Early twentieth century veils

 

Veils were obviously very fashionable in New York in the spring of 1918, as these slightly sinister images reveal. Doing some research into the uses of lace in the early part of the twentieth century I found some bound issues of ‘The lace and embroidery review’, an American trade magazine of the time. I was hoping to find something about lace curtains but was greatly entertained by a series of articles on veiling and how to wear it. One such piece begins ‘Surely it must be an utterly impossible complexion that cannot be beautified by some of the innumerable veiling patterns now displayed everywhere’. On the evidence of the Van Raalte advert I’m not quite sure about that, but the veiling in these images certainly gives the wearer a distinctive appearance!