1920s to 1950s Fashion Blog

The 1920s to 1950s Fashion blog is here to keep you up to date with new developments on the site, to inform you about 1920s to 1950s fashion news and events, and to offer the sorts of tips and hints that only experience can teach you.

Aug 1, 2008, Cycling and Vintage Girdles

Armgard Freytag solves her vintage girdles and bicycle riding problem by making a little adjustment to her bicycle.

Jul 11, 2008, The Liberation of Holland; The Third Letter from Mariet (II)

The Liberation of Holland is often told about from the outside. But here is a glimpse of how it affected civilians.

Jul 11, 2008, E-Zines are Back in Style

Back in Style is the monthly e-zine for lovers of Vintage Living. Subscribe free and get a Thank you bonus today.

Jul 8, 2008, Miss Yu Responds

Dear Miss Bankhead,

The answer to your question is easy. With one exception: do not dunk.

The cookie will upset the delicate balance of your tea. Sugar in the cookie may over-sweeten it; crumbs may add the taste of flour.

At the very least you will end up with a soggy cookie and bits floating in your teacup, which is not very elegant.

The taste of the tea stands alone, as does the taste of the cookie.

There is one exception to this rule: the biscotti. Biscotti were invented specifically to be dunked. That is why they are so dry. You may get a few free-floating crumbs, but the biscotti will hold together.

So if you enjoy dunking, feel free to dunk a biscotti in coffee, in tea, or even in wine--they were originally created to be dunked in wine!

Happy drinking! (Not dunking!)

~ Carmella Yu

Jul 7, 2008, 1950s Fashion: An Overview

1950s fashion is, in one word, LUXURY! Here's the low-down on luxury, 1950s style.

Jul 7, 2008, Not to Dunk

Dear Miss Bankhead,

The fact itself that you are wondering whether it is allowed to dunk you cookie into your coffee implies that there is something about dunking that does not feel quite right. Your natural sensitivity to etiquette is telling you something.

You only ask the question in the hope that I will tell you that it is allowed after all, even though you already know that it is not.

I personally find dunking disgusting. I don't want my cookie spoiled by making it soggy and I don't like watching other people making their cookies soggy.

Imagine someone inviting you over for tea having baked cookies for the occasion. She made a pot of especially nice tea and baked you especially nice cookies, she serves the tea in her best china and the first thing you do is dunk that lovely cookie into that lovely tea.

The cookie will lose its intended flavour and the tea will be spoiled with disgusting soggy crumbs.

It does not matter much which kind of cookie you dunk, all cookies look disgusting when they are wet and all cookies will leave crumbs in your drink.

Dunking cookies is something people without teeth to chew their cookies do. If you have teeth to chew there really is no need to make your cookie wet.

If you insist on continuing to dunk your cookies use the following guidelines:

• If you drink tea or coffee from a mug, dunk away.
• If you drink from china cups, don't.

If your hostess serves you drinks in a mug I don't think she will mind your dunking.

When in doubt, don't.

~ Cressida B. Bell

Jul 7, 2008, Coffee and Cookies: To dunk or not to dunk?

One makes certain choices in one's life. Some choices are more momentous than others. But when one faces a dilemma, where can a girl find proper advice?

I wonder whether anyone at this site can advise me.

I live mostly in the 1950s style. (Although much of my home is decorated in the 1930s style - just because I like it and because I can.)

My clothes tend to be in the 50s style and I try to follow 1950s etiquette rules when I can.

Now, yesterday I was reading Miss Carmella Yu's page about tea party favors and she suggests you should give (among other things) tea or cookies.

Now that is all well and good but it started me thinking - when you sit down with a cup of something hot and a pretty porcelain plate covered with prettily arranged cookies, is it acceptable to combine the two in the cup?

That is to say, may I dunk my cookies in my coffee? What if it were tea? Or Hot Chocolate? What about different types of cookies?

Can any of your experts help me? I am sitting poised with a cookie on the very rim of my cup awaiting the order to dunk. Or the crushing disappointment of having to resist the temptation.

Thank you for your guidance,

Miss Tracey Bankhead

Jul 6, 2008, Tea Party Favor Ideas

Tea Party Favor Ideas What do you give your tea party guests to take home with them? This page will help get those brain cells working!

Jul 6, 2008, Classic Victory Rolls

Love victory rolls but don’t know how to create them? This simple cheat sheet will have you styling your own classic 1940s hairstyle in minutes!

Jul 5, 2008, Stockings and Airport Security

Trouble with Stockings and Airport Security! What's a girl to do?

Jun 30, 2008, Facts About Tea

All those facts about tea you have wondered about but had nobody to ask are here of you.

Jun 29, 2008, Iced Tea

Iced tea or hot tea? That is the question. Sometimes the summer swelter is simply too extreme for a nice, hot cup of tea. What is the tea enthusiast to do? Well, if you must, put it on ice!

Jun 29, 2008, Darjeeling Tea

Darjeeling Tea: What makes a black tea a Darjeeling? Every tea connoisseur needs to know about the Champagne of Teas.

Jun 26, 2008, Ruth Etting: Poetry and Passion in 1920s Music

Ruth Etting was one of the truly great performers of 1920s music. We tell her story.

Jun 26, 2008, An Asparagus Recipe to Inspire Any Cook

For an asparagus recipe with a highly elegant twist, try Asparagus Tips au Gratin.

Jun 25, 2008, Finger Waves and How to Do Them

Finger Waves: this handy cheat sheet will help you style your vintage hair with ease!

Jun 25, 2008, British Tea

What really counts as British tea, anyway? This page explains it all!

Jun 24, 2008, Matcha Green Tea

Matcha green tea: What is it and what makes it so special? Read here to find out.

Jun 24, 2008, What is Yellow Leaf Tea Anyway?

What is Yellow leaf tea? Why is it so hard to find? Why is it so expensive? Miss Carmella Yu answers these questions and more.

Jun 24, 2008, Operation Market Garden - A Civilian Eyewitness Account

Operation Market Garden had an enormous impact on the lives of Dutch civilians. Here is an eyewitness account of that impact.

Jun 24, 2008, Fashion of the 1930s

The fashion of the 1930s can be summed up in one word: femininity. This page offers a brief overview of the trends during the decade.

Jun 24, 2008, World War 2 Letters

These World War 2 letters were recently discovered hidden in the back of a photograph album in Holland. They relate to living through Operation Market Garden.

Jun 24, 2008, World War Two Letters

The second of my World War Two letters. This one is written two months after Operation Market Garden.

Jun 20, 2008, My Favourite 1930s Style Skirt

A 1920s to 1950s fashion addict has to know where to shop for her vintage outfits.

I happen to adore 1930s skirts. They have the perfect length for my legs. Long enough to hide the knees, short enough to show off my perfect stockings. They are modest and business-like.

I have one favourite 1930s skirt. I spotted it when I was shopping at H&M. They have a ‘classic’ line these days and come up with some perfect vintage cut clothing.

So there it was - MY 1930s skirt. It was light grey with a high waist and a little split in the back.

I fell in love.

There was only one problem. All sizes were available except mine. It had sold out!! When I asked about it the shop pette told me to come back later in the week because they might have restocked by that time.

All week I sat behind my desk, dreaming of my perfect 1930s skirt. I wrote my friends messages telling them about my skirt and about how sad I was they didn’t have my size. But then the day came…the day to go back to the shop and inquire after my skirt.

They hadn’t received any more skirts but the shop attendant was very kind and called another shop to see if they were holding my skirt hostage. They were not. Oh! How sad I was. I had to write messages to all my friends, telling them the skirt was lost. They lamented with me.

I am not one to give up easily. In a last dramatic attempt to find my skirt I went to the other shop where I was told they did not have my skirt either. I asked the shop pette there. No, was the answer. No skirt.

I was rather annoyed, but finally ready to give up. I just browsed through some black cardigans…and there it was...one lonely skirt...a perfect grey 1930s highwaisted skirt with a split in the back…my size. MY SKIRT.

The goddesses of fashion smile upon the determined shopper.

~Armgard Freytag

Jun 19, 2008, Annette Hanshaw: the Sweetheart of 1920s Music

Annette Hanshaw

Jun 18, 2008, Aiguillette of Striped Bass Recipe (Joinville)

This Aiguillette of Striped Bass Recipe is one of the Waldorf Astoria's best fish recipes ever. They served it to President Coolidge so they like it too!

Jun 18, 2008, Cafe Society

Do you like going to cafes?

I do.

I delight in every sort of cafe. Viennese cafes, parisian cafes, cafes in the depths of rural France or the Deep South of America. Smart cafes and dingy truck-drivers' cafes.

Just call me a cafficionado.

The nice thing about cafes is that they nearly always breathe something of the spirit of 1920s to 1950s fashion - sometimes at its chicest and sometimes in a charmingly down-at-heel manner. Well I find it charming anyway.

I love the chalkboards, the peeling cappuccino advertisements, the bacon sandwiches (they always look so askance when I ask for my bacon sandwiches toasted - all part of the fun).

And you can find them just anywhere - here is a glimpse of the one we popped into this morning.

Well I say I like all cafes. I am sure there are a few I shouldn't like. I once saw a place rejoicing in the name of Hard Rock Cafe, and I must admit I should have to be between a rock and a very hard place before I trotted my three-inch heels into that jernt.

Fortunately few places are that hard and normally one can find someplace with solid style as well as liquid content wherein to tank up on blonde-fuel (as we call cappuccino round these parts).

The pictures here I took just this afternoon on a short break from what we laughingly call the office.

Espresso bars are the place for cool cats and hep chicks to hang out these days. We take no notice of the lament in the recent song:

Once our beer was froffy
But now it's froffy coffee
And fings ain't what they used to be.

Like, squaresville man.

Jun 17, 2008, Grandmother’s Shoes

Everyone who likes 1920s to 1950s fashion, likes shoes. Personally I adore shoes. I have countless pairs and each time I buy a new pair I need to tell everyone I know all about them. I also quite often buy shoes that are not meant for walking in. I call them from-the-desk-to-the-coffee-machine-shoes. I have more pairs of those than of sensible shoes meant for walking in.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

I noticed one day that the elderly women in the village where I come from wear orthopaedic shoes. Almost without exception. I asked my grandmother about this. She told me that in the 1930s and 1940s girls wanted to have pretty small feet. Dutch women are generally very tall. Being tall is not a recent development in this country. Women were tall and had big feet even in the period between 1920 and 1950. But fashion dictated small delicate feet. So the fashion conscious girls in the 1930s and 1940s squeezed their feet into small size shoes. Walking in shoes that are two sizes too small for years on end is not good for feet. So now that all these women have aged their feet need special attention and orthopaedic shoes.

My grandmother was much the same. She told me about her pretty calf leather shoes. Oma saw the shoes in the window of the most expensive shoe shop in town and just had to have them. Unfortunately her own size (or rather, a size smaller than her own size) was sold out. So my shoe loving grandmother disregarded pain in the name of fashion and bought the little calf leather shoes two sizes too small.

My mother still makes fun of those shoes. She tells me Oma used to take them out of the box and wear them to go outside and sweep the sidewalk. And then she’d rush in to take them off as quickly as she could. These were my grandmother’s from-the-desk-to-the-coffee-machine-shoes. Sometimes she would only take them out of the box, put them on and sit on the bed to look at them. Admiring the shoes and ignoring her crushed toes.

That’s my Oma! Ever willing to sacrifice comfort for the sake of fashion.

~Armgard Freytag

Jun 17, 2008, Audience Etiquette

Audience etiquette, and more specifically mobile phone etiquette during concerts. Every 1920s to 1950s fashion conscious girl knows the concert etiquette rule: No mobile phones.

Jun 17, 2008, Concert Etiquette

Concert Etiquette helps with questions like when to applaud and when not to. Every 1920s to 1950s fashion conscious person goes to classical concerts. Here you will find the proper etiquette rules for