Summer, reissues, and a very strange pattern

After a brief dalliance with warmth and sunshine the weather has reverted to being cold and grey, and I'm back in winter clothes. So I'm taking refuge in a new-to-me issue of Vogue Pattern Book, June - July 1954.

Dressing like this feels a long way off

Here light summer colours reign supreme, in striking sketches of summer dresses with accessories to match.

Pink, and surprisingly modern-looking shoes

Blue, and some covetable earrings

Mauve, with impossibly high (for me) sandals

A whole suit of yellow might be a bit much

Sunshine yellow carries on into the feature on Couturier designs.

The feeling of summer

I thought that I recognised one of the patterns and, sure enough, it was reissued in 2015.

Couturier pattern 800

Reissued as 9105

In fact, summer 1954 couturier designs seem to have been a bumper source of reissue patterns. I have two more in my collection.

794 top right and 797 bottom right

Reissued as 8999 . . .

. . . and 8687

One pattern which Vogue has not reissued (to the best of my knowledge) is 8338. It's heavily promoted in this issue, with a double-page spread.

Vogue's "special choice for summer"

"simplicity itself"

It also turns up in an advertisement for Wemco fabrics.

The striped fabric accentuates the construction

The dress is described as slipping over your head, fastening together at the front with a single hook and eye, and then tying at the back. The line drawing on the pattern envelope gives an idea of its shape.

Full at the front and straight at the back

It's almost a back-to-front version of this pattern, which came out in 1952 and was reissued in 2001.

Vogue 2401

Much as I liked my version, there’s no denying that the skirt was prone to flapping open. At least because the opening is at the front, I could see what was going on, and act accordingly. I really don’t think I would be comfortable in a dress which is similar, but with the opening at the back (especially as the back pattern piece, as shown on CoPA, doesn't look very wide)! To me, the design gives the impression of being something which Vogue put out as a competitor to Butterick's 'walkaway' dress, possibly without a lot of thought to the practicalities of wearing it. I would love to know how well the pattern actually sold.