Frumpy and unflattering, the humble house dress, as shown in this colorized photo, was a staple for housewives for decades. (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)

When you picture women in the 1940s and 1950s, you are probably envisioning dresses with full, crinoline skirts, hats, gloves, pencil skirts, and high-heeled pumps. While fashionable, these styles were hardly practical. Can you imagine cooking dinner in a huge flowing skirt or hanging out the laundry in high heels? Housewives from the early 1900s to the mid-1960s only wore these fashions when they went out in public like to go grocery shopping. When they were at home, they wore house dresses. In this article, we will take a colorized look at the practical, utilitarian house dress.

First, A Look Back

For much of the 20th century, women didn’t wear pants, at least not very much. As per the social norms of the time, dresses were the go-to outfit. This time coincided with the time when women rarely worked outside the home. Since most women were housewives, they spent the majority of their time at home, only seeing their husbands and children and, if they were fortunate, a few other housewives from their neighborhood. At home, they devoted their day to cleaning, tending to the children, doing laundry, cooking, baking, and washing dishes. This was a messy job. Even with an apron on, a housewife could quickly ruin her lovely dress. The answer to this problem was the house dress, a low-cost, informal work garment.

The Mother Hubbard Dress

A colorized photo showing a collection of vintage house dresses. (dustyoldthings.com)

The forerunner of the house dress was the Mother Hubbard Dress, based on the 1880s nursery rhyme book series illustrated by Kate Greenaway. Greenaway showed women wearing loose-smocked dresses in these books. After that, designers created work dresses for women that were modest, but structureless. A woman didn’t need to wear a crinoline, a corset, or any of the other fussy Victorian undergarments. As practical as this sounded, the Mother Hubbard dress didn’t really catch on. But it did plant a seed. A few decades later, the idea of a comfortable work dress resurfaced again thanks to affordable fabric, sewing machines, and mass production.

And It Has Pockets, Too

House dresses of the early to mid-1900s were designed for function, not style. They were not considered appropriate attire to wear in public. Most of them were made of lightweight cotton print – because it would hide stains. They were washable and made with zippers and pockets. There were no frills on these dresses, but if an apron was worn over the dress, it was somewhat presentable. The loose fit of the house dress had an added bonus. It was roomy enough for a pregnant housewife to continue wearing throughout most of her pregnancy.