A Decade of Dresses, Part 3 (1940s)

 For most of this decade the clothes women wore were constrained by rationing, regulations and shortages.  During the war patriotic women would ideally renovate and wear last year's frock rather than splash out on a new dress, and until the end of the 1940s fashion changed slowly if at all.

One type of dress was particularly popular through the war and afterwards.  If I had to label the 1940s I would call it the era of the shirtwaist dress.  We're going to see a lot of these in this post.

Vogue Pattern Book, August-September 1940

To kick off the new decade, a classic "shirtwaister" on the cover of Vogue Pattern Book.  A shirtwaist dress was defined as a dress with a waist seam which buttoned up at the bodice like a man's shirt.

Australian Home Journal, January 1941

These dresses from 1941 include the ubiquitous shirtwaister among other styles.  The silhouette hasn't changed since the late 1930s, and these patterns allow for a relatively generous use of material in the form of tucks, pleats and gathers.

Bestway Fashions, April 1942

This is a British magazine, but the comparatively austere fashions of 1942 were not only limited to the UK.  All the allied countries—including the US—had detailed regulations dictating how clothes could be constructed and how much material could be used in any one garment.   The rules laid down such things as the depth of hems, the width of seams and how many pockets could be added to a garment!

McCall Style News, April 1943

Here we have an American pamphlet published by the McCall Pattern Company in 1943.   The dresses in this illustration have the same tendency towards skimpiness as their British counterparts in 1942.  Skirts have risen to the knees (which was about as high as they could decently go in the 1940s) and have narrowed with just enough ease for walking.  Shoulders are still broad, but puffed sleeves are no longer in evidence.  Decoration has become minimal.

Montgomery Ward, Spring and Summer 1944

In 1944 Montgomery Ward offered this pair of classic plaid shirtwaisters for sale, designed to conserve materials and labour.  

Easy Dressmaking, 1945

Here we have just reached—or very nearly reached—the end of the war, and a tiny celebratory note of frivolity has crept in.  One version of this frock is a fairly plain shirtwaist, with white piping on the cuffs and collar as the only ornament, but the other has added a feminine touch with a small frilled peplum.

Easy Dressmaking, mid-summer 1946

Life was still far from back to normal in 1946, but there is some evidence that women were trying to move away from the more severe styles of the war years to something more feminine.  This dress is fairly typical of 1946.  The skirt is still only knee length, but it is fuller than its wartime predecessors and big pockets are placed in a way to make the hips seem larger and more rounded.  This particular dress is also made in a big, splashy flower print and ornamented with bows—lots of bows.

Wakes catalogue, Spring 1947

1947 was a big year in fashion, with Christian Dior launching his "New Look" in the Northern spring.  This was everything wartime fashions were not, with padded hips and unpadded shoulders, nipped-in waists and most of all, long and full skirts that used a lot of material.  Other designers quickly followed his lead, but it took the producers of mass-made ready to wear longer to make the change—as seen in the picture above.  No doubt they didn't want to retool and throw out their current stock.  However, I wonder how well these pretty (but by this time old-fashioned) dresses sold?  Wakes' potential customers must have be able to compare them to the latest styles in the magazines.

National Bellas Hess Midsummer Sale Catalog, 1948

... And just like that, we're in the 1950s.

Well not quite.  However, by 1948 a version of Dior's "New Look" became available to the general public and elements from this—the long full skirts and nipped in waists—were to become the defining look of the 1950s.  Only the broad shoulders on these dresses remind us that in fact they were made in the 1940s.

Wakes catalogue, Spring-Summer 1949

And to finish up, two frocks on the cover of Wakes catalogue that look very much forward into the 1950s—and yet the discerning eye can see that the models are still wearing shirtwaist dresses!