The women all wore dresses...”
Not only dresses but slips, stockings, full appropriate undergarments including hoops and all those crazy petticoats. We used to starch them with gelatin so there was always one hanging up drying somewhere. And you never wore pj’s without a robe to completely cover them. In the late 1950’s I had at least 10 pairs of wrist length cotton gloves - all white and nary a spot on any of them and we wore them everywhere! The only person who wore denim was my daddy and that was overalls which he wore when doing farmwork. Every pair of shoes had to have a matching purse. You’d think we’d have more money now that there are so many things we no longer wear.
Your recollections are the same I was making a few weeks ago after being dazzled by the hats and ‘Fascinators’ being worn at The Royal Wedding!
Since that wedding, I have seen old movies: Westerns where the ladies are wearing head gear quite like the English fascinators; and 1940’s movies where Lucille Ball, for one, was wearing elegant hats which must have inspired the milliners in London!
We wore hats everywhere - I was recently looking at my high school year book, and we young ladies were wearing our Easter clothes in pictures taken on our Senior trip to Washington, D.C., spring 1955. We flew to D.C. from New York ( we came from a town on Long Island). We were wearing suits, coats, or Toppers, hats, purses, and gloves!
And the boys were very well dressed.
Back then (’50’s), and for years before, the men wore hats everywhere - not baseball caps.
And not too many men had 'sports shirts.' Just white shirts, and ties. We didn't own too many nice (dress) shoes, so having a matching pocketbook (east coast; ‘purse,’ west coast) wasn't extravagant.
And buying new clothing was added to what we had been wearing for numbers of years before, not having to keep up with the latest fashion, making clothes ‘obsolete.’ We needed new clothes because we grew, and others were wearing out.
I can barely remember wearing slacks in the ‘50’s. . . maybe to go bowling.
By the ‘60’s we were married and started having babies. When our daughters were old enough, I can remember buying all 4 girls Sunday School shoes, and school shoes, twice a year! And sandals in the summer. Going to the shoe store included the entire family!
Don't think the girls had sneakers for YEARS - maybe the ‘70’s?
Nowadays, some of my granddaughters under age 12 have so many shoes of every description and style that I'm just blown away! Every 2 months or so - new shoes! Ah,memories of a simplier life! ~ Please Read My Tagline ~ (I've tried over and over to get that 'Tagline' sentence to stand alone, and it just won't happen - frustrating...)
My sister got some of our old family movies converted to DVD (btw, if you haven’t done this, please do!!! It’s not that costly.). In addition to seeing so many of our loved ones in their younger days, who have since passed away, there was this:
White gloves & a hat....on me, at about 4 years old! I almost fell over when I saw this. I don’t know the event, but it appears that it was to see the Christmas parade in downtown Cleveland in the mid 1960’s. The reason I think it was the parade was that the film went seamlessly from us leaving the house and then right to the parade. And most of the females were wearing gloves and hats!
I miss gloves and hats. I’d replace them with the tattoos I have to see females wearing today. meh
“The women all wore dresses...”
Not only dresses but slips, stockings, full appropriate undergarments including hoops and all those crazy petticoats.”
Did your legs freeze in winter? Mine did. Thank heaven for pants, tights, long underwear, woolen knee sox, etc. Oh, and forget those spike heels. Surprising that we didn’t break more ankles.