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Who first coloured their hair purple - English punks or Mrs. Slocum?

Neither…

During the early 1960’s there was a brief courting with pastel coloured “fun” wigs to match party dresses, including mauve and lavendar shades, but a hundred years earlier coloured hair was toyed with as well - as the American Fashion Journal “Godey’s” records in 1863:

“The revival of hair powder has not been a success, though to some faces the white powder is decidedly becoming. But rest content there, dear ladies, and do not venture on the violet, blue or green powders you see in coiffeurs windows. This, however, may be a useless precaution, for we think few of our belles would willingly appear with purple or blue heads.”

Twenty years ago a woman by the name of Loi Hathaway called me up at the Bata Shoe Museum. She wanted to make sketches of shoes for some watercolour paintings. Although the museum was not yet open to the public I let her into the storage facility every friday afternoon for several months until she had built up enough of a portfolio of sketches to create her shoe watercolour paintings. She was always kind and gracious and after she moved onto other projects she stayed in touch, inviting me to lunch on occasion or to speak at the Arts and Letters club. The last time I saw her she presented me with a dress a friend had given her in the early 1960s.

The dress was labelled Christian Dior and although there had been alterations to the dress it was in excellent condition. The woman who gave Loi the dress had worked as the hostess of the Royal York Hotel in Toronto in the late 1950s. Her job was not what you may think it sounds like — today it would be called visitor services. She had worn the dress for social functions, welcoming guests to the hotel and the city of Toronto.

While looking through an October 1958 issue of L’Officiel magazine I found a Dior dress in the exact same fabric proving it was from the fall 1958 collection. Christian Dior had died in October 1957 leaving Yves St. Laurent to complete the spring 1958 collection, famed for its ‘Trapeze’ line. This collection is often said to be Yves St. Laurent’s first solo collection but it was still under the influence of Dior’s intention for the 1958 spring line. The autumn 1958 collection however was entirely of Yves St. Laurent’s design. The collection was known for its high bust, a style that was being done by Pierre Cardin and Guy Laroche as well but Yves St. Laurent had also dropped the hemline by four inches. He called it the ‘Arc’ collection, after its gentle Gothic arch shape silhouette. His collection received a lot of publicity but not popularity and by spring 1959 the hemline was on its way back up and the bust line was on its way back down.

As I mentioned earlier, this dress showed some alterations in an attempt to remove the ’Arc’ silhouette. The high waist had been lowered, the fullness of the skirt decreased and hemline raised, plus the belt was shortened to sit at the waist rather than across the rib cage. I showed the dress to Bret Fowler, a friend of mine who had worked at the museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York for years and has already done a number of superb conservation jobs for me which I will showcase in future postings. He understood what had happened to the dress and how it had been altered. The good news was that nothing had been cut or irreversibly damaged in the alteration. He lowered the hem, raised the waist, returned the belt to its original size and restructed the lining, which had suffered the most changes, so that the dress would sit correctly on the body. The result is a fabulous and typical example of Yves St. Laurent autumn 1958 Arc collection for Christian Dior.

I hadn’t heard from Loi in years and thought I would reconnect to show her how the dress had turned out but when I started searching for her number I discovered she had passed away in 2005, I can’t believe that many years had passed since we last saw each other. In memory of a wonderful gift from a supportive friend, thank-you Loi - the dress will always find a good home at the Fashion History Museum collection.

I am often sent books to review and recently two books came in the mail from Texas Tech University Press:

Victorian Wedding Dress in the United States is part of the ‘History through Paper Doll’ series, written by Mei Campbell and illustrated by Norma Lu Meehan. The 32 page book includes 20 dresses and 3 paper dolls and sells for a reasonable $12.95 (or less). My only criticism of the book is that I am not sure who it is intended for. The paper doll gimmick suggests a youth audience was in mind but the libretto, which includes good information about the history of the white wedding gown, is written for a sophisticated reader with a good vocabulary and understanding of dressmaking terms (capacious, polonaise, basque.) Both the illustrations and text are well done but together they create a book that must struggle to find a market.

The Sunbonnet: An American Icon in Texas is written by Rebecca Jumper Matheson. The 256 page book is listed at $29.95 (or less) and includes illustrations from several collections that trace the origins of the sunbonnet from the late 18th century to its last vestiges in the mid 20th century. The greatest difficulty for writing a book about the history of the sunbonnet must have been locating the scant research and period references - everyday non-fashionable garments worn by rural women simply didn’t get a lot of press in their day. The book is an easy read and utilizes a variety of resources and interviews. The only thing I am not convinced of is its specific geographical significance to Texas. Sunbonnets were certainly worn well into the 1930s throughout the agricultural south and mid-west as well as in the Canadian Prairies.

The book is excellent and unique on the topic and should become a part of any library relevant to millinery history.