Fashion

The Fashions of The Ford Model A Era

As you may notice from the picture above the fashions throughout the years has changed drastically, it is up to you to decide for the better or not.  Prior to the 1920’s the fashion have women covered completely from neck to toe and you did not go outside without you hat!  Around the turn of the century things got a little more relaxed and women were now starting to show a little cleavage (before this time only a “working girl” showed this.)  The 1920’s The Great War (World War I) had ended just a short time before and women were going for a style that was less cumbersome, fewer layers.  The new trend had brought a style that had more loose fitting dress that basically hung straight down off the woman’s shoulders, seldom fitted at the waist and a shorter length (Can you imagine the men of the time, they were now seeing women legs below the knee in public).  Then in the 1930’s women were still wearing the shorter dress length but the dress trend was more form fitting at the waist.  Both the 20’s and 30’s you still did not go outside without you hat, though the hats were more simplified in style, generally smaller and form fitting to the head if you did not have a hat for your outfit you would wear a headband with decoration to match.   While I took you on a brief description of the fashions this page is dedicated to the fashions worn during the Ford Model A era (1928-1931).  We will cover fashions for women, men, girls and boys.  When it come to fashion of this time periods you may note that while fashions have a defined period this did not mean that it was all that was seen during those years.  While the fashion trends were changing you would still have men and women that were still wearing some older fashions (some people just did not like change).

Fashion Photo of the Month

2019 Membership Meet Savannah of MARC

We would love to show your picture in era clothing so submit your photos in era fashions to be shown above each month a new picture.
Submit pictures to the Webmaster

Our club fashion coordinator is Shirley Zepeda who has provided me with information contained in these fashion pages so I and the club wish to give Shirley our thanks for everything she does.

The first thing you need to know when dealing with antique clothes is:

Cleaning and Storage

The rules for cleaning are:

1. Vacuum the garment while covering it with a fiberglass screen.
2. Fabrics that can be washed should be supported on a fiberglass screen when wet so the fabric doesn’t tear.
3. When a garment looks as if it could be cleaned professionally take it to a reputable cleaner who knows it is an antique and will handle it gently.

Storage of clothing should be in archival or acid free boxes.  Use unbuffered acid free tissue paper to wrap the separate garments if the fabric is silk or wool.  Buffered acid free tissue paper is recommended for cotton and linen textiles.

Use of moth-proof potpourri to keep moths, silver fish, crickets, etc. from the clothing.  Put potpourri in a net bags on top of the clothing to form a barrier in the box to keep critters out.  Never use moth balls since they are highly flammable.

If you have the cloths hanging in a closet use padded hangers.  All beaded clothing should be stored flat and never hung up.

In conservation all repairs should be stabilizing repairs not necessary neat.  Silk crepeline can be used for support in repairs either over or under the tear.

When handling the clothes please use a pair of white cotton gloves to keep the oils from your hands from transferring to the garment.

Resource List

The following are just a small list of places to get items for the repair and conservation of your garments.

MAFCA Fashion Publications Fashion Publication from MAFCA

MAFCA Era Fashions Articles Page  – https://www.mafca.com/ef_articles.html

Era Fashions Sewing Patterns for Men, Women, Boys and Girls – https://www.mafca.com/patterns/patterns.html

Link to Fort Worth Model “A” Club Fashion Pages
We hope to add children’s fashions soon.