Collegiate Fashion Inspiration

Hi there!  I’m Lauren from Wearing History.  I’m so excited that Casey asked me to be a guest blogger!

One of my constant fashion inspirations has got to be Collegiate fashion, especially from the 1930s!  Not only is collegiate fashion very cute and sporty, but it’s also a great way to start implementing a vintage look into your wardrobe.  A lot of the core pieces are still considered basics today!

(Chicago Mail Order Catalog- Fall/Winter 1939-1940)

When a girl became a “co-ed” a lot of times she traveled from home to college, so of course she had to have a wardrobe plan! I love these wardrobe building guidelines because they can easily be applied to any wardrobe and are a great basis to build up your basics.

The book Designing Women: the Art, Technique, and Cost of Being Beautiful, published 1938,  says the backbone of college wardrobe  is  “…a tweed suit with matching topcoat, luxuriously furred.  Then an extra skirt and the jacket we spoke of, with a profusion of sweaters will take care of your campus needs.  For dates, you’d best be provided with a good black crepe dress, a black satin, a black velvet skirt with a couple of cocktail blouses, and a black velvet dirndl.  You can make your best coat do for fall, winter, and spring, if you get a black cloth one with a detachable cape of, say, Persian.” (page 195)

(Chicago Mail Order Catalog- Fall/Winter 1939-1940)

In Your Best Foot Forward: Social Usage for Young Moderns (from 1940) it says they say The “college uniform” is made up of  “…simple tailored suits or dresses in wool, cotton, silk, or rayon worn with street shoes (which) may alternate to advantage with the skirt-sweater-saddle-oxford combination.” (pg 236).

I think we tend to associate the saddle shoe with the “sock hop” 1950s look.  Poodle skirts and saddle shoes, right?  Well, I was so relieved to find that I could wear flats in the way of saddle shoes and tennis shoes, which lend so well to the 1930s and 1940s collegiate look!  Canvas Keds oxfords are still relatively unchanged, and you can purchase saddle shoes on the cheap (though not of leather) through Payless Shoes.  For visual proof of the saddle shoe craze, check out this image from Life Magazine from 1938.

(Chicago Mail Order Catalog, Fall/Winter 1939-1940)

(National Bella Hess Catalog, Spring/Summer 1936)

The book Designing Women: the Art, Technique, and Cost of Being Beautiful, even gives the future co-ed a built in wardrobe plan and claims that “…all you need are twelve major purchases to give you nine months of fun.  It’s all a question of building your wardrobe around your major investments, sticking to one or two color schemes, buying good mixers and mixing them with care.” (pg 196)

Here’s the breakdown given in the book by month- I have added notes to let you know which were indicated for evening or date wear.  When you see a new item pop up in the list that wasn’t mentioned previously it would indicate a new purchase so that you could budget your wardrobe for the year.  The type of dress or evening wear would vary depending on the time of year, which is why you see “tie silk” (you could substitute rayon) or chiffons, vs velvets or tweeds.

September

• Gold and brown tie-silk suit with or without odd brown tweed jacket.
• Beige wool dress with or without jacket
• Black satin dress with or without Persian cape. (evening)

October

• Green tweed suit
• Brown tweed jacket and beige wool skirt
• Black crepe dress with Persian cape (evening)
• Black satin dress with Persian cape (evening)

November

• Green tweed topcoat with blonde fur, over beige wool dress
• Green tweed topcoat with blonde fur, over beige skirt and sweater
• Black cloth coat over black crepe dress (evening)
• Black cloth coat over black satin dress (evening)

December

• Green tweed suit under green topcoat with blonde fur
• Brown tweed jacket and beige skirt under green topcoat with blonde fur
• Black cloth coat and fur cape over black velvet skirt, white quilted satin blouse (evening)
• Black cloth coat and fur cape over black velvet dirndl (evening)

January

• Green tweed suit under brown fur coat
• Brown tweed jacket, beige skirt under brown fur coat
• Black velvet dirndl under black coat with Persian cape (evening)
• Black velvet skirt, white quilted satin blouse under same (evening)
• (You might add a lame blouse here for variety) (evening)

February
Like January

March
Like December

April

• Tweeds as in November
• Black satin with cloth coat (evening)
• Printed taffeta with cloth cape (evening)

May

• Tweeds as in October
• Black satin with Persian cape (evening)
• Printed taffeta with Persian cape (evening)

June

• Tie-silk suit
• Printed taffeta (evening)
• Shirred chiffon (evening)

(Some college worthy coats: National Bella Hess Catalog, Fall/Winter 1936-1937)

In the late 30s especially it seemed the entire nation seemed to catch “College Fever”, and campus-worthy clothes were mimicked for younger girls and even infiltrated post-college fashion.  Gals got used to the freedom in separates and what was often seen beforehand as “country clothes” were now worn just about everywhere- and continue as such today.

College fads crept into popular culture including music and dance (the swing craze was certainly a favorite of college kids who wildly would dance “collegiate”).  There’s scores of college themed films, especially from the mid 30s on, and in the late 30s we see lots of musicals that combined swing music and cute young co-eds to make fun and fluffy movies, often times with famous band leaders in roles.

If you want to see college fashion in motion (and who doesn’t!) check out two of my favorite college musicals- College Swing (1938) with Bette Grable, Bob Hope, and others, and Varsity Show (1937), a Busby Berkeley musical with Priscilla Lane and Dick Powell.

For even more inspiration images, check out these images from Life Magazine from 1938 taken of college fashion and on college campuses!

(Some dresses you might see on campus: Chicago Mail Order Catalog: Spring/Summer 1939)

Book Sources:

Your Best Foot Forward
Social Usage for Young Moderns
Dotothy C Stratton  and   Helen B Schleman
1940

Designing Women- The Art, Technique, and Cost of Being Beautiful
By Margaretta Byers with Consuelo Kamholz
1938

Thanks so much again for having me! It’s been fun to share some of my favorite fashion inspiration with you

March 24, 2011 · 24 lovely thoughts
posted in misc ·