Put together a group of ladies (or girls as we like to be known) of around my age and you will find that it takes very little to start us going on the subject of things we used to wear.
I shall start it off with the things that jump to mind and imagine (and indeed hope) that many people can add to the list.
Do you remember?.......
Liberty bodices – I remember wearing one on top of my vest during schooldays; it did not have bones in, but was of a firmer material, stitched as though bones were to be inserted thus making it more fitting than a vest.
Suspenders They used to be attached to the foot of the liberty bodice and were clips with rubber buttons used to hold up stockings, (and were definitely not the sort of suspenders Americans mean, which we call braces.)
Lisle stockings They were rather thick and dark and were definitely NOT nylons (though, when I graduated to wearing nylons, I remember the difficulty in keeping the seams straight!)
Navy knickers with elastic round the legs so you could tuck your handkerchief there.
The swimsuits (or swimming costumes as they were known) which were stitched with shirring elastic in square patterns, so that the garment could stretch to fit a growing child. They also had a tendency, when wet, to drag down from the shoulder straps, exposing the (whisper it) nipples.
Thermogene This purported to be of medicinal value, and if I remember aright was a fabric of a cotton wool texture impregnated with the likes of menthol and cloves. It was alleged to help to fight off colds and was wrapped across the chest under the vest. Its principal therapeutic effect was probably achieved by its adding an extra layer of warm “clothing”. I am not sure when it was removed from the British National Formulary.
Separate from this list is a strong memory of a coat I was given when I was sixteen. It had belonged to a friend of my mother and had the "Utility" label sown in. It was navy, the colour of my school uniform coats, and so I wore it to school. I was rather proud of it, as it had a deep collar which could be turned up. I felt I looked "the bees knees" in it.
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5 comments:
Too much information. Some images the mind balks at...
Add the "pinny" (an overall) worn in nursery school, with rubber buttons that I used to suck; a party "frock" in blue sticky-out stiff lace worn as a youngster.
The "gym costume" at school. (Do they still wear that?) I'll think of more. S
Just catching up on your blog after a few days away. I am always amazed and surprised at how you manage to find so many topics to write about in your "gently entertaining" mannner.
One of my great aunts was a health visitor. She was born at the turn of the century ie 1900ish and rode around the Oxfordshire countryside on a large motorbike. It seems she was a courageous, independent and well respected woman - one of the many who missed the chance of marriage because of WWI. I was too young to get to know her well ... in some ways your blog gives perhaps a small insight into the kind of life she might have led and the kind of person she might have been (although you too are of course a different generation from her).
I forgot about a pinny. I also remember doing gym in the aforesaid navy knickers with a "gym blouse" which had a square neck, instead of the usual blouse with collar and tie.
to elderly woman in training
many thanks for your kind words.
Don't know where the ideas come from, and I must confess that when I started this blog in June I had no idea that it would last more than a week or so.
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