In Search of Style: 1950s Afternoon Dress for Campus, Office, and Home!

The clipping:  The clipping below was tucked into the pattern Woman's Day 5042, and what fun to actually see how Woman's Day magazine advertised their patterns! When working with mail order patterns, one often wonders what the original advertisement looked like. Most mail order patterns were advertised in newspapers, but there were several that advertised in magazines, typically the magazine's own brand. This was true of Woman's Day patterns in the 1950s. This clipping provides a wonderful color version of the pattern. Compare it with the pattern image that follows.

Woman's Day 5042

The pattern: Woman's Day 5042 (1952)

As you can read on the pattern envelope, this pattern was published in the August 1952 edition of Woman's Day Magazine. This crisp and contoured dress "for campus, office, and home" definitely looks all business. Note that it is a step-in dress, and has an eye-catching contoured double collar and ditto for the cuffs. Another clever aspect to this dress is that each sleeve is one piece (single seam), with the back being "kimono" style, while the front takes on a raglan aspect. Clever design!

And just for the fun of it, here is the back side of the clipping, full of fabric swatches in rich blue tones.