Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 18, 1967, Winnipeg, Manitoba Is activities Winnipeg free february 1967 Leisure Magazine Centennial prompts recollection of yesterdays fashions Rexf by Rosemary Unrau enterprising employees of one local firm will turn Back the clock 700 years in a week of 1867 dress Manitoba Hydro customers and business associates will be in for a treat this com ing the head office located at the Corner of Harrow Street and Taylor will be filled with colourful costumes and rustling petticoats fashioned after the styles of the Centennial project for Manitoba Hydro employees is a Centennial which will be held june 26 to june during the week Hydro employees Wear their costumes during working on the final Day of the a contest will be held to judge the Best there will be two awards for the ladies one for the Best homemade 1867styled the other for the Best costume other than Home it was expected that Only the women would participate the costume contest but some of the male employees have indicated their intentions to Wear the men will not be left out in any Case tentatively planned is a Beard growing the building is bursting with ideas for cos and girls Are trying to decide Between morning afternoon dresses and Tea there also will be evening work walking Carriage costumes and visiting the contest is not limited to however even bathing costumes will be providing the girls can find samples to go provincial Flowers project James a James House displays her Centennial project the painstaking decoration of sugar cubes with the Flowers of Canadas to the Northwest territories and the decorated sugar cubes As a Centen Nial year project and Why not asks James housewife James along with thousands of English decided she should have her own per Sonal project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of she decided to use her cake decorating Abil which she already had tried on sugar producing intricate Christmas for English is producing cubes decorated with the provincial Flowers of All the Yukon and the Northwest using tiny decorator she re produces the Flowers in coloured the Manitoba Crocus has mauve petals and a yellow surrounded by tiny Green Only one surface of the cube is English works at her Centennial project when she int Busy with housework at her Home at 369 Albany she places the finished cubes in tiny 36 cubes to a and presents them As gifts to her considering the styles of we have to Marvel at the intricacies of dress in bygone nineteenth Century women prone to swoons and this is quite understandable when one examines the assortment of undergarments required by the Well dressed woman of that boning and lacing were a for much emphasis was placed on a tiny the fashionable lady of that period was expected to swoon she wore no makeup except for a dusting of face powder which accentuated her pallor and Drew breathless Praise from her pet Ikot after Petticoat stays were not the Only cause of a Ladys to minimize her a voluminous skirt topped Petti coat after when dressed for visiting in a Best afternoon swollen with petticoats and ruler the lady elected to travel by Carriage to her friends House which easily was within walking distance by today one also can sympathize with the fact once ensconced in a comfortable chair in her hostess sitting she was loathe to move even a except for a spot of refresh ment to offset any Chance of a in the Ibgos the called the Cage travelled from France to England to replace the the constructed of circular steel was much less cumbersome than the Petti Coats hut still posed some it had a tendency to mine their so the skirt carried perfectly As they English How favored and their skirts swung Back and Forth with the motion of the t h u s showing their Ankles i which was Unthank the Cage then was constructed so that the Backol it folded in when sat this solved the second open fireplace a problem the third problem was not so easily open fire places were the common source of Young ladies warming themselves too close to the fire placed themselves in a dangerous the Cage proved to be a fire for with the skirt draped Over it was an open invitation for any stray Sparks to ignite the whole As this unhappy event occurred not sometimes resulting in the Cage was replaced by More in the 19th Century styles changed and dresses often were made Over to suit the latest the Bulky skirt was Ever with the exception of the Early 1800s when Flimsy skirts and High waists were briefly modesty soon was recovered and skirts became Fuller and by 1867 the skirt had reached its bodices were close fitting and waists were extremely sleeves generally tended to be straight and dresses consisted of two pieces worn to look like the evening dress was fairly Low Cut but the afternoon dress always had a High the front of the skirt was slightly off the floor and Cut to hang relatively in the Back of the skirt was Cut slightly longer than the and the material in the skirt was pushed the creating an egg shaped this was the beginning of the Small drawstring purses often were carried and a parasol was a must for afternoon gloves were a necessity and so was a Bonnet for afternoon usually a poke Flowers and decorations often were tucked under the brim of the hair usually was swept Back in a Large Bun at the Back of the neck or pulled to either Side of the head in a fan for the evening for evening a fan took the place of the Flowers were worn in the hair on a Young was in Side evening slippers were quite elegant by 1867 standards Day shoes were the famous buttoned Boot in the Early 1800s hair styles reached fantastic women competed with each other for the most towering rats and hair pieces were inserted until it must been an Effort to hold the head up one disadvantage of this particular style was once the hair was it had to stay that Way for some with Only the outside of the hair style being attended to thus the hair Seldom was the More society minded a lady the higher her Hairdo As a result most Middle and upper class women were plagued with to relieve they carried a Long handled instrument with a tiny claw at the end to Cope with aggravating in comparing period cos it is interesting to note that postwar clothing Dis played a drastic change of resulting in an extremely High Waist or a Low Waist close to the throughout the years it has become evident that a major change in costume styles reflects a social or econ Omic unrest today Hustle and Bustle in today Hustle and Bustle the working girl is Only too glad of the conveniences offered by manufacturers and the ease with which she can prepare herself for a Day outside of the and looking at the elegant sweeping skirts and hourglass waists of 100 years Haven regained a but lost something too an indefinable thing called femininity ;