A Sweet Life

Day clothes

Emily Tinne's daywear, examples of which are in the image gallery below, is typical of what most middle class women wore between 1910 and 1940. Many of the main dress styles of that time can be seen here;

• the high-waisted, high-necked summer dresses of the years just before 1914;
• the loose, drop-waisted designs of the early to mid-1920s;
• the sharper, more tailored styles of the 1930s.

Emily liked clothes in subdued colours; muted tones of blue, grey, brown, green and red, and subtly-coloured floral prints appear throughout her wardrobe. But she sometimes showed a taste for more dramatic fashions. Her dark blue fur-trimmed velvet dress of about 1914-16 is obviously influenced by the exotic creations of the French designer Paul Poiret. He often combined fur with luxurious materials like velvet.

Similarly the embroidered black silk tunic top, imported from China around 1922-23, shows Emily's love of beautiful, intricately-worked fabrics. Her black wool crepe afternoon dress of about 1925, with its plastic Art Deco-inspired buckle in the form of curling lizards, indicates that she was very much aware of the modern fashion trends of her day.

Emily Tinne wore the early bathing costume displayed here while on her honeymoon in Culdaff, County Donegal, Ireland, in July 1910. She and Philip stayed there in a house owned by Philip's father. Later they took their children there for many happy family holidays.

Image gallery