Hi
to people that were around in the '50s - is it historically accurate that the little girl version of Jenny is shown wearing dresses?
Hadn't girls already largely switched to pants and shorts and jeans?

I was curious because it just seems to me that filmmakers seem to stick girls in dresses as a way of showing that IT'S THE PAST! - regardless of whether the movie is set in 1955 or 1985

I might be wrong on this so I might have to check again, but in the home movies that my dad filmed with an 8 mm camera in the 1960's, I seem to recall seeing my older sisters (when they were little girls) wearing dresses in all of them.

Of course filming home movies was a little expensive even back then so it's possible that my dad most often filmed these movies on special occasions (weddings and holidays) so everyone was dressed up most of the time.

But thanks for bringing this up.  When I was back home for Christmas my parents gave me some DVDs which they had the movies transferred onto, and I've been meaning to sit down and watch them but I haven't gotten around to it so now I'll have to pop them in when I get home. :)   

Girls were required to wear dresses to school up until the 70's.  My older sister had to wear a dress through most of elementary school.  It's only been in the past 30 years or so that pants have been more "acceptable" for women to wear...thank GOD!

I had to wear a dress for first & second grade-of course I went to a private Episcopal school so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

I just watched some old home movies that was taken before I was a baby. My guess-it was filmed around 1965 +/- . My older sisters & brother, along with many of the kids from the neighborhood were lined up for the school bus. ALL the girls had dress on. 



Cat

^ I was about to say the same thing...

My sister (b. 1963) was required to wear a skirt or a dress to public school in the early grades, and that was the late sixties/early seventies. *

They certainly marketed jeans and slacks for girls in the fifties, but they were strictly for recreation and informal wear.  It was tomboyish for a girl to choose pants over skirts unless skirts were impractical, such as sports or bicycling.

* In fact, my sister's second grade teacher, Mrs. Crump, required boys to where shirts and ties to school.  The boys in the other grades didn't have to wear ties, but Mrs. Crump was an old crank and it was her class and nobody -- not the faculty, not the kids, not the parents -- got to say boo about it.  Unthinkable nowadays!
;D

What shocked me in Forrest Gump is that they showed the 1950s little girl version of Jenny wearing a dress at all times - even when she was sitting on a tree branch!
If you were climbing a tree, wouldn't even a 1950s girl not wear a dress?

In the UK I had to wear a skirt or dress to school until the mid-80s.  It was only at upper school (high school) when I was 14 that I was allowed to wear trousers (not jeans) to school.

Most of my out of school outfits were skirts/dresses as well.  I was rather tomboyish and did wear trousers but was often 'picked on' as a result!

What shocked me in Forrest Gump is that they showed the 1950s little girl version of Jenny wearing a dress at all times - even when she was sitting on a tree branch!
If you were climbing a tree, wouldn't even a 1950s girl not wear a dress?

What shocked me in Forrest Gump is that they showed the 1950s little girl version of Jenny wearing a dress at all times - even when she was sitting on a tree branch!
If you were climbing a tree, wouldn't even a 1950s girl not wear a dress?



Those same old home movies showed many of the kids in the neighborhood playing with hula hoops (yeah, it was pretty funny). Most of the girls were wearing dresses. I think only 1 girl was wearing pants. Yeah, in those days, even at play, little girls wore dresses. Of course that why a lot of little girls also wore ruffles on their underwear because there was a pretty good chance they were going to be seen-at least I figured that why I had ruffles on mine.  :-\\


Cat

What shocked me in Forrest Gump is that they showed the 1950s little girl version of Jenny wearing a dress at all times - even when she was sitting on a tree branch!
If you were climbing a tree, wouldn't even a 1950s girl not wear a dress?


Girls climbed trees while wearing dresses.  You just had to know how to do it without making a spectacle of yourself!

Of course, movies like Forrest Gump are extremely stylized.  Jenny Curran was supposed to be a purdy flowery thang.  Levis wouldn't look right.  That's why we love the silver screen.  Everything up there is more perfect than real!
8)

I was required to wear a dress to school from Kindergarten to third grade-and the dresses couldn't be more than 'three from the knee', meaning you could have three inches above the knee and no more. I would change into 'play' clothes once at home, shorts or jeans.

This would have been mid to late seventies, but it could also be because I was raised in the Bible Belt.