2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

TwibbleDee

Question of definitions:

Would I be correct in assuming that Pyjamas would be a typically shirt and pants style? And Night dress would be a night gown? And would a slip be a sleeveless lightweight dress worn under your outside clothes to maintain modesty/hide lines?

Essentially, what would you quantify this garment as?
(My husband quantifies it as "It looks just like your dresses, how am I supposed to know it was pajamas?" when he folds laundry.)
 

Cherryfudge

TwibbleDee said:

Question of definitions:

Would I be correct in assuming that Pyjamas would be a typically shirt and pants style? And Night dress would be a night gown? And would a slip be a sleeveless lightweight dress worn under your outside clothes to maintain modesty/hide lines?

Yes to the first two, but I'd a slip is an underskirt and a sleeveless dress-shaped undergarment is a petticoat, but then again, is the first of these a waist slip, and a petticoat could be a fuller waist slip? I'm just going on the usage I grew up with.

The one in your picture is (to me) not pyjamas, but I could see it being suitable for day or night wear depending on the fabric.

Along similar lines, we've discussed the lack of women's dressing gowns in the 1942 coupon list, but I have an idea they may have been called housecoats in those days. What do others think?

Liverpool_Anne

Interesting question. I must admit to never wearing a slip or a petticoat but my Mum wore what she called slips that were full length garments with a strappy top, fitted around the bust and a loose skirt under her outer wear clothes of blouse and skirt. My sister wore what she called petticoats that were from the waist down. She was a teenager in the late 50s / early 60s so wore all those very full skirts with several starched net petticoats. I am also only going on the word usage in my family while growing up. 

@TwibbleDee I have to agree with Cherryfudge in that the garment in the picture is not what I would call pyjamas. I might call it a nighty, (nightdress), depending on the fabric and what you use it for. If you sleep in it then it's a nighty

On the subject of ladies dressing gowns I think they were called housecoats, at least that's what my Mum called hers. Having said that she never wore it around the house, only to go to the bathroom in the morning she was always properly dressed when she came downstairs unless it was an emergency in the middle of the night
Take care everyone

PollyWollyDoodle

I think that's a nightie! A rather lovely one, too.

To me a petticoat is a waist-down garment, a slip is full-length. In either case, they are worn underneath your clothes to add warmth, disguise underwear and ease fit - a bit like a lining, but separate.  Although in certain eras you had taffeta or net petticoat to add shape, just to confuse the issue!  

Gem-gem

I still wear a petticoat under a dress. About ten years ago, I bought some dresses from F@t F@ce and because the material is thin/flimsy I wear a petticoat as it gives a better finished look. 

maryb

coupon spend already and we are only three weeks in!  A pair of jeans 6 and a top in the Hobbs sale 5.  I mainly wear skirts now but I need one pair of jeans and I’ve lost so much weight my old ones don’t fit.  And the top fills a gap - it’s a black Jersey wrap top which turns my plain black ponte skirt into a very smart dress but will go equally well with trousers 

confession - I nearly blew a whole load of coupons on some nighties in the Lands End sale but Evri (parcel late or lost) saved me from myself.  After rescheduling delivery three times and still no sign after 10 days, I have accepted the universe is sending me a message and phoned them up for a refund 

just watch - it’ll turn up now

skogar

Twibble-dee. Lovely selection of colours of dresses there. :-)

On the nightwear front. Pjamas would be top and trouser or short like bottom. I can't see the material in detail but the picture you are showing is either a nightie or a dress. I find it very useful to have a few dresses that can double as nighties / night shirts as especially when camping / youth hosteling it makes it look less like you have just got up! Although I can't see the material detail the garment in the picture looks like it could be worn as either.

I know we have been debating what a number of coupons a ladies dressing gown should be as it didn't appear to be listed. I've realised looking back that it mentions dress or gown. So I wonder if a dressing gown would have come in the "dress, gown or frock" category and would be the same no of coupons as a dress in the same material.

On my hunt through my little stash I have found to my amazement 1 ball of navy dk hayfield bonus yarn. No idea how I have aquired it I think I must have either been given it or bought it when I first started knitting. It was certainly not bought with any type of project in mind and is definitely not a left over from a previous project. Although it's certainly not what I would probably choose now for knitting boot cuffs I have a navy option available.

PollyWollyDoodle

I remember a friend of my mothers telling a story of having to convert a nightie to use as a slip under her wedding dress, because it was war time and she didn’t have enough coupons. 

Laura_Elsewhere

I've been hunting in my references for definite definitions - pyjamas always have bifurcated bottom half, ie shorts or trousers, but the petticoat/slip thing is a lot more vague...

Petticoat originally (c.15th century) was a petit-coat, a little coat, and was a sleeveless snug-fitting, front-fastening garment which was looser, like flaring, over the hips, worn by men underneath a jacket or coat, like a long waistcoat in modern terms. By the 16th/17th centuries, it had become the name for the women's lower garment, gathered material from waist-down but supported by shoulder-straps (like a skirt with braces, iyswim).... then it became the name for the skirt worn under an outer skirt, and those sometimes had shoulder-straps and sometimes were waist-fastened. 
So "petticoat" started as a man;'s upper outer garment and has ended as a woman's inner, lower garment, with or without shoulder-straps!

"Slip" is even more undefinite - it slides into clothing-use via a long narrow small piece, like a slip of paper, and it's really not clear how it came to mean the modern women's undergarment - but plenty of 20th century references to a slip being full-length or half-length.... but also it consistently means very flimsy lightweight material.
Just to confuse things, "le slip" is the French term for men's snug-fitting cotton brief underpants...! 

I wear petticoats almost always - my winter one is long, full and has a foot-deep very full flounce, and is made of red flannelette! I wear it when I go swimming as it makes an ideal changing tent  

mumtoomany

Just popping in to say I'm still here. Not spent any coupons, or money, on clothes yet. 

Interesting talk of petticoats and slips. I always had to wear a full petticoat as a child. Even with trousers! Never worn one since. In fact I've spent most of my adult life in jeans.

@Laura_Elsewhere. As well as a changing tent, your petticoat would be useful for stopping steam trains, like Jenny Agutter, in the railway children.

Speak to you all soon, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx