Teen Age Fashion
Prior to Pearl Harbor
War in the European theater began to influence fashion. Notice the trend of the fashion advice that was provided to high school girls in these excerpts from The Breeze, the newspaper of Western High School in Washington, D.C.
October 27, 1939:
WINTER FASHION ADVICE
Rip off the white bunny fur from your black velvet evening coat or cape and give it to your young cousin to make doll clothes. Add a band of soft colored peasant embroidery around the edge of the hood. Get Tyrolean ribbon from any good ribbon counter such as Garfinkle’s. Try Woodward and Lothrop for some adorable red velveteen Tyrolean ear muffs. They are on the fourth floor.
Do–overs. Get the old buttons off your sued jacket and put on brass buttons.
Shop for new monotone tweed reversible jackets and khaki green gabardine rain coats.
December 15, 1939
MODERN MODES
Eggnog and fruitcake is not good for the skin
Don’t be seen around in your bathroom with only three fingernails polished; people drop by at Christmas time.
Buy long white gloves for the Cadet Ball over the holidays.
Buy a strand of a rope of pearls and a fluffy sweater.
January 12, 1940
MODERN MODES
What gives you the impression that someone is well dressed?
Is it that she spends a lot of money on her clothes?
Her nails are nicely manicured and short.
She wears light shades of polish go with her pastel sweaters and don’t scream at her teachers.
Her hair is clean and brushed and pinned up rather than hanging down uncurled
She lightly powders her nose and only uses a little lipstick. You don’t want to have a painted mouth that looks hard.
February 26, 1940
MODERN MODES
For pity’s sake get practical shoes. If you choose pumps, get them with medium heels and do avoid elaborate sandals. They have a way of getting loose and uncomfortable and they take out all the dash of a sports dress.
I really think that a pair of spectator pumps is ideal to supplement everyday saddle shoes.
May 14, 1940
MODERN MODES
Spring: bathing suits are different from the plain woolen ones we have worn for so many years. They have polka dots and flared skirts which are made of latex or rubber. Providing the wearer has tiny waist and reasonable hips, she will look darling in one of the ballerina suits which are made like a long waisted dirndl dress cut short.
There have been some revolutionary play dresses, incidentally. In the first place they’re short–above the knees in fact–and many have jumper affairs with printed blouses and denim skirts.
In the way of school dresses, there are tons of them. Naturally, there are all shapes and sizes, but the simple, flared skirted, buttoned up the front ones remain my favorite.
November 25, 1940
MODERN MODES
Cadet Hop:
Dream dresses: tulle, yards and yards of it, white or gold, pink or blue, sequin encrusted bodice, which as your date claims, brings out the stars in your eyes and the gold in your hair.
Perhaps your dream dress is pink chiffon, laced in black velvet, giving you that will o the wispy look or of gold net, encircled by bands and bands of gold kid.
Yes, dream dresses are miraculous things.
March 28, 1941
MODERN MODES
National defense has influenced fashion greatly this spring. Clothes have gone tres militaire and the predominating colors are red, white and blue.
Dresses are deeply influenced by this trend with the popular, but absent for a while, middie-collared sailor coming back into full swing. Lots of silk prints are being shown for spring but they have retained their feminity and are soft and full.
Attempts have been made to introduce military styles into evening dresses, and although they make snappy looking outfits, they aren’t quite what we are looking for in evening gowns.
September 22, 1941
FALL FASHIONS
Corduroy jackets are tailored this year, long, short and middle-sized, but mostly long, and very mannishly tailored.
The school girl’s dream, the best thing in years, is the flannel blazer, and it comes in all sorts of luscious shades, bound in contrasting colors. They are practical, smart and more important, very comfortable,
Skirts are tailored, with lots of box pleats. Others are gently flared from the hem line to the hem.
Cardigans have taken a back seat to long-sleeve pullovers, and these pullovers come in every conceivable color and wool. They are thick Shetlands, cashmeres, and zephyrs. Girls have been knitting some of their own sweaters. Accent is on convertible collars, tattersall checks, and baby flannel. Blouses are again seen with colorful jerkins. A new version of the jerkin is the weskit, which is just slightly longer, and is usually of the same goods as the skirt with which it is worn. As a matter of fact, the weskit serves the same purpose as a man’s vest that is under coat and over blouse.
October 29, 1941
MODERN MODES
Skirt and sweater and pearls continue to predominate the school girl fashion world.
But not so the pearl necklace.
Young America has at last given up the ghost on its string of pearls. They used to be a habit on everyone, but now you couldn’t count on your ten fingers and all your toes the other types of sweater ornaments that are very popular
Long, very long necklaces have replaced the pearls. They can be worn plainly or double looped. Two at a time. Come in all sizes. Beads made of amber, jet and crystal. Like world war I–open up your mother’s jewelry box and find out what she has to raid.
Dried macaroni strung on a ribbon with beads. Downtown we saw a pretty necklace which was made of bits of coral strung together in small, thin strands.
NOTE:
From December 1941 throughout the war, there is no more beauty or fashion advice. The school paper was devoted to news, information to the students and their families about Civil Defense, sugar and other rationing programs, metal, rubber, book war bond, and other drives, stories of alumnae who were soldiers, and other matters of national interest.
By 1943, Western High School records noted: “With the progress of the war, The Breeze has come to think of itself as one of the major war activities of the school. Unless the paper can function in this capacity, there is no excuse for using in wartime the materials, time and energy that go into the making of a school newspaper.”
