Daughters!
What are we going to do with them?
A 1934 fifteen-year-old thinks she knows everything there is to know about fashion.
Here is what I want my Anne to wear to the Valentine's Day Dance at school...
Don't you love that fuchsia-purple faille taffeta evening frock?
The pale pink sash is so sweet and I know that her father would approve of the ruching around the neckline.
Anne looked as if she were going to cry when she tried it on.
"Mother, you wouldn't!
I look about twelve in it.
Even if a boy asked me to dance if I wore this,
no one would cut in on him, no one."
That dejected look on her face went away when she tried on the one she chose.
At least she had not chosen a black dress but even in pink she immediately assumed such a sophisticated pose and world-weary face.
Where did that hand on the hip stance come from?
Is this my little girl?
Is she really old enough to wear slipper satin?
With that low décolletage?
Will she next think she is old enough to go to nightclubs?
And the most important question of all--
What will her father say?
[Gowns from Vogue magazine, Advance Retail Trade Edition, November 1934]
These are your words? They feel like a Gladys story. Delightful.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nan! I'm so glad you liked it!
ReplyDeleteAren't those dresses just beautiful? *swoon*
ReplyDeleteOh, they are, Melanie! Can you imagine a time like that?
DeleteAnd? What DID he say? You've given us a swatch of a story sewn with style lessons and lined with a mother-daughter exchange that makes us want to experience the entire attire, or cover to cover of complete novel!
ReplyDeletePoppy
P.S. I would have grabbed the fuchsia-purple faille taffeta evening frock, precisely BECAUSE of the ruching around the neckline!
I think her father took one look at his beautiful daughter in that gown and his heart melted. But he looked very sternly at the young man who called for her, corsage in hand. And he gripped his hand extra hard during their handshake, hard enough to impress upon his daughter's suitor that the curfew had better be met and no monkey business about it.
DeleteThen he retreated to his library after donning his smoking jacket and carefully filled his pipe and sat down with a large book on the banking system in America to await the hour of his daughter's return.
His wife brought her needlepoint in and kept him company, looking at the clock every fifteen minutes.
LOVE it!! So much so, that now I'm aching to know if she made her curfew!
ReplyDeleteHave I ever told you that, although I detest cigarette smoke, I love the aroma of the sweet tobacco that puffs out from a pipe?
How cozy and comfortable this couple seems, despite the mother worrying about her precious daughter.
Thanks for curing my curiosity re: the first extract. I guess I'll have to wait for the short story or novel, for the second!
Poppy
I used to love being around pipe smoking men too, Poppy! It seemed so cozy and I loved the smell. Who would have thought it would be as bad for them as cigarettes?
Deletewow, love your stories.
ReplyDeleteSandy, what an encouragement you are!
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