I’m a bit obsessed with pattern cuttings and have decided that, from now on, when/if I find interesting vintage pattern cuttings at fairs or on old magazines, I will republish them on the site.
So let’s start today with two pattern cuttings (well, they are actually sketches for pattern cuttings in this case, but they will help you making a proper pattern) from the early ‘50s.
One sketch is for a jacket, the other is for a pair of trousers.
Italian fashion designer Jole Veneziani created the two garments for the Spring/Summer 1951 season.
Veneziani was based in Milan and used to have an atelier in Via Montenapoleone 8.
She was actually more famous for her furs (Italian fashion journalist and critic Maria Pezzi dubbed her Jole “velvet paw” Veneziani for the skillful yet delicate way she used to touch the fur designs she created) and, before opening her own fashion house she actually worked for a French fur and leather company. In later years she also became a consultant for many textile companies.
From the ‘50s until the mid-‘70s, quite a few fashion Italian designers created special garments for women’s magazines and published in their pages sketches of the pattern cuttings for those garments.
Readers who were interested in making those designs could also buy the pattern cutting from the magazine (if only some magazines would re-launch this idea and ask a few fashion designers to come up with exclusive patterns for their readers…).
Some magazines even had at the time a Pattern Cutting Department that dealt with such orders.
Veneziani created the jacket and trousers featured in this post for the July 1951 issue of Italian magazine Novità.
The grey linen jacket with a rope print in a rusty orange nuance featured two large pockets and a back-belt with four buttons; the rusty orange linen trousers (sorry - the images are in black and white…) included two large pockets with buttons and Veneziani also suggested in the magazine to try and transform the trousers into a skirt or use different fabrics to recreate the jacket in felt or velvet (I guess this could actually be a good exercise for fashion design students or for blog readers looking for a fun fashion project...).
Click here (View this photo) to see the sketch for the jacket and here (View this photo) for the trousers (the drawings feature names in Italian, but I don’t think you will have any problems in figuring out what they mean: “davanti” means “front”; “retro” means “back”; “martingala” means “back-belt”...). You will need roughly 2 metres of fabric for the trousers and 3 metres and 20 cm for the jacket. Remember to try and re-elaborate the patterns a bit to add some variations and to make the challenge more fun.
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