Clothes in the 50s and 60s

[Alarmset]

On TV and in films, even "poor" people wear beautifully cut clothes. People like midwives, secretaries, struggling musicians.

Was that how it was, "cheap" clothes didn't exist or is that just for TV?

Fashion and availability of clothes changed in the late 50s snd into the 60s. Fashion catalogues appeared. Women bought their clothes “on the never never” as it was called. In other words - credit. The catalogues brought shopping into the home and much wider choice. Lots of people knitted and made clothes but the catalogues changed everything. You want to a city to shop in a department store for wider choice but they were not cheap. Nothing came from China or even India. Most clothes were made here.

We had “Sunday best” and a party dress. We had basic clothes for school and my mum had few new clothes. We often had “hand me downs” too from older family members..As a teenager I made clothes from remnants to get more clothes! 1 yard made a mini skirt! My grammar school uniform cost 3x my Dads wages. Most people wouldn’t put up with that now. If was a super smart uniform though!

People found a way to look their best. We knew a few people who were so poor they really never had “best” anything.

Marks and Spencer's underwear sadly lost its quality when it was no longer made in the UK.

I still buy jewellery on layby, I've got an emerald ring put away, try it on every time I pay a little off. Nothing flash just a band with five stones but it's so lovely. Naughty me

@turnaroundtime

if clothes were spot cleaned and only washed once per season in some cases, didn't they smell of BO?

Quite probably - but the 60's was a time when many people would only bath once a week. Even in the 60's, my great grandfather didn't have a bathroom, only a 'lean-to' with a tin bath. He definitely was not going to fill that with a bucket on a daily basis! As a child in the early 60's, though we did have a bathroom, our toilet was outside, so I don't think we were that unusual. As for clothes, my mum used to buy kits to make dresses for me and my sister. She had no sewing ma nine so stitched them completely by hand. As others have said, she had fear clothes than we consider normal today, but the quality of the fabric was such that they lasted. My dad also still wore shirts with detachable collars, which also helped to preserve the shirt because of not having to scrub the collar. More handwashing also helped to preserve fabrics - when my mum began to receive family allowance (only paid for 2nd and subsequent children back then), she saved it up to buy a washing machine (twin tub) so that doing the washing was no longer an all day job.

I was around in the 60's, and I made all my own clothes. Or Mum did. I made all my day clothes, and she made beautiful coats, capes, woolen skirts and jackets. I think most people did at least some of their own sewing.

My mother and dgm had at least 6 feet of wardrobes in the early 60s.

Smart coats were often fur trimmed - clothes were better quality and even crimplene dresses were well made. Grandma wore a long line bra and a corset and a slip under dresses. She never wore tights or trousers, except for jodhpurs which she wore most days. I remember both having beautifully silk lined handbags with the silk in a strong colour. My mother was particularly fashionable and a bit of an early IT girl. I can recall her coming to say good night before going out in a pink or turquoise cocktail dress with matching roses dotted through a very small beehive. She would also co-ordinate her sopranos to match her outfit and kept them in a silver cigarette case with matching lighter and a cigarette holder.

Grandma had some truly beautiful evening wear but wasn't much of a smartie in the day time. Grandad was always very dapper , always wore a suit and tie for meetings/business and would only wear brown shoes with a slightly less formal grey tweed suit on Fridays. He also had some really nice cable knit cardigans with collars that I imagine would cost a fortune today.

The other thing, whilst neither mother nor MIL made their own clothes they had favoured dress shops and alterations for a perfect fit always took place. I remember sitting in awe when the alteration lady came in, always in a black dress with a tape measure round her neck and a velvet pin cushion on her wrist. If a dress was nice and suited them, especially with bits pinned in it was always altered.

By the mid/late 60s mother was wearing crimplene Quant with gold link belts and knee high white boots. I used to wish she'd collect me from school in a skirt, sensible cardi and shoes like the other mothers.

OTH the wives of the farm labourers wore cross over pennies, turbans and old fashioned lace up shoes whilst their husband's wore overalls and wellies or work boots and their children wore anoraks and balaclavas over home knits. There were two different worlds.

"kept them in a silver cigarette case with matching lighter and a cigarette holder."

This is something else that has changed. People used to give and receive good metal lighters and other smoking paraphanelia as presents, complete with 'care kit'.

And ash trays were huge, decorative items.

When people were proud of their smoking...

But not of the lung cancer!

Ddot, Dmum used to say she was dressed by St Michael from the inside out!

@TizerorFizz indeed but she only smoked for show and is a robust 85 year old, channeling Diana Rigg.

I think Diana Rigg is dead. However loads of people smoked years ago. I didn’t but all my friends did. I was very fickle about non smoking boyfriends and successfully moved offices when my boss smoked like a chimney! I argued it made my rather expensive clothes smell! One issue with decent fabrics like wool was that they needed dry cleaning. No quick wash and hang out to dry. It used to be awful coming home from work and smelling like an ashtray! Yuk!