Tuesday's This and That: May 16. 2022

 

Happy Tuesday!

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

I've lamented about quilts being cut up for apparel and crafts but interestingly enough, the idea of wearing patchwork is older than most of us had thought (take that designers of the 70s and present who think this is a cutting edge design).  The difference is that the patchwork apparel of yesteryear was not made of an intact quilt.  

Fashion Corner:  August, 1915: London England

"The Patchwork Skirt: Fashion's latest Freak in Colour Effects

Patchwork quilts are things of the past, but the patchwork skirt is the very last word in wearing apparel.

It comes from the States, where a pretty society debutante wore it recently at Newport, with a success so instantaneous that patchwork skirts are now the rule rather than the expception in that smart city by the sea, where rich Americans pass the summer.

But the patchwork skirt must be very carefully fashioned.  It can be a kaleidoscopic hues as the coat that Joseph possessed, but it must be cut according to the latest dictates of Madame La Mode.

You may remember that the more pieces were in the patchwork bedspread the better the handiwork was considered, and the pieces could be all sizes and shapes, round, oblong, square, heart-shaped, and oval.  The art came in fitting them together and blending the colours into a harmonious whole.

In the patchwork skirt, the pieces are sometimes larger, but they are various in shape, but they are various in shape, and are matched and blended with the same artistic care and placed on a lining cut in the prevailing fashion and fitted to the wearer.  The bodice is of crepe de Chine or chiffon in one shade or sometimes the patchwork skirt is worn with a little silk coatee of black or of a colour which predominates the pieces that compose the skirt..."

New-York Tribune, August 1915:

"Miss Violet King wearing the Patchwork skirt which is the newest sensation in clothes.  The "beef stew skirt" is one of its titles.

The Sun, (NY newspaper), August 1915:

Violet King (daughter of Congressman George Gordon King) may have been the originator of the fad because she is pictured here again (left).  Note the little harlequins on the skirt.  Actually studying the photos, I realized that this is the same skirt in both photos.

I don't much about Violet King but I believe she taught sewing at the Rhode Island Normal School.  

Wishing you a safe and happy day!