Wartime Fashions in Australian Home Journal Part I - (1940)

The Australian Home Journal was first published in the 1890s as a vehicle for promoting Australian Home Journal patterns.  By the 1940s it still dedicated many pages to its patterns, but also offered short fiction, knitting patterns, recipes and an agony aunt column— along with fashion advice and gossip about what the Hollywood stars were wearing.

The War years saw world events push their way into women's domestic lives, even in places like Australia which was initially a long way away from the fighting.  Some women stepped out into the world doing jobs and going places they never would have dreamed of before the war.  Others stayed at home—only to find their usual occupations were vital to the war effort.

So let's see what fashion advice Australian Home Journal had for its readers in 1940.

The Day Silhouette

Your skirt remains fifteen and a half to seventeen inches off the ground, but it is full, very full.  It is either flared or pleated except (and the exception is a big one) when you are dealing with a classic taileur or an afternoon suit.  Your waist is nipped in enough to give you hips, rounded hips. 

It is not smart to ignore your curves, and above your waist you must have a bust—small, yes, but rounded. 

Your shoulders are still built out, but rounded also, not angular and military.

Jackets and Suits

Jackets and suits are "musts" and are seen more than ever this season.  They are extremely practical and their advantages are due to the two and three-piece system which permits of many different changes.  New effects can be obtained by uniting different blouses or jumpers with the outer garments.

No Freaks

The average woman is better dressed now than when she allowed herself to be a freak of fashion...  That, thank goodness, is changed, and now women are going in for sensible styles without lending an ear to the freakish dressmonger. 

Be British

There is no fashion trend from Paris or the continent to follow, so women are thrown very much on their own resources.  We have made arrangements to get all the latest fashion modes from England, America and Canada, so that women folk will have plenty to choose from—and these will be "English-speaking fashions."  Perhaps in the past we have been too content to follow the idiosyncrasies of some Viennese or Parisian fashion modeller. We have a chance to strike out now; so "Be British" in your fashions and remain British for all time.

It's obvious that as far as fashion went it was "business as usual" at the beginning of the year.   By the end of the year, it was a different story.  In June the Nazis had overrun Paris, cutting the Allies off from the world's fashion capital.  By December, when the last of these magazines was published, Great Britain was in the middle of the Blitz.   This was an era when Australia still considered itself to be very much part of the British Empire (see paragraph above).  Patriotism and practicality were to be the new fashion norms.