Risque Cards From The 1940s

I went to my grandmother's today. She's 81. I asked her if she wore jeans in the 40s. She said "Yes! I wore my brother's!" Then I asked her if she wore his shirts. She said "Yes, I used to wear his clothes all the time!" Just a bit of FYI from someone who was a teenage girl then ;)

She also busted out the photos and memoirs. She gave me a bunch of old postcards, mostly dated 1907 to 1913. Also, an autograph book from 1883, a map of NJ from 1929, and I took an assortment of 1920s family photos. If you're on my FB, you'll be seeing these in the next week. :)

She also gave me these risque cards from the 1940s! I have no idea whose they were or why she had them, but she was sitting there HOWLING while she was looking at them. She said "This was dirty back then!" Lol. I scanned them for your enjoyment.

T-shirts & Jeans On Women

 After looking at every single Sears catalog from 1896 to 1950 (currently!) I have found some very interesting things concerning t-shirts as outerwear for women. Just look:


The earlist examples of t-shirt type tops appeared in the Sears catalog in 1944. Though these are actully "polo shirts", they still resemble the modern day t-shirt and that can't be denied.


1944. The woman on the left wears a t-shirt with slacks!


1944. T-shirts worn with playsuits!


1945. You can't even tell me this isn't a woman-cut t-shirt! lol!


The t-shirt still going strong in 1947!


There was a trend in the 1940s of girls wearing their father's or brother's clothes. They would usually pair jeans with an oversided dress shirt and then a flannel coat over that -- setting the groundwork for the 90s "grunge" look! :) Check out these girls in jeans and various oversized men's clothing, all from 1944:






And finally.....


The first printed t-shirts appear in 1948!

So here is photographic evidence that women did indeed wear jeans and t-shirts in the so-called "Golden Era." Some even purposely looked sloppy while doing it! Others look like they could be plucked from the street today. I know that women *didn't* wear these clothes to school or for going out to nice places, but for play and hanging out with their friends these rebellious duds were perfectly acceptable. So much so that Sears catalogs even cashed in on the trend!

Clarine Seymour (1898-1920)

There was an actress in the late 1910s named Clarine Seymour and she died in 1920 following an operation. Her cause of death was "strangulation of the intestines." She entered films in 1917 and mostly starred in cheesy shorts with a popular clown of the day (Toto).

It wasn't until DW Griffith took a liking to her in 1919, put her in some of his films, and she began making name for herself. Clarine shines in a few movies she got to make with Griffith. She was Clara Bow....before Clara Bow. Clarine was a 1920s girls before the 1920s ever started.

In 1920, just when she was getting good reviews and her star was begining to rise she went in for an intestinal operation and died on April 25, 1920. I always wonder what would have become of Clarine had she lived. Would she have faded out with Griffith or would she have adjusted to "flapper" roles? We'll never know.


From a 1928 Photoplay "expose" of all the bad luck that had befallen Griffith stars! LOL:




From a 1923 Motion Picture magazine article about all the stars who had since passed away:

1926 Fashions IN COLOUR

I've been too chatty. Back to the pictures!

Vintage Uglies!

If you have been keeping up with me on Fedora, you prolly saw that I have recently been ALL OVER that "Golden Era's Ugliest Clothes" thread. Lol. If not, I bring it to you here.

I don't want any of you lovely dames getting your girdles in a tangle, either! I am the queen of tacky/obnoxious/overly-colourful/ugly so please do not take any of this as a personal insult. As I always say, it's better to be ugly than mediocre. At least ugly is striking and has character. Mediocre is just BLEH. Enjoy.





Ugly sweaters from 1948. The "musical" sweater gets an "A" for effort, but it is just executed poorly. Too much going on that I don't even know where my eye should go first! The "bucking bronco" sweater is just all wrong and the squirrel sweater is ugly because I can't stand squirrels!



Ugly shoes from 1939. Just the square-toed ones. *cringe* Anything that makes my feet look like duck paddles are bad news. I also don't like the "manliness" of them. Give me overly-girlie, please!



Ugly dress from 1935. The one in the middle. Those sleeves remind me of worms. If you know me, you know that I am deathly terrified of worms/caterpillars. I'm also not digging the neckline and everything that's going on there. This dress reminds me of Scarlett's curtain dress for some reason, but Carol Burnett's version. Lol.



Ugly dresses from 1949. Just about all of them :/ Especially the pink on bottom with the pilgrim shoulders. Blech. 1948-49 seemed to have the ugliest fashions, in my opinion. If you came walking into the room wearing the pilgrim chic I would stare at you. Lol. ;)



Ugly robe from 1949. Just the one with the serenader on it. So incredibly ugly. I know it was drawn over to enhance the design for the print -- let's just hope it wasn't so ugly in person!



Ugliest blouses ever, from 1946. They really do look like a pillowcase. If I were to wear these I would appear to have fat upper arms and very large boobs. Not the look I want! I have a pattern and will one days make this monstrosity out of scraps to prove my point of it's unflatteringness....





GROSS sweater thing from 1948. If you like someof the other stuff on here, yea, ok, I can understand it. It's not my personal taste, but different strokes, etc. BUT THIS! Is so effing fugly I can't even comprehend it. Lol.



More from 48/49. Lol. I don't know if this is ugly or not, but it's certainly amusing. Lol. I wouldn't wear it. Lol.



Ugly dress from 1945. This reminds me of heavy metal t-shirts in the 80s when they would get old and people would try to make them all fringe-y or Robin Hood-y. Lol. I don't like it. The very fact that it reminds of medieval stuff really puts me off it because medieval is my least favourite historical time period :(

Well, I hope that was painless to you. I know some people get in a wad about this kind of stuff, but like I said, I can understand if someone else might like this stuff (except that fug sweater vest thing), but I just don't see the beauty. Oh well :)