Novelty print dresses in 50s style

You have probably seen us refer to novelty in relation to our beautiful vintage and retro clothes, for example. the clothes from Palava which often have prints and embroideries in a novelty design. Today on the blog we want to present the beautiful dresses from Retrospec'd and our bestseller dress with cactus print. And then we will talk a little about novelty print and what it actually covers.

'Novelty' really just means novelty, but in English the term also covers a kind of 'joke and joke' object that is based on a theme whose only function is entertainment value. If anyone might remember 'Big Mouth Billy Bass' which in 2000-2001 was a popular wall decoration as the song 'Take me to the river', then you can imagine it.

In principle, novelty items have no real function apart from being fun, but the term novelty is also used for things that are something other than what they pretend to be. It can, for example, be a cookie tin that looks like a book, or it could be your slippers that look like rabbits. It all comes under novelty, because the fact that your slippers look like rabbits doesn't change the function of your slippers, it's just a cute and fun effect.

Novelty prints on clothes are similarly something you don't expect to see. So what are not novelty prints are e.g. flowers, leopard pattern or abstract figures, on the other hand, it is a novelty if a print consists of a garden with flowers and houses, just as leopards in spring are also. It must be an unexpected, surprising motive.

There are different types of novelty prints, e.g. landscape prints. Here we are often talking about exotic holiday landscapes, or rural idyll. However, it can also be city-scapes, with city scenes.

Another is the theme printed, it can be animals, or a music theme.

The novelty print can also simply consist of a so-called 'boarder print', i.e. a print around the dress - or lower part of the skirt. Or it can be a single appliqué, like the famous 1950s puddle skirt.

Perhaps some of you have seen one of the most famous 'novelty' skirts from the 1950s which is the poodle skirt.

It consists of a circle cut swing skirt, with an appliqué poodle on the side. That idea was quickly developed and became cats and dachshunds, the Eiffel Tower and telephones and whatever else you could think of. They were easy to make yourself out of a plain swing skirt, and therefore particularly popular with young people in the 50s.

In the 1940s, you saw mostly novelty in knitwear. Knitting had entered homes and became a sensible occupation during the war. In addition, you only had to decorate yourself sparingly due to rationing on many things, including fabric. They started knitting nice sweaters with novelty designs, such as instruments or the Egyptian-inspired blouse seen above.

Probably the most well-known novelty prints originate from the 1950s. 

In the 50s , novelty became the big craze. Seen in a historical light, it makes good sense, in the time after World War II, people wanted to celebrate, they wanted to have fun. technical progress made it easier to produce the beautiful prints and colors. The colors became stronger and skirts and dresses got so much width that you suddenly had plenty of space to show off beautiful patterns.

In the first picture below you can choose between the themes; 'around the world', 'puss'N'poodle', 'falling pins' (a trip to the bowling alley), and 'racing cars'. The second picture is the advanced version of the poodle skirt, while the third picture takes you on a trip to the museum. The last image is another popular theme, spider webs.

In the store we often have novelty prints, and this summer we have taken home the most beautiful dresses in nice novelty prints as well as beautiful floral dresses in the boarder-print style.

This summer we got the most beautiful novelty dresses from Retrospec'd and we even got the beautiful cactus dress home in both black and white. We also got cactus printed as a swing skirt , what do you say?

This endearing dress is in true 50's novelty style, with strong colors and a beautiful novelty 'gardenscape'. It ticks off all the characteristics of novelty, by being both exotic, a beautiful landscape and with a nice 'unexpected' pagoda and small fallow deer. A real summer dress with straps. The skirt has nice little pleats, which give plenty of volume to your vintage-style swing dress, and make it also perfect for dancing and petticoats.

The beautiful summer dress is in super comfortable viscose, which falls beautifully, and the print is the super charming Japanese garden landscape with pagodas and trees.

Printed it is the wildest tropical Bounty atmosphere with huts, palm trees and beach. It brings to mind the Hawaiian wave in the 50s , and the dress is super atmospheric in its gentle blue and green shades.

The dress has a beautiful v-neck, with a cross-over effect at the bust. Wide straps with beautiful pleats provide a beautiful fall and good space over the bust. The beautiful swing skirt spreads out in full bloom.

A real bestseller and classic at Mondo Kaos is the cactus dress. You love it and so do we, so now we get it home with a print on a black background as well as white!

We also have a beautiful wrap dress from Seamstress of Bloomsbury with a bow pattern and a shirt dress with small discreet dogs . Both are good novelty dresses for those who like the more discreet novelty look.

Come and see the fantastic dresses in store, or view them online. We love the beautiful prints and look forward to wearing them all summer long, whether it's to the beach, on holiday or just because...

These are the perfect dresses for beautiful summer days, garden parties, the holidays or whatever you want.

Good summer,

Team Mondo Chaos