Sportswear, 1940s style

The knitting is progressing nicely but is not yet worth another post, so this week I'm looking at something I've had for a while but forgot to blog about - a Vogue Patterns counter catalogue from December 1940.

With a 6" ruler for scale

I've no idea what other brands' catalogues looked like at the time, but this is a substantial volume with board covers, and the pages held together with long metal pins.

It's over 1000 pages

Showing the pins which hold it all together

Like all pattern catalogues, it is split into sections. For this post, I'm looking at Sports and Beachwear.

Showing some of the new patterns

Each section has a page indicating which patterns are available in larger sizes. They seem to lean more towards the 'spectator' sports than the 'active'.

Fishing and bathing are the only sports referenced

Regular size patterns exist for a wide variety of sports. Skating was especially popular at the time, judging from the number of patterns for different outfits.

Skating and skiing

Golf and hockey? (Sport is not my strong point!)

Cycling and 'exercise'

More exercise, this time with an impractically large bow

Bathing

I suspect that only Vogue would carry a pattern for a riding habit! I'm intrigued by the fact that there is no hem allowance on the breeches - it's the only trouser pattern with this information given.

Riding

No hems on the breeches

It's not all outfits for specific activities, though. There are some clothes more suitable for spectators.

Athleisure, but make it forties

By the time this catalogue was issued, Britain had been at war for over 12 months. Not that you would know it from these pages. Pattern prices are given in both cents and shillings and pence, and there is a reference to Vogue Pattern Service being based in Greenwich Connecticut, so it seems likely that the same catalogue was used in both the US and the UK. But the next year would bring the start of clothes rationing in Britain, and making dresses purely for ice skating would become a thing of the past. Certainly fabric-hungry items such as these skirts would be harder to make - if the patterns even remained for sale.

The skirts take up to five yards of fabric

There is however one pattern in this section which would certainly remain in use, and which subtly indicates the differing experiences of Britain and America at the time. It is described in the catalogue as a "coverall or pyjamas", but Vogue 8852 had appeared in the previous month's UK edition of Vogue Pattern Book under the name by which it would come to be widely known, a "shelter suit".

To wear "on the way to your refuge"

At some point I will write about other sections of the catalogue. For a 1940s fan like me, there is much to drool over - especially the dresses.