my name is edward maeder and i'm

here massachusetts at the kind invitation of tom schwartz who i've for many years because of my erstwhile involvement with abraham, which actually began in 71 by making the costumes for an abraham lincoln wax museum that was actually built in cedar falls, iowa, in 1971. so my so my connections go back. so when he contacted me last fall to talk about lou and fashions are i was one of the many people who knew very little about lou henry hoover i to say i immediately purchased the six books and read them and them and

in a very short period of time fell sort of madly in love with her. i up with several titles i really like sleuthing at the seams, which i thought was pretty good, but i'm going to be talking about her life and fashion people. think about her as this image that you see here on. a bit kind of taciturn and probably a bit thought full and scholarly. ah, but you wouldn't think of as a fashion plate. and coming from waterloo iowa, you know how the rest of the world thinks that nothing really happens in iowa. well, it's not it's just not true. she grew up in a in a family that was quite involved with a fashion we see her as a a an

unhappy one year old or x month o in 1874 with her mother and mother is the heit of fashion for 1874. you see an illustration in here from harper's bazaar of 1874 where she's wearing almost the identical hairstyle. so she she came into the world of fashion. harper's bazaar, incidentally was founded in 1868, and the first international magazine in a fashion, and it was published all over the world with months of preparation shown at the same time. so the people in budapest and the people in milan and the people in rome and people in waterloo, iowa, all the same images to inspire them. as a nine year old, you can see she was already interested in fashion. she's wearing a gown that is that is made with with silk

satin. and it's all puffed and ruched. and she's wearing this very unusual color, which, of course, really came from, you know, who queen elizabeth first was inspired or the 1870s was a time of great revival. they were constantly revival. we've reviving the fashions of the past, very much like they are today, are, you know, we think you know, we think we are inventing what we're really doing is we're just grabbing from the past and reinterpreting her early fashion career. interestingly it happened in when she was nine years old in. 1883 when she and a friend of hers decided to have a fancy party and they had a fancy dress party for 150 little girls in waterloo iowa.

the year after this book was published fancy dress, as described by arden holt. this is perhaps the most famous publication on the subject. and in this book is a description called press or this is caredut entire in newspaper. the skirt consists of box plted illustrations from papers coming to the waist with portraits and names of newspapers pasted across here. there the bodice with bertha to match the bows of srl velvet quill pens, ink bottle and sealing wax stuck in the hair. it has a much better effect than would appear and been a favorite dress. and fancy dress balls in paris the same idea was carried out a white satidrs having bands velvet bearing the words discretion, indiscretion and the names various ri newspapers. sometimes they were trimmed, trimmed the skirt with used postage stamps and they called the gown postage.

so here is an example from harper's bazaar of some of the fancy dress dss gowns that would have been worn in waterloo, iowa. thank you very much. are here is thptn from the waterloo courier of. may 23rd, 1883. the little folks enjoyy pleasant party at the commercial house last wednesday evening, mrs. sweet a henry being the hostesses. handsome masquerade costumes,ets handsomely attired in e made of the and looked very attractive. lou henry's costume was composed. the tribune so the two, the two battling newspapers were represented by the two young ladies at this. we've already talked her

interest and athleticism and this is a wonderful photograph of her in an icekating outfit. and it's made of wool wool was the fabric of choice ts time. everything was wool down to your underwear? an if were really savvy, your deear was made of red wool because red was to protect you. there was a man called gustav yeager. some of you may have heard of the yeager shops, the wool shops. well, gustav yeager in 1879 invented something called the sanitary wool system, in which he believed untied natural wool should be used for everything, including your corsets and shoes. and that is a whole other lecture. but here you see some some interesting illustrations of of these garments and of course, stripes were easy because stripes could be woven at the time the fabric was made wool does something that no else does and it breathes wool transports

from your skin to the outside keeping your skin warm. it's why i'm sure you have not noticed. but i am wearing birkenstocks with wool socks and i wear birkenstock with wool socks. 365 days of the year. in the winter i wear two pair and my feet are perfect. you can see that there was an interest even though we saw images of her looking like a kind hellion. you see here. in 1893. and she's wearing a very hairstyle at the time, and here she is with her and another colleague at stanford. and this is 1894. and you see her sleeves and i want to talk a bit about sleeves because sleeves changed shape and size every year and you can tell in 19th century image by the shape of the sleeves. from 1891 to 90 2 to 90 3 to 94,

by 95, they were enormous in they were so enormous that sometimes gentlemen had to buy three theaters seats for their for their companion because the sleeves were so large they took up a full seat. and of course, tiny waists and enormous, you yourself. the bigger a costume, the more important you are. that's why kings wear long robes. that's why the size and shape of your garment determines how present yourself. this is a photograph photograph that we've just seen. and florence henry said. she wore a brown traveling suit, as did mr. they were a perfect match. neither knew what the other would, so i guess they were sympathetic as. as regarding their clothes. and here you see it on their

wedding day from the 10th of february, 1899. now he gave her, which i found very, very interesting as a wedding, a piece of lace. it's called maltese lace because it's made on the island of malta. and here you see that that pattern i, i have a pointer he you see this pattern here? here's the pattern. here'pattn on the lace. the maltese cross and this was made of natural natural silk that was untied. it was a kind of natural beige color. and it was very, very popular. in fact, it was it had been popular in the 16th century when it was done needle lace, and then it became bobbin, which is done in this, as you see here, u can have as my as 150 baboons. in fact, therere where there have been a thousaoons.

and it's really a of breeding. and the baboons are just braided around pins in a pattern. and this was a big industry and it became it became important, which i will get into during the first world war. i found a reference where it said that the in the white house a lace was preferred for tablecloths. it was reported that lou liked to be able to see the beautiful through the lace. so that's why she preferred lace to linen tablecloths. they, of course, went to china, landed smack in the middle of the boxer rebellion. and then surprise, surprise here we are. and i read an account at one point, her bicycle was shot out from under her. i don't know. that's if that's true or not. there's there a lot of interesting stories. and here you see her in 1900, just the boxers besieged.

then it's up and she as fashionable as. you can possibly be. bert said she was dressed fully, lly on time, and he was sort of shocked, and she retorted on the bottom of page that her previous had resulted because the tailor brought her gown just minutes before she was to appear in it. a away. i'm sorry, this is not 18. 1988 is a typo. i did not catch that. i'm sorry. and here you see the height of fashion in 1900, the museum here has some wonderful items in its collection, including these marvelous hair ornaments, which are made of jade andreaux pearls and glass beads and this wonderful decoration, this

idescent which is made of kingfisher feathers feathers, are, in fact, it became so lar that i thinkal varieties of kingfisher became, as a result of this fashion, now only year later, in 1901, you see her during stay in japan for baxter's and she's straight out of italian renaissance. she's wearing a beatrice shade dusty gown with that are done in puffs. she s she has a an inset with a collar of course it's a high stock collar, but it is absolutelyy the renaissance and. she was not afraid of shn here. you see her in a kimono. and these are very difficult wear. e eys are extremely and require a great deal of discipline. i'm not sure ishdid this before or after her back surgery, but and i'm not sure if

was a help or a hindrance. so in 1903, london, we see her in her vehicle of choice and she is, the lady of the hat she is wearing. what was at the time the butterfly hat. and here you see an example it. and yet another version theat was was not just a fripperwas the crowning glory the hat told people who you were and how you wore it was just as important as the hat itself. another aspect of her of her garments was she was standing in what is called the fashionable shape. this is called a mano bosom. and it means that you don't have two bosoms. you have one. and it's kind of pushed together and it's sort of falling down in

the front. in 1944, bernhard rudolf ski did an exhibition at the museum modern art, which was called our close modern, and he made little sculptures, what the body would look like under, the fashionable clothes. and here you have these are about this tall and they are at the metropolitan museum of art but he did the hobble skirt and he did the twenties when you had no breasts and, so on. so these are really fascinating in terms of lou hoover. and if you take a look at that at the sleeve, i'm going to show you a bit later the sleeve right here that that influenced a very important gown in collection that i'm going to be talking about extensively. now. there is a dress in the collection from redfern and. john redfern began in the isle of wight and then to london and to paris and was the heart of,

of the fashion industry. he, he competed with charles frederick wirth. he was really one of the most foremost couture's and couturier and is a dress in the collection. and here you see the label redfern, paris, and the label is always the band inside the bodice and it says here by special appointed into her imperial majesty empress of russia. and on the right it says to to the princess of wales who who would become queen very shortly because victoria on in january in 1901 and then she of course became the queen. this is the dress and this is just a detail of it and kind the kind of workmanship, the craftsmanship, the lace, the embroidery, the beads and so on are really quite stunning.

t it must have been made soon after their arrival in london. as you can see here now back to 1903, lou. and i'm sorry i said herbert junior. it's herbert. it's not herbert, because i've discovered that they have different middle names. and so he's really herbert is not herbert junior mia culpo, but here you see herbert with his mother very, very stylish and the tilt of the hat was everything how the connected to theaityle all of this explain who you were to people who were looking at you which was everybody i also came across the most fascinating designer called albert phillips and here you have on the interior of the garment mrs. hoover can you see the name is written written he is sorry he received the

appointment to her majesty the queen in 1901. and unfortunately i do not have an image to show you because this garment is in very complicated and challenge. it's a very challenging condition. but hopefully the next time i do a talk on this that that garment will have been put back order and you will be able to see it. she was really kind of picture perfect as the mother of of these two boys. and believe it or not, portland, oregon, postcard that you see on the right. i purchased two days ago on ebay because i was looking for a little sailor suit outfit that i would not have to worry about copyright. and so this is a 1907 postcard that is now in my possession. even in burma, in the in the in

the middle of outback, you see her in a skirt that is pleated that is that beautifully tailored. and her children are dressed her son is wearing one of these kind of little lord fauntleroy boy ruffled shirts. that's very elaborate. and the mysterious fashion drawing,hi i've been by, has a description. it says lace so fragile att had to sewn on white cotton. the chiffon very fine tucks between the lace and plas black velvet ribn th black spangles sewn on it. spangled butterfly for and after a very go fm mama for, the summer would be a black doll is swiss made over black for day or white for evening. so she was very clearly interested in fashion because she did this drawing and she's talking it and here is an example that has survived from

1910 in the collection. and you see that the the bands down the front are embided chains stitch on net and all of this hand embroidery doney masses of of, of workers. in 1914, she was involved with an organization to support lace makers in belgium and was part of the united states support of belgium during this during the first world war and she became very and in the exhibition here you will find this lace of saint michael and the pattern was done was drawn out and then it was pricked with a needle and then it was laid then it was laid over. a fabric. no, i'm sorry in this case, it's laid over a pillow. and then where the needles are,

the pins are pricked, and then it's all woven around of those pins. and you see the result of it here on the right. and there's a there's a student, a young woman earning her living, and they earned two francs a week as opposed to nothing. and they had a lot of trouble the with the germans. they were not a they were allowed to export lace but couldn't be political. there were some lace patterns that actually have cities in flames and within within. lace, but those they could not transport. so these were were hidden by being wrapped around the bodies of the people leaving the country, which was also done in the 18th century. if you read small it, you'll find out that that's how lace and were smuggled out in 1748. it was illegal to have foreign embroidery in london and it could taken off your back and publicly burned.

and the person and the person who sold it to you would be fined 100 pounds per item because they didn't want the british of british gold to go to the king of france, who was their enemy. so they prohibited foreign embroidery by 1919. you see her with her in palo alto and she wearing what i call aps a rather unfortunate style. they may have behting for the vote, but they weren't winning an contest futy. it was was it was a practical, practical design, but it's a continuum. the world of fashion. this is actually a mistake. here we have a dress from 1920s that is on display. you can see it over here and it's silk crepe and it's it's

layered in in these ruffles that are cut on a circle. and the trimming on all of this is quite beautiful as their little pronged rhinestone that are set into into a gold recording. now the interesting thing about the toes when it comes to fashion is that women in the twenties were not allowed to have. even in the in 1923 even in 18th century films, the wigwent from the from the eyebrow up, the foreheads were hidden. and this seems to be a style that lou henry hoover really liked because you see from the 1920s really onward, almost the end of her life, she wore hats that covered forehead here and

she elaborate prints. she has a reputation of being motherly and wearing grays and blacks and browns and all of that. but i'm going to show you some of her garments. and they are knockout here. again, you have the cloche. this is in the exhibition. these are these are printed silk chiffons. of, which there must have been millions. because i work for an auction house and every one of our auctions we have dozens, dozens and dozens of these from the 1930s. they were very popular and they were surprisingly strong. here you have that's that's called a resist dye, where the fabric itself has a pattern printed on it of of a kind of glue. and ou d it in black and then you rinse out the glue. and so you get beautiful design on silk, multicolored of silk chiffon. so they were called garden dresses and.

you were really walking among you wearing the blossoms. you were not only in garden and walking among the blossoms, you were actually wearing them. and of course, one of my favorite images of this is what liu wore to the inauguration. and she's certainly stood out because no one else was wearing. a girl scout uniform. but she she was she was she was definitely a standout tt particular case. but she. she wore this cloche hat, which is which is my topic of discussion. and here you see from 1929 the collection and you see how t fe it's just the face becomes the important part of the expression the head is covered up. and at this time, the 1920s, there was a big move toward rayon because they were trying to they were trying to get away from the huge consumption of

silk and fashion. crepe that is all done withnd chain stitch embroidery, the amount of handwork onf this was quite, quite massive when lived in washington. she shopped garfinkel,ius store, which was an eight story department store that he erected. in 1929 andithin years he had more than 500 employees. and she has many garfinkel, julius garfinkel dresses. he was dedicated to his stores. he never was bothered with things like marriage and and children he was really married to his store. and he was one of the first to have live models going through the store, wearing fashions was. a this dress, as you can see,

right there, you canee later on when, the lights are up and this is another one of his very aborate pnts. but look at the color. it's all about color is not ay, it is not gunmetal. it is not it is not black. i think part of it has to do with the images were in black and white and so many of the many of the images that people saw were black and white. and of course this dress is up there as well. and this is crushed velvet in blue. she had a reputation of loving blue. she had satin dresses and tulle dresses and everything in blue. in the course of all of this, i came across a dress was quite famous and it was made of cotton. so i started to investigate that and i came up with, believe it or not, in 1931, a telegram came from huey long long saying that we can restore the prosperity of the south and materially the balance of the world within less twweeks time, if the cotton

producing have governors and other officials who will have thcourage to act and decide civilly, the only way that this can be done is to prohibit by law at once the raising of a single bale of cotton in all cotton growingtates. during the year 1932, the used to have their cotton and if action is immediately taken along this line, ty will benefit of the price because. cotton had gone down $0.06, $0.06 a pound, and it was an absolute. so the governor of texas and the governor of of of louisiana decided that they were going to pass laws and they actually passed laws that you could only use 30% of your property in cotton. and this was going to solve the problem. well, it did create was an enormous exodus to north from from hundreds of thousands of cotton workers whom who moved who immigrated to the north. in 1931. there a growing movement movement the cotton holiday was

promoted by huey long and was part of a promise to make ordinary people's lives better. in hindsight, we can see clearly it was like so many other plans of his a ruse. sound familiar. lillian rogers parks wrote a book called, my 30 years backstairs at the white house and she was responsible her mother was responsible for keeping a diary of first lady lou henry hoover of every single thing she wore every day. and this is the diary from 1932 in the morning, lunch, you know, blue shoes. sometimes it tells what color stockings what kind of and dinner a blue and white muslin colonial gown, black satin slippers, black velvet ribbon for hair. old fashioned blue velvet purse.

well, she wore this again on the 22nd of april, and it says air, but it's not the air. it was, in fact, in worceste ohio, where she received a the lh d letter litteritter rotten woman's room doctor. so she received an honorable doctorate anwore this dress and it said a pageant will n important part of the formalities. mrs. hoover herself will review annual thal color day parade at worcester college sharing honors with miss selma sage of marion, ohio queen of the may well here is the dress and her action iwearing a cotton dress to an official presidential function created a ir that not only from the standpoint of fashion in the ongoing discussion of luxury goods silk, every other fer,

the article in the manchester guardian said,hough tongue in cheek, was produced in the part of england where cotton had been the single most important manufacturing goods since the late 18th century. so this colonial dress worn on february 4th is propitious. on february 5th. the banning cotton production was declared. so that law was ended. however, and the end of february this particular article about queen, about her dress, was while the queen buys cotton at the british manufacturers fair mrs. hoover, iteems, has ordered a cotton gown for a shington.ng state function in hemotive, however, is not to help the planters of arkansas or even the carolina mills. it is sacoage a boycott japanese silk. there can be no doubt that if american women who are thelaeste

wod should seriously set themselves to boycott whence the larger part of tk mes. the effect on japanese would be disastrous. moreover it's difficult to s how anyrin government, even if it wanted to, could stop such a mov japan, of course,as method of dealing with boycotts of mrs. hoover persists, and if she is followed a lumbeof her countrywomen. we expect to see japanese warships at the golden gate and japanese troops and purely in self-defense and for the protection of their nationals and their commercial rights in the united states. bombarding san francisco and dropping bombs over los angeles. so here you have here you have a a british newspaper making great fun of this. however, the newspapers said the woman who had nhi that old cotton dress to wear at her formal party need not waste away longing for a silkre. at a recent white house party, the lady of the land set the

style cotton by ceing in a flower fro cied after one her mother had worn many years before. however, that has never been discovered so you see the frock. and you see several variations with with the way the accessories are worn. now, this was a time when they were receiving people from all over the world at the white house. and in 1931, they received, the king of sight of siam. and in researching, i was fascinated because he was the youngest of 44 sons. he had 44 brothers and he h 3 sisters. and he was the youngest one, but he somehow miraculously. and i think there's a whole story there. he did abdicate four years later

to fm constitutional monarchy. and here is the lou henry hoover we all know and love with her favorite with her occupation knitting. how many of you here? knit. okay. i have to raise my. i've been living since i was five with two swiss grandmothers. there's no other possibility. so. and in fact, when i came here three days ago, i went to the knit shop in iowa city and there were five ladies sitting around it and i said, so how long have you been knitting any of you? and one woman said, well, i've dating since i was six. i said, oh, i've been eating since i was five, but i'm. and how old are you? and she said, well, i'm 76. and i said, well, i'm 79, so i guess i win. and it was one of those, one of those interesting encounters.

so. so here at the white house reception in 1931, you see her wearing her favorite clothes hat. giving her face this kind of aura. and here believe it says the farewell tour of 1932. is thi correct. ishiimage correct? is this date correct on this image? hello? the dates. okay, good. and i wanted to show you this. this beaded handbag that you see holding one. these were popular for about 8 years. and they were knitted and all of the pattern was put on to a single thread, all in order and then unit and you put a bead with each one of the stitches and there's famous story that actually, i believe comes from iowa, where a woman wanted to

knit one of these for her minister because. she thought he was wonderful and. she got the pattern from a friend of hers and it had butterflies on it, but the friend screwed up the pattern and gave her the wrong pattern. so when she made it, it was a disaster. it was something else. so that's very much beside the. but but she's wearing something here that was fashionable for over 80 years. so i don't know if the one if the one she has around her wrist is from the 20th or it could even be as early as the 1840s. now, mrs. hoover had perhaps the largest wardrobe this from any first lady in the white house up to that time. pair of shoes. this this is from her staff who were preparing to have her move out of the white house. each pair of shoes were wrapped and labeled, as were the pocketbook. by thursday of the second week, we'd gotten to the evening, i was called in to help from

o'clock in the morning until 9:00 friday night. i did nothing but fold evening gowns. we only had until saturday morning to get ready for the next lady who was eleanor roosevelt. and this is the dress that probably many of you have seen at the smithsonian. it's made silk and metallic and it's on display. the first lady's gallery. the first lady's gallery was started in 1916. by the way, and i don't know how many of you subscribe to smithsonian magazine, to some of you get the smithsonian magazine. well, they had an article about washington's dress from the smiths and in it, and it's a hand-painted silk dress and it had flowers on it. and they said these were the flowers from her garden. and i wrote a letter to them which they published and. it's not true. the silk was made in china.

it was all hand-painted in china. and import had nothing to do with the in her garden. a little fact that they forgot. but lu lu. was the first lady of style charm and substance as. as anybody interested in her will know. anybody who's read any of the books on will know. and this these speaker before me made it very clear that we have a serious woman. but don't forget that fact. she was not bereft of fashion. thank you.