The other day I was looking at some dresses to inspire me in something and I noticed one article that said that the 50s style was coming back, so I decided to do a little research on my own. As I was looking at a various array of dresses from the 1950s, I couldn’t help but wonder what a radical change World War II bought in fashion (along with other various elements) and how it might’ve changed in the course of only 5 years after the war, so today I will be looking at transformation in fashion design between the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
The 1940s
Being that people’s minds were focused on more important things during the war, you would have expected fashion to take a huge downturn, but for women’s fashion (especially in America) this wasn’t the case. Granted, not as much money was being spent as before, but considering that the war could have completely destroyed the fashion industry, it was still going pretty strong. Let’s take a look at some of the predominant design features during this decade.
As one can easily see from the picture above, colours were much scarcer during the war – this was because most of the designs were inspired by the soldiers’ uniforms which all came in various shades of grays, greens and browns to help blend into the background. This was mostly due to the fact that women were not allowed to be soldiers, and so designers gave the women a little of what they wanted. Whereas the predominant designs in the previous decade all featured straight shapeless silhouettes, designers were now looking at clinched waists and straight pleated skirts to create a simple hour-glass silhouette. Again, looking at the soldiers’ uniforms, designers started introducing belts or buckle embellishments at the waist. Skirts became shorter, and it became a common thing to see a skirt hemmed just under the knee. Since more and more women were going out to work, dresses needed to be more functional rather than fashionable (as always designers strived to achieve both). Since everything was being rationed, there was less fabric to go around and so women needed to be able to make more from less which led to plainer, simpler dresses, in other words: They were making the dresses just to have something different to wear. Buying clothes (or fabric) became cheaper with the invention of man-made fabrics such as rayon and nylon. Women found that traditional fabrics (which were being used for certain war apparatus such as parachutes and was more expensive to begin with) could be substituted and that these new, less expensive fabrics could be used instead. Later on in the decade, women started to get bored of the dull colours and wanted back the bold exciting hues of bright blues and reds. Although this was introduced into fashion it was still pretty scarce with only hints of colour here and there, such as a red blouse underneath a brown suit or a red hat while one was wearing a grey coat dress.
Evening dresses were more demure than before. They were much more draped and flowing at the top, clinched at the waist and then flowing down straight so that women could have more freedom to move and dance around in them.
The 1950s and 1960s
By the end of the decade, the war had been long over and people were fed up of the dullness the war brought with it in every aspect. People wanted to celebrate life and have fun.
More and more patterns were introduced and it was really obvious that designers were continuously looking at coming up with something new because they were constantly experimenting with designs and colour combinations, so much so that sometimes they might have been verging on the ridiculous. Necklines were getting lower and lower and eventually this led to the re-introduction of the off-shoulder ‘neck’ line and the famous sweetheart neckline in evening wear.
Of course the 1950s and 60s weren’t about completely eliminating the past, do you recognize these two classy ladies?
http://www.pearshapely.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ss-100527-movie-auction-monroe-dress.ss_full.jpg - Marilyn Monroe
These were perhaps the two most popular style icons of this decade:
Marilyn Monroe was the blonde bombshell that kept on pushing the boundaries (much like Lady Gaga today) her clothes kept getting risquier and risquier and yet everyone wanted to dress like her – in my opinion she was the icon when it came to dressy evening dresses.
Jackie Kennedy was the American First Lady from 1961 – 1963 and during that time she entertained everyone with her classy dresses. She was always the best dressed one in the room and inspired a generation with her style.
In both these pictures we can see hints of the style that was popular in the 40s proving that designers always base their new designs on current styles and fads and them change a particular detail to make it their own.
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