Simplicity 1962: Spring into Summer

Selections from the 1962 Simplicity Spring Patterns Fashion Catalog.

Another fashion feature in the catalog was how to take your spring outfit and have it follow into summer.
It basically comes down to layers.  Wear the jacket when it's chilly and then take it off and jump in the lake in the summer to cool off from the heat!

Spring Look:

Summer Look:

I love this shade of yellow but the jacket is just off.  It's the Eased Look again.  If it was taken in just a tad in the bottom and maybe shorten an inch, then this look would be far more figure flattering.

I have noticed throughout this catalog that outfits are called "costumes".  I first heard this term being used by Little Edie of Grey Gardens, when she said "This is the best costume for today".  I just thought she was being her usual eclectic self, calling her outfit a costume since she saw herself as a performer.  Add to that she had a shirt safety pinned around her hips like a skirt, claiming it's multi-functional use as it could also be a cape.  Capes = costumes.  But I guess "costume" was a term used for a well pulled together outfit or ensemble.  If I called my outfit a costume today people would wonder where the Halloween party was and why it was in February.  But knowing me and my love for Halloween, they would keep quiet and just smile at me with pity.

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Spring look :

and it's summer look:

This is a great looking outfit.  Tapered and cropped in the right places.  The top isn't quite form fitting but looks so much better than the extra boxy Eased Look. I'm not into this color combo though. That green is too limey for me and I am not wearing a coffee can covered in fabric on my head as a hat, as seen in the spring look.



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Spring look: 

summer look:

Excellent look in the spring. This shows how a jacket should be cut and fitted.  The summer look is too flowery patterned for me.  This print is best used in small amounts, unless you are planning on attending a Fruity Pebbles convention.

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Spring Look:

Summer look:

I love the print and the big buttons on the coat, but it needs just a bit more definition. It looks flouncy and too big for the model.  The arm pits are almost at her waist!  The summer look is amazing.  Perfect fit and the model is beautiful, perfect make-up and hair!

I love looking at the covers of vintage pattern envelopes.  They are like a visual fantasy fairy tale for women. The illustrated ladies could be me...a thinner me with fantastic hair and grace and poise.  And I could be wearing that gorgeous "costume"!  It's all right here in this little envelope!  My perfect future!  All for 50¢!

Then I remember it's not 1962 and I don't live in a castle.
 In reality, vintage Patterns are now upwards of 20-40 bucks each online.  Fabric is between 10-20 bucks a yard, and that's just for the cotton stuff that has a fire warning on the selvage.  Then you have to actually make the outfit, and it's not going to fit right so you will have to do some alterations.  Then there are the factors involved with putting in a zipper, buttons, hammering in snaps.  I sometimes wonder if all women really do is just buy patterns for that fantasy.  "I could look this fantastic...if I wanted to...if I had time to make this..."

I have a load of vintage patterns myself, which I pick up at thrift stores for actually 50¢...I'll make something one day...when fabric isn't so expensive...when I have some extra time...maybe after I have some plastic surgery to look as fantastic as the illustrated models on the pattern envelopes!


All pattern envelope source images came from various sites including: vintagepatterns.wikia, ebay, and etsy