Friday, January 1, 2010

Pictorial Review 1438 - Ladies' Riding Breeches



Mid 1920's.

Given the proximity of the pattern numbers, my guess is that this is a companion piece to Pictorial Review 1435, the Semi-fitted Riding Jacket.  It's also clearly related to Butterick 4147, which is calling itself knickers.

Like the Pictorial Review Riding Jacket, the only layout given is for 54" material.



Part of reading clothing is observing it on the body.  Here's a wonderful photo from Shorpy of a young Louisita Wood in 1913.  Wood's family had money, so I suspect that her riding clothes were custom made for her and that this was considered a good fit.



And here she is seated.



It's not uncommon to find names written on the pattern envelopes.  There are several possible explanations for this.  One is that patterns sometimes had to be special ordered, and the purchaser's names were written on the envelopes by the store clerk when the patterns arrived from the supplier.  Another possibility is that the garment was made up by a dressmaker, and either she or her customer wrote the name on the envelope.

In this case, we have Mrs. Flora Grove, on Winchester Avenue.


4 comments:

Vande Historic Costuming said...

This pattern has sent me off on a flight of fancy about Moving Picture directors from the era (even the name Flora sounds very 'stage name' like)
I just love Shorpy - I can get lost there for hours!

andrea.at.the.blue.door said...

I think I feel a fictional history coming on, of a woman film director of the 1920's named Flora Grove, whose work was unfortunately all lost when the house on Winchester Avenue burned in a suspicious fire...

Vande Historic Costuming said...

...and everyone suspected the butler did it, in the library, with the candelabra....but it still doesn't account for the strange handwriting on the jodhpur pattern....

Elizabeth said...

Many of my original patterns were inherited from relatives - they said they wrote their names on them because they remember their mothers lending out their patterns to other women in town. This was a small midwestern farming town and many patterns were mail ordered.