Clothes in Books Day Out: The Barbara Pym society

Clothes in Books Day Out: The Barbara Pym society

 

 

Any regular reader of Clothes in Books will know that I am a huge fan of the novelist Barbara Pym, and have been for more than 40 years. So it was a great honour to be asked to give a talk to the Barbara Pym Society – who have a conference every year at St Hilda’s Oxford, Barbara’s old college.

My talk had this title:

'Using much lipstick, making new clothes…': What the Well-dressed Woman Wore in the 1930s

It was an absolute joy to pursue the topic: to look at Barbara’s clothes and choices, and the clothes worn by her characters. Barbara Pym had an eye for style and fashion: it was an important feature in her life, she thought about the meaning and significance of clothes, and she used those perceptions carefully and wonderfully in the novels.

I was able to attend several other talks on other aspects of Pym. The theme of the conference was

Barbara Pym and the Charm of the Absurd: Excellent Women and A Glass of Blessings

making the point that she didn’t only deal with vicars and curates. She was always open to new influences, went looking for them. At Oxford she read Proust, and books on Modern Art, In 1939 she is visiting Surrealist Exhibitions, in the mid-50s there’s a visit to a Proust exhibition.

There was an excellent session with the writer James Runcie, who wrote the Grantchester series, but to Pym fans did something more important. There is a wonderful 1992 BBC documentary called Miss Pym’s Day Out, and he devised and directed it. It is a most unusual programme and such a clever way of looking at the author and her work – a mixture of real people and actors. Highly recommended

Miss Pyms Day Out: Bookmark - BBC iPlayer

And James Runcie was a fabulously entertaining, very funny speaker, who told us all about making the programme, and ranged round some other subjects too.

The participants were all lovely, highly appreciative and good-natured, and with red-hot Pym knowledge. It was terrific to meet so many of them – it’s obviously a carefully-planned and varied weekend with all kinds of great events included. I had a blast.

My talk was concentrating on the 1930s and what might have influenced Pym’s choices then, but also looked at later times, and, of course, the items worn by characters in the books, and some outfits and looks and ideas that she might have aspired to, been intrigued by.

Some people  think Pym is all bedjackets and overalls – and indeed those items do feature, and feature on the blog. I myself have described some Pym heroines as being stalkers in a nice cardi and comfortable shoes. But there is more to her than that. I have picked out a section of my talk to feature here.

There was a big Russian and then Soviet influence in the 1920s and 1930s – The Ballet Russe touring till 1929, Russian emigres moving to Paris after the Revolution.

Can we see this in Barbara’s wardrobe?

There are several mentions of what seems to have been a favourite item: a scarlet satin Russian blouse. (I’m assuming it was the same one over a couple of years, she definitely worked her clothes and kept them going)

There’s an evening in 1933 where she says she  “Embroidered my red satin blouse and did some knitting.”

Then when she goes back to college:

"In the afternoon I put some henna on my hair — only a little, but it made it quite a nice colour. Next time I must be bolder! JCR meeting — I wore my scarlet satin Russian blouse over a black frock — and had my hair straight with the short piece hanging down almost into my eyes."

She sounds like Petrova in Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes in her Russian tunic…

And here are some patterns for those Russian blouses: second from the left has the colour, but the others give more idea of possible shapes…

She liked a good strong red anyway, as becomes obvious in her diaries:

"I bought some scarlet rouge and lipstick and some scent — also a brown spotted silk scarf."

There’s a vivid scarlet cardigan she buys so she can stay warm in the Bodleian Library. And then “I have a new frock, crimson jersey with a collar of red and white crochet."

While she's at college she describes this: "After dinner I changed out of my chiffon into my scarlet satin blouse and black skirt."

She mentions elsewhere wearing her green chiffon at dinner at St Hilda’s – maybe something like one of these.

She was a very well-dressed woman.

Top picture of Barabara as a student from the Barbara Pym Society.