Helen Korngold Diary: December 15-21, 1919

It was Helen's last week of teaching at Wellston school before her trip to New York City to visit Herbert and Ruth Pawling! She went shopping to prepare.

December
Monday 15
School – I do love Mondays. Rushed downtown. Got a beautiful dark blue beaded camisole. Also getting a darling peach-blow evening dress. Have some wonderful suede pumps.

Tuesday 16
School seems a nuisance these days. Downtown, bought a dear black jersey silk petticoat & silk stockings. Bought a green silk dress – silver lace & cloth – gorgeous. Have a cute blue hat to match my new fur-trimmed blue coat.

Wednesday 17
This was a good day. Children were angelic. Milton Breschel came over.

Thursday 18
Bought a blue suit trimmed in nutria fur. It’s real cute. I have some beautiful handkerchiefs, combs, etc. Also have a pretty white georgette plainly embroidered.

Friday 19
Expect to leave for N.Y. tomorrow. Thrilling. I’m almost thru shopping. Gave my children a Xmas party – a piece of candy for each & a John Hancock pencil. Had a program for everything. Beck bought my bag and packed my trunk.

Saturday 20
Went to Wellston, got my check – said good-bye to Grammie, Grandpa & the rest of the family – bought a pair of shoes & left St Louis at 1:10 p.m. Spent a pleasant afternoon with a girl on the train.

Sunday 21
No breakfast. Felt rotten. The train was cold & hot by degrees. Went around horseshoe bend & really enjoyed the trip – but the train lost 4 hrs time & I arrived in Penn Station N.Y. 10 p.m. Met by Ruth & Herbert.

Notes:

Dec 14

El Dance was held at B’nai El in St. Louis, a founding member of the Union for Reform Judaism. 

Milton D. Breschel, according to The War Record of American Jews, was on born July 8, 1892, in Milwaukee, MN. He was a commissioned officer in WWI. He was a student living in St. Louis at 5001 Gates Ave. when he entered the war. His mother was born in New York and his father was Czechoslovakian/Russian/Polish. On January 18, 1915, he was promoted to 2 Lt. working with heavy tanks. He appears in the 1914 Scranton, PA City Directory. In the 1920s and 1930s Milton D. Breschel appears in Jacksonville, FL city directories, working as a salesman and married to Fay.

Dec. 20

Perhaps Helen took the Baltimore & Ohio's St. Louis-Cincinnati-New York City Special passenger train. Two trains left St. Louis daily.

The St. Louis Limited traveled over 1000 miles in "scarcely a day" from St. Louis to New York City, passing through Indianapolis, IN, Dayton and Columbus, OH, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia, PA. "This is the only train composed of Pullman cars exclusively. A library-smoking car, buffet, bath and barber appliances, a Pennsylvania Lines diner, a compartment-observation car, and three drawing-room sleeping cars made up the equipment."(found in Goggle Books Railway World.)

*****

1919 Fashion and Helen

Helen's choices reflected popular styles being sold in 1919. The Dry Good Economist of 1919 noted color trends including 'National' blue, or drapeau blue,  the color of the flag as a new fashion-forward color. 'Blue Devil' blue and navy blue was popular.

Favorite dress materials included tricolette and silk jersey. Fur was a fashionable trim, especially seal, but fur was in short supply because of a fur strike. Sealion and Nurtria were used instead. Nutria fur was from the coypu or swamp rat, originally imported from South America, somewhat like beaver fur.

Chemise models of dresses were the narrow skirted dresses that fell straight from shoulder to knee.

Wool and silk and georgette dresses were embellished with colored embroidery, jet and steel beading, and soutache braid.

Camisoles were undergarments worn over the brassiere, now coming into their own as an outer garment.

The suits below show the narrow profile that would define the 1920s. Not the hemlines are above the ankle.

These dresses show the fuller silhouette that was becoming passe.



Perhaps Helen's green silk dress embellished with silver lace looked like this dress:

1919 fashion illustration shows the simple white dress still popular. Helen's was made of georgette and simply embroidered.

Dec 1919 fashion illustration includes the trendy 'national' blue along with the capuchine yellow that was the other new in color.

These petticoats are quite full.


Trendy colors from Paris for evening apparel include a 'peachblow' dress on the right.

As ankles were being shown, stockings featured designs on the ankles and lower legs.