In order to gain a better understanding of the lifestyles and dress practices of Appalachians in the mid-20th century, an interview was conducted with Sara Northup, a 79-year-old resident of Gallipolis, Ohio. Born in 1943, Northup is part of the “Silent Generation” that experienced young adulthood in the 1960s. Her comments provide a valuable record of her community’s relationship with fashion and the specific styles of dress worn. By comparing her statements to those from the fashion media at the time, we can draw conclusions about fashion in Appalachia during the 1960s.
Northup has spent most of her life in the small river town of Gallipolis. She attended Gallia Academy High School from 1957 to 1961, and later worked as a nurse at the local hospital. The city’s population was at a peak, reaching almost 9,000 in a mostly rural area. Many residents either worked in the hospital, in one of the factories, or on nearby farms. There were also many who owned small businesses in the downtown area.
Growing up in this community, Northup had a sense of dress that centered around functionality rather than style. She stated, “I was not fashionable. The community I lived in was not fashionable; we were more interested in being clean and neat” (Northup, 2023). She would have only a couple trendy items, while the rest was purchased for utilitarian purposes. This is backed up by data from a column in Women’s Wear Daily, Experiences of Smaller Stores. One article from the 1950s finds that rural customers adopt new fashion trends slower (Cahill, 1956). Another makes the claim that rural customers do not wish to purchase high fashion (Cahill, 1960). Lastly, an article advises retailers not to modernize their storefronts too much to appeal to a rural audience (Cahill, 1963). All of this falls in line with the ideals held by the rural community of Gallipolis.
There was not much individuality in the way people dressed; according to her, they all dressed alike. Although the wealthier people bought better brands, the styles were more or less the same between social classes. She emphasized that everyone was modest and neat, and believes that in general, people dressed more formally.
To acquire clothing, one had limited options; they could go out of town to buy it or make it yourself. Many of the clothes worn by Northup throughout high school were sewn by her mother. Millions of women across the country sewed their own clothing at the time, but felt limited as to the number of patterns available, as discussed by Women’s Wear Daily in the 1962 article, “High Fashion for Housewives” (Howard, 1962). Beyond what could be sewn, she would travel to Huntington or Charleston, West Virginia to shop. They would only get new clothes about three times per year: around Christmas, around Easter, and at the beginning of the school year. Clothing would also be exchanged between members of the family in the form of “hand-me-downs”, especially nicer or more expensive things.
In high school, Northup’s daily dress included a button-down blouse, a sweater, a knee-length skirt and either oxfords or tennis shoes. Once again, dress was modest. Sandals or shorts were inappropriate for school, and girls still mainly wore skirts. Denim jeans were not widely worn until a little bit later, around 1963. Although most people dressed the same on a daily basis, in more formal occasions, they got to express themselves a little more. Church attire was relatively extravagant, involving “gloves and hats, and special delicate-looking dresses with flowers and ruffles” (Northup, 2023). Prom was another opportunity. The girls would dress in elaborate, strapless gowns with crinolines, either full-length or below the knee, as illustrated in an article titled “Prom Night” in Women’s Wear Daily (1962).
In the late 1960s, Northup became pregnant with her first child. She expressed her disdain for maternity clothes available at the time. She found them unattractive because they tried to hide the bump instead of embracing it. Her preferred choice was an A-shape tent dress. Other women also took issue with maternity clothes, such as those in the New York Times article, “2 expectant mothers who chose not to wear maternity clothes”. They also specifically cited the tent dress as the ideal choice (Morris, 1969).
Overall, in a decade in which fashion changed rapidly, things moved a little slower for those in small town Appalachia. The media narrative of rural fashion aligns with the comments given by Northup. Dress was based on functionality and fashion was not given priority. However, people cared about their appearances and maintained a neat and modest image.
Works Cited
Cahill, J. (1956). Rural customers held slower adopting new fashion trends. Women’s Wear Daily, 92(36), 6. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/experience-smaller-stores-rural-customers-held/docview/1564946662/se-2?accountid=2837
Cahill, J. (1960). Find rural customers shun high fashion. Women’s Wear Daily, 101(55), 6. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/experiences-smaller-stores-find-rural-customers/docview/1523439368/se-2?accountid=2837
Cahill, J. (1963). Ideas and fashions for smaller stores: Rural retailer finds it wise not to modernize. Women’s Wear Daily, 107(97), 36. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/ideas-fashions-smaller-stores/docview/1862350654/se-2?accountid=2837
Howard, T. (1962). High fashion for housewives. Saturday Evening Post, 235(20), 34–39. https://discovery-ebsco-com.wvu.idm.oclc.org/linkprocessor/plink?id=042520c3-7f44-3a59-937e-962ee734cc39
Morris, B. (1969, March 17). 2 expectant mothers who chose not to wear maternity clothes. New York Times, 34. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/2-expectant-mothers-who-chose-not-wear-maternity/docview/118513915/se-2?accountid=2837
Northup, S. (2023, February 16). Interview on Dress Practices in 1960s Appalachia (M. Northup, Interviewer) [Personal communication].
Young Juniors (Teens): Prom Night. (1961). Women’s Wear Daily, 102(124), 21. https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/young-juniors-teens-prom-night/docview/1523464383/se-2
Interview Transcript
Oral History Project – Transcript
Sara Northup interviewed by Meredith Northup (Edited for clarity)
February 16, 2023
Meredith Northup 0:04
So, for background, just tell me a little bit about yourself. When and where were you born, and what was your family like?
Sara Northup 0:13
I, Sara Northup, was born in Cabell County, West Virginia in 1943. By the 60s and 70s, I was in my 20s and 30s. I went to school, I was in school at Gallia Academy High School. And during that time, I participated in sports activities of different kinds and the yearbook. I was a good student.
Meredith Northup 0:58
So, you mentioned sports activities. What was your gym uniform like, or your sports uniforms?
Sara Northup 1:07
The gym uniforms were one piece, and they were usually gray or some dull color. They were short sleeved and had short legs that were kind of like a jumpsuit, except it was shorts.
Meredith Northup 1:34
So, what were your hobbies and interests when you were a young adult?
Sara Northup 1:38
I was interested in writing and reading, but the activities I participated in… In high school was a National Honor Society, and I was in future nurses and then several miscellaneous clubs. I played soccer. That was the only sport that the women could letter in, and I lettered in soccer. I played basketball, even as short as I am, and I played baseball and softball.
Meredith Northup 2:10
So, you had a letterman jacket?
Sara Northup 2:15
No, they only had letterman jackets for the guys. Yeah, we just had a letter and we stuck it on a sweater or something. I think I never did stick mine on anything.
Meredith Northup 2:30
So how would you describe your relationship with fashion and clothing?
Sara Northup 2:36
I was not fashionable. The community that I lived in was not fashionable; we were more interested in being clean and neat. And we were much more modest than the current population.
Meredith Northup 2:54
Tell me more about what community you were living in at the time.
Sara Northup 2:59
I was living in a little river town, Gallipolis, Ohio. It’s on the Ohio River and has French heritage. The people that live there… most people that work there work of one of the two factories, the power plant, or the hospital.
Meredith Northup 3:20
So, most of the people there would be working class and have a more practical sense of fashion?
Sara Northup 3:32
Well, we had lawyers and doctors, a lot of doctors and a lot of medical people in this area. And a lot of factory workers. We didn’t have coal miners. We weren’t in that bunch of people, but we had a lot of small businesses. A lot of the business downtown was small businesses. So, we had a lot of business owners.
Meredith Northup 3:58
I’d like to ask you about that too. Whenever you were shopping for clothes, did you buy locally? Were there local clothing brands you would buy from?
Sara Northup 4:09
Well, to begin with, back in the early days, my mother made my clothing. She still made my clothes up though high school. She made fashions, and my wedding dress. A lot of people sewed in these rural communities. But we also bought clothes and we usually went to Huntington or Charleston to buy our clothing. There was clothing available locally, but it was not middle class. It was either high class or things from, they didn’t have GHC Murphy back but stores like that, that had cheaper clothing.
Meredith Northup 4:54
So, what brands did you like specifically?
Sara Northup 5:00
I don’t remember the brands; I remember a lot of London Fog raincoats. And there were several dress brands that we bought but I don’t remember what they were. The shoes, I had an interesting thing. I had a little foot and back then they sold sample shoes. And when the local shoe store would put their sample shoes on sale, they were four and a half and five. And I wore a four and a half back then and so when one of the main shoe stores in town, one of the good ones, when he put his samples on sale, he always called me, and I’d go in and buy four or five pairs at a time.
Meredith Northup 5:51
What kind of shoes were they like? What did they look like?
Sara Northup 5:55
You know I started out wearing heels in junior high school. And I wore in high school, at school I wore Oxford’s, tennis shoes, mostly tennis shoes to school. Of course, we had boots during the winter. But we had leather shoes during the winter but during the summer we would wear tennis shoes. We didn’t wear sandals to school.
Meredith Northup 6:27
What would you wear to school on an average day?
Sara Northup 6:33
Well, because my mother made my clothes, I had a lot of clothes. And my sister, my mother, and I were all about the same size and we could all wear the same clothes. So, I had lots of things that we would ordinarily wear. To school, we did not wear pants. Not in the earlier years. We wore skirts and blouses and sweaters. And they were all knee length skirts.
Meredith Northup 7:03
Do you know what kind of materials your clothes were made of, like cotton or wool?
Sara Northup 7:09
Everything. [My mother] bought wool and made nice outfits out of wool. But we wore things we could wash to school. We saved the wool things for special occasions, and we would wear them to school on a special occasion. But as soon as you came home, you took off your school clothes and put on your play clothes. Especially on Sunday. On Sunday, we always had special Sunday dresses we wore to church. When we came home, we took those off and put on our other clothes.
Meredith Northup 7:58
When you got dressed up, what did that look like? What would you wear?
Sara Northup 8:03
We were fancy. When we were really dressed up, we wore gloves and hats, and special delicate-looking dresses with flowers, ruffles and all that good stuff.
Meredith Northup 8:33
How often did you shop for clothes or have new clothes made? And how long could you expect a garment to last?
Sara Northup 8:43
Okay, that’s interesting because I went through that with Noel, because she would ask, “Why did you have your picture made in all these dressy clothes?” Because back then they didn’t have malls. The first mall was after I got married. And so back then, in order to get your fancy clothes, you had to go to Charleston or Huntington. We always went at Christmas and Easter and before school started. Those are the times you’ve got your different wardrobe. At Christmas you would get sweaters and things, and at Easter you would get your summer things, and then in the fall you would get your fall clothes.
Meredith Northup 9:31
How many clothes would you buy? Were you just replacing the clothes that needed to be replaced in your wardrobe?
Sara Northup 9:50
Yeah, it more or less moved to a “move down space”, like for instance your new things were now your good times and the things you wore for good before were your school things that your playthings were what was the year before that.
Meredith Northup 10:09
Did you ever throw away clothes?
Sara Northup 10:12
We always handed them down. Always. See, I come from big families on both sides. So, I had lots of younger cousins. And I had some cousins that handed things to me. Especially pretty sweaters and the more expensive things.
Meredith Northup 10:35
Your friends, how did they dress? Did you dress similarly?
Sara Northup 10:46
We all dressed alike. It was pretty much all the same. The kids that had more money probably dressed in better brands. I didn’t wear more expensive things, but I don’t know if they were any prettier. And it really didn’t make any difference. As far as buying things like polo shirts or something like that. It was never a big deal. There were probably some kids that had some of those brand things. But everybody was about the same. Even the kids that were poor and the kids that didn’t have anything. We all dressed pretty much alike.
Meredith Northup 11:29
Especially compared to today, how have you seen styles change? Going from being, like you said, pretty simple to… if you see young people around Gallipolis now, what are they dressed like?
Sara Northup 11:44
The thing that I noticed more than anything else is that we didn’t buy clothes just because they were in style. We had probably one or two things in style. We bought things for functionality. And what I see today is these kids with jeans with holes ripped in them. We wouldn’t be seen in anything like that because everybody would think you were poor. And also, the modesty thing. We kept ourselves pretty much covered up.
Meredith Northup 12:24
You’re a Christian, so did that influence your style at all?
Sara Northup 12:29
No, everybody was that way. We had Jewish people and Catholic people, all kinds of people in our school. Everyone pretty much did their own thing. Everybody had their favorite color, their favorite things. And some people were frilly, like lots of ruffles and lace and stuff and other people… But it was just a matter of taste more than anything else. The biggest difference was our prom dresses. Our prom dresses, back when I was growing up, had crinolines and were full of material. And if you wore a strapless dress, you didn’t get into that until you were in high school. They were still modest. They weren’t really revealing. And they were either long, full-length, or they were right below your knee.
Meredith Northup 13:41
W kind of silhouettes were popular. Like with skirts, were they more like A-line or pencil or flared?
It was a little of all of it. And I worse a little of all of it. The poodle skirts, the big round ones that made a circle when you dance. We wore a lot of those. Most of them were more a factor of the amount of fabric it took to make them. And the cost. because the more fabric it took to make them, the more they cost. Most of them were either like a pencil skirt or like a pleated. We wore pleated skirts and we wore skirts to work. I don’t know what you call it but it puckered around the waist. We didn’t use draw strings, so the pucker was sewn into the band of the skirt.
We started wearing blue jeans about… I suppose I wore blue jeans to school. But I don’t remember that being the main thing I wore to high school. Now when I got to nursing school, we were definitely in blue jeans then and that was in 63 or 65. That’s where the blue jeans came in.
And our [nurse] uniforms were short. They started out being mid-calf and then before I graduated, it was during the time I was in nursing school that they shortened the nurses uniforms to right below the knee. And that did not wear pants suits back and when we graduate, we wore white uniforms that were below the knee. And caps. But then after we graduated, they got away from the caps and the white uniforms. But that was years later.
Meredith Northup 15:42
So as a nurse during the 60s, the uniform, it was white… was it a dress?
Sara Northup 15:51
Yeah, and they were very, very formal dresses. They were long sleeved and buttoned up the front. Once in a while some of them zip up the back. But they were very fashionable, beautiful dresses that we wore after we graduated. We had uniforms when we were at school.
Meredith Northup 16:20
That’s so different from how nurses dress in scrubs now. In general, do you think people maybe dressed a little better, more formally?
Sara Northup 16:36
Yes, yes, very much. Like the women had hats on in church, the women wore hats all the time. And this was clear up until, oh, I guess in the 70s somewhere.
Meredith Northup 16:57
When polyester was first introduced in the 70s, what were your impressions of that?
Sara Northup 17:04
It was comfortable. And it was easy not to keep from wrinkling. And that’s when the pantsuits came in when we had polyester. Because, you know, like, they wouldn’t mess. They would stay neat, unwrinkled… Bell bottoms. The polyester bell bottoms.
Meredith Northup 17:41
During the 70s, what kind of stuff were you wearing?
Sara Northup 17:45
Well, I was pregnant from 68 to 74, and the maternity clothes were awful. They tried to hide your bump. Instead of sort of show it off like the girls today. And they were just terrible. They were not adult attractive. The only thing you could wear (or the best-looking thing you could buy) was an A-shaped dress that would get bigger as you got bigger.
Meredith Northup 18:22
What about with children’s clothes. Having kids in the 70s, what were they like versus whenever you were little?
Sara Northup 18:36
After a baby goes past infancy, and even from the time babies were born, there were so many showers and so many gifts that you got lots of onesies. And those were around then but you always had an undershirt on your baby. And they quit putting belly bands on before my children were born. But they were undershirts underneath like a onesie or any kind of anything you put on them. I had little nightgowns, and the clothes were cute. They were well made, and they lasted. I don’t remember them ever wearing out or anything. Because they weren’t in them long enough. And they were attractive. Not like the ones you can get today that are all made out of the nice soft cotton, but they were attractive and for little girls. Little boys didn’t have much choice of anything. And they had little ties, and the shoes were orthopedic shoes.
Now [my daughter] was born in 1974, and I started out with putting her in gloves and bonnets and stuff. Even when she was big enough, like three or four, she would have gloves and bonnets for summer. And with the boys we handed their clothes down, they were so close together that one of my go out and the other grow into him. So, we just kept a supply on the spot. We didn’t have the hand me downs that I had had as a child growing up. We didn’t have that when our children were growing up. But we always had nice warm coats. Almost everybody. People didn’t go without coats. The neighborhood, the community made sure children had warm coats and gloves and hats. That we did make sure we had all those things. Galoshes were a thing more than anything else. I think most kids had them, but a lot of kids did not have boots. The men’s fashions that were boring, boring, boring during that time.
Meredith Northup 21:45
About the coats, like what kind of coats were they? What were they made of? And did you ever use fur?
Sara Northup 21:57
Oh yeah, I did. During the 60s and 70s. I’m sure I had a fur coat probably during the 70s. And we had lots of fur collars and fox collars. And there were wool coats. Now all the coats are washable and that wasn’t the case back then. You had good wool, heavy coats. You took care of them. You had raincoats that you wore when it rains. And we didn’t wash our stuff every time we wore it. Especially our very best things. We just put on the dress we wore to church. We brought it home and hung it up on a hanger to air out unless it had gotten dirty somehow. And they used bleach back in the old days. But by the time we started washing our own clothes, we put bleach in the water and sometimes. But we didn’t use bluing or anything like that. We washed once a week, so you had enough to last all week. You had enough underwear to last a week.
We hang things out on the line to air out a lot, especially those wool coats and things. If you had worn your wool coat during the winter, and had taken good care of it, we would hang them out in the spring to air out in the sun so that you could put it away. You didn’t put it away without cleaning it good. Fixing it up. And usually, you could wear a coat for two seasons. Not for little kids but adults could wear them sometimes for several years.
Meredith Northup 24:21
So, you mentioned blouses and stuff, and sweaters. What was the predominant style of blouses, like button down or?
Sara Northup 24:31
Yeah, button up front. We didn’t have pullover sweaters, these that have all this stretch to them. We had “sweater” sweaters during the winter that were pullovers, and we wore cardigans. There were a lot of little shells with cardigans that were very popular back during that time. During winter we would wear those. In the summer we wore sleeveless things, but not as much as something with a little cap sleeve. And we had V-necks and U-necks. And we even had necklines that hung off the shoulder.
Meredith Northup 25:16
That’s interesting because those are popular now. What styles do you see now that you recognize were popular when you were young?
Sara Northup 25:35
Like you say, the boat neck, and long skirts. There for a while, long skirts. They came in, I think late in the 70s maybe. And anymore, when you go to a party you can wear a long dress, you can wear a short dress or you can wear an in-between dress. And that wasn’t the case back then. Back then, if you went to a party, they would specify that you dress formally, semi-formal, or casual. And if it was casual, you’d wear just regular clothes, but not pants. And if it was semi formal you wore either knee length or ankle or mid-calf. If it was formal, you wore a long dress. If it was formal men would wear tuxedos.
Meredith Northup 26:40
Did you travel or go to any cities? Did you notice if fashion was different there?
Sara Northup 26:51
Not in the places I traveled but it was pretty much the same. That’s another thing, women’s hairstyles. Back then they were much neater. You put a whole lot more time into taking care of your hair. And women wore rollers and all kinds of stuff and got permanents. And they had a specific hairdo, it wasn’t just pulled up on top of your head and put a rubber band around. And almost always the women looked very neat. That was the days of hairspray and all that stuff. I had natural hair. So, I didn’t have to use a bunch of spray and I never had to have permanents or anything. But most of my friends all did. And they would wear rollers at night in their hair to make their hairdo look good the next day. And they wouldn’t think of going somewhere with their hair wet. That was the first thing [my husband] noticed about young people. They wouldn’t think of going anywhere with their hair wet. They wouldn’t think of going anywhere without looking well groomed.
Meredith Northup 28:11
Who were celebrities and fashion icons that you remember from the 60s? Who did you like and who didn’t you like?
Sara Northup 28:21
Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Gina Lollobrigida, and Marilyn Monroe were during that time. And that’s the way women wanted to look. They wanted to look like those people. They didn’t want to look like somebody just got out of bed and shaking their head and left.
Meredith Northup 28:46
What about body shape? Like what was the ideal body shape?
Sara Northup 28:54
Hourglass. A Twiggy was not in place anymore, the idea that the thinner the girl is the better they look. Back then, that wasn’t the times. In fact, Twiggy was the first one of those plain, straight, shapeless girls.
It was Marilyn Monroe image back then. You weren’t supposed to be fat, but you were supposed to have some padding on you, in the right places.
Meredith Northup 30:10
So, I think that is about it, unless you have else anything to add.
(End recording)
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