step 2: Elements of style
      • Building a vintage closet, step 3: Assessing assets
    • Vintage shopping
      • Building a vintage closet, preamble to part 4: Before you shop
      • Building a Vintage Closet: a few quick notes
      • Building a vintage closet, step 4: Can we please go shopping now?
      • Build a vintage closet, step 4: Moar shopping pls, expo edition
      • Building a vintage closet part 4(c): Online shopping & flea markets
    • Details
      • Building a vintage closet, part 5: Putting it all together
  • Shop

No Accounting for Taste

Instagram

  • Newly listed 🍀🐍🍏 A stunning example of Irene’s work in a rare shade of apple green. Superb tailoring and masterful details. After Adrian, Irene’s suits were about the finest you could buy in the late 40s and 50s, carrying a mid-50s price tag of about $300, nearly $3000 in today’s dollar. This is about a smallish medium, best for a bust measurement of 37-39 and waist 27-28”. Shown on a 36-26 form; it was a bit too big for her, but it’s too small for me at 40-29. There is a tiny bit of seam stress on the waist in back (pictured) and one button is missing but a spare is included (I didn’t have the right thread color and I’m leaving town tomorrow 🤷🏻‍♀️). Shop link in profile // #1950sfashion #irenelentz
  • [sold] I’m experimenting with @liliesandremainsvtg’s method of posting details in advance and listing at a predesignated time on Etsy, so don’t claim here. Mid-1950s shirtwaist dress by Claire McCardell in a navy blue pinstripe wool synthetic blend. Silver ball buttons down the front and on cuffs, wide belt loops (no belt included), and, of course, pockets. Unpressed pleated skirt with just about an inch to let down. A few holes here and there (see photos) and some loss of striping on the shoulders, but nothing drastic imo, priced accordingly. Measures about 38-25 (I wore it ok at 26) - full, with a 16.75” bodice and 24” skirt. // #clairemccardell
  • I know spring is around the corner and last weekend I changed out my fall/winter clothes for spring but this morning I went back and dug out this red vest to wear with this 70s camel sweater dress by Bonnie Cashin … plus tall boots? It’s like 75 outside idk what I’m doing send more sunshine ☀️🤷🏻‍♀️ // #bonniecashin #ootd scarf and vest by @revellecollection, the most perfect corduroy tote from @deargolden
  • I don’t normally think of red as a spring color but… “Spring is a way of thinking, looking, dressing… Linens, cottons and printed silks come early, stay late. [Above]: red-and-black printed pleated surah with a big black milan. By Christian Dior—New York.” Photo by Leombruno & Bodi for Ladies Home Journal, March 1954 // #dior #1950sfashion #evelyntripp
  • “The 1942 version of the shirtwaist dress—softer in character, brilliantly coloured, made formal with accessories and jewels. Enka rayon crepe; $35. It’s one of a group of high-handed colours in shirtwaist dresses that you’ll see all across America.” Photo by John Rawlings for Vogue, April 15, 1942. // #1940sfashion
  • “The shirtwaist dress de luxe in black and white shepherd’s check silk crepe with a patent-leather belt… the easy, excellent, everyday dress. Traina-Norell, at Bonwit Teller; Marshall Field; I. Magnin, California.” Photo by Hoyningen-Huene for Harper’s Bazaar, March 1, 1942 // #1940sfashion #trainanorell
  • “Certainly, a shirt-waist dress should be among those objects people seal up in cornerstones, for the purpose of enlightening future civilizations about our own. Because, in the last few decades, the shirt-waist dress has attained the stature of an American institution—worthy of being classified with baseball, ice cream, and Plymouth Rock... The Gibson Girl was a famous exponent of it—with her separate shirt-waist tucked into a skirt and worn for simple pastimes like tennis and mountain-climbing… Inevitably, evolution crept in… Fabrics may be casual or formal; there are minor deviations of sleeve length, collar, closing. But, underneath it all, the shirt-waist dress remains the same—simple; unaffected; with easy fit of shoulder, slight fullness above the normal waist-line; swinging, active skirt lines essentially neat and trim… And, on second thought, maybe we needn’t bother with about the cornerstone. It is likely that the shirt-waist dress, as it has already will keep pace with civilization.” Vogue, June 15, 1938 // #1930sfashion #fashionhistory
  • I wanted to look into the evolution of the shirtwaist dress and of course fell down a tiny rabbit hole seeing how they changed from their late 19th century origins into the 1960s … these are from 1917: “It has been many seasons since we have seen a fashion so suitable to summer as that of the shirtwaist dress. Its good taste and practical usefulness are unquestioned, and it well deserves the popularity with which it has swept the country.” Good Housekeeping, June 1917 // #1910sfashion #fashionhistory
  • Starting to feel some spring vibes with gingham check over blue... navy wool Jerry Gilden Spectator dress from 1952 with late 40s/early 50s navy and white check gab jacket from @playclothesvintage; 50s belt by Phelps // #ootd #truevintageootd#1950sfashion

Follow Me

About Me

About Me

My name is Jessica, and I love old things. I wear, collect, research and sometimes sell vintage clothing. This is some documentation along the way.

Categories

Recent Posts

  • De De Johnson: California Casual
  • Hansi Originals
  • Greta Plattry

Archives

Tags

1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s adolph schuman affiliated fashionists antique stores beach california california designers ceil chapman charles james Claire McCardell coast stories couture designer dior don loper graff history labels lilli ann meet a designer new orleans ootd photography resort road trip shopping vintage clothes

Looking for something?

People are talking about…

  • Nick Evans on Samuel Winston v. Charles James Services, Inc.
  • Carole on Dorothy O’Hara
  • Lisa on Graff Californiawear
  • Charity on Claire McCardell mystery dress
  • Charles Richard Loper on Don Loper

No Accounting For Taste is a personal blog of Jessica Parker. All words and original photographs are copyright Jessica Parker, 2007-2018