Froufrou and Zoysia
By Stefene Russell
Photograph courtesy of the Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints Collection
Some moms are just more clever with sewing, as you can see from the headbands of these Cleveland High girls. A few knew how to fashion roses from a handful of unruly tulle. Others gave up, attaching a simple bow or crumpled, shapeless train. They were supposed to know how to sew, those Edwardian matrons with pillowy bosoms and sad, baggy eyes, bent over their foot-pedal Singers, yards of diaphanous fabric spilling off their laps, pins clenched in their teeth. But these girls are not thinking of the sadness of their mothers. Such thoughts evaporate easily in early summer, especially when you are 17, Coco Chanel has just popularized the suntan and you have yet to get grass stains on your white slippers.