Listen to episode 165 of The Adelaide Show podcast, which was published October 19, 2016, to find out which story is fake. This week’s pieces covers fashion in Adelaide.
FASHION FRIVOLS
The Critic May June 1923
I saw a very beautiful, wonderful evening wrap the other day, its owner having brought it back with her on her trip home, via America. The background of silk was embossed in cerise and silver geometric designs, interspersed with floral sprays. A skunk collar surmounted one of velvet. This same friend told me that in New. York, skirts are long—very long. ‘Tis a pity that human nature is prone to extremes. Now that they are long, they are insanitarilv long. There is no excuse known to common-sense for a street-sweeping skirt. Let us pray that the Australian’s commonsense will come to the aid of her daughters, and that they will absolutely refuse to have anything to do with those microbe-carrying skirts. Perhaps we will! We never, at any rate, in Adelaide, went in for skirts of such extreme scantiness as those which paraded American streets, when, to add to the startling effect, many of those, even past the perhaps forgivable flapper age, rolled their stockings beneath their knees, and blandly powdered them (as well as their faces!) in public view.
LONG GLOVES
Banished by Dame Fashion
The Journal Feb 1918
The war has entailed a further sacrifice —the decapitation of women’s gloves. The English authorities have decreed that gloves shall not exceed 7 in. in length. An extra inch may be gained through the medium of cloth tops, .but the new edict will probably see the abolition of the shorter sleeve blouse. How far Australia will be affected by the amendment to the long glove vogue, which was so popular during last winter, is problematical; but, so far as Adelaide as concerned, it would seem that there will be little change. The Commonwealth, of course, is not bound by the legal restrictions that obtain in the homeland, but it appears that fashion, has already established the iron law which has been set by England. The innovation so far as concerns Britain has been designed with a view to saving leather, and how successful it should prove is indicated by the fact that the quantity of leather needed for a pair of fashionable long gloves would easily make three pairs of shorter ones. According to one Australian social writer, Long gloves are banned because of the waste of fine leather in covering up a pretty arm. The amusing thing is that what man is trying to do by law, Dame Fashion, by one of her unwritten laws, did at the end of last season. More particularly is it
applicable to South Australia, which, ever behind the sister States, has thrown out the fashion before it really became the vogue.
A NEW CHAPTER IN THE FASHION FABRIC STORY
The Advertiser October 1954
There seems no end to the introduction of new fabrics in the fashion field, not the least interesting aspect being the combination, in many of the newest, of both natural and synthetic – fibres, the result of which, it is claimed, adds to the strength and beauty of the material. Another chapter in the story of fashion fabrics is being presented in Adelaide this week with the arrival of a range of coat models for display to the retail trade for the 1955 autumn and winter season. While the designs are exceedingly attractive and will have an appeal for women of all ages, the important news is in the fabrics themselves. For these are all-purpose, all-weather fabrics, light in weight, proofed for wear in the rain, and with linings of milium, a satin-like material which has been sprayed with aluminium for insulating purposes. It is claimed that- this Insulation keeps the wearer
warm in cold weather and cool in warm weather.