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<\/a><\/p>\nThis past few years have been tough for the old women in my family.\u00a0 Three women, my grandmother, my great aunt and my ex-mother-in-law, all in their late 90s, finally passed on.\u00a0 So I’ve spent parts of this last couple years sorting through their clothes and pictures and other belongings.\u00a0 And finding out a lot more about these women at their youngest, prettiest and most fashionable.\u00a0 What do these things express about these women?\u00a0 Hope?\u00a0 A sense of their own desirability?\u00a0 Social status?\u00a0 Pleasure?\u00a0 Love?\u00a0 Financial independence?\u00a0 The kinds of activities they enjoyed?<\/p>\n
My Great Aunt Emilie (second from the left in the pic above) was first generation American, born to a father and mother (fourth and fifth from the left in the pic above) who’d moved from Poland in about 1909.\u00a0 Never married, she lived in the same home in Philadelphia for 56 years.\u00a0 When we cleaned it out (a very sad task), we found many many shoes, golf clothes (she was an avid golfer well into her 80s), Christmas cards from 30 years, slips, gloves and beautiful, splendid hats!\u00a0 And many many boxes of good jewelry, including dinner rings, dressy pins, and strings of pearls.\u00a0 To me these tell a story of a stubborn woman who lived an unconventional life (she never married) who took good care of herself (she golfed weekly, owned her own home, and left comfortable allowances to charities in her will), but allowed herself many pleasures due to her financial independence.<\/p>\n
These hats were all still carefully wrapped in tissue, and kept in their Bergdorf Goodman boxes:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n I was surprised how much our assumptions about the necessities of dress have changed.\u00a0 When was the last time you wore a hat to any occasion? She had all kinds:\u00a0 these two spring floral confections were popular in the early 60s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This lovely black beaded number was custom made by a Philadelphia milliner, and closely resembles one from a late-50s Dior photograph.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This plasticized-straw boater has a tall enough crown that it looks later 60s.\u00a0 With a patent-leather band, it is perfect for summer outings at the golf club, where Emilie was the center of a lively circle of friends.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have you ever worn a slip?\u00a0 Or gloves?\u00a0 Aunt Emilie had many of all of these, never thrown away.\u00a0 The white gloves are very proper, but each has an embroidered or cutwork detail.\u00a0 The two outside pairs are knit, but the center glove is fine kid leather.\u00a0 And howabout the sauciness of the yellow pair?<\/p>\n I especially love that she had this hot pink lacy slip.\u00a0 I doubt anyone else ever saw it, but that’s the point, isn’t it.\u00a0 My very proper maiden great aunt wore these pretty things to please herself.<\/p>\n In a letter we found, toasting her at her retirement dinner, both her determination, her signature items of jewelry,\u00a0 and her fondness for travel were each mentioned gleefully.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last June I spent time going through the wardrobe of my former mother-in-law, Rena Mae.\u00a0 Daughter of an Arkansas circuit minister, she married a dashing Army pilot who was stationed in her town during World War II.\u00a0 Richard brought her back to his hometown of New York, and they lived comfortably in a large home in Melba, Queens.\u00a0 They had two children.\u00a0 Rena Mae was a school teacher for many years, but she also had the luxury of funds offered by a husband with some financial skills.\u00a0 Amongst the many ladylike daywear pieces were a few delicate\u00a0 evening and cocktail dresses from days gone by.\u00a0 She also had dresses from nearly every decade in summery ginghams and eyelets.<\/p>\n And these:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rena Mae also had a few skirts similar to this Vogue Pattern from 1975 (we have the Pattern Catalogs at the PERS desk).\u00a0 She may even have made one from this pattern or one like it.\u00a0 Every woman I knew in the 1970s sewed, and my mother made most of their own clothes and a lot of mine and my brother’s.\u00a0 I know my mom made a skirt like this.\u00a0 I wore it when I was in high school.<\/p>\n Looking through these clothes brought back memories of summer vacations when I was a kid.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My grandmother Georgia was also a southern lady.\u00a0 She grew up in the old south, on a large cotton farm in Wisner, Lousiana.\u00a0\u00a0 She remembered traveling by horse-and-buggies.\u00a0 Once she graduated from the University of New Mexico, she and a friend moved to Chicago on a lark.\u00a0 There she taught public school and eventually married my grandfather, Dan, a handsome, witty Irish-American who worked for the water department.\u00a0 Together they raised two families: they had two sons, Danny and Neil.\u00a0 She also inherited Dan’s part-time family from his first marriage, my father and my aunt, handling the brood with grace and patience at a time when divorce was still scandalous.\u00a0\u00a0 They traveled cross country several times a year in order to keep in touch with family members in California, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, and Montana.\u00a0 She embroidered and quilted, giving each grandchild a quilt she’d made.\u00a0 As email became popular, she became an avid user in order to stay close to her far-flung family.\u00a0 She was 99.<\/p>\n Clothing seems to be firmly attached to the idea of memories, especially for women.\u00a0 The library has a number of books that use clothing as a framework for memoirs.<\/p>\n A Lady of Fashion: Barbara Johnson’s album of styles and fabrics<\/em><\/a>, edited by Naomi Tarrant.\u00a0 5th Floor Main\u00a0 GT736 .L25.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fabric of society :\u00a0a century of people and their clothes, 1770-1870<\/a> : essays inspired by the collections at Platt Hall, the Gallery of English Costume, Manchester<\/em>, by Jane Tozer and Sarah Levitt.\u00a0 5th Floor Main\u00a0 GT736 .T69<\/strong> Shocked: My Mother, Schiapiarelli, and Me<\/em><\/a>, by Patricia Volk.\u00a0 5th Floor Main\u00a0 TT505 .S3 V65<\/strong><\/p>\n Beaton: The Art of the Scrapbook<\/em><\/a>, by Cecil Beaton, introduced by James Danziger.\u00a0 5th Floor Main, TR 140 .B4 A255<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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