Maine Memory Network

Marguerite Waterman Cobb's nightdress, Portland, ca. 1928

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1928 Location: Portland Media: Rayon

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"Pat Sandler for Highlight" rayon taffeta dress, ca. 1960

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1960 Media: rayon, nylon, polyester, metal

Fashionable Maine: early twentieth century clothing

Maine residents kept pace with the dramatic shift in women’s dress that occurred during the short number of years preceding and immediately following World War I. The long restrictive skirts, stiff collars, body molding corsets and formal behavior of earlier decades quickly faded away and the new straight, dropped waist easy-to-wear clothing gave mobility and freedom of movement in tune with the young independent women of the casual, post-war jazz age generation.

Silk Manufacturing in Westbrook

Cultivation of silkworms and manufacture of silk thread was touted as a new agricultural boon for Maine in the early 19th century. However, only small-scale silk production followed. In 1874, the Haskell Silk Co. of Westbrook changed that, importing raw silk, and producing silk machine twist threat, then fabrics, until its demise in 1930.

Historic Clothing Collection - 1920-1930 - Page 1 of 3

"Rayon nightdress, ca. 1928Maine Historical Society Inexpensive rayon competed with, and steadily displaced more costly silk, contributing to the…"

Historic Clothing Collection - 1930-1940 - Page 1 of 4

"… Society Just how attractive and fashionable rayon could be is seen in the comfortable easy elegance of a white woven, medium weight fluid rayon…"