Jackie Kennedy Style

Wouldn't we all just want to copy Jackie O's style just once? Sometimes I find a pattern that is so Jackie, I want to swoon.

I have a lot of back stock and have no idea how this one didn't get put in my shop before now.  You can find it here.The cape with the front button and notched collar just send me. And anytime I see a pillbox hat, I think of Jackie Kennedy's style in the White House. I was a very impressionable preteen and teen while she was the First Lady. Her grace and fashion sense will always be unequaled for me regardless of who wins presidential elections from now on.

What were some of the elements of her style? Silhouette for one thing. Slim, column dresses always make me think of her. Accessories like short gloves and those glorious pillbox hats, and a string of pearls on a black dress always bring her back to me.

And since we're talking about patterns, it is amusing to me how one person can define an era. When you look at pattern envelopes, you often find one person's look copied. There are a ton of patterns from the early sixties that remind me either of Jackie or Audrey Hepburn. There's also a time when a lot of women on pattern envelopes looked like Marlo Thomas. She even had her own line of clothing. Pattern companies weren't stupid. They knew that they could sell patterns if they sold you the dream of looking like a fashion icon.

Ah, The Sixties and Seventies

If you want to date a 1960s pattern, just look at the hem length. Look at this gorgeous Advance pattern from the early 1960s. The model's knees are covered! As the sixties progressed upward into the 1970s, so did the hemlines. First short skirts, then miniskirts, then microminis. At the very end of this trend, patterns had dresses with a shorts pattern added in since the dresses barely covered the panty line.

When I got married, skirts had already reached their highest and were on their way down in a dramatic way. Suddenly maxi coats and skirts were all the rage. I made a double-breasted plaid maxi coat with flannel lining. It was quite a project but I was really too tiny to find a coat that fit in the stores. And I was determined to have something in the new more fashionable length.

And really that was the beginning of a new era when women could choose the length of their skirts. My mother remembers how suddenly the skirt length dropped after World War II and how her mother added contrast hems to her pink suit that went in her trousseau. And in the sixties it was painful to watch older ladies having to choose between being stylish and showing off sometimes chubby knees and thighs or to go longer and look dowdy.

Today it's all good. If you want to wear a micromini, you can. And if you choose to put your skirts at a more modest length as in this Advance pattern, you can do that too. And if you want to wear skirts that brush the ankle, you can do that too. I hope that we never go back to the day when hem lengths were strictly dictated by fashion.

Rule of Fourteen

This "studio secret" style chart from 1950 tells you how to dress appropriately. You add points for every item you're wearing. Hose, one point. Feather, one point. Bracelet, one point. Gloves, one point. Veil, one point. More than fourteen--whoo boy, you are overdressed, you hussy. Less than fourteen--going for the spinster schoolteacher look, eh?

In short, you had to be just right to be well dressed in the 50s. I remember my mother had a closetful of purses. Dad could never understand that when you bought a pair of shoes, you also needed a purse to match. Even as a little tapper in the 50s, I wore gloves, petticoat, frilly socks, patent leather shoes, Sunday dress and purse to church. And I always had a hanky. On Easter Sunday a hat was de rigueur for all women including toddlers.

So I have to imagine the point system at work at Wal-Mart today. How many points for flip flops, an exposed bra strap, a bare and bulging midriff, a tramp stamp, a parole bracelet, etc. It's a lot easier to dress in the 21st century. But you know, it's a lot harder to dress well. No rules apply so you're totally on your own. And quite frankly, Wal-Mart attire proves that modern women could use a little more guidance.

This wonderful four page pamphlet printed on heavy cardstock is on sale in my shop. Check it out!