Friday, June 18, 2010

Dress to Bring Out Your Personality

I've noted before how I rarely read modern magazines these days but how I love to lose myself in vintage ephemera.  To be fair, while many of the dresses and styles in 30s magazines are refreshingly different from those in contemporary glossies, the content of many vintage periodicals is not far off from that of, say, Cosmo.  To illustrate: in the April-May 1935 Hollywood Pattern Book magazine/catalogue, there is a section entitled "Dress to Bring Out Your Personality" that shows five different types of women, exemplified by five Hollywood starlets. The article encourages the reader to categorize herself as one of the five types.  Sound familiar?  I, of course, would love to hear from you about which type you think you are (there's something fun about these types of articles, isn't there? Think of it as part of a Friday night virtual slumber party).  Don't be surprised if you find yourself feeling like several or all of the labels would aptly describe you!  I certainly feel like my style could fit into more than one category (sadly, I doubt I'll ever be a demure blonde).  Sorry about image quality. ONE day I'll get a new scanner!














17 comments:

Marie said...

What a fabulous old article! I loved it, I do like articles like these, but sometimes I can't find a fit since I am a bit eclectic. But I did think I could match myself in this one to vivacious personality- I even liked the makeup tips for that one!
Marie @ Lemondrop ViNtAge

Nancy said...

Love the article...but until now, I didn't know there was a "demure blonde" phenotype....I thought as a blonde, my only choice was "dumb." LOL!

Does it mean I'm schizophrenic if I like all of the clothes that all of the different personalities are wearing? Double LOL!

reilly said...

I think I'm the "demure blonde" mixed with "young and merry" and a touch of the last one, haha. Surprisingly I really didn't like the outfits picked out for Mrs. Hepburn or Mrs. Del Rio, and the personality aspect doesn't go with me either!

JGO said...

I'm definitely the woman of mystery, not because I'm mysterious, but because I'm Mexican American just like Dolores Del Rio. I admire her work and style. Wait a minute...I think Dolores Del Rio was born in Mexico, not America. Ahh! I'll have to check...

JGO said...

Dolores Del Rio was born in Durango, Mexico. Unlike me...born in Texas..Oh well, I love the style. Specially the one on make-up. ^_^

Andi B. Goode said...

That's so neat! Although, they don't have 'socially awkward' which is where I fit in. ;]
-Andi x

Miss Matilda said...

I'm greedy, I want to be them all ;-)

xxx

LatoshaDelapena0209嘉瑜 said...
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Miss Rayne said...

While I would really like to be International Woman of Mystery and young, being English and over 40 precludes me from these categories, I'm brunette so no to demure blonde too. My character is quiet and I'm not a great talker so out goes Vivacious, which leaves Woman of the World but alas only be default! How boring the world would be if there really were only 5 types of women.

Stefanie Valentine said...

Ooh I love things like this, and I love all the outfits too! I think I am a Woman of Mystery (I like to consider myself mysterious haha!) with Young and Merry thrown in!

Debi said...

Love it! I love the clothes they picked for the demure blond best...but I'm not demure and I'm definitely not blonde :-) hehehe

superheidi said...

A picture is worth a thousand words so I may skip the silly text and enjoy the wonderful pictures. I think the hairstyles are the best.
Gosh, how far we drifted from this elegance... Nowadays glossies are such a bore.

sarah said...

So fun! I think I would probably be Young and Merry, mainly because those outfits look more like what I'd have chosen, and I am a natural eyebrows and makeup kind of girl. ;)

MarieBayArea said...

well, i'm not blonde, but i think i'm quite a bit demure. i'm usually a Young(ish) and Merry type, although i like to be mysterious every once in a blue moon, and sometimes i'm even vivacious. what i'd really love to be is a Woman of the World. now wouldn't that be fun?

Emily said...

Thanks for sharing this!! I really enjoyed reading through the different types and their styles. :)

Sarsaparilla said...

I want to be Katharine Hepburn, so I'll just pretend that I have a vivacious personality. :-)

Late on a Sunday night this is exactly the kind of mindless, frivolous fun I was looking for. Thank you!

S

BaronessVonVintage said...

Hehe, glad you enjoyed this.

For the record, I think I enjoyed the Young and Merry outfits best, but age-wise, I'm an automatic woman of the world. ;)