Tales from the Morgue: 1959: Miss Effie Day's Creations Span Two Generations

November 13, 1959

MISS EFFIE DAY, Woman of the Week, is designing wedding gowns for the second generation of El Paso brides. She has created "that most important" gown for numerous prominent brides, many of whose mothers also came to her for fashion guidance on planning their wedding.

Miss Day has been a designer of original fashions for the Popular Dry Goods Co. for the past 35 years or more. Her scrapbook of brides dates back to the early 1920s and contains many names and faces familiar to El Paso's social and cultural groups today. Stacks of her scrapbooks contain photographs reminiscent of El Paso's social life during the past quarter century.

"I ALWAYS FEEL it a privilege to make a bridal gown," says this soft voiced and friendly lady known simply as "Miss Day" to thousands of El Paso people. "All of a girl's dreams and ideals are incorporated in her ideas for a bridal gown. Some come in with very definite ideas about what they want, while others are dreamy eyed and vague about it all. I go along with the desires of the girl whose ideas are already firmly fixed, and I help the other type in selecting a style which will be becoming and will fit her personality. The former girl is easier to work with, because she knows what she wants and doesn't change her mind or leave anything to chance," adds Woman of the Week.

Miss Day's designs do not stop at wedding gowns, although she attaches more sentiment to designing bridal gowns than any others, they are only a small part of her work. She designs and supervises the making of gowns for the Sun Carnival court, an assignment which she has enjoyed ever since its beginning, having designed the gown for the first Sun Carnival Queen.

She also designs for High School Fiesta Queens and the court, graduation balls and the annual Maid of Cotton Show. A few years ago Miss Day designed a gown of SuPima cotton for the National Maid of Cotton during her visit here. The Maid prized the gown so highly that she included it in her official cotton wardrobe which she modeled on her tour all over the world.

SO WELL KNOWN in the Southwest are "Miss Day" dresses that they are easily recognized anywhere in the country. At an important U. S. Military Academy ball at West Point a few years ago, two El Paso girls were drawn to each other and became acquainted because they both were wearing unmistakable "Miss Day" formals.

"It is gratifying to see how happy a girl is with one of my designs ... to see her eyes glow when she has the final fitting and knows that the "Miss Day" formal has come to life and is really hers. Then it is wonderful to watch her grow up remembering her first formal, the gowns for the various High School and College festivities and finally to create her wedding gown," says Miss Day. And with a wistful smile, she adds, "This is what makes life worth living and memories worth remembering."

Miss Day studied fashion designing in Paris and for many years returned at regular intervals "to keep up with what is new in the fashion capital of the world," Prior to associating herself with the Popular, she did dress designing for the movies in Hollywood.

"DURING THOMASON'S mayorship," she reflects, "the first all Cotton Style Show in the United States was held here. All of the cotton styles modeled in the show were under my supervision and I've worked with the cotton shows each year since."

Miss Day resides with her sister, Mrs. Margaret Day Barcroft on North Virginia street. She is a member of the First Christian Church, a life member of the El Paso Woman's Club and she is a member of Woodbine Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. Although she leads a busy life in her work at the store, Miss Day never is found to neglect her church or her friends.

It's with pride and satisfaction that Miss Effie Day, Woman of the Week, remembers sharing in the happiest occasions of many El Paso girls' lives.