On My Retro Radar...

Designers Revisit Depression Era Chic
By Sarah-Louise Boyd and Joanne Bennett

As summer reaches its peak and the mercury hits new highs, those with an eye for fashion are already looking toward the cooler weather to come, questioning whether plaids or ruffles should influence their autumn style. Where do they look? Why, to bible of fashion, of course: Vogue.

Hailed an essential by fashionistas everywhere, Vogue is the guidebook for trends past, present and future. Designers know this, too, and often study the pages of previous eras to inspire their new creations. Remember the introduction of skinny jeans? That was “so 1980s”. The blast of block colors and A-line dresses in stores this past spring? It was “so 1960s”. Fashion is cyclical, darling, and for the upcoming fall/winter lines, the 1930s are what’s en vogue.

Contrary to popular belief, the Depression Era was far from depressing. In fact, this was an historic time when it came to fashion trends. During the Roaring Twenties, women had shed their constrictive corsets and hobble-skirts for more liberated looks. They opted for practicality over opulence, favoring the straight shift cut of flapper dresses and Coco Chanel’s comparatively casual style. But the looks were purposefully boyish and minimized the impact of women’s feminine wiles. During the Thirties, fashion moved back from the practical, shapeless cuts of the 1920s to ladylike outfits that emphasized the female form while still focusing on simpler designs that offered freedom of movement.

The Fall 2008 ready-to-wear line from John Galliano featured 1930s-inspired bias-cut gowns

While Twenties fashions downplayed busts and hips under column shaped dresses and mannish pants, women of the Thirties clamored to embrace their curves. Hemlines dropped dramatically to reflect the more somber mood of the post-crash economy, and daytime suits and dresses were neatly tailored, featuring wide shoulders and nipped waistlines to create a slender hourglass silhouette. Fabrics like rayon and fine wool crepes draped intriguingly across the thighs and fell into pretty pleats. Evening gowns were cut on the bias to emphasize a woman’s sensuous shape. By day, ladies of the 1930s wore sweet, feminine styles in muted hues, and by night, they favored sheer glamour, with shimmery metallics and shiny silks.

Fall fashions from Baby Phat hearken back to the glamour of the Depression Era

Many of today’s top designers are finding inspiration in the fluid forms of the 1930s for their 2008 collections. Spring and summer saw the resurgence of the light chiffons and subdued floral prints popular during the Depression era, a trend reflected on the big screen in the feature film Atonement. For fall, expect to see more true feminine glamour, with flowing fabrics, tiers of ruffles, and luxurious ropes of pearls in the ready-to-wear lines of names like John Galliano and Baby Phat.

To keep things modern, the romantic, girly looks may be a bit edgier for fall. Art Deco-inspired accessories, such as rhinestone jewelry and intricate lace handbags, also will be all the rage. So, keep your eye out for these 1930s styles, whether vintage or new, as the fashion industry makes new strides along the catwalk of history.

The Neiman Marcus Fall 2008 accessories preview featured 1930s-inspired designs (Fashion Wire Daily/Renata Espinosa) Click to view full-size image

Maybe we need this.

A hilarious video about "the olden days" by Louis CK at Barefoot Meg...

Messy vs. Toxic

"Lucille Ball and other Hollywood beauties dyed their hair with pure henna when they could get it. Henna was exported from Egypt to the US, and not grown in the western hemisphere (except for a few places in the Caribbean, where it was cultivated by immigrant labor from India.) The henna supply in the USA was scarce and unreliable, and gradually fell into disuse."

—Excerpted from "Henna for Hair," a most interesting (free) e-book that separates henna myths from facts. (Like, it IS safe to color chemically over pure henna!)

Ingredients you'll find in your drugstore hair color: sulfates, parabens, pthalates, petrochemical solvents... these chemicals pollute where they are made, are tested on animals, irritate our eyes, skin, and lungs, and wash down the drains. And the plastic bottles aren't usually recyclable.

Henna's messy; it smells and feels like mud (but you can mix it with cloves or coffee or other fragrant things). But it's actually GOOD for your hair!

Depression-Era Beauties

<< This gorgeous watercolor starlet by Meaghan Olinski...Check out more of them here...
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from style.com:

There's nothing sexy about bread lines. And yet, thanks to a bevy of glam 1930's starlets, the Great Depression decade was more than just soup kitchens, the Dust Bowl, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers (oh wait, that came later). Yes, hemlines dropped like the Dow, but calf-covering skirts couldn't conceal the appeal of babes like Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Myrna Loy, and Jean Harlow—just ask Clark Gable; he married Lombard and starred with the rest.

see more photos (on style.com)

The era's sinuous siren gowns were as much a result of practical constraints as they were of a nationwide mood change. Fabric was in short supply, meaning not only that tighter silhouettes came in, but also that designers cut corners in the lining department. What's more—and maybe this is where Lindsay and Britney got the idea—women sometimes skipped underwear. Take Josephine Baker, who often played up her feminine form in nothing at all. Ernest Hemingway dubbed her "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw," and he saw a lot of her. Nudity aside, present-day designers can take comfort in knowing that fashion as escapism meant a booming business for their Depression-era counterparts. As for present-day women who might be looking for doldrums departure routes, they can take a page out of their predecessors' book and play up their natural assets. As Claudette Colbert put it in The Palm Beach Story, "You have no idea what a long-legged gal can do without doing anything."

—Alison Baenen

can't get enough depression-era glamour? Here's a great price on a great book!

A Depression Glass Primer

Depression glass left to right: yellow ”Sharon” pattern, cup & saucer by Federal Glass 1935-39; pink “Floral” pitcher by Jeannette Glass, 1931-35; green “Royal Lace” sugar by Hazel Atlas Glass, 1934-1941.

-- from Antique Quarterly; read this great article by Holly Regan

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Depression glass is clear or colored translucent glassware that was distributed free, or at low cost, in the United States around the time of the Great Depression. The Quaker Oats Company, and other food manufacturers and distributors, put a piece of glassware in boxes of food, as an incentive to purchase. Movie theaters and businesses would hand out a piece simply for coming in the door.

Most of this glassware was made in the central and mid-west United States, where access to raw materials and power made manufacturing inexpensive in the first half of the twentieth century. More than twenty manufacturers made more than 100 patterns, and entire dinner sets were made in some patterns. Common colors are clear, or crystal; pink, pale blue, green, and amber. Less common colors include yellow, jadeite (opaque pale green), delphite (opaque pale blue), cobalt blue, red, black, and white (milk glass).

Although of marginal quality, Depression glass has been highly collectible since the 1960s. Due to its popularity as a collectible, Depression glass is becoming more scarce on the open market. Scarce pieces may sell for several hundred dollars. Some manufacturers continued to make popular patterns after World War II, or introduced similar patterns, which are also collectible. Popular and expensive patterns and pieces have been reproduced, and reproductions are still being made.

Elegant glass

A second category of Depression glass, of much better quality, and sometimes referred to as Elegant glass, was distributed through jewellery and department stores. From the 1920s through the 1950s, it was an alternative to fine china. Most of the Elegant glassware manufacturers had closed by the end of the 1950s, and cheap glassware and imported china replaced Elegant glass.

Vintage Car Conversions

Neil Young is raising awareness of alternative fuels with his converted 1959 Lincoln. His new company, Lincvolt, is developing propulsion systems for BIG CARS that outperforms hybrids.

He's building a community of drivers - if you want to "transform your (vintage) car into a lean, green driving machine," you can upload your photo here. Read/watch more about his history-making road trip here.

Do-it-yourselfers can download plans for converting any car to electric here. And here is a cheaper and easier hack that creates a mini-hydrogen booster for any engine using plain tap water. (Yes, really).

Is anyone in our community driving retro-electric yet?

Depression-Era Movies

10 Tips for the Unemployed from 1930s Movies

By Christopher Campbell