Etsy Obsession for a Sunday Morning

Readers, I am an obsessed Etsy pattern hunter.  There, now you know.


Upon my return from Fire Island I decided to do a comprehensive search under the words "dress pattern,"  recognizing that many patterns end up lost because the seller fails to include important info like  "Vogue Paris Original," or "36 chest," or "size 14" in the title.  All sorts of hidden treasures can be found!

If you search under "dress pattern" you get 33,008 results, however, spread out over 826 pages.  I am currently on page 370.  I have seen SO many dress patterns, friends.  Not only do your eyes begin to permanently cross at a certain point, but you also start to notice how repetitive the styles were.

There are SO many Jackie-O-inspired sheath dresses, SO many double knit pantsuits, SO many demure Forties frocks with geometric stripes.  I find myself wondering if these vintage patterns are still around because they were so popular, or if they have survived uncut because of precisely the opposite reason: nobody wanted to sew them! 

But I did start to notice an interesting trend of which I was formerly unaware.  Twenties style keeps resurfacing but it never quite looks as good as the original.  It reminds me of how in period Twenties movies they (nearly) always get the period wrong, assuming I guess that if they put movie stars in authentic Twenties costumes, makeup, and hair, they'd alienate their then-current-day audiences.

That's Priscilla Lane in "The Roaring Twenties."  Title notwithstanding, those shoulder pads are pure late Thirties.

Remember Natalie Wood in "Splendor in the Grass"?  The necklace looks right, but the soft hair and makeup don't look Twenties to me.

"Thoroughly Modern Millie" -- which I saw in its original run! -- sort of gets it right.  But those eye-popping colors are pure Sixties.

And then there's Barbra in "Funny Girl"with a hairstyle that is just a little too big for the period, not to mention the signature Barbra-Cleopatra eye make up that transcends time.

Twenties-inspired patterns show up again and again on Etsy.  Which one's your favorite?

Fifties?

Sixties?

Seventies?

Eighties?

Or beyond...

Back to an original...the one Cathy modeled a few weeks ago.

From 1929 Dress

And another I have in the pipeline:



OK, I guess you could do this with any period -- big Forties shoulders return in the Eighties, for example, or Thirties (and Forties) nostalgia in the mid-Seventies.

We're definitely in a Mad Men-inspired, early Sixties period now, at least among those who care about such things.  You can get away with just about anything today, don't you think?

Can you think of any former style that never made it back a second time?

Any style that you hope NEVER comes back?  (I mean, really, what IS that coronation look?)

Jump in!