Clothing styles 1889- 1900s

[Doug]

RE Lady in Group photo, does anyone see a dark underskirt or similar covering her legs down to her shoes?

It looks like it to me.

 

[Ma-dotcom]

Thanks Doug, I didn't see it clearly first up as my eyes were a bit weary.
did wonder also if it was a christening if not a wedding, I spend too much time wondering I fear.

 

[Huncamunca]

Also I have delved into known births of children who might fit the time frame & found these in one family.
Girl b. 1904,boy b.1905, girl b.1906, boy b.1909, boy b. 1911, girl b.1913, girl b. 1915.
Do any 4 of these seem likely to fit those in the group.

I couldn't make up my mind whether the eldest girl in the photo is older than the eldest boy or not: I would guess they are quite near in age. If she's older, then the children in the photo could be these ones:
Girl b. 1904,boy b.1905, girl b.1906, boy b.1909, boy b. 1911
If photo was taken say 1912, this would make them about 8, 7, 3 and 1.

Or if the boy's older, this could be the set in the photo:
Girl b. 1904,boy b.1905, girl b.1906, boy b.1909, boy b. 1911
If photo was taken say 1912, this would make them about 7, 6, 3 and 1.

But if either of these is the right permutation, then there is a girl missing from the photo. Did all the children survive? Is it this family who emigrated to Canada?

 

[Ma-dotcom]

Jane, actually close friends of the Lady, their Mother married in 1912.
I seem to have found the children marrying here/there in UK. Only the Lady my Cousin, 1st x1 removed. & her own son b. 1895 went to Canada. The story told on another time zone.
1911 ages I have for these people are:
1904=6
1905=5
1906 = 4
1909=2
added later
1911=
1913 =
1915 =

 

[MollyMay]

I'm wondering if it all occurred in Canada after all from c 1913 onward.

I have been following this with great interest as I have a picture, of persons/date unknown, and the little girl in my picture is wearing the shoes with the straps up her legs - you can see that they are part of the shoes and have buttons for fasteners. The only clue I have on my picture is it was taken by Herbert E Paige - Toronto. - so you could be right about Canada

(ooh - I managed all on my own to add a picture - yipee).

 

[Mutters]

They are definitely the same shoes.
I found a Sears catalogue (#124) on line for 1912. Not sure if you can reach it from these links. Page 376/377
www.
archive.org/stream/catalogno12400sear#page/376/mode/2up

archive.org/details/catalogno12400sear
One of the pages has these shoes for sale.

 

[MollyMay]

Thanks Mutters, so it looks like the shoes were a US/Canadian product - and the catalogue gives an idea of date too - another clue as to who it could be in my picture.

 

[Mutters]

It is a real shame I cannot read the writing beside these ones.

 

[Daft Bat]

View attachment 108
It is a real shame I cannot read the writing beside these ones.

Please do not ask me how, but I have managed to enlarge it. (I went to the link that you posted, plonked it in my search bar, up it popped and there was a +/- symbol.... so I clicked....)

No. I5H584
The pair....35c (the price)
Patent Soft Sole
Sizes 1 to 4

 

[gillyflower]

This is a good site - www.
fashion-era.com/Dating_Costume_History_Pictures/how_to_date_photographs_top.htm

 

[MollyMay]

Please do not ask me how, but I have managed to enlarge it. (I went to the link that you posted, plonked it in my search bar, up it popped and there was a +/- symbol.... so I clicked....)

No. I5H584
The pair....35c (the price)
Patent Soft Sole
Sizes 1 to 4

So did I, and you can clearly see the buttons too, shame (other jobs did not get done) I have spent a good part of this afternoon looking at the other shoes in the catalogue!

 

[Mutters]

Please do not ask me how, but I have managed to enlarge it. (I went to the link that you posted, plonked it in my search bar, up it popped and there was a +/- symbol.... so I clicked....)

No. I5H584
The pair....35c (the price)
Patent Soft Sole
Sizes 1 to 4

Thanks Jan,
I was hoping they would have a name but obviously very fashionable.
35c Bet they cost a lot more now.

So did I, and you can clearly see the buttons too, shame (other jobs did not get done) I have spent a good part of this afternoon looking at the other shoes in the catalogue!

I did too. And the furniture and the other stuff, even the paint brushes.
We must remember where the catalogue is, in a couple of months time we will be wondering what cupboard we stashed it away in.

 

[Ma-dotcom]

you can see that they are part of the shoes and have buttons for fasteners. The only clue I have on my picture is it was taken by Herbert E Paige - Toronto.View attachment 106 - so you could be right about Canada
(ooh - I managed all on my own to add a picture - yipee).

Bless your cotton socks MollyMay, & well done with that photo upload. There'll be no stopping you now. Thanks heaps.

They are definitely the same shoes. I found a Sears catalogue (#124) on line for 1912. Not sure if you can reach it from these links. Page 376/377www.
archive.org/stream/catalogno12400sear#page/376/mode/2up
archive.org/details/catalogno12400sear
One of the pages has these shoes for sale.
View attachment 107

Ah Mutters, on whom we do rely, you've come up with the goods again thankyou. I refuse to read the catalogue on the grounds that my reading card is now overflowing.

Please do not ask me how, but I have managed to enlarge it. (I went to the link that you posted, plonked it in my search bar, up it popped and there was a +/- symbol.... so I clicked....)
No. I5H584
The pair....35c (the price)
Patent Soft Sole
Sizes 1 to 4

So good Jan, now you know why we keep you on thank you.

I spent a lot of time there too, gillyflower, thankyou.

So mayhap I can move the dating of said photo to 1912+? That would give time for the Lady to arrive in Canada in 1913, or some-one from Canada to arrive in UK after shopping in Canada on a visit. I do rather like the 'home in Canada approach.
Thank you all so very much. I know of several couples who went to Canada or Us after marrying so perhaps I'll find another.

 

[Mutters]

According to the history section of the website of Sears

The first Simpsons-Sears Spring/Summer Catalogue rolled off the presses of Photo-Engravers and Electrotypers, Ltd. and into 300,000 Canadian homes in early 1953. Thus began the business operations of Simpsons-Sears.

So the shoes were ordered from America or bought from another outlet in Canada.
While trying to browse google for clues I came across this website.
www.
tighsolas.ca/page3.html

This website is all about Canada in about 1910.

From 1908 Letters

The Sears Catalogue may have been filled with ready to wear clothing but it seems middle class women still made much of their clothing to save money.

But, they wouldn't have made the shoes!

Bang goes the dusting tomorrow, and I don't even have Canadians.

 

[Ma-dotcom]

Oh Mutters, can't quit yet then? If the catalogue was in 1953 does that not mess about with dates so far? Although they didn't make the shoes, it suggests they were 40 yrs old.

Bang goes the dusting tomorrow, and I don't even have Canadians.

Unless Elijah made it over there
I've saved the Canadian site (thanks again) until at least after breakfast which I seem to have missed again. 8.40am here so away I am to start my day proper like.

 

[Mutters]

From the sound of it, in the early 1900s they made quite a few of their own clothes but other items, shoes and furnishings and even cars etc had to be bought.

Though the Canadian Sears catalogues were not produced until 1953 it does seem as if they had access to the American ones much earlier than that.

According to one source I looked at, during the roaring 20's they went on mad buying sprees and 'shopped till they dropped'

It's fascinating that a couple of photo's then send us on a trail of the social history side of the times. How can some people think genealogy is boring?

 

[Ma-dotcom]

It's fascinating that a couple of photo's then send us on a trail of the social history side of the times. How can some people think genealogy is boring?

I've always liked a story with pictures myself, & then to try to imagine which parent the hero/heroine favoured in looks.
I refuse to be drawn, must dust before himself returns to lounge room, then iron yesterdays small offerings from the clothesline. I can then take a trip through a very recently aquired Canadian site.