When I was in Rockford over the holiday, my sister and I spent some time looking for some ridiculous photos of matching outfits holidays past and uncovered my paternal grandmother's high school yearbook in one of my dad's boxes--a thinly bound volume with actual photos glued in using rubber cement. Near some of the entries was my grandmother's neatly handwritten details on what was to become of these women-mostly notes on them either getting married straight-away or going off to teachers and business colleges (her plan was the latter). Somewhere along the route she met my grandfather and according to my dad, never finished. This seems a little sad to me given her obvious propensity for writing and documenting--she seems like she'd have made an excellent teacher or librarian (which in the late 30's was all you could hope for career-wise as a woman.) By the end of the decade, she would have already given birth to my oldest uncle and soon another 5 children over the two decades, with my dad somewhere in the middle of it.
What struck me also flipping through was the photos and how stylish the dresses. As someone whose highschool yearbook boasts mostly people in preppy button downs or sporty sweatshirts and pegged jeans, I am super jealous. I've often said 30's and early 40's style are my favorites and here was a huge array of things I would die to have in my close-- day dresses, tiny florals, peter pan collars. I actually love the softness of 30's styles more than the boxy lines that would follow in the next decade. Sadly, my generous 21st Century body it would never, even at it's thinnest, fit into most of the tiny dresses of tiny depression-era women, so instead of actual vintage, I have to seek out contemporary pieces with vintage lines and details. Eshakti is good for this, as well as occasional finds at Modcloth and Lindy Bop.
A peek of my favorite actual vintage dresses (see more here)
