Whether or not we read the Daily Mail, founded in 1896, it remains Britain’s highest-circulation daily newspaper, its middle-market readership and cutting-edge reporting offering scope for studying popular taste and cultural trends over time. Product advertisements are particularly informative and when I discovered a copy dated Tuesday 8 March 1921, this proved a fascinating historical source for mainstream fashions and clothes shopping 100 years ago.

A woman’s publication
The Daily Mail broadsheet was unique in that, from the outset, it aimed to appeal to female readers; after the First World War and years of controversial reporting, it focused on fashion, the home, travel, music and other light-hearted topics. Against this backdrop, the 8 March 1921 edition dedicated much of its front page to highly illustrated fashion advertisements; many more dominated the inside spreads and further fashion, textiles and dress-related sales notices were placed as small ads, filling column after column. Their content reflected the newspaper’s gender bias. Consumer goods for men were scarce, while most of the items advertised were geared towards young to middle-aged women: purchases for themselves and their children.

Shopping in 1921
Dozens, if not hundreds of fashion-related advertisements in just the one issue reveal how our forebears may have acquired their clothes and other personal items in the post-war period. The early 20th century was the heyday of the urban department store, when a trip into town, dedicated shopping for fabric and clothes, and lunch or tea in the store restaurant was a pleasurable experience for many women and children. Accordingly a large number of the paper’s illustrated fashion advertisements promoted merchandise from well-known London stores of the day: Barkers, Pontings and Derry & Toms in Kensington; Harvey Nichols of Knightsbridge; Selfridges and D.H. Evans of Oxford Street; Swan & Edgar, Piccadilly; Robinson & Cleaver, Regent Street; Gorringes of Buckingham Palace Road; Whiteleys of Queensway; and Arding & Hobbs, Clapham.

Originally founded during the 1800s and early 1900s, these were all established household names in 1921 – some high end, prestigious; others more down to earth, affordable for the ordinary housewife. Evidently they all had their place in the post-WW1 retail market, although fierce competition led each to promise the keenest prices: ‘Special Values’, ‘Exceptional Bargains’, ‘Springtime Deals’, ‘Half-Price’, ‘Inexpensive’ and ‘Economical’ goods. Besides obtaining the best possible value for money, suppliers knew that discerning customers also sought dependable quality, each stressing the excellence, comfort, durability and reliability of their goods.

Many of the seemingly invincible grand retail establishments patronised in 1921 for hats, coats, gloves, suits, skirts, frocks, blouses and children’s wear did not last the century – or limped on under new ownership, closing their doors in the early 2000s. Other shops did survive and it is perhaps surprising to see in 1921 familiar names like Dorothy Perkins – then a ‘Hosiery and Underwear Specialist’. Customers could visit their various London branches in person, or send up for items such as corsets, by quoting the model number. Indeed, in the days before internet shopping, distance shopping via mail order was a common way of making purchases, many retailers encouraging readers to apply for a full illustrated catalogue, post free. Additionally, some manufacturers advertised personally, cutting out the middleman and inviting direct orders, especially northern textile and small wares producers such as Oak Tree Hosiery and Haslam’s fabrics, both based in Manchester.

Not all customers could easily go clothes shopping, especially mothers with large families to care for, and home dressmaking was widespread at this time. A number of advertisements in the newspaper concern different fabrics that could be bought by the piece or length, from functional serge, flannel, gabardine and other woollen cloths, to more ornate chiffon, silk and lace. We also see a glimpse of some of the new (possibly synthetic) yarns being developed such as jumper ‘silkette’ for knitting, available from Hawes Bros of Clapham Junction. The Daily Mail even ran its own Pattern Department, and in March 1921 publicised images of its ‘Picturesque Dressing-Gown’, the paper pattern and instructions available post free upon request. The newspaper certainly had all bases covered for its female readers.

Women’s fashion
When considering the 1920s, we often picture minimalist art deco-inspired styles, bold shapes and daring ‘flapper’ fashions but the more modern, sometimes extreme modes adopted by some women belong mainly to the second half of the decade. In 1921 the mood was more traditional, feminine – even romantic – as demonstrated clearly in the black and white illustrated fashion advertisements in the Daily Mail. In the early 1920s clothes were gaining simpler lines but remained simple and concealing, being relatively untailored; bulky, enveloping coats had deep collars; blouses featured elbow-length or long sleeves and moderate necklines; skirts or frocks were loosely ‘barrel-shaped’, with low hemlines. Underwear was modest, while cautiously following the shifting lines of outerwear and hairstyles varied, many women favouring a soft coiffure comprising a high toupee, short side hair or kiss curls and the length pinned back, rarely bobbed.

These post-WW1 modes are amply illustrated in the newspaper advertisements, with a strong emphasis on dressing suitably for the variable March weather, with the forthcoming Easter holidays in mind. End-of-winter season fur coats, wraps, capes, stoles and necklets were discounted by Barkers and D.H. Evans, alongside ‘rain-resisting’ belted mackintosh-like ‘Weather Coats’. Women routinely wore hats when outdoors and new ‘Spring models’ from Paris indicate the diverse millinery fashionable in the early 1920s, from wide-brimmed ‘sailor hats’ to smaller ‘mushroom’ and straw hats. The importance of preserving long luxuriant hair is also reflected in advertisements that continue Victorian and Edwardian ideals of beauty, such as ‘Danderine Beauty Tonic’ for lustrous and plentiful locks.

Practical plimsolls, bathing costumes, tennis skirts, general sports skirts and brogue shoes hint at the cautious emergence of new styles of leisurewear suitable for holidays and sports – forms of more active or relaxed dress that would advance more rapidly later in the decade. Otherwise the essentially feminine, demure and respectable nature of post-war fashion is expressed unreservedly in the language of advertising in 1921. Favoured colours are ‘delicate’, corsets and other undergarments are ‘dainty’, summer frocks are ‘charming’, fine fabrics are ‘delightful’, and suits and coats are ‘smart’ or ‘well-tailored’. Even the names given to specific garment models reinforce the wholesome, traditional female image of the time: Maud, Beryl, Sybil, Lydia and Beattie.

Men’s dress

Children’s wear
Infants’ and older children’s dress received a makeover during the later 1910s and 1920s, garments growing shorter and simpler in style, following broader fashion trends, and also reflecting modern thinking – recognition that juveniles needed comfortable play wear. However, regulation school uniform was also becoming more widely established; so clothing could be practical and relatively casual, or more formal and smart. Naturally the more affluent the household, the wider the variety of its children’s clothes.

Advertisements for fashionable children’s wear in March 1921 included a little boy’s ‘Buster suit’ from Gorringes – a picturesque pre-school outfit combining shorts and a blouse, popular for two or three generations, spanning the late 1910s and 1950s. Barkers advertised children’s buckled, laced and strap shoes in a range of sizes; Swan & Edgar displayed a girl’s smart tailored checked coat for 39/6; Alpha of Leicester publicised their all-wool children’s socks and hose; and Haslam’s of Manchester offered soft ‘Nainbetter’ fabric for babies’ and children’s underwear.

The Daily Mail of 8 March 1921 reveals much about ordinary fashion trends of a century ago. Which of our ancestors were alive then and how might the content relate to them? Both of my grandmothers were raising three young children in London at precisely that time: did they shop in D.H. Evans or Swan & Edgar, send up for mail order goods or make some of their own and their children’s clothes? Perhaps all three… Food for thought!