Meet Lois

After my post about the Look of Suits from 1955, Facebook fan Bonnie sent me these pictures and the story of her mom and dad. She has kindly given permission for me to share them with you here.

Lois Marie Cashell and Charles Berkeley Randall were married in November 1957. Lois was working as a hairdresser at Hochschild-Kohn, one of Baltimore's famous department stores at the time.

Because the wedding was small, with only immediate family in attendance for the service at St. James Lutheran Church, Lois chose to wear a suit instead of a wedding gown. She purchased the Glenhaven suit at Hochschild-Kohn, and remembers it was quite expensive, even with her employee discount!

I found this ad for a very similar Glenhaven suit from 1957. Glenhaven suits were of very high quality and made of the best fabrics. Lois's suit was made of Forstmann wool, one of the premier wool mills of the time.

Sadly, Charles passed away just months shy of the couple's 50th wedding anniversary, but their children took Lois out to celebrate the date despite that fact. Amazingly, she was still able to fit into her wedding suit, and wore it along with the original hat, jewelry, and slip that she wore on her wedding day for the celebration. Isn't she beautiful?

Bonnie was kind enough to take some detailed photos of the suit for us.





Not only did the suit last all those years, it still looks stylish today! Thanks for sharing your story and pictures, Bonnie and Lois!

1950 Fashion Silhouette #2 The Tent

Commonly referred to as a swing coat today, the Simplicity Pattern magazine for Fall-Winter 1950 calls this a tent silhouette. During WWII, there were strict restrictions on the amount of fabric that could be used to make garments. This is one of the main reasons for the shorter lengths, slimmer styles, and relatively plain garments of the 1940's war years. After the restrictions were lifted, suddenly designers were using as much fabric as they wanted, which led to this full silhouette.

This coat is a clutch style (no buttons) with a shawl collar, raglan sleeves and deep sleeve cuffs. Full enough to wear over the widest skirt, the fullness starts at the shoulders and continues to flare out to the wide hem. The back of the coat is fuller than the front, which you can see in the back view below.

This coat was made from Simplicity pattern 8217. It is interesting to note that Forstmann wool was available to the home sewer, as well as being used by some of the finest coat manufacturers of the time. The model is wearing a tight fitting helmet or calot hat, cuffed gloves with her wrist watch over the glove, and a Glentex scarf tied a the neck.

Get the look with this swing coat trimmed in Persian lamb from the late 1940's. Available at our website, click the picture to see the listing.