 Good afternoon and welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us. Today we are delighted to welcome Ivan Sayers, who will be speaking about the fashions of the West Bank of Pioneers, which is about 1873 to about 1912, a little bit up into the First World War. So, thank you all for coming. My name is Kendris Makamoto. I am the Customer Experience Librarian here at West Bank of the Memorial Library. While I recognize that we are all in different places today, I would like to acknowledge that for those of us on the North Shore, we are on the traditional ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Slewa Tooth, and Squamish Nations. Textiles have long played an important part in the cultural history of this region. Last week we were honored to have a presentation on Coast Salish weaving by Squamish Nations Hereditary Chief Janice George and her husband Buddy Joseph. I am so grateful to live on these beautiful lands, and it was truly an honor to learn more about the rich textile tradition of the Coast Salish peoples. Today we are delighted to welcome fashion historian Ivan Sayers. Ivan has a degree in classical studies from UEC, and he began his museum career as a volunteer at the Museum of Vancouver in 1970. He served as the curator of history from 1976 to 1990, and then he left to become a consultant and lecturer. For the last 50 years, he has been producing lectures, exhibitions, and fashion shows on historic clothing. And social history for museums and organizations across Western Canada and the Western United States. Mr. Sayers has collected costumes since he was a teenager and now has one of the finest privately owned collections of period clothing in Canada, with men's, women's and children's clothing and accessories dating from 1690 to the present. Ivan has received awards from the Western Canadian Designers and Fashion Association, the Vancouver Historical Society, and was given a Distinguished Service Award by the British Columbia Museum Association. Ivan has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Quauntland Polytechnic University. In 2016, Ivan was honored by the Museum of Vancouver with the distinction of curator emeritus. Ivan has also received the BC Achievement Award in his contribution to this community. And without further ado, I would like to welcome Ivan Sayers. Validating to know that people are interested, but also that you're still out there because it's been a long time since we've been able to do any regular programs. And I was fearing that I was a has been already. But I think we're going to fight back against COVID and its consequences and we're going to get back to normal eventually and this is a step in that direction. So today what we're going to do is talk about what men and women would have worn in West Vancouver, as you heard from the early part of the 1870s until more or less the time of the First World War. There are things to keep in mind. First of all, it was a rural community and now it's easily accessible because of the bridges and so on. But in the old days, the only way to get here was either walk a walk all the way around broad inlet and then try and work your way back here, or by boat. And so the community was cut off, but close. So there were restrictions, but sometimes with restrictions there are also advantages because you didn't have the advantage of the natural forest. The wildlife, the plant life, all of these things. It's remarkable place to be and to live. And now of course it's incredibly prestigious neighborhood, but regardless of prestige or whatever it's still beautiful. And those are important things. Because it was essentially a rural community, the clothing that was worn tended to be very modest and very practical. And at the same time, there was a sense of community there was a relationship to fashion that was important. People could and did get dressed up for formal occasions like weddings. Going into Vancouver or perhaps to New Westminster or even to North Vancouver to go to performances, parties, receptions and so on weddings, again wedding receptions. So there was often an opportunity to have good fashionable clothing. Fashion, excuse me, fashion is anywhere in the world there's a fashionable population. I have fashionable clothing from South America from Australia, from the 1880s Australia from China in the 1890s 1860s stress from India, all this kind of stuff. So, when we talk about West Vancouver in the 1870s, it's not unreasonable to talk about fashion. We have chosen 1872 1873, because it was the date of the first construction of the first home, first building in the, in the broader sense of Western kind of architecture supposed to traditional first nations architecture. So, that's our, that's our jumping off point. So if we can have our first outfit please our first image. Normally, I very rarely use a reproduction dresses, but I wanted to use something that somehow referred to British Columbia history and fashion, not necessarily specific North Van or West Van and me, but we had to, we had to make some compromises. So, first of all, this image here is typical for fashionable young men in the middle part of the beginning part of the 1870s. So, if a man we're living here and wanted to be fashionable. This is the sort of thing he would aspire to. He would wear a long outfit comprising primarily a jacket trousers and a vest. He would wear long underwear, most likely if he had that, or he would wear linen shirt with long tails to it that would function as underwear. He would wear the shirt could easily have had a detachable collar that was held in place with studs, and he would wear a cravat. Actually derives from a kind of neck cloth worn by Croatian mercenary soldiers in this period and slightly earlier. And those men were considered to be extremely glamorous and attractive. And other men wanted to be associated with that category, and they would wear fancy neck ties, and they were called cravats. So a little bit of trivia for you, but it still ties into what fashionable men would have aspired to here. So boots, stockings, gloves, handbag, not handbag, wallets and all the usual sorts of things, but the look was supposed to be mature. You wanted to look well established, successful as a business person or a tradesman or professional, but you wanted to look at least 35, 45 years old, because that was sort of sexy in its way because that was the category, the age category of a man who was in a position to support a wife and family. Before that you're too young, you haven't established yourself, and you're dealing with a culture that has a tradition where only the male family member would work outside the home for an income, a cash income. So it was important to look mature, dignified, successful. Women were supposed to be ornamental objects. They had function as well, but oftentimes especially in the household I just described, the women were expected to illustrate family position, family wealth. The dresses are often for high fashion, very, very complicated, very elaborate. In the 1870s, the dresses were actually reacting to the hoop skirts of the 1860s. In the 60s the skirts were very plain and triangular or sort of dome shaped to a degree, but massive great splashes of color the chemical dyes had been introduced at the end of the 1850s. And the color was the principal decoration of these enormous, very, very simple skirts, but worn over big hoops. The end of the 1860s, in 1870 the Franco-Prussian war devastated the French economy. So Paris was destitute financially, and the Parisian women started taking older dresses and cutting them down and making two into one. Oftentimes two different fabrics in the same color were used, some kind of combination like that. The hoops were also had finally come to be considered as hazardous because they were dangerous, they took up room and they were wasteful and all sorts of things like that. They were a bit of the hoops at the end of the 1860s. By 1870 the complex combination of remade garments that were new fabrics being used as well, but often simulating remade. So you'd have a dress that was blue but with pink ruffles. You would have a dress that was a brown fabric that was clear, but another brown fabric that had prints on it or something like that. And oftentimes the skirts really hadn't changed so much in their cut, so the women would take the full skirts of the 1860s, pull the sides up and pull them to the back, drape them up and expose the petticoats. And before long the petticoats were designed to match the same fabric or color combination as the rest of the outfit, and you have the sense of layering. So the dress has become quite complicated. So the slide you're looking at now you see skirts that have multiple layers of other skirts. So it implies wealth, but it isn't necessarily the case. It's a practical aspect to it. So if we can have a look at the next slide please. And as I put this into the program, because it's the oldest Canadian well it's the one of the best Canadian dresses I have from this period. This has two different shades of green. It's an online dye but this is also the arsenic green that is so notorious now because it poisoned you if you wore it consistently or except in a bedroom with arsenic color, color in the wallpaper and so on so this belongs to Mrs. McMaster whose husband started McMaster University. The story that came with the dress is that it was worn in 1868. At a reception Montreal given for Edward the seventh when he was Prince of Wales. This is not likely the case because he wasn't in Montreal in 1868, and the dress really stylistically is about 1871 or 72. And this establishes our precedence for now. Beautiful dress and you can see that it is layered up to create the impression of multiple layers of fabric. Maybe we have the next one please. These dresses needed to be supported there to give them that shape it's not just bulk of layer and petty cuts. So we have a shift, which is what you see covering the upper part of the body. We have her bloomers which cover her from the hips to the to the shin. And then we have the corset. The corset is one that one belongs to the Provincial Museum in Victoria. It has a much boning in it, but the principal bone is the spoon bus, which goes down the front of the corset. It's like an old First Nations grease spoon if you know what they look like, but a very simple handle and then it has a sort of oval oval shaped bowl to it. And in this kind of corset that bowl would fit over the stomach, and it spreads the pressure out a bit so it's a little bit more comfortable this was an innovation of the 1870s and thought to be very intelligent and clever. The bus is steel, but it's slightly flexible so it's not as horrible as it sounds, and it's flexible so that when the woman bends over, it will bend with her right at the waistline. So what happens is that it will dig into your abdomen and cause serious medical problems over a period of years, but it keeps the waistline small and that's its function. The bold part of that bus makes the stomach protrude slightly. And in order to compensate for that because it can be seen as unattractive to be too fleshy in the stomach. The back end of the of the bustle frame the wire frame is important. It adds volume. So by contrast, it makes the stomach look smaller. So hoop skirts could be as much as four or five feet across at the hem. And this was hazardous when you're working through the bump bush you can't walk. There are stories of women here in the bush with these hoop skirts, constantly getting tricked because they couldn't see where their feet were going. There was a woman who actually walked to Barkerville in the 1860s in a hoop skirt. She took the hoop off the last day of the walk, because the snow was so deep, the hoops were up in her armpits. So apparently it's documented I don't know if it's true or not but it's a good story regardless. So this is the compromise. They're making the skirts smaller for economic reasons but also for practical reasons. So this is an international style. It's not unique to Western Canada, what have you. Maybe have the next slide please. This is the man who ran the, the first person to run the point at consent lighthouse and his wife, his wife, he is Edwin Woodward and the wife's name was am. And see his outfit somber dignified. He looks like he might be as old as 22 or something like that. But he is manly. He wants to be seen as a responsible mature person, and he dresses accordingly. Even though to us he is obviously a young man, he still wants the respect that would come with maturity. The wife looks in this photograph she looks like she's maybe 16 or 17. It might be she's a bit older they came with their infant child, the child is a year old. Her hair is pulled back from her face. And this was the style of the of the day, because the hairstyle pulled back into that large one was actually supposed to reflect the shape of the bustle of the skirt you get harmony you get a repeated form. Her neckline is high. She should also look mature even if she's a young woman and also modest. This is a daytime dress. You don't show any skin in an unnecessary way. And in fact, all of her you would ever see would be hands and her face. The rest of hers to be covered up. You can see her shoulders are quite sloped. That slope is to emphasize her femininity, which is demonstrated as weakness, physical weakness. It doesn't mean that she's not hardy that she doesn't have stamina that she's not used to doing heavy labor, but to be fashionable. She should look vulnerable, so that the man gets to be feel strong and necessary physically capable. Could we have the next look please. This was the reality for many women though. This is actually an English photograph of a woman who worked in a coal mine. It's severe and pretty tough, but because she's working in a man's world, doing a man's labor, probably for not the same amount of wage that a man would have got because again they would have seen that she was weaker, physically weaker, but she is wearing trousers. And there are examples of women wearing trousers long before this, but it was never associated with fashion. It was always about occupation, or sometimes with the military. It was a woman who worked with war in wars that were man style clothing, either for convenience or for as a secret way of becoming a soldier there were women who cross dressed in order to take up the responsibilities of the soldier. Could we have the next please. These are two fellows this is actually the 1890s but for our time period it really doesn't matter too much because men's clothing changed so little especially work clothing. They would have gone to work probably wearing a shirt, probably without a collar but not necessarily for sure. I've already made sure had a collar attached it was referred to as a blouse. Excuse me, which now is a word associated with women's clothing but at the time, men and boys could have worn blouses. And then under the shirt he would have had perhaps long johns or combination of an under shirt or under trousers. Usually in a dark color dark gray almost black was the most popular because I am told, I was told by a very old man that very old men told him their underwear was always black because they could wear throughout the whole winter with never having to wash it. Not a good plan, not if you want to have friends. However, that's that's a there's a practical aspect to you can understand. They're wearing trousers that come to the natural waste they are not pleated front they're flat front and they're supported by braces. If you are a Canadian you wear braces if you're an American you wear suspenders. I don't know why but apparently that's the code. I think suspenders sounds more descriptive to tell you the truth. However, the, their clothing their, their work clothes were probably for the most part would, although someone did question about other fabrics and certainly heavy canvases were worn cotton denim jean. These fabrics were worn and heavy corduroy was extremely popular for work wear. It's a long way. It's serviceable washable and usually cotton so it has that the advantages associated with that. One of the reasons I like this photograph so much is the fellow who's standing on the springboard on the left hand side has his dog sitting right in front of them. Supervising, not looking terribly comfortable I suspect. Maybe maybe have an excellent place. Children playing. I didn't bring children's clothing with me today I've got a couple of photographs that make reference, not for the most part the children are going to dress as if they were miniature adults. There's a question of convenience so children can run and play. They are wearing very lightweight shirt style or blouse style tops. They might have a jacket on a serviceable hat and again serviceable trousers with braces barefoot for the summer. It is difficult in a place that has a lot of bush and rocks and things like that here but if you are familiar with all the beaches. Well all of our beaches were actually rocks they were rocks and stones. All the sand that you see in the public beaches now has been placed there by the municipalities. So it creates a nice resort but it's not reality for the next one. So here we have the reality of working where again, this is an American illustration here really the two fellows on the left hand side are miners. We saw a woman in England mining wearing pretty much the same thing in the 1870s this is the 1880s into the 90s. So serviceable wear, very ordinary, but very rare actually to survive these garments were worn out and thrown out. So you can imagine that this, this is, these are artifacts which become difficult to find. The native daughters British Columbia who operate the Hastings Hall Mill store museum in Vancouver in Kitsilano recently found a pair of very old, excuse me denim trousers in their attic. So that was actually within the last week. They haven't, excuse me they haven't had time to do the recent research yet. But of course it would be very interesting if they turned out to be from one of the major companies. And the major company, especially in the United States, the company credited with the use of denim for the first time is Levi Strauss and the other illustration shows an advertisement for Levi Strauss in the 1890s. Serviceable, washable, long lasting. The color blue was picked because they had an overabundance of the blue fabric available. It's actually originally a French fabric. Coming from the city of Neem in in France. That's why it's called denim, the fabric of 12 denim was the original name, the fabric of Neem. And Jean is also originally a French fabric. Maybe we have the next fabric next. And there we go. Okay, now this is a photograph of the Tunnel family in Yale. So, again, it's not westbound but it's rural British Columbia, and a place that took some effort to get to. You had to go by horse in this day and age that day and age. This is about 1878. So we're still in the 70s, but just barely. You can see that the men are all dressed in a fairly formal way, even though they are in a remote mining community. There is one woman in the photograph who is behind the fence standing between the young boy and the man on the right hand side. She is going to be wearing a dress which is something along the line of the two that we have here. Now this dress is a reproduction and normally I don't use reproductions in my programs, but this one is chosen for a specific reason. The original dress belonged to Lady Crease. Now Lady Crease's husband was the first Attorney General of British Columbia. And the title was given primarily because of his position, not through an inherited life of privilege and whatnot. And the few pictures I've ever seen of her, she was shortish and plumpish and very, very sweet. I usually describe her as everyone's perfect grandmother. Excuse me. This dress was made for the copy was made for a specific model for us when we celebrated the, we did a fashion show for the sesquicentennial of Canada several years ago and this was made for a much taller woman. But it shows a dress made with a variety of different skirts. Now, it looks like a single unit but there is the front of the skirt which has pleats along the bottom. There is, are we getting all of it in there? Okay. I just want to see that part. And then the central back panel does not have the pleats. So this implies one skirt, a separate skirt at the back. This skirt is the original skirt drawn up. And this all happens when they got rid of the hoops, drawing the skirt up and back out of the way. And then there's another separate skirt panel hanging down the back. They've taken the big skirts of the 1860s. They've gotten rid of the hoop. They take all the fabric back and up and we see petticoats but now reconditioned to imitate the rest of the skirt. This was made for us by a historical tailor named Parker McIntosh who normally does men's reproduction things for military events and recreation events and so on. But as a kind of to me he made that dress up. And then this one is closer to what you see in the photograph of the woman beside the behind the fence. Same concept, but a little bit later, the skirt getting smaller and narrower and closer to the body, much more functional. There's still a sense of layering because the back is draped up and in various ways to create the impression of over skirts that have been pulled back. They're held in place with strings and whatnot to create this effect. The body panels extremely long. The way sign is defined by shape, but not by a scene. And this, this creates a different emphasis pockets on the outside of the dress become really really popular, because the skirts are getting in place that if you had a hidden pocket as they did in the earlier decades, it would make a lump when it had something in it. So your pockets move from the inside to the out, and then they become ornamental are used as decoration. I knew we were going to have some people from the Colton community come today and I realized when I was putting this together I didn't have a lot of prints in fact I had no prints. So I put this one in. I was going to show maternity dress actually but I substituted it for this one, because I was making the point about two different colors or two different fabrics being used. So I put the polka dots here, and then strikes these, these bands, and the bands that you see on the sweep are strike fabric, it's the same weight, all of it same features of the fabric only printed in a different way. Certainly these are the kinds of garments that work their way into patchwork post later on. So strikes there, and these little polka dots that you see polka dots were extremely popular in the 1870s they like the probability of polka dots. But oftentimes you'd have a polka dot and fabric, a company of plain fabric in one of the other states to colors. Polka means in the Polish way, different people interpret this in different ways but there is a traditional kind of pottery from Poland that is bright blue with white dots on it. And the polka dot formula in print fabric comes from that that surrounded tradition. Alright, so let's have the next image please and see where we are. This is a photograph taken in Peterborough, Ontario in the 1880s, this is 1884 I believe, and it's a man in what they would have called a lounge suit, meaning that it's casual, informal as opposed to tail codes, morning dress, things like that. It's textured, it appears not to be black although it would have been a dignified color, gray perhaps brown, a fairly medium dark blue and so on. In the earlier time period oftentimes the three pieces could be in different textures or patterns, but all within the limits of one color range, but here now this is sometimes referred to as as ditto is where everything matched. It's a summer outfit as far as we can tell because he has a boulder hat beside him on the table, voters were strong, and they were meant to be one bouldering boating, because if they blew off, they would float and you could get them back. The trousers do not have a crease in them, they will not have a crease usually until about 1900 or even after that is variable to a degree, but the trousers were made without seams. I'm sorry, not without seams, but without creases, and they were stored folded side to side, rather than front to back or whatever, I don't know how to explain that properly, but you get the idea. But tailoring was important. Every man wanted a piece of clothing that fitted him and made him look mature and being respectable is the same thing as being respected, I guess, that's the idea. And the hair, very, very important, either full beards or at least a mustache and often cybers, again to emphasize the maturity of the man. All right, thank you. So this is when these simpler dresses, these narrower dresses, get out of hand. This is an English illustration out of the English women's domestic magazine I think from 1880. The dresses gradually get tighter and tighter as they're getting away from the exaggeration because fashion is always an action followed by a reaction. 1860s the skirts could be six feet across and even longer at the back. They want to get away from a mom or grandma war, human nature. So very narrow, and the skirts actually have tapes sewn inside the side seams of the lining of the skirt at the level of the thigh, the knee, and the ankle, and ties the front of the skirt right close to the legs, which inhibits your movement, but it's seen as charming. You are debilitated by your clothing, which means you must be very, very important, because you don't do anything so sit around and look wonderful. It's a nice fantasy I guess I think it gets very boring very quick. But the truth is, this is fashion, we're not talking about rational thought. We have the next one, please. So this is roughly the same period just this is out of an American publication this is out of Godi's magazines. Again, very elaborate, very slim fitting, long bodices, the waistline is again accomplished by shape, rather than by decoration. I'm going to put this one in because I want to be sure to mention to you that the sources of fashion were very, very important. Vancouver was in its fledgling years as well at this time. The tasting saw mill was in business at the foot of Don Levy Street in the 1860s. The mill in Port Moody in North Vancouver was already in business at this time. And certainly there would have been logging going on here as well, which means there was communication. There was the opportunity for the mail to be delivered and mail to be sent. There were not magazines like this Godi's magazine was certainly available in places like Victoria, they would have sold it in New Westminster in in corner shops and that sort of thing, but also through the mail people got information from from the homeland, whether that be Eastern Canada or the United Kingdom, or what have you, and paying attention to fashion was a pastime. You can do it to a degree, but it was an important part of, of daily life, and you have to keep in mind as well that women's experience was quite limited, at least restricted by the conventions of the day, and certainly talking about wardrobe was something important and talked about it to believe me they talked about looking good everybody wants to look good. There's nothing wrong with looking good, unless it's the only thing you think about in which case there's something wrong with your priorities. However, alright so maybe have the next one please. This is the kind of foundation that government that was necessary for the dresses I've just shown you and certainly the polka dot one. This is a government that belongs to the RBC and the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria. It's what's called a Turner, it's a kind of bustle. The center front is to your left, the hoops, the white bands that you see are actually soft tapes. We wired them for this exhibition. But those are the ties that go around your legs and tie your legs together. And the bustle part is all bone horizontally, and it sticks out. It's enough to support the skirt and give it some emphasis at the back foolishness, but to a degree I guess it's frivolous and foolish but but it has it's it's good things as well. We have the next one please. Just to show a parallel this is a painting done in Paris in about 1880 this is by Manet. Is it Manet? Okay, I wasn't sure a moment ago so just want to make sure. Okay, so this is based on this time indicated by a belt, but look at all the buttons down the front as the dress I showed you has a lot of buttons down the front. This is about emphasizing the vertical. In the earlier addresses, the shoulders of the dress were very, very broad and that sleeves seem that you can see there at the crest of the shoulder actually was lower and it came down to almost the bicep to that's the roundness, the vulnerability, the weakness of the of the female shoulder, but here it's about comfort to a degree but it's also about the new look of slenderness that black bow is universal for the period right at the base of the neck. Look at the guy. He's dressed in dark, very well upholstered. It's almost like a piece of armor, and he has a big full pushy beard. He's not a boy. He's a man. That's the equation. And if you look at her hat. I will show you one right here. That's along that line. Okay, if we can have a look at this hat. Remember that one. Well, we look at this one. It's gray silk satin with flowers and lace on it would have been worn over the postage the big knot of hair at the back, the back of her head and again, imitating the curve of the bustle pad. Now, this aesthetically doesn't match the dresses I've shown you the original wedding dress was gray and blue silk top to the two different fabrics, two different colors of the same fabric. Unfortunately, the person I bought the hat from told me that they'd spelled honey on the dress and they had to throw it away. So be careful with your honey. Now, these dresses as I've said, they got so tight that they were unmanageable. This is not a good thing. So what they did in order to make the dresses a little bit more functional they made a concession, and they took the hem of the skirt, and they made it broader. But when they did that they didn't just make it broad at the hem. They took the back of the skirt at the hips and pull the whole thing outward. So she looks like the back end of a horse. It's the easiest way to remember. They thought she looked like a swan. The whole body of the skirt was the body of the swan and her little tiny willowy waistline was the neck of the swan gracefully curving up. And of course your head is the is the ornament on the top. You can see the woman in the background is leaning forward, examining something in a shop display. She's looking in a posture called the Grecian bend. And if you can see it on the extreme right of the photo of the image. There is another woman doing the same. And by doing that they're actually elevating the bustle, they're lifting it up. They're drawing attention to the bustle pad because it is the principal design feature, and it's important to show off how fashionable you are. They thought they looked like swans. If you're not careful, you look more like a duck, and this is a hazard, but women of a certain mind took pains to be graceful. You plied it across the floor. If you walked heavily, you would bounce around and there were many many cartoons and caricatures at the time, making fun of women wearing this kind of garment, but without success. Now this illustration is an English one, I think it's either English or French, but there were Canadian variations. Maybe have the next image please. These are two probably European dresses. This exhibition was done at the incredibly impressive fashion institute in Kyoto. They have one of the world's best collection of fashionable clothing there. It is absolutely spectacular. They don't often show the collection anymore because they've had financial problems. I gather, but this shows you the back end of the horse look. And it also shows you that they show off best when seen from the side. The angle of perception is part of the design. These went all through the bustle period through the 1870s and 80s. There are the three kinds of bustles, the large, the small, and then the horse end. And that's not a technical term, so you can't reuse that, but it's the most conspicuous way of remembering it because it's foolish. You have to be seen from the side or from the back in order to show that off. And that has consequences in the next time period. You will also notice perhaps the slight roundness over the stomach of the woman on the left hand side. And again, that's created by the kind of course that she's using. Maybe have the next image please. This is the formula for the underwear for this. These are foundation garments. They are foundations because they are like architecture. You're building a structure here. So she has her shift, which is what we see as the shoulder straps and the bust cover. And then she has her bloomers on under from the lower part of her figure. And then she has a heavily, heavily boned and starch corset on these corsets were usually actually built on or formed on steel forms, and then steamed and allowed to dry in that shape so they could be solid. They were often sifted by steel, but often with well bow. And of course the well hunting industry was massive and that's why we have so few wheels wells today. The bustle pad, I found in Paul River, it has a horsehair pad, right at the small of the back, and then below it are three tubes, which are actually springs. So if you sit down, the springs will rise up, and you can actually sit down. You have to be sitting on the front of your chair because there has to be room behind you for the rest of your dress. So it's, it's functional, but only just. So if I may let's have a look at the next slide. Okay, now we need to bounce around just a tiny bit, because I want to show you a dress of the 1880s in reality. So this dress here is a typical 1880s dress. Oh, I'm sorry. We needed about there. Now I want to be able to show you the whole figure and the tables in the way a little bit. If I put it on the table will that work? What do you think? Just to be dramatic here. That got it in? Okay, now it also shows you that there's a void space under the bustle. Oftentimes these dresses will have boning that goes around here, and there's ties that go in behind the legs. So they hold the back of the skirt out, the earlier ties held the front in. This is heavy, heavy velvet. It looks like a poultry velvet, but this was a very popular fabric in its day. And in fact, we joke and we say the more this is the upholstery school of design, the more you look like a chest to fill the more attractive you are. The bust maybe looks a bit weird to us, but that's how they dress themselves. Of course, it pushed all the flesh of the chest up, and there was a sense that this curve should reflect that curve. So this is comparatively modest. This is the reality of fashion, but sometimes the back bustle was extended to 36 inches. They were just huge, but that would have been in a very formal pretentious kind of situation. This was about everyday fashion. I got this dress from a woman named Linda McAdam that used to live up in Dunbar. She's in Sydney on the island now, her and her pup. And this was a dress her mother collected in Chilliwack. Excuse me. When I got the dress home, and this was 10 years ago, I think it was nine years ago that I got the dress. I went looking through this book that I have, which is a catalog of patterns put out by Butterick in 1886, the spring and summer of 1886. I found this at the Croatian vintage or antique sale years ago. There will be more sales eventually. This was when they were still in use at the, still happening at the Croatian center in East Vancouver. Anyway, I found the original there, and I realized that it had the name Ines O'Reilly on the front of it, and it was originally out of the Point Hallows House Museum in Victoria. Now, when Ines sold the house to the provincial government to be made into a museum, she had some things that she felt were her own property, and it might be that this is how it survived out of the museum, otherwise someone stole it from the museum. Anyway, when I got it home and realized that it should be in that museum, I phoned a curator, Lord Hammond, at the Provincial Museum, and I said, look, Lord, I've got this thing, and you should have it. And so they agreed to give me my money back on the understanding they would give me a facsimile copy. Spring and summer of 1886 in Victoria, and there is that dress. And this dress is quite noticeable, because it always, it looks like the Old West to me because it looks like it's made out of buckskin, and it's got all this lacing all over it. It looks like something sort of out of the real pioneer days, but here is that exact dress in its original conception by an artist. Buttner was an American company, but their products were always available in Canada, and they did do specific publications for Canada as well. And how the dress worked its way into Tilewac, whether it was a worn there originally, I don't know, but it's intriguing, and that's pretty good evidence to me. In addition to that, one of my great novelties is that I've had the magic handbag already and it is truly matching. And this I got in the Salvation Army thrift store in Vancouver of 12,000 years. Okay, now, so the next one we were going to look at was the 1890s. So, this is a photograph of Hannah Maynard, who is the woman on the left standing on the left hand side. Mrs. Maynard is also the woman sitting on the right hand side. Mrs. Maynard is also the two women in the portraits, which are being displayed. And I think she, I think she's the woman in the back, yes, at the back of the picture as well. She was a professional photographer. The business was in her husband's name, but she did most of the work, and she eventually got the credit she was due. On top of it all, she had the most amazing sense of humor. The little boy sitting beside her is her grandson, and the statue is also her grandson. So she played with photography and with art and all sorts of good things. She was wearing a classic mid 1890s dress in all of her pictures there. And this is important because of our, we're looking for examples of fashionable dress in BC and potentially what they people would have worn here. So this dress, I bought in Gaston in an antique shop. Oh, I don't know how many years ago. And if we want to talk about what women would have worn in West Vancouver, in this time period on a daily basis, this is the best bet. The apron makes it look more glamorous because it's a privilege apron and I picked that on purpose because I wanted to make it pretty, I suppose. It's not that the dress isn't pretty, but it's so understated that it doesn't have a lot of eye appeal for most people. But this is actually a rare kind of garment because these things don't survive. They get worn out thrown out or cut up for, excuse me, other purposes. Natural body, natural waistline, the skirt, it is a dress. It's considered a two-piece dress even though it's in separate pieces. The bodice is designed to come over and cover the waistband so you get that sense of unity. The dress is very understated, the structure compared to what we've seen so far. The upholstered school of design sort of disappears or at least it's toned down. And here we have stark simplicity. A-line skirt with five petticoats in it, a small bustle pad. She still wears the other formula for underwear. The bodice is fitted. It has darts under the bust to give it shape. The design feature, the thing which is extreme, is the sleeves. So they've gone from complexity to simplicity, but they wanted something that is distinctive. And that's why we have these big sleeves. The sleeves can be enormous. These are fairly big, but they're not as big as high, high, high fashion. There's actually a tape in this instance of scrappy fabric that, not even a real woven tape, but they've taken scraps of fabric and they've drawn a tension between that part of the sleeve and the arm side here to keep the puff up. In this fashion, they would have worn pillows or stiffening in the sleeves to get them to do that. The angle of perception has changed as well. Now, because they want to show those sleeves off, you have to look at her directly from the front or directly from the back, because that's the design feature. That's how we know she's fashionable. This is all generated by a huge international depression that starts in 1893, and suddenly nobody has any money. Economies come to a standstill. There's unemployment, internationally trade is cut down. So you do, you go to simplicity. It's cheaper. It's more functional. And it's sober in a time when people are worried. And that's the logic behind it. It's a great dress, though. It cost me $8. So I think that's that sort of reflects on something too far away when it was new, it didn't cost that much to tell you the truth. I probably got that in about 1973. All right, so moving right along. Let's have a look. This is a woman posing for her photograph seen directly from the back. This is about 1896, 97. The pink dress I just showed you was probably 1995, 96. This is the next step along because the puff sleeves are a bit smaller. Excuse me. You can see that the skirt is pretty much the same. It's sort of conical. This is appropriate for this style and period. They use lots of layering. This is modest. You're not supposed to really see any natural form that's supposed to be heavily disguised. That is the hollow tree in Stanley Park that she is standing in front of. So this is, this is local, and it's fashionable. This is exactly the sort of thing. It's a daytime outing sort of thing so if that woman is in the park, and she could walk down to the waterfront and get in a boat and be rode even across the inlet to get to north fan or she might have been a west enemy. She might have even come from west, but dressed up for a day in the city. This is also 1890s. This is a photograph taken in Ontario. It's a mother in the middle with all of her daughters. And it's almost indistinguishable, which is the older woman, because they are all dressing in a way which we think of as matronly. They have the high dog collar. This is all about modesty, but it's also about preserving the impression of a perfect physique. As we age, we tend to get a little bit loose in the skin under the chin, perhaps the texture of our skin on our arms. So the only part of you that is ever exposed is the face and the hands. We saw that all this all through this time period. So maturity and modesty are always an issue in Victorian fashion. We'll see the next one. Yes, please. So here are some gentlemen tailors in the 1890s. And this is this is probably what you'd expect to see here in Westman. Anybody who had a small business, certainly a business that didn't involve too many female customers. These are guys working in their shop, so not exposed to the public. The fellows are sitting cross-legged on their workbench. This is what you did if you were a tailor and kept the work clean. The floors were dirty or covered with lint or what have you. It was way to keep your garments fresh. So, theoretically, they should have if they were working out front, they would have had their detachable collars on and they would have had neck wear and their buttons on their vests would have absolutely been done up, and they should have been wearing jackets. But this is casual wear for late occupational pastimes. So this is a compromise. We have the next one, please. Now we have a true local event here. Another very young man and his bride. This is the marriage of Naby Jack's daughter, Mary Thomas, to John Finley in about 1903. I think it's a little bit earlier. I think it's maybe as early as 1901, but it's a circa. She was related through several, a couple of generations to Chief Capolano. So this is a significant fashionable wedding in West Vancouver. He's dressed in a somber, mature, important way as a young man would, and she is in a romantic dress. The sleeve is tight to the wrist and this indicates post 1890s. And the slight fullness at the wrist, you can see it behind his head, her arm is around his shoulder. But if you can see the other sleeve as well, that indicates a sleeve of 1901 or 1902. And I hate to be specific. I don't hate to be specific right now. I like to show up. I'll show you why. This is evidence. This is proof in the next couple of slides. Before we get into that, though, I just wanted to, as an afterthought, I brought this today to show you. I bought this from a young hippie guy in about 1973, who was decided that he was not spiritual enough and he decided he was going to save, sell off all of his worldly goods. He wasn't a First Nations man, but he had three of these jackets. This was the only one that was really old. And this one is moose hide as far as I know. I think it's salish, but I think it's interior salish or, in fact, it might be from Southern Alberta. Moose hide, I like this for various reasons. I like it because it's a beautiful object and I've had it for 40 years or more. But it's a nice combination. It's moose hide done in the traditional First Nations technique. The beadwork, the motifs are traditional. The old days, they were often done with porcupine quill cut and made into sort of bead things done with fabric embroideries and whatnot. But these beads are most likely Czechoslovakian, sent throughout the world for as trade things, certainly, but actually used in the fashion industry in the broader sense. And the fasteners are not buttons, they're harness clips, so we've got the world of farm or the horse world there as well. Something that I don't know that people always know, but the fringes that are so often associated with First Nations clothing. It had a practical aspect. It's not just decoration. The idea was, and I know it hardly rains here at all, but the idea here is that as you are in the rain, the fringes will cause the water to shed more rapidly. It works with the viscosity, so you stay drier, longer. And there is a practical aspect to it, even though it is ornamental. In Pierre Burton's book on the Klondike Goldrush, there is a man in one of the photographs wearing one of these. It's almost identically the same. In fact, for a while, I thought it was the same jacket, and that's in about 1898. So this is, who knows, but I'm assuming it's 1890s to about 1905 or there are votes. And my biggest disappointment is it won't fit me, but I shouldn't be wearing it anyway. It's an artifact. Maybe have the next back to our next image, please. Okay. In 1898, a French woman invented a straight fronted corset. And this was considered to be a huge improvement because the boss at the center front of the corset was straight now and it didn't bend when you bent forward. It didn't intrude into your abdomen and cause medical problems. Instead, however, because it was rigid and more or less straight up and down, it caused you to arch your back. You had to stand with your back arched. It created a flat stomach and this is the first time in living memory that women had that opportunity and they wanted to show it off. So they changed the angle of perception again to the side. You look at her from the side, she shows off the flat stomach. They enhanced that even more with a small muscle pad to make it look, make the stomach even flatter. And the bottoms of the dress is pulled out and drawn forward into the powder pigeon chest that you can see there. And what that does is that it makes you magnificent, but tasteful because the actual specifics are, are invisible, but also not only is the stomach flat, it actually recedes its concave. So the whole rib cage is brought forward and that flat stomach becomes the new design feature. And you see it in France in 1898, it is introduced, but that straight fronted corset is available in Woodward's mail order catalog printed in Vancouver by 192. So that means if it became universally popular, almost instantly without the benefit of the web. Maybe have the next image. This is an image from that 192 mail order catalog. Look at how back is arched. You'd think this was impossible, but it's the exaggeration of fashion. So there is the sleeve that I spoke of with that wedding photograph a moment ago, typed through the upper part of the arm reacting to the full skirts of full sleeves of the 1890s. That's the reaction. And then in 19 one, there's a little puff at the wrist, and this is 19 to, and it's getting a little bit bigger. So this is the progression. And by 19456 the sleeve is big at the top. Those mail order catalogs from Woodward's were really, really important to tie in all the rural communities of the province. They were designed to appeal to sell products to the lumbering people, the mining communities, the farming communities, the fishing villages up and down the coast and so on. So people really did have the opportunity to be fashionable. And you have to buy new clothes on a regular basis anyway if you're working in the bush for one thing your clothes get caught and torn and so on so far. And people want to be as, as current as possible. This is a little bit later and we know that because of the shape of the sleeve. She still has the very full chest. This is the front cover of a school squibbler. I found in a junkie little antique shop in Victoria. It's not updated, but it is, as I say about 19 six. It's called the Prairie Bell. As far as I know it's a Canadian publication but a lot of the American publications had Canadian versions or were available in Canada. So this woman is the modern woman. She is the new woman of the Edwardian period. And if you look at the front of her skirt you can see there's a panel with buttons down either edge of it. She's actually wearing trousers. She is able to ride a horse astride. You're going to find this kind of progression in places like Western Canada, the Western United States, Australia, South Africa, anywhere. There was a population who was fashionable, who wished to be practical and riding a horse astride is much better than riding a horse side saddle, which is what was the tradition up until this time. Maybe have the next one please. So this is how we put that outfit together for an exhibition done at the Museum of Vancouver. And I brought a real skirt here to show you, which is more closely associated with the one, the one that you see now, that was online on your machine, was worn as a part of a honeymoon outfit in roughly about 1910. This is a skirt from my Aunt Peg, and some of that didn't belong to a friend of hers. But this is the reality of the skirt that I showed you with the illustration from the Prairie Bell magazine. And this is the skirt that has the buttons down either side. And there's a flap right across the front there that opens to reveal very, very loose trousers. But those buttonholes could pass into the buttons down this side. So you are well dressed in chic, and you can be modest if you ride into town, and then go to the post office or wherever else you have to go and cover up the fact you're wearing trousers, at least from the front. And if anyone's staring at you from behind, they shouldn't be. So this is a wonderful piece of fashion history. Maybe have the next slide please. Okay, this I put in to show that apron off, but this is Woodward's also in 19 to, and this is a work dress. And this is, it's functional. It's vaguely fashionable, but it's dead plain. It has a flounce of fabric across the bottom, but the puffy sleeping isn't there. This is all about serviceability. This kind of dress hardly ever survives, because it isn't precious. Maybe have the next one please. A man's athletic team, these are bowlers. And even though they are bowlers and champion bowlers at that, look at how they are dressed. If they were bowling alley, if there were no, no women present, they might have been able to take their jackets off. But if there were women in the room and they're likely would be their girlfriend, sweethearts, wives, sisters might have come to cheer them on. They would have had to wear the complete outfit as you see it there. And the next one please. Well, there were fun activities, just as there are now. And this was a long way from wreck beach, obviously, but these are gals in their swimming costumes. These women are probably in a rural situation because they're not wearing stockings and shoes in a large city that perhaps had a big public pool or even a public beach. They were probably it would be necessary for them to wear stockings and shoes, but West Coast lifestyle, not so rigid about that. And I brought a real bathing suit from this period. You can see the color is something else. Usually they're navy blue with white so that relate to maritime travel in the Navy and so on so forth. But this one is Canadian. It was made in Newfoundland Labrador in the 1890s. And the woman who owned it moved to Bowen Island in 19 three, and chances are she was still using it then. And there are other reasons. Well, there are several reasons I really like this. First of all, the red is handy if you're in the water, you are not going to be lost if you are struggling someone's going to be able to find you. If you notice though the color is slightly different there and there, because originally it was made sleeveless. And obviously the original owner thought that was just too risque. She had a fairly matching fabric and had sleeves put into it to make it more more respectable as far as she was concerned. The white here is braiding, and she actually found a cotton print in red and white stripes to use as a substitute for braiding there. Oftentimes they have skirts, especially but in the 1890s, but this one never had a skirt because the belt is attached and they wouldn't be anywhere to put that skirt under that belt. So, while we're talking about, well, let's see what the next slide is. I don't want to leave anything out, of course, and see where we are. Okay, men. So this is, I think this is Eden's catalog from 1988. But my point with this being that there's trying to get a little bit more youthful. In this instance, what we see is the men are sort of a little bit spindlier, their legs are not quite so solid looking, although there's lots of chest and shoulders. And there's more and more of an emphasis on youthfulness and clean shaven or just perhaps a mustache becomes the norm. Now this, I've brought this to sort of illustrate this concept. Oh, man, he's heavy. Because we have a man's wedding suit from Edmonton. The wedding was in 1904. Sober, just like the other things I've talked about, black dignified, expensive black dyes were very, very expensive because they use so much concentrated dye that it costs more to produce. It's heavy wool. It would wear and wear and wear. I took this from a woman named Anne Green in Calgary, but the history was valid. There's, I have the hat as well for it. And I brought a good piece of Canadian out there as a buffalo. I'm sorry, it's a beaver skin fur coat. I didn't think Canada, but the thing, it sort of reflects how we feel now about our climate as opposed to the rest of the country. This is has a label berries limited for years. Peterborough, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Toronto, but it says nothing about the West Coast. So I guess they just figured because we have rain but not cold and snow that we didn't need them here. So it's actually found in a thrift store in Surrey about six months ago. So they do still show up. And they were the fur trade, much as we discourage it now. And I understand why the fur trade was what really got the, the first industry going on and what became Canada, and certainly the first relationship between Europeans and the First Nations people. And when the French lost Canada to the British after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Madame de Pompadour lamented the fact that Canada was gone but she said it's not really a serious issue because the only use Canada had was to produce first for her. A little bit of selfish shallow greed there, but it's an interesting concept. If you want to get for go to a thrift store and buy an old for don't you don't need to buy a one, an animal, a bunch of dead animals that are freshly killed, come on, be sensible. There are the hats of the period trilbis bowler hats. In the summer lightweight straws fedoras. There's a fair variety of different kinds, but at the same time, pretty limited. There's not much extravagance there no great color no frivolity. Men were expected to be dignified. And the next one please. By 1910 the silhouettes are changing for women. The skirts are getting. They were seen as more and more abbreviated more functional. And this dress here is sort of a little bit, a little bit out of context now, but this is a little bit earlier so we'll ignore that illustration for the moment while I talk about this dress. I thought this dress, I think, originally at the Salvation Army thrift store on 12th Avenue in Vancouver in about 1966. I can't swear to it, but I think that's where it came from. And then at one point when I needed to pay the rent. I had to sell it. And then I recently got it back so it has come home. If something comes back to me I feel I have to keep it forever. Anyway, it is. It's a long slim skirt, not truly abbreviated yet that's going to happen by 1910. This is probably about 19, eight or nine just as the big hat start to become popular. And the important thing with this and it's a Chinese silk, the CPR emphasize ships we're going to Asia on a regular basis with tourists but also with a massive amounts of shipping involved. Certainly Chinatown was already established. The infamous Chinatown riots were in 1907 when anti Asian sentiment was out of control and foolish people were causing embarrassment to the rest of the world, and to us. And here we have an example of Chinese fabric that's been incorporated into Canadian fashion, beautiful, high grade silk. The pattern is peonies to mask woven into the into the garment. Beautiful dress and now you can understand why I was sorry to sell it in the first place and delighted to get it back. Now the fair number of these garments now made out of Chinese cells. All right, if we may go back to the slides please. I have about 10 minutes, five minutes. So, these hats become the focal point. Their women again change their angle of perception they stand more or less facing the observer. They are trying to draw attention more and more away from the whole figure and more to the face. And you do that because the faces where you see character intelligence personality. These are all important issues when these women were struggling to be included in federal voting. You wanted to be seen as a, as a person, not as an ornamental object in a man's household. The hats are ornamental, but they also are beacon. They draw the eye, you look at the hat, and then you see what's underneath it. Look at that hat who is wearing it. And that's what we're getting with this one. We have the next one please. The abbreviated dress though, started to show again a good deal of the figure off. So long, more encompassing courses become the norm. This is an illustration out of the Eden's catalog printed in Winnipeg in the winter of 1910. The hips are so narrow they're almost like a stem. And the head again is the important issue. Massive amounts of hair, framing, framing the face. Women still could not vote. You have to keep that in mind. Maybe we have the next one please. And these hats can be ridiculous. This is Woodward's Mail Order catalog printed in Vancouver in the winter of 1908-1909. And this is just as these hats are becoming hugely, hugely important. They are foolish and that's their appeal. They are not ugly. They're meant to be beautiful. And, you know, with 500 flowers or 14 dead birds on them or something. I mean, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'm getting full of myself here. But they are remarkable. And that's their appeal. I remember about six, eight dollars apiece. Now, there was one that recently sold in Germany Bay and it was 1,200 euros. Not one of these ones, mind you. It was spectacular. All right, maybe we have the next one. So there's the man in the fur coat. The expensive one is 100 bucks. They were a way of protection. Certainly in the prairie or up north in BC, a fur coat could save your life in those days. We don't need that kind of thing. We have synthetic fiber and we have all sorts of other things that can help us deal with the Great Canadian Winter. The Great Winter is the bond in all of us. We all have to deal with the weather. And it's, it's blind to any other eccentricities in our perceived biases and prejudices. The Great Canadian Winter is our identity. Next one, please. Man suit, 1910. Big shoulders. A big strapping lad. He looks like a boxer, sort of. But with a pin head and a little tiny silly hat on top. But more youthful, because by the time we get into the First World War, youthfulness is going to be the issue, because it's no longer the successful middle-aged farmer, businessman, tradesman, what have you. That is the social icon. It's going to be the young soldier. And he is the man who will be catered to. And his female counterpart will be his girlfriend, not his maternally, his matronly partner. 1910, 1912. The skirt short. This is Winnipeg. Long straight handle parasol to make it look taller and thinner. He's wearing a lounge suit here. Looking very boyish. Slim legs. Not heavily padded shoulders. Skinny tie. He looks like what we wore when I graduated from high school in 1965. Straw hat. A woman cleaning house. This is out of an American publication. 1910 American magazines were available here. Ladies Home Journal. All of those things. Very, very popular. The skirt clear of the ground, black shoes, black stockings, so that if you saw her legs, it would appear that they are invisible. You're not supposed to notice. Next one, please. This is a local woman. This is roughly this period. The archives claims this to be 1907 I would put it a little bit later. But again, she is a mature woman but she's wearing exactly the same clothing as a woman much younger than her. Next one, please. These are local women from West Vancouver. These are the daughters of Navi Jack, Thomas, Emma, Mary and Christine. Remarkable women in everyday work type clothing that could be cleaning their house, or some such things. But they don't need more, because they're so elegant themselves. I love those photographs. These women are so elegant and dignified and they look intelligent. You look into those faces and you see women who should be able to vote. They are not cogs. They are the machinery. Next one, please. The first school, the school mom is on your extreme right hand side she's wearing a big hat but it's infinitely modest. This is in keeping with her role as a school teacher. She was wearing a shirt and tie, because she needs, she should be getting the respect a male teacher would get. A lot of times women were allowed to teach school simply because they were women and therefore they were supposedly predisposed to childcare, but also a lot of times men wouldn't take the job, or they couldn't take the job, or they could make more money working as heavy laborers. The children all very well dressed, stockings and boots, somber, serious colors, but they all look well taken care of. This is the first school in West Vancouver. This is Mr. Caulfield, for whom the neighborhood of Caulfield is named. Again, a mature man but looking snappy. He's wearing a tweed suit here. Everything matches. It's not necessarily a suit confined to elderly people. He is dressed fashionably. And I love the fact that his boots are shined to their best perfection. A lot of times in the old photographs the men are dressed up beautifully and they wear scruffy boots, but I knew this photograph we were going to use it today so I polished my shoes today just for you people. I want you in the next few months when we're all feeling subjugated by our restrictions. Get dressed up maybe so often just for your own sake of sanity and adventure. Get into the back of the closet and take out the best dress you haven't been able to wear and wear it. Put on some lipstick or whatever else you want to put on. Wear your tiara. And if the men want to wear tiaras too, they wear tiaras. It's only a tiara after all. This is another local man. I'm sorry I've forgotten the name of him. This is Mr. John Lawson, who is the local pioneer. This is him in about 1909. Doing exactly the same thing. Dressing a suit to work with his horse. What does it sell us? Mind you, the horse is pretty wonderful. It's worth getting dressed up just to play with that horse. Alright, thank you next one. This is the daughter of one of the members of the Spencer family in Vancouver. Spencer's department store was an institution. It was the most prestigious department store selling men's and women's clothing. And this is her in a hobble dress. And this is Orientalism and fashion. She's wearing kimono cut sleeves, which means there's no shoulder seam or arm seam. It creates a natural shape to the shoulders. She has a very wide sash, which is inspired by the Japanese Obi. This over skirt is a little tunic, which they think it imitates what women would have worn in the harems of ancient Persia. And then the skirt is draped to come into the ankle. And it's meant to look like a kimono when it's put on and lapped over at the front. There are buttons down the front. That's a concession to Western fashion. This is not a costume. It's a fashionable dress inspired by elements of Eastern fashion. Still goes on. The exchange goes on and on and on. This is another school group. And where is my cheat sheet here? Anyway, whoops, wrong one. Where'd she go? Where'd she go? The time ticks away. Oh, here it is. Okay, this is the first school. 1915. First class at the elementary school at Dunderave. So this, again, just consistently. So I imagine by this time they're expanding the whole school network. They have more than one school. A little girl with her head cocked to the one side I think is the most charming one of the bunch there. But they're all smiling. They're all having a good day. It's an exciting moment for them. And so it always was to have a class portrait, but you can also see the size of the class. I imagine many teachers would envy that nowadays. Maybe we have the next one. This is the front cover illustration on the Woodward's Mail Order catalog from 1917. And this is when everything changes. The First World War starts in 1914 and goes to 1918. As I said, the male icon changes to the young soldier from the more mature man. And his female counterpart has to be a young woman, his girlfriend, his sweetheart, the woman he is going to battle for to defend because she can't look after herself. But she is spunky. She can be resourceful. She's wearing a garment here which does not restrict her. She has a skirt which is short of the ground. It saves fabric. It means that she is functional. And in this year, in 1917, women in Canada could vote for the first time in a federal election, provided they had a male family member in the armed services who was overseas and could not vote for himself. She could have his proxy. Nothing horrible happened. And in true Canadian tradition, we did it safely and carefully. So in 1918, they changed the law. So any woman in Canada could vote in her own right, provided she was 35, she owned property and her own right and her own name, and she was Caucasian. She was an ageist, elitist, and racist. And it was a terrible injustice, but it was also a very, very important step in the right direction. And it sadly was not until the election, the federal election of 1961 that everyone was included in the election. So, people of any ethnic background could vote, as long as they were over the age of 21, but it took that long. What I have to illustrate this period is this one here, which also came out of the Salvation Army thrift store on 12th Avenue, many, many years ago. A small, it should have a little bit more pay coats in it, a small A line skirt, slim sleeves, saving fabric, a little bit of flair to the skirt to the sleeve to give it some style. It's actually a dress but it's meant to look like a slip. I'm sorry, a suit. So we have a skirt with a jacket over top. The jacket has pockets pockets of tools, you can use those. This is a woman who is practical. That is the issue here. She has to be practical, but she can be young address like this is suitable for an 18 year old girl. It's a girl that the man is going off the boy is going off to fight to defend and keep her safe. And that's often been the role of women in war. They are the incentive to get men into the military to go far away and die horrible horrible deaths. After this, the war ended, and then there was the great plague of the Spanish flu epidemic. And more people died of that epidemic than died during the first world war itself. So when we are dealing with what we are dealing with now, it is important to be patient and vigilant. I'm sure that you wear your masks, take your precautions, keep your six feet away. I am alienating myself from many people at grocery stores because I yell at them quietly but I yell at them. And I say six feet, six feet. But I don't want to die. I want to be very very old when I die. I want to take the risk of infecting someone else. I've had my first shot, but it's only the first one. And it doesn't mean that I couldn't carry the virus with me and give it to somebody or someone's child. You want to take that risk. No, no, no. Be responsible. Be polite. Okay, that's my message. Thank you. Thank you to my friends who helped put this together. Nice gene Cameron Paula shore. Parker, close young help with moral support and Kendra here at the library and everybody at the library has been absolutely wonderful. So thank you to everyone concerned, and thanks for having me and thanks for listening. I have a couple minutes for questions. If you have any questions, go ahead and type them into the Q&A feature at the bottom of your screen. All right, so one question. Where would you say the fashionable influence in Canada was coming from during this time the influence that inspired and dictated the style of the time. Primarily, it's going to be from the United Kingdom. Either directly or indirectly. English magazines were sent in the mail. So people would get them here and devour them and then share them of course. And if the publications and information wasn't coming from from England or Scotland or Ireland or whatever. They were coming from Eastern Canada. Primarily Toronto, Montreal, the larger cities because they did publish magazines of their own. I have a fashion magazine printed in Vancouver in 1913, but their influences coming from back east. Certainly here and in Victoria, it was easy, even easier. They would go to Seattle. I just bought up in Summerland. The women in Summerland went to Penticton to buy their wedding dresses. The women in Penticton went to Vancouver. The women in Vancouver went to Seattle, the women in Seattle went to San Francisco. The women in San Francisco into New York. The women in New York went to Paris. I mean, nothing really changed. There is this sense that if it comes from somewhere else, it's better. And yet we had incredibly sophisticated designers here in the GVRD, essentially, but it's hard to say. But so UK, Eastern Canada, and from the States. So how did they clean these elaborate gowns before the days of dry cleaning? Okay, dry cleaning is actually discovered as a process in 1759 by a tailor, sort of their various stories, how this happens, but it didn't become a viable business until the last two or three decades of the 19th century. They were very expensive and a lot of the clothing actually, they took it apart and cleaned each piece separately, and then they would restyle it when they put it back together again. So there is that. But if you were brought up properly, you kept your clothes clean. The worst problem for clothing is perspiration, and you wear so much underwear that a lot of it's actually absorbed by the underwear. So, and again, not doing anything that was exerting so you didn't sweat if you could possibly avoid it. The odorants really didn't exist. And it might be that the ones that have survived are the ones that weren't used as much, because the ones that were used, either they rotted under the sleeves, or they attracted bugs, and the bugs will eat the part of the garment which is dirty. And a lot of things, surprisingly, a lot of things can be washed. I don't recommend it unless it's of exceptional circumstance, but you can wash silk if it's the right kind of silk, you can wash wool if you do it properly. And of course it's a miracle fiber. And this is all before synthetics. So they were experimenting with synthetics in the 1890s, and some of them are relatively successful. But you look after yourself, you brushed the clothing clean if it got dirt on it, and you have to keep in mind too that there are horses in the street. One of the things that you don't often see because we don't have too many movies at the time period, but when a woman walked in the street, one of the proofs of her social position is that she had to lift her skirt to keep it out of the dirt in the street. That meant that hand was committed to her clothing. She wasn't a working woman. She was a fashionable woman. But that would have been in public at home, not so much. Last question. Were West Vancouverites sewing these dresses from patterns at home? Would they buy them in stores or would they go to a dressmaker? It would be both. The many, many women, most women were taught to sew when they were children. You started by making clothes for your dolls. You had to make sure that your mother's knee or your father refused a tailor, I suppose, using scraps of fabric to create miniature clothing. So you had some skills and it was expected that if you were in a position in your adult life that you had to support yourself, you could always make clothes for other women. And many, there were dressmakers, Gordon Drysdills was the most important dressmaking business in Vancouver and I have, I have a dress from them from about 1906. It's the oldest dress with a Vancouver label I've ever found. And they had access to good fabrics. It was so common to make your own clothes that there were a lot of suppliers of fabrics and notions in the city. And there would have been a sense of obligation from some women who had money to actually give employment to the poor. And so they would hire people. In the old days, if you really had money, you would have a dressmaker live in the house for perhaps two or three weeks if you were building a true so or something like that. Certainly you could buy printed patterns in envelopes within some instructions by the beginning of the 1890s. I have some of them. And even for things like masquerade costumes, frivolous things like that. And just for a code or how to make new underwear or something for your kid. But and recycling was really important you didn't you didn't throw something away as cavalier as we do now, you worked at work to tell the fabric was rotten essentially. People are practical and people are still practical. People don't make their own clothing much anymore. They go to the thrift stores and I find clothing that still has the original paper tags on it because they buy something then they get home and they don't like it. And rather than take it back they just end up giving to the thrift store. It's better than wasting it that's for sure. If you have things to give away that are still modern and serviceable. There's an organization in Vancouver called my sister's closet and they raise money for women who are in peril. And they have one paid staff person and everyone else is a volunteer. It's an extremely good worthwhile enterprise. And their target audience tends to be young women who are working in offices and going to school and so on so forth. And their their shop is on Seymour Street in Vancouver. But there are thrift stores here as well. And there's a Salvation Army thrift store that is raising money and supplying an expensive clothing to people who need it. So think of those things before you throw anything in a landfill. Don't do that. It's not necessary. Excellent. Thank you so much for that amazing presentation. This program is part of a series of programs called tracing textiles to time. Today we will have a presentation on upcycle quilting so don't throw away any of your fabric scraps. The claimed quilter Sandra Sandvik will be with us to talk about upcycle quilting. We do have several of her quilts on display in the library so please come by the library this week and check that out. They are absolutely stunning. If you're interested in registering for that program you can find information on the library's website. And you can reach Ivan at his website, Ivan SayersEvents.com. And again, thank you so much for joining us and have a really wonderful day. Thank you Ivan. My pleasure. Thanks for the invitation.