Woman's Three-Piece Ensemble by Hattie Carnegie
This ensemble was donated in May 1979 by Mrs. Thyra Jane Foster (née Meyers, 1898-1984), part of a large gift that includes women’s evening dresses and children’s clothing, most from the first half of the 20th century. Little documentation exists about the individual items in the donation, so it is not clear that Mrs. Foster originally owned and wore the items.
Mrs. Foster was a lifelong, active Quaker, born in Springville, Iowa on March 12, 1898, and raised in Barnesville, Ohio and Westtown, PA. She attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts from 1917 to 1921 where she majored in chemistry and minored in zoology and physiology. On September 5, 1924 she married Henry Cope Foster and they settled in Ohio, worshipping exclusively with his strict Wilburite family. Eventually they moved to Rhode Island and in 1936 formed the forerunner to the New England Yearly Meeting which involved Quakers of varying beliefs. Mrs. Foster’s parents were the last generation to wear plain dress. Mrs. Foster wrote an article on the history of Quaker dress for the Friends Journal, including an account of how she and her sister-in law researched and made plain dress costumes for special programming at Friends meetings.
Only the jacket has a label identifying Hattie Carnegie, Inc. as the retailer, if not also the designer. The label is poorly sewn on, and the stitching does not appear to be original. It may have been sewn back on because it detached, or it may not be original.
This ensemble is a three-piece set, probably designed as better daywear. It consists of a jacket, over-blouse top, and slip-dress. The ensemble is entirely made from gray-green, lightweight silk crepe. The ¾ length, long-sleeved coat is designed to be worn open, with two ties cut-in-one with the proper left collar. The coat is rectangular in silhouette. Most notably, the fabric for the body and sleeves of the coat is shirred all over, which along with other textural treatments in the over-blouse and slip-dress, create contrast in an otherwise plain outfit.
The over-blouse has a v-neckline, and front and back yokes which are cut-in-one with the split cap sleeves and the back neck ties. Slight gathers at the yokes, small vertical tucks at the belt loops, and a slightly snug self-belt provide minimal shaping. The belt closes at the proper left back with a snap and self-fabric covered button.
The over-blouse and slip-dress each have an approximately 2” deep horizontal tuck, set 7 ½” and 8” from their respective hems. Sewn before the side seams, the tucks do not appear to be an alteration despite the fact that they are not completely harmonious with the rest of the design. The bottom of the blouse and dress are trimmed with a 4” long self-fabric ruffle of extremely fine knife pleats. The slip-dress is a slip with a skirt sewn on using a lapped seam. The slip is cut along the weft instead of along the length of the fabric, the warp, and had to be pieced to make it long enough. Patterning revealed significant shaping in the slip, including two godets at the side seams.
The silk crepe fabric has a thread count of 148 stitches per inch in the warp and 110 stitches per inch in the weft. Both machine and hand stitching were used in the construction of the dress. The machine stitching is generally a straight stitch used in the long seams, basting for gathers, and topstitching. Hand stitching was used for the plain hems, for tacking, attaching and altering, and to sew the lines of shirring on the coat. The body of the coat’s lining is stitched by hand. The seams are finished using an inconsistent mix of whipstitches and pinking.
Hattie Carnegie (1886-1956) established “Hattie Carnegie, Inc.” in New York City after World War I, and in 1919 she took her first buying trip to Paris. She continued to make buying trips multiple times per year through the 1930s. She is noted for purchasing Vionnet’s couture to copy. In the 1920s she was primarily selling imports and adaptations, so it is possible this ensemble has French couture origins. Given that Carnegie could not draw, cut, or sew, one must question how much she deserves the title “designer.” A good design is only as good as those who produce it. It seems more plausible that she simply had good taste and business sense, relying on skilled drapers, cutters, and seamstresses to actually execute the adaptations. As Carnegie’s designs were exclusive to her store until the 1930s, it brings into question how Mrs. Foster acquired the dress, as she was likely still living in Ohio when this dress was made and sold.
Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue articles from 1925 to 1928 reveal possible clues to the ensemble’s date and origin. The use of shirring and pleating coincided with many ensembles shown during this time. A 1926 Vogue illustration of a Vionnet ensemble sold by Carnegie shows a nearly identical coat captioned: “[...] and the coat, which is in navy blue, is fashioned entirely of pleats.” Based on description of the changes in women’s fashion in the 1920s, the ensemble studied is dated circa 1925-27. While the coat has the Hattie Carnegie label, it has no other markings indicating the existence of a second label. The quality of the cut is superior as well as creative, but some of the construction is not up to haute couture standards. It is therefore more likely to have been an adaptation, possibly of a Vionnet, rather than a direct Parisian import. The fabric and color give the impression that it was probably from a Spring collection.
Aileen Ribeiro, in Dress and Morality, discusses the cultural responses to women’s dress of the second half of the 1920s. In comparison to those past, the new style as a visual signifier of immorality blurred gender lines, according to conservatives. For many young women, however, it was symbolic of new post-war and post-suffrage freedoms. How did relatively young but conservative women, such as Mrs. Foster (who would have been in her late 20s if and when she wore this dress), balance “[...]the right, if not to be less virtuous than their grandmothers, at any rate to look less virtuous.”? (Cunnington, as quoted in Ribeiro) Perhaps a quote from Mrs. Foster herself, written in 1968 about the transition by Quakers from plain dress to that of the general public, best explains her possible adoption of this new style, “As people became more mobile, they no longer had the time to make the intricate, ground-sweeping, figure-compressing clothes of an earlier time. By 1900, the clothes of the general public were often simpler and more functional than the traditional Quaker garments. Friends were exhorted to live in society, not apart from it, and “to be excited to mend it.”
Twenties fashions are often written off as easily made, simple tubes, and only close examination of the cut and details of this ensemble reveal that its design and construction are both more complex and subtle than a mere tube. Anyone who has attempted to quickly and easily recreate a fashion of the 1920s, and was inevitably disappointed in the results, will surely concur. Twenties fashions are often reduced to the idea of abbreviated and spangled “flapper dresses,” so this ensemble is a lovely example of an average woman’s choice for daywear.
References
Blum, Stella. Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1981.
Bramlett, Lizzie. “Carnegie, Hattie.” Label Resource. Vintage Fashion Guild, July 10, 2010. https://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/carnegie-hattie/.
“Evening Ensemble, 1926-27.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed February 26, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/96082.
C.W. Cunnington, English Women’s Clothing in the Present Century (London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1952), 200, as quoted in Ribeiro, Dress and Morality, 157.
Fleming, E. McClung. 1974. "Artifact Study: A Proposed Model." Winterthur Portfolio 9: 153-173.
Foster, Georgana. “Maintaining Our Unity.” Friends Journal (August 1993): 5. https://www.friendsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/emember/downloads/1993/HC12-508 90.pdf.
Foster, Georgana. “Quaker Women I Have Known.” Friends Journal, October 1, 2011. https://www.friendsjournal.org/3011102/.
Foster, Thyra Jane. “The Quaker Testimony on Dress.” Friends Journal (August 15, 1968): 405-406. https://www.friendsjournal.org/1968042/.
“Hattie Carnegie.” In Business Leader Profiles for Students, edited by Sheila Dow, 137-8. Detroit: Gale, 1999.
"Hattie Carnegie Sponsors Flared, Lengthened Jumper: Fine Pleatings Prominent, Distinguishing Coats of Sheer Crepe-Emerald Green Exploited-Cape Costume for Day Wear-Lace Frocks for Evening." Women’s Wear 32, no. 12 (Jan 15, 1926): 2, 63.
"Hattie Carnegie Uses Daring Colors in New Ensembles: Flounced Fulness Sponsored in Collection Characteristically Feminine and Tailored-Transparent Fabrics Maintained." Women’s Wear 30, no. 64 (March 18, 1925): 2, 63.
Katie. “A Month of #dresslikeacrayon.” What Katie Sews (blog), February 3, 2019. http://whatkatiesews.net/a-month-of-dresslikeacrayon/.
Laubner, Ellie. Fashions of the Roaring ‘20s. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996.
Malzahn, Catharine. “Is Monochrome the Hottest Trend Right Now?” CR Fashion Book. Hearst, February 4, 2021, https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/a35352074/monochrome-right-nows-hottest-loo k/.
Murgia, Monica D. “Carnegie, Hattie (1880-1956).” In Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe, Volume 3, edited by José Blanco F. and Heather Vaughan Lee, 66-7. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2016.
Ribeiro, Aileen. Dress and Morality. London: Batsford, 1986.
“Series 1a: Henry and Thyra Jane Foster Papers, 1904-1988.” TriCollege Libraries Archives and Manuscripts. Accessed February 28, 2021, http://triarchive.brynmawr.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/202530.
"Silks: Week's Silk Fashion Highlights." Women’s Wear 32, no. 67 (March 22, 1926): 14. “Thyra Jane Foster Papers.” Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections. Accessed February 24, 2021. https://aspace.fivecolleges.edu/repositories/2/resources/299.