This is the last set of photos that we got when we drove out to Drumheller, which is not far from where I live.
This dress was a fun, quick thing to sew. I drafted the pattern myself, and I didn't need to adjust anything, which felt like a huge success.
I wanted to make a comfortable, vintage inspired day dress. This has a front closure, with a zipper in the skirt (to avoid any gaps or issues when worn) and tortoiseshell buttons up the front (all mismatched from my vintage button collection). It has a few extra centimetres of ease at the waist for comfort, the skirt is a gentle A-line that goes to the knees (the easiest skirt style to move around in without fear of exposure), and topstitching on the hems.
My two favourite details on this dress is the flutter sleeves (my absolute favourite style of sleeve), and the navy eyelet lace collar. I also love the print on the fabric, which is tiny running foxes.
The original inspiration for this dress was the first dress that Alice wears in the BBC show, Indian Summers, which is set in 1930's India. Though the show ended a few years ago, I still go back to it often for the fantastic characters, beautiful fashion, and a look at colonization in the 21st century. India is often forgotten, at least in Canada, as a colony that suffered in the hands of the British. It is also often forgotten that a huge number of Indian men fought in both WW1 and WW2 for the British.
I am very interested in the 1930's, and I find that it is often known for the Great Depression, but that it about it. The Depression hit more that the US, Canada, and Germany. India was hit hard by the Depression, and protests against British rule were ramping up. Many wealthy British were using certain areas of the country as vacation spots, and completely ignoring what was going on around them. In the March of 1930, Ghandi started his march in protest of the British monopoly on salt (which banned Indians from gathering or selling sea salt and put in a heavy salt tax. This was especially hard on poorer families). This march started his Civil Disobedience Movement, which focused on bringing Indian Independence. The British financial policies in India made the Depression worse, reducing the wheat prices. The price of rice fell not long after, which affected a significantly larger portion of India.
The prices were aggravated by Britain's decision to go off of the gold standard in order to save their dollar. Eventually, these poor conditions lead to a national movement against British rule, though it did not end up leading to much at the time.
Since fashion and politics are almost always completely entwined, this era of poverty and political upheaval has some incredible and interesting fashion. There is also an interesting mix of British and Indian styles, on men and women from both cultures. While Britain has always been fascinated with the culture, food, and fashion (and has stolen many things from the country), this period brought about another intense few years of fascination.
The dress that I made is purely British 1930's style, since it is based off of the dress that Alice wore traveling from Britain, but I just wanted to bring all this up because... well, because I find it interesting, and there aren't that many people willing to listen to my lectures on politics and fashion (sorry, friends and family).
The main features of Alice's dress that I wanted in my own was longer short sleeves (though hers reach nearly to the elbow, while mine are more at a t-shirt length), a shirt dress look, a high neckline, and a longer skirt. One of my favourite aspects of 1930's fashion is how long the skirts go (usually about mid-calf length for day dresses), and the elegant A-line that they have. I chose to make my skirt slightly shorter instead (just below knee length) mostly so that I can wear it with sneakers on casual days.
Thanks so much for reading!
~Katherine
Rothermund, Dietmar. "THE IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION ON INDIA IN THE 1930s." Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 41 (1980): 657-69. Accessed September 25, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44141892.
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