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Tag: 1940’s dress

My Vintage Weekend Finds and Fun

This past weekend I had a fun vintage weekend so thought I would share it with you. First up on Saturday I was part of an event in Toronto called “Rosie O-Rama in conjunction with 2 events. V-J day (Japanese surrender that marked the end of World War II) and the Guinness Book of World Records “Most Rosie the Riveters in one spot” that was happening in California that day.

Rosie the Riveter Guinness World Record
Some of the original “Rosie the Riveter” women sitting in the first row, who worked in the Richmond shipyards during WWII (Anda Chu/The Contra Costa Times via AP)

Since I don’t live in California a few of us got together (including fellow blogger Irene from Petite Plus Meow) and dressed up as Rosie (or for us Canadians ‘Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl‘) and met at City Hall in Toronto by the fancy new 3D sign for photos.

Rosie the Riveter
Vintage Inn-Rosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter Toronto
Toronto’s ‘Rosies”

We then got out of the hot hot sun and zipped over via public transit to our fav “Rosie the Rebel” reproduction clothing store for some shopping and then ended our adventures at the super cool vintage Malt Shop- Bean and Baker‘ for yummy goodies.

TTC Subway Rosie the Riveter 1940s
Riding the subway to work 🙂

Rosie the Rebel Toronto

Rosie the Riveter Toronto
Inside Rosie the Rebel

Ice cream time at Bean and Baker!

Bean and Baker Malt Shop Toronto
At Bean and Baker Malt Shop

mmmm handcrafted cherry coke and an Astro Pop!

Bean and Baker Malt Shop Toronto

It was a great day with these 4 ladies of the Toronto Vintage Society.

Bean and Baker Malt Shop Toronto

 

SUNDAY

On Sunday my hubby was working so I decided that I was going to jump on the streetcar and head to one of my fav vintage stores in Toronto-Gadabout on Queen St. East.

gadabout toronto vintage store

Gadabout is one of these stores where you need to clear your calendar and even go alone so that you can spend hours filtering thru all the wonderful goodies they have. The owner Victoria is so nice and so is all her hardworking staff. I feel so welcomed every time I go.

For today’s trip I was on the hunt for vintage photos (I love my vintage photos) AND possibly a new Tiki dress for the TVS Tiki Party August 29th. I spent a couple of hours and brought home the following:

Find #1: This great souvenir photo taken at the Historic King Edward Hotel in Toronto in the 1940s.

Vintage photo King Edward Hotel Toronto

It looks like these lovely young people are on a double date at one of the fanciest hotels in town. I wonder if they went dancing after in one of the gorgeous ballrooms at the hotel? Don’t they look like they are having so much fun? The gentlemen on the left is in mid laugh 🙂

Vintage photo King Edward Hotel Toronto

Find # 2: Beautiful photo from the 1930s of a very well dressed mother and her adorable son.

Style alert! The mothers dress is simply beautiful and her shoes…wow!!! I love the hat as well. Very very nice.

1930s vintage photo of boy and mother

Find # 3: This image instantly caught my eye when I saw the wonderful head scarfs and the cool Hawaiian shirt the man on the right is wearing. Then I started to look at it more and realized that I believe these lovely people are at a seaside resort somewhere. Wonderful!

1940s photo of people at a sea side resort

Find # 4: I love her dress, that is why I took this image home with me.And I giggle when I see that someone’s finger got in the photo 🙂

1940s woman in a pretty dress

Find # 5: I believe this picture is of a mother with her very handsome son and gorgeous well dressed daughter (isn’t her dress just divine and her hair is perfect). I’m enjoying that the mother does not seem happy to be taking the photo but the kids have nice smiles on their faces and don’t seem to mind at all.

1940s vintage image of a family

Find # 6: I remember when I went to summer camp and at the end of the week we would get a photo of the whole camp and then we would spend the day running around getting everyone to sign the back of it. When I found this image of a group of young ladies in the 1940s, possibly at summer camp and the back was signed I just knew this was a keeper.

1940s girls at summer camp

The back has cute “nicknames” that the girls had given each other. Like “Tiny” Jones and “Cookie”.

1940s girls at summer camp

Find # 7: Here comes the bride all dressed in..not white but who cares! She looks wonderful (want her dress!) and her husband..so handsome. He reminds me a bit of Don Draper of Mad Men fame.

1950s vintage wedding picture

Image # 8: Here is another happy couple from the 1930s. Her husband/boyfriend/”friend” looks so in love with her, I just adore how he is looking at her in this picture. And once again, the lovely lady wins in the style department. Look how dainty her gloves are? Swoon…

1930s vintage couple

Find # 9: FLAMINGOS!! I love flamingos and when I saw this wonderful menu from a still in business restaurant in Toronto, I just had to have it. I belive it’s from around the 1950s from the prices you see in the next image.

Flamingo restaurant menu Toronto

Inside of the menu. I love the section on “Milk drinks”. Milk Shakes, Malted Milk, Egg Nogg, Egg Malted. That’s a lot of Milk 🙂 And don’t forget the “Hot Ovaltine”.

Flamingo restaurant menu Toronto

Last but not least I also bought myself a vintage dress for the Tiki party I mentioned above. Here is the fabric but you won’t see the dress until Tiki party time (it’s a surprise).

vintage tiki dress 1950s

Did you have a good weekend? Find any vintage goodies yourself?

Liz 🙂

1940s Floral Dresses-Understated Elegance

I’m currently in the middle of the amazing and well written book “1940s-Fashion-The-Definitive-Sourcebook” by Emmanuelle Dirix & Charlotte Fiell and I just read a wonderful section on “why floral (and figurative) patterns in the 1940s were favored“.

1940s fashion the definitive sourcebook

The simple reason stated in the book was that designs with floral or figurative patterns were easy to match up and hence generated less wastage in garment production. In a time when “Make do and Mend” was becoming the norm, this makes a lot of sense.

After the war was over floral could still be found on many of the women of the 1940s because 1. There was still a shortage of fabric for a while after and 2. Floral dresses were an “Understated Elegance”. Not flamboyant, just wonderful as is.

On a personal level I LOVE a beautiful 1940s floral dress and I own a couple personally and I’m always hoping to add more. So lets take a peak at what beautiful floral dresses were available to the ladies of the 40s, shall we?


Disclosure: Some of the links on my blog from Etsy are Affiliate Links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 


1940’s Floral Dresses

The 1940’s Images

Let’s start with the stunning woman from the 1940s that I found on Flickr. Her off the shoulder floral gown is simple but just pure perfection on her. I love the black ribbon belt and the ballet slippers with the ties to bring it all together.

1940s vintage photo of a young woman posing for a photo in a an off the shoulder floral dress with a ribbon belt. She is wearing a choker as well.
Source: Flickr-Hans

1940s photo. How stylish is this beautiful woman? Look at that jacket…wow! And her accessories are amazing (I want that purse!). I love the floral pattern in this dress and I’m sure once the jacket came off the dress was just breathtaking on her.

1940s vintage photo of a young woman in a floral dress and stunning 1940s jacket and hat and purse. Fantastic 1940s fashion inspiration!
Source: Flickr-Jasperdo

Beautiful 1940s Floral dresses times 2! Love these two stylish Black ladies posing together on a chair.

1940s vintage photo of 2 Black Women in 1940s Floral Dresses. Super 1940s fashions

Source: Pinterest

1940s photo. From the same Flickr account, the below image is the wonderful woman above’s, neighbours. Well well what stylish neighbours she had! I cannot tell if her dress is really a floral pattern ( I initially thought it was tropical) but does not really matter the pattern is still fantastic.

1940s vintage photo of a man and woman posing together in 1940s fashions. The woman is wearing a pretty 1940s dress and cute peep toe shoes. Our man is in a stylish suit.
Source: Flickr-Jasperdo

1940s photo. One more photo from the same account shows the friend of our floral dress jacket wearing fashionista, two photos above. What a collection of fantastically dressed ladies she hung out with! The floral dress in this photo is beautiful and I love her pose too. I wonder what she is thinking?

1940s vintage photo of a young woman sporting a pretty 1940s hairstyle and 1940s dress in a floral pattern and cute 1940s peep toe shoes.
Source: Flickr-Jasperdo

1940s vintage photo of 4 women in 1940s fashions posing together at a Garden party.

Pick your favourite dress or fashion accessory out of this photo (I can’t, they are all too amazing).

1940s vintage photo of 4 women in 1940s fashions posing together at a Garden party - 1940s patterned & floral summer dresses with hats and handbags

Source: Etsy – LightSilverAndPaper

1940s Photo. First up…COLOUR! And now..what a dress! That green floral pattern is just wonderful on this mother with her son at the beach. I would totally wear that to work or even a night of dancing.

1940s vintage photo of a woman in a green floral dress posing at the ocean with a child. Lovely 1940s fashion inspiration.

Source: Flickr-Ross B. CARE

I have shared this image in a past post (link below) but it’s worth sharing again because her floral dress AND matching headscarf during what I imagine to be a USO dance is a favorite of mine. Another great example of how a simple floral style like this can look just pure perfection.

FURTHER READING: What to wear Lindy Hopping -1930s/1940s Real-Life Vintage Images

1940s vintage photo of people swing dancing in the 1940s. The woman is wearing a floral 1940s dress and matching hair turban / hair scarf.

Examples of 1940s Dresses in Real Life


Now for a small sampling of 1940s Floral Dresses you can buy off Etsy (Updated March 2024)

Vintage Shopping: If the outfit is gone, don’t fret! Etsy is updated daily with 1000s of vintage clothes. Just do a simple search and see what pops up. You can also visit my 1940s Fashion Collection that I update monthly of outfits I like that are for sale on the site. You can find that HERE.


1940’s slinky plum bias cut satin floral asymmetrical dress with all the BEST colors and details of the era.

1940s Fashion: 1940's slinky plum bias cut satin floral asymmetrical dress with all the BEST colors and details of the era

Source: Etsy – traven7

1940s Dress – Homemade Cotton Floral Day Dress.

1940s Dress -  Homemade Cotton Floral Day Dress

Source: Etsy-FabGabs

1940s Dress – Gorgeous 1940s Rayon Crepe Dress in Banded Floral with Heavy, Pleated Skirt.

1940s Dress - The Midsommer Dress - Gorgeous 40s Rayon Crepe Dress in Banded Floral with Heavy, Pleated Skirt

Source: Etsy-FabGabs

Vintage 1940s Floral Print Dress.

1940s Fashion: Vintage 1940s Floral Print Dress

Source: Etsy

Gorgeous 1940’s printed rayon dress. This dress features a unique all over print that has a floral motif and trees in a muted soft blue, green and brown.

1940s Fashion: Gorgeous 1940’s printed rayon dress. This dress features a unique all over print that has a floral motif and trees in a muted soft blue, green and brown.

Source: Etsy

Vintage 1940’s Gray Floral Novelty Print Cold Rayon Day Dress. This is my kind of silhouette.

1940s Fashion: Vintage 1940's Gray Floral Novelty Print Cold Rayon Day Dress WW2 Era

Source: Etsy

Absolutly devine original 1940s swing dress with a floral pattern.

1940s Fashion: original 1940s swing dress with a floral pattern

Source: Etsy

What a wonderful 1940s sun dress. This dress would be perfect for the summer time picnic or to wear dancing on a beautiful night under the stars.

1940s Fashion: 1940s womans floral summer dress
Source: Etsy-Ella and Frank Vintage

The fabric on this dress is actually flowers AND umbrellas. Fantastic! The label states that it is a “Brucewood Custom” dress.

1940s Fashion: 1940s floral dress
Source: Etsy-Planet Claire Vintage

The floral detail is again beautiful but the ruffle detailing really takes this dress to the next level. Don’t you agree?

1940s fashion: 1940s Ethel Lou Jrs cotton dress features a colorful floral print. Ruffle detailing with eyelet trim at neckline and front skirt. Metal zipper up side of dress
Source: Etsy-Tuesday Rose Vintage

Lastly here are a couple of vintage advertisements for 1940s dresses (and one that is not a dress):

1940s Playsuit with matching over skirt. WANT! Love! So cute! Can I also have the adorable hat with the palm tree and fish on it??

1940s womens fashion: 1940s Playsuit with matching over skirt in a floral pattern.
Wakes of Melbourne catalogue, Summer 1946-47

Pretty frocks for all your pinching pennies needs.

BTW if this is a bargain look then sign me up!

1940s cotton house dresses as seen in a vintage catalog page from the 1940s.

And with that ad, that concludes are journey into 1940s florals.

So lovely readers are you a fan of the florals in 1940s dresses? Or do you tend to sway more towards the sequins and simple elegant styles? Or maybe you love them all! Share in the comments section below!

And with that ad, that concludes are journey into 1940s florals.

FURTHER READING:

Liz 🙂