#anAWWYear - March 1948: Fashion

As I'm typing this post, outside it is overcast and drizzly, reminding me that March is the start of autumn.  The Australian Women's Weekly has our back, with Mary Hordern offering up a beautifully illustrated two page feature of coats and other outerwear. Winter coats are an area I've struggled with, because so many long coats make me look very square. I'm rather partial to the hip-length coat - it is called a 'loose jacket' - and its interesting collar. 

Australian Women's Weekly, Mar 27 1948, p 8

This cap and muff in leopard print detail (from the same feature) is a smart set, and I know several people who would adore this!

Australian Women's Weekly, Mar 27 1948, p 9

 Being a plus-size woman, I'm always curious to see what is being offered in the more 'matronly' styles, which while ostensibly aimed at older women also tended to be illustrated as a more solid silhouette. I quite like the shaped yoke detail on the floral frock. Although I'm sad to see that even in 1948 they were putting pockets in the bodice of larger sizes. Please don't.

I'm paying attention to SHOES at the moment as I need more.  While these are rather nice, and I'd love a pair to wear with jeans, I do love the advertisement headline's attempt to appeal to everyone. 

 "Bedggood Mocassina"  advertisement.Australian Women's Weekly, Mar 13 1948, p 13.

This selection contains several I'd wear, particularly the blue ones! Not enough blue patent leather shoes around. I suspect they'd actually make me trip, though, as I'm out of practice wearing any kind of heel.

Australian Women's Weekly, Mar 6 1948, p 14.

One issue of the Women's Weekly from March 1948 is a knitting special, and so my craft post this month will also have fashion in the form of knitted sweaters, so keep an eye out for that next week.

#anAWWyear - February 1948: Fashion

Firstly, an apology for the break in posting. I had a struggle getting ready for Christmas, so there went December. After Christmas I had a large work contract to squeeze in before mid-January, the computer was having major issues (and we have since bought a new one, a decision we should have made months ago), and I having a down patch with my health related to my chronic illness. So there went January.  

Jumping back into my #anAWWyear with February, I'm starting as usual with a look over the fashion shown this month.

I was having a conversation just this week with my sister about tartans and plaids and how much we liked them yet didn't have them in our wardrobes, so these two looks - one from an advertisement, one from a feature on film stars - naturally caught my eye. The pairing of the solid top with large-scale plaid skirt works very well, and I also like the slightly more muted brown/greens of these outfits than the stronger blues/blacks/reds of many such prints I see in reproduction vintage skirts.

An Australian Wool Board advertisement.
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 14 1948, p 14. 

The lovely Rita Hayworth.
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 21 1948, p 25.

I don't know who was doing the Vicars Wool fashion sketches in this era - they are signed with what appears to be the initials 'R H' -  but this is yet another one of their drawings which is making me sigh wistfully for the sort of life where I wear such chic outfits. 

That colour!
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 14 1948, p 6.

I don't usually include an entire page from the magazine, but this feature on the 'Versatile Skirt' was worth it. While I've read plenty of advice about combining pieces to make different outfits in vintage papers, they are rarely illustrated in this way. I particularly like that it isn't an obvious 'basic' skirt either, made up on this slightly green yellow colour - I feel that is more effective a display than a navy or black skirt would have been. 

One skirt in many different outfits.
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 21 1948, p 11. 

 The final two selections I've chosen this month are embellishments.  A dress from the Fashion Pattern service has lace trimming its off-the-shoulder neckline, and while neither are ideas I usually like something about this is appealing to me right now. Possibly the squared off ends pinned in front?

This ballerina dress takes 7 yds of fabric for the full-length option.
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 28 1948, p 39.

This feature on beaded embroidery as decoration on clothes has some very nice examples - the embellished over-sized cuffs on the green blouse in the background are striking.

Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 7 1948, p 11. 

A good leap back in, and I'm definitely adding a plaid or tartan skirt to my winter wardrobe wish list!

#anAWWyear - November 1947: Fashion

Compared to October, where I was struggling to put together a whole blog post of fashion that appealed to me, November 1947 was full of whole outfits and tiny details that I want, want, want!!

One of the things that I'm really appreciating are the outfits which appear so very chic and sophisticated yet don't involve black. I'm in the process of eliminating black from my wardrobe where possible, so I welcome these inspirational images.
First is this amazing burgundy dress from a Berlei advertisement. I adore this colour and the neckline.

Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 8 1947, p 6

This teal ensemble from a Vicars wool advertisement would also be welcome. Is it actually wool or just a convenient fashion sketch, I wondered, although at this stage who cares! Look at that adorable sleeve!

Who wouldn't want this chic ensemble?
Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 1 1947, p 6

Not only do I want the blue and white scarf, I enjoyed seeing the ways they recommend wearing these scarves in this one page feature on some new designs from Europe. 

Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 8 1947, p 35

While the colours are absolutely not something I'd usually wear, I quite like this 'First night' fabric design and know plenty of people who could happily incorporate it into their wardrobe. 

A striking novelty print
Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 8 1947, p 8

The fashion pattern service supplied a few winners this month too. The square, low collared sundress in the selection shown below is my favourite, and I particularly like the off-centre line of the buttons. The sketch of the back view looks oddly like the top of the dress back comes above the collar though, which seems odd .

I also like the cute embroidery designs for the baby bibs.
Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 8 1947, p 27

This suit jacket with the striped cuffs, revers and matching fabric flower is amazing, and it almost makes me wish I had the sort of business life in which I needed to wear suits. I'm not as sold on the skirt, and I suppose there is nothing to stop one wearing a jacket like that with jeans and boots!

Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 1 1947, p 51

The attentive may have noticed that my choices have all been drawn from the early half of the month. That is because the latter half of the month is dominated by the preparations and reportage of the Royal Wedding. I thought I'd include a photograph of Princess Elizabeth, as she was then, looking very smart in a blue dress with attractive shoulder details.

This was from a selection of the 'Latest Portraits' of the key figures in the wedding.
Australian Women's Weekly, Nov 22 1947, p 8

#anAWWyear - August 1947: Fabric designs

When I decided to write four blog posts a month for my #anAWWyear project, I was very clear that I wanted one to be focused on recipes, one on craft, and one on fashion. I was less certain what the fourth each month would be, wanting to have one free to focus on a particular topic or theme which emerged from reading that month.  For August, I've chosen to look at some fabric designs which caught my eye.

Some of them could have been included in the fashion post, as they are part of the Fashion Parades. But they were more interesting as fabric to me. This top and trousers set from the beach fashion feature uses a striking large print, made up of fish and sea plants.

Cheerful beach fashion fabric
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 2 1947, p11

This dress by French designer Carven gains most of its impact from the design of the fabric in the skirt and how it is manipulated.

Evening gown by Carven
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p5

The way the striped squares are brought together and anchored with a matching fabric tie makes what is actually a  straightforward skirt silhouette look far more dramatic.

The next fabric is from an advertisement. The most frequent style of fabric advertisements which actually feature fabric designs (as opposed to promoting the strengths of the fabric type or brand in general) tend to be one which shows small amounts of several designs. One which shows focuses on one design is more unusual, such as this Grafton Anti-Shrink advertisement.

This advertisement shows a large repeat of 'Green Belt'.
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 30 1937, p6

The copy makes it clear what this fabric design is meant to evoke:

Let's forget convention, says Grafton, and cover some of our Anti-Shrink with designs

of things that people are talking about. For one thing, we're talking about our new

homes, and town planning schemes with green belts of trees around the houses. So

here's a Grafton Anti-Shrink with our dream houses and trees and flowers in lovely 

floating colors . . . And now you know why we call it "Green Belt". 

There is also a short but interesting look at some Australian designed fabrics being featured at an exhibition, featuring both dress and furnishing fabrics from some very well known Australian artists. As well as the discussion of the designs themselves, I found the talk of compensation very interesting. The managing director of the fabric company said that because it wasn't possible "to put a commercial price on the design of a man like Dobell or Drysdale... artists working with

us receive a royalty on every yard sold of a textile bearing their design.The Prices Commissioner has approved this arrangement. We make no down-payment for the design. The artist shares with us the gamble that his creation will sell."

I would wear something in Sheila Gray's 'Cross Section', the design being held at centre
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 30 1947, p43

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 30 1947, p44

This brings me to the end of the first month of my #anAWWyear. Are you enjoying it? I certainly am, and am looking forward to sharing September with you!

#anAWWyear - August 1947 Food: Eggless Apple Cake and more

I have long had an interest in the history of domestic technology and food, and indeed have written on the history of food as part of an Australian Christmas. As a result I ended up looking at and absolutely adoring many 19th and early 20th century recipe books and household advice manuals. (Project Gutenberg has a great selection to get you started for free - I will do a post reviewing some of my favourites from there soon.)  I have recipe types which I particularly look for because I like them - I adore 'themed' menu plans and I'm always looking for cake and cookie recipes. There are also those I search out because of the 'wtf' factor - the many, many ways in which the word 'salad' is abused probably tops my list. I've been looking forward to the recipe side of this challenge.

Recipes in the Australian Women's Weekly come in three main categories - the featured recipes in each issue, the recipes sent in by readers for prize consideration, and recipes which feature in advertisements. The format of many Kraft advertisements from this year was an 'advertorial' style recipe column which gives recipes, general cooking advice and some household tips - all linking back to Kraft products. The one in the August 2nd issue is giving fish recipes for a 'couponless' meal plan, a reminder that there was still food rationing in force in 1947. I was particularly struck by the recipe for Mock Mushroom soup, as that seems like a strange thing to mock up.

I cannot imagine being so desperate for vague taste of mushroom that I would serve this.
Still, never say never. Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 2 1947, p12.

Rationing also gives us recipes from readers to get around the need for particular ingredients, such as this reader-submitted recipe for Eggless Apple Cake.

Didn't win the first prize at the time, but it was the best of the issue's recipes from my point of view.
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p54.

This produces a lovely, delicately spiced chocolate apple cake.

Delicious cake, ready to be eaten with afternoon tea. 

 Notes for the recipe as written: while the recipe says to cream the butter and sugar, the amounts given just don't 'cream' together as one is used to in other recipes. No matter how long I mixed, it stayed quite grainy and separate and I was convinced I'd either misread the recipe (did it in fact say 3/4 cup of sugar? Maybe 1/4 cup? something else entirely?) or the original recipe was wrong. But once the warm apple pulp is mixed in everything dissolves and melts in anyway. (Which I didn't sieve, btw. I just smushed it up in the saucepan. I got the cup from 4 apples with some left over.)

The apple cake before icing.

It also says to cover it in 'warm' chocolate icing - icing can be a very personal preference. I used a glaze style (sifted icing sugar and cocoa with some boiling water). A heavier buttercream might be too much!

After adding the glaze. 

Because this recipe is already excluding eggs, and only has the one tablespoon of butter, I decided to try to make a vegan version (for the Tuesday night gaming group, one of whom is vegan). I substituted one tablespoon of vegetable oil (I used sunflower but I know many vegan recipes suggest canola) and reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and it worked beautifully. The texture was a tiny bit denser, which I'd expect with an oil substitution, but hardly noticeable.

Sadly not all food can be awesome cake. I also tried out two savoury recipes.
The first was another reader recipe, this time one that won the first prize for that week - Savory Steak Snacks.  You make a savoury mince mix up into balls, make a cheese pastry, and combine into cute parcels which are baked. In theory anyway.

Less than cute snacks.

The pastry tasted great. I enjoyed the meat, but my husband didn't, and the three year old ate a small amount of cheese pastry with enjoyment but entirely refused to even try the centre. If I were going to try these again I'd chill the pastry for a while before rolling it out, and make sure it was thinner and even. I'd also make the mince into smaller balls.

The next recipe I tried I didn't even attempt to serve to the men in my life - I made it as lunch for myself on a work day when my son is at preschool. 'Creamed Eggs and Celery' was one of the magazine's own recipes for a feature titled Speedy Luncheons. 

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p53

It is meant to be a luncheon dish for guests (the recipe as written serves 4-5) so I obviously reduced all the quantities.

It was tasty (the smooth white sauce and hard boiled egg contrasting nicely with the softened yet still substantial celery and red capsicum and the crunchy toast), and I can see how it would be a perfectly pleasant, warm lunch meal but I don't think it will enter my regular go-to solo lunches.

There were easily half a dozen other recipes I could have tried, but I had to limit myself in anticipation of September!

#anAWWyear: August 1947 - Fashion, Jewellery and early Capsule Wardrobe advice

I'm kicking off my journey of a year through the Australian Women's Weekly with a tour through the fashion pages of August 1947.

Chic matching beret and jacket on the cover of Aug 23 1947

This month is dominated by French fashions, as the Women's Weekly was promoting their French Fashion Parades. While the parades were running twice daily in Sydney for the first half of August before moving on to Melbourne and Adelaide, showcasing over "100 frocks suitable for any occasion", the magazine was presenting pages of the frocks and shoes and jewellery for their readers.

My stand-out favourite outfit is this stunning wool suit by Robert Piguet -the details of the drape of the jacket are a little lost in the photograph but the curve of the jacket edge and the way the lapels sit pleases me greatly.

Gorgeous wool suit from the AWW French Fashion Parade
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p5

Then at the other extreme of formality is this casual yachting outfit  with cute shorts, a belt "with pouches for powder, handkerchief and cigarettes" and those shoulders! I am very tempted to see what shorts with the "impudent notes" of rounded hips look like on me, as my hips are my proportionally smallest part. The original ensemble features a white and burnt orange striped top with green shorts.

Yachting costume, Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 2 1947, p11

The jewellery shown here was designed to accompany the fashions from the "great dress houses of Paris" and heavily features beads and pearls. I think the single strand tied into a bow high on the neck is rather charming, although I try to avoid such high necks myself.  I'd be far more likely to wear the two strands brought together in a large cluster just below the collarbone in the other picture below. 

Just two of the jewellery fashions on this page.
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947, p21

As well as the more aspirational fashions from overseas, every issue of the AWW contains details of more achievable frocks and patterns which can be ordered through their fashion service. Some of the August highlights for me include this scalloped neckline dress, which looks amazing but would, let's be honest, be nerve-wracking and/or tedious to sew. Those scallops would take ages to sew accurately, and with the prominence around the neck and on the short sleeves you would definitely notice any flaws.

Dress featuring scallops from the Fashion Patterns service
Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 16 1947, p30

There is also this "Rita" frock which looks striking and more original than many such offerings, but I slightly worry one would end up looking like puzzle pieces.

Rita Frock from the Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 2 1947, p30

The advertisements this month didn't yield much fashion that I coveted, but there was one sketch of a coat in an Australian Wool Board advertisement that caught my eye

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 30 1947, p17

Recently I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about a capsule wardrobe (verdict: has been very useful in narrowing down what I want my style to be, but I am no closer to implementing it) so I was interested to see some advice in Dress Sense by Betty Keep to a reader asking about basic rules to help her make sure she had things to actually wear from her 'plenty of clothes'.  The response is very simple capsule wardrobe advice

The way to organise your clothes life is to buy only clothes that do harmonise. 

You should plan not only for the moment, but for the season ahead.

Never buy any garment without thinking "Have I the necessary accessories, or can I afford new ones?" 

Always select a basic color and be sure it is becoming. 

Lastly, take into consideration whether the greater part of your life is spent out-of-doors, in an office, or at home, and plan the biggest part of your wardrobe for that purpose.

Which, sadly, means that both the chic wool suit and the yachting outfit really shouldn't be making an appearance in my life any time soon! 

The Plan for Aug 2017 to July 2018 - An Australian Women's Weekly Year

I've been watching my sister Tanith's Trove Pattern Project with much interest. I spent a long time trawling through microfilm issues of Australian newspapers and journals during my honours and PhD theses. Part of me wishes more had been digitised at the time, so my research could have been more focused, but there was a certain charm in browsing through whole issues, being able to read the fiction and advice columns as well as the advertisements I was ostensibly there for.

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947. 

While I've enjoyed doing vintage crochet patterns from the Trove archive, particularly the Australian Women's Weekly, I also wanted to explore some recipes, some fashion ideas...

You know I'm going to have to test out those pineapple sandwiches.
Australian Women's Weekly, Oct 18 1947, p41

My plan, starting in Aug 2017, is to work through the corresponding months of 1947-1948. I'll spend that month going through the issues on offer, trying out some appealing and not so appealing recipes, working up some of the craft projects, looking at the fashion. I'm planning on weekly posts - for each month, one on craft projects, one on recipes, one on fashion and beauty and one to cover anything else that catches my eye - although this may be flexible. It will depend on what appears in the magazine!

We can talk about how gorgeous these coats are.
Australian Women's Weekly, Feb 14 1948, p11. 

One thing I do feel the need to say before I start is that although I am a historian of business and advertising, I won't be analysing the contents of the magazine in an academic way often. This is going to be a more casual and less rigorous reading of the contents than I did while I was studying.

A choc-coconut obsession: vintage recipe experimenting

Over at the wonderful Jessica's blog Chronically Vintage, she recently shared a vintage recipe (from an advertisement) for chocolate coconut marble bars as a treat she was considering making for her husband's birthday. I liked the look of them and decided I'd try them too.

1952 advertisement featuring the recipe. Original source here; via Chronically Vintage's post here. 

I made the recipe as written except I used their allowed  substitution of self-raising flour and instead of heating the chocolate, sugar and water in a double boiler I used the microwave, as I generally do for all chocolate melting tasks. I also skimmed over the pan size (inches too tedious to convert) and grabbed my default slice pan.

Take one: too cakey. 

They were tasty but were honestly cake. Does this resemble those flat slices in the advertisement? No.  And the chocolate mix to marble on top was just weird. A horrible consistency. It made way more than I needed for the drizzling on top. It did marble very nicely though.

Take two involved two pans, more in line with the actual specifications in the recipe. I went back to plain flour with the added baking powder and salt. I also halved the amounts for the chocolate mix and did it in a double boiler. This made it much smoother, but now it resembled hot chocolate - definitely chocolatey, but a thin liquid rather than the chunky suspension of version one.

Take two: where did my marbling go?

As a result, the marbling on this version was barely noticeable. These pictured ones have the most distinct marbling of the lot - many squares were just a uniform brown as the chocolate mix was making puddles instead of lines. The height was better but it still didn't seem as I'd imagined.

Take three involved two changes. First, I abandoned the chocolate sugar water mix and just used melted chocolate. Second, I used only two eggs, as modern eggs are generally larger. I added an extra half a tablespoon of milk to help compensate but I was being urged to by my toddler assistant and it could have coped without it.

Take three: so close!

I'm finally happy with the main bar height and consistency but I'm not sure the straight chocolate was great for marbling - it looks amazing on the surface but didn't go into the main body of the bars at all.

So if I made this again, I'd stick with only two eggs, and the two pans.  I might go back to the first take on the chocolate mix, but use half the amount of chocolate and a quarter of the sugar and water.  If I do though it will be in a while - all these experiments have made my household a bit tired of them. When offered a piece, my toddler announced "not that cookie". Oops. Perhaps I have been a bit obsessed.

I wouldn't marry these cookies

As one stage of the KonMari-inspired tidying I've been dealing with papers. A huge chunk of research papers from my thesis have now been discarded, but in the process I decided to try out some recipes from advertisements I'd kept.

First were some oat biscuits from a 1923 Uncle Toby's advertisement. Tasty and didn't last long enough for me to think to take a photograph!

Then I turned to one of my favourite ads.

Condensed milk advertisement, True Story Magazine, Feb 1929

 I've always had a soft spot for the way advertisements use romantic narratives, these young women beset by problems to which the products had solutions, and food advertisements did this cliche better than most.

The coconut macaroons with which Julie attempts to ensnare Paul and convince him that she is not a frivolous young woman are fairly simple so I decided to try them. For those who have trouble reading the recipe in the above image, you mix 1/4 cup of condensed milk with 1 cup of shredded coconut, add 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla, then fold in one stiffly beaten egg white.  Drop by teaspoon onto a buttered tray, bake for ten minutes in a moderate oven, and according to the story, serve warm with hot chocolate to friends.

These were pretty bad actually. I think the problem is modern eggs tend to bigger, so the egg white to rest of ingredients ratio was out, but they were insipid. I think she can be assured Paul was going to marry her anyway, as these are not proposal-worthy.

Also, without the rest of the recipes in this cookbook, I still have most of a tin of condensed milk with which to find something else to do. Any suggestions?