Today's post Q&A: 1950s Hostess Gown Pant Set from Vintage Dancer.
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Question: I have a friend who is getting married and looking for a specific style for her wedding dress. She want’s a split skirt with capris underneath like something Lucy wore. We weren’t even sure that look had a name to know what to search for! Can you point us in a direction?
I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball, wearing her famous hostess outfit
That would be a 1950s hostess ensemble. Previously hostess gowns were worn since the 1920s for entertaining at-home informal parties. The gowns were very long with loose flowing material that looked like a cross between pajamas, a robe and a dress. They were inspire by Asian fashion. In the 1950s, however, “modern women,” took the dress and combined it with a pair of capri pants. Lucille Ball is credited with making this style very popular. She often hosted house parties in I Love Lucy and wore a large black lace robe over a pair of black pants.
Here is what a few fashion advice books said about a Hostess gowns:
Hostess gown turned pants ensemble
“A Hostess who is entertainment in her own formal home may wear a hostess gown which may be fragile with floating chiffon or lace, or regal with sweeping velvet, or exotic with unusual dramatic color combinations. The skirt is usually trailing, the sleeves long and flowing, the neckline moderately low in front. The hostess gown allows one to indulge in whimsical designs and gives the career woman a chance to be utterly feminine. It is a type of won which can only be worn in your own home and should see to fuel with the mood of the house and the wearer. In apartments or homes of modern design the hostess gown may feature a trouser effect with jacket.” –Clothes for you, by Mildred Graves Ryan
“A floating hostess gown, to be tripped over in a tiny apartment, becomes exciting glamorous when draped about some one who is regally descending a winding stairs. “. —Clothes for you, by Mildred Graves Ryan
Tropical hostess gown and culotte shorts
“For informal at-home gowns which express friendliness, decorativeness, and originality, one may wear vivid color contrasts, exotic prints, fragile lace, rich textures such as velvets, satins, taffetas, perhaps with cover-up decolletages in the less formal style suggested by modern homes with the servantless hostess in plain view in her kitchen, long flowing culottes or slacks or tighter trousers, partly covered by matching or contrasting soft robes or jackets. ” –The arts of costume and personal appearance. . Morton, Grace Margaret.
Into the 1960s the hostess gown turned into a hostess pant suit in vivid tropical or ethic prints. By the late 1960s the idea of specific hostess clothing went by the way side. Pretty much everyone was hosting house parties and there was no need to dress in anything but you best cocktail dress or suit.
After researching hostess dresses and pant ensembles I really want one too! I have half a mind to just cut open one of my 1950s style party dresses and wear it over a pair of capris.
Do you have a vintage hostess gown/set?
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