A Decade of Dresses 4 (1950s)

 If there was one kind of garment that was particularly conservative in the 1950s, it was the summer dress.  Dresses with bouffant skirts and nipped in waists remained popular throughout the decade.  This is not to say that there were were no changes at all; just that the changes were incremental and mainly consisted of tweaking details.  A hemline raised or dropped, the shape of a collar, the width of a belt or sleeve could make all the difference...

Wakes catalogue, Spring and Summer 1950

Here we have a couple of dresses definitely designed for adults!  The skirts are long and full, falling to the bottom of the calf.  They are made up in (the ever popular) floral prints.   However the flowers on these dresses are bigger and splashier than the patterns popular in the 1930s and 1940s.  Later in the decade we'll see a range of "modernist" abstract prints appear along with the traditional floral designs.

Vogue Pattern Book, June-July 1951

Vogue Pattern Book featured this "romantic sheer dress, wide of neckline, sleeves, skirt" on the cover of its June-July 1951 issue.  The pattern is a check this time, and it's accessorised (of course!) with wrist length white gloves.

Australian Home Journal, December 1952

The Australian Home Journal pairs another "romantic sheer" (with sweetheart neckline) on its cover with a slightly narrower frock made up in plain fabric.  Hemlines seem to be ever-so-slowly rising: these dresses still fall well below the knees, but stop mid-calf rather than descending nearly to the ankles (as in our 1950 examples!)

Florida Fashions, 1953

Florida Fashions promises buyers that these dresses are "STITCH-FOR-STITCH copies of High Priced STYLE HITS!"  Made of acetate and rayon in a "nubby tweed texture", these dresses have skirts falling in a simple A-line rather than a bouffant ballerina style (though there are plenty of full skirts elsewhere in the catalogue, mostly for evening and party wear).  Buttons add a decorative touch to both garments.

Good Neighbour Club Plan, Spring and Summer 1954

Similar in style to the dresses by Florida Fashions in 1953, these dresses from 1954 are also made from rayon and acetate.  Buttons decorate the central dress, which has a narrower skirt than the other two.

(It's interesting to note that so far we haven't seen any dresses made in the new "miracle fibres" of the 1950s: rayon, while a synthetic, made its debut before the war.  Perhaps they were considered too valuable at this stage to be made into everyday dresses?

Spiegel Anniversary Sale, 1955

This page of summer cottons from Spiegel shows a number of prints popular in the mid-1950s: a border print at the top, polka dots on the right, and what appears to be very stylised modernist "daisies" at the bottom.  In spite of appearances, this was a one-piece dress.  For some reason there was a fashion mid-century for one-piece dresses that looked like separates, and separates that looked like one-piece dresses!

Vanity Fair, May 1956

The cover of Vanity Fair for May 1956 featured this spring-like but sophisticated dress from "Corvette"—at around 6 guineas.  Realistic carnations (stems and all) are printed on a black background.

National Bellas Hess Great Midsummer Sale 1957

More bouffant dresses from National Bellas Hess, all sleeveless and all made in percale (a fine weave cotton) prints.  Going clockwise from the top we have a plaid, a "marble print", a traditional rose print, polka dots and checks.

Australian Home Journal, January 1958

The January 1958 Australian Home Journal featured more bouffant print dresses.  The one on the left comes with its own matching print jacket.  The model in the centre is intended for teenagers, and the one on the right for girls in their early teens.  What we have here is essentially the same style being worn by women and girls of different ages: the split between adult and young fashions would come in the next decade.

Vanity Fair, 1959

I've chosen a picture of two bouffant cotton dresses, rather than some of the slimmer styles also available in 1959, to round off my decade.  There's continuity here, but also change.  The skirts are now just knee-length.  And please note the wide belt on the model on the right: that would be a fashion feature on many dresses in the early 1960s!

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!

A Decade of Dresses, Part 2 - 1930s

 Here we go again!  The 1930s, a decade that began with a depression, and ended with a war.  On a much lighter note, it was also the Golden Age of Hollywood.   I'm going to be talking a bit more about that below, as film fashions were a major influence on what women wore in the 1930s.

Coming Fashions, April 1930

To start the decade: a dress that is noticeably more feminine and more grown-up than the flapper dresses of the 1920s.  The waist is back in its normal position and the gently flared skirt hangs to well below the knees.  The whole look is very soft and fluid.

Butterick Fashion News, August 1931

These dresses from 1931 look very similar to the dress above.  Though the waist is still in its natural place, the skirt is attached to the bodice by a very low hip yoke—a common device on dresses made in the early 1930s!   I can't be sure, but I think this is a holdover from the very low waists of the 1920s.

Australian Home Journal, November 1932

1932, and what I think we have here is an example of film-influenced fashion.  In 1932 Joan Crawford appeared in a film called "Letty Lynton" in a frothy white gown with frilly puffed sleeves.  The dress was a hit, and manufacturers rushed to produce cheap copies.  Women who didn't want to wear exact copies of the "Letty Lynton" dress incorporated design elements into their own clothes—the most popular, shown here, being puffed sleeves.

Most of these dresses still have dropped hip yokes, and the skirts now fall to the lower calf.

Butterick Fashion News, June 1933

These comparatively simple dresses from 1933 include two of the most popular style trends of the mid-thirties: detailing around the neck (in the form of ruffles and bows) and widening shoulders.

There is some dispute as to who first introduced padded shoulders in the 1930s: Schiaparelli in Paris or Adrian in Hollywood?

Australian Home Journal, October 1934

Wide shoulders are very much in evidence in these dresses from 1934—emphasised with ruffles, collars and bows.  Skirts are still long, and the hip yoke is well and truly gone.

Good Needlework and Knitting Magazine, August 1935

Here are some more examples of the classic 1930s silhouette.  The two dresses on the right seem plain and businesslike compared to my selection for 1934, but make no mistake—there were still plenty of frills for women who wanted to wear them. The next few years see hardly changes to the fashion silhouette.  Shoulders remained broad, hips narrow, waists were worn in their natural position and skirts fell to around the calf.

The slow evolution of mid-1930s fashion must have been a blessing for women trying to look stylish on a small budget.  The women's magazines of the time are full of articles making suggestions for brightening an old outfit up by the use of accessories or changing a detail or two.

McCall Style News, August 1936

Remember how I said that Hollywood was a major influence on 1930s fashion?  Well Hollywood was well aware of the fact—as was the fashion industry and the general public:

When I said that Bernie Newman was allowed 250,000 dollars for dresses for "Roberta", that was no exaggeration.  Of course Roberta was an individual picture, inasmuch as most of its story hinged around beautiful frocks.  But, nevertheless, it's a heck of a lot of money to spend on dresses, the color of which you can't even seen in the finished picture, unless, of course, it's technicolor, which "Roberta" wasn't.  But Bernie is that kind of guy!  He has long suffered with a phobia against impractical ginger-bread picture clothes which are wished on some of our nicest actresses.  He thinks the raiment worn on the screen has such a profound influence on the fashions of the world that it must be practical and in impeccable taste.  "Why steer 'em wrong?" asks Bernie, and why, indeed?  We have never known!

Which reminds me that it's not only Mrs General Public that's swayed by screen fashions.  The big-wigs of that so-called city of feminine clothing cultre, gay Paree also admit that the "alive, alert, romantic, beautifully groomed women of the screen" cannot help but influence them in their creations...  The same thing you feel when you see your favorite movie star and decide to adopt her style is influencing the Parisian dictators of fashion.  So be true to your feminine hunches and "go" Crawford or Rogers, if it suits you.  You won't be out of style!

Australian Women's Weekly, February 22, 1936

You can read the full article here ("There's Gold in Them Thar Frills".) 

Petit Echo de la Mode, May 9, 1937

This May 1937 cover from Le Petit Echo de la Mode shows a group of women (and teenagers?) wearing light summer sheers with puff sleeves—which we first noted in 1932.  The main difference between these dresses and fashion from earlier in the decade is in the details around the neck and shoulder lines.  

McDowells catalogue, Spring-Summer 1938-39

Pleats and gores give these skirts a definite "A Line" shape, while sleeves are gathered in almost leg o' mutton style.  All these dresses are made up in floral prints, a most popular fabric choice in the 1930s.  If you check out all my illustrations for this post, you notice that there is at least one model wearing a floral frock in each one!  Dress 066 is described as a "peasant frock", and is vaguely inspired by folk dress from Central or Eastern Europe.

Australian Home Journal, October 1939

To round off the 1930s a selection of dresses that retain the leg o' mutton sleeves of 1938 and the A-line skirts.  However, as if in anticipation of the war years, skirts now fall only a little below the knee, and the dresses have fewer and less fussy trimmings than were fashionable through most of the decade.

Next: onto the 1940s, rationing and the New Look!

A Decade of Dresses - 1920s

 By the 1920s the one-piece dress was a standard item in every woman's wardrobe, a position it held until the 1960s and beyond.  It could be dressy or plain, worn at a garden party or wedding, or behind a counter or wielding a mop.

What I'm going to do over the next few weeks is look at spring and summer day dresses, year by year and decade by decade, to show how these garments changed over time.  To begin with, the 1920s, age of flappers and jazz!

   

Butterick Quarterly, Spring 1920

To kick the decade off: a selection of summer dresses, all with mid-calf hems and waists either high or sitting at their natural levels.  The hips are emphasised, either by cutting skirts wide at the top and tapering, or by use of peplums, panels or frills.

National Cloak & Suit Co., Spring-Summer 1921

Voile, organdie and gingham—this page illustrates a range of dresses at different prices.  The two more expensive have matching overskirts to add bulk at the hips, while the gingham dress makes do with patch pockets!  All dresses are sashed at the natural waistline.

Miroir des Modes, July 1922

By 1922 the waist has dropped to the top of the hip level, and dresses have become straighter (and shaped more like what we think of as the 1920s silhouette).  

National Cloak and Suit Co., Spring-Summer 1923

Dress from 1923 are loose, roomy—and figure-concealing.  Skirts are calf-length and gathered into unpressed pleats at the waist, which is now sitting on the hips!

Everylady's Journal, December 1924

By 1924, dresses are becoming slightly more straight and tubular, though still long and retaining some of their bulk from 1923.  The dress on the left is crocheted—pattern included inside the magazine!

Miroir des Modes, June 1925

1925 sees the start of what we envision when we think of the 1920s.  Hemlines are rising, and the silhouette is very straight and narrow.

Australian Home Journal, December 1926

Skirts are shorter yet in 1926, but also use pleats and godets to give them a slightly flared shape.

McCall Style News, April 1927

McCall offers some very art deco styles in 1927—flat, geometric and streamlined.  McCall lists the couturiers from whom it has bought models, a sign that these fashions are moving from the catwalks onto the streets.  

Fashions for All, June 1928

Here we have 1920s fashions and their shortest and scantiest, with hems barely skimming the kneecap.  Looking back a few years, these dresses appear to have used approximately half the material their 1923 counterparts did.

Mabs Fashions, August 1929

At the end of the decade a touch of femininity is creeping in.  Belts are now positioned at the top of the hips, and there is the merest hint that the wearers of these dresses actually have figures!  These clothes are still very much of the 1920s, but they are clearly poised for the really big changes we're going to see in the styles of 1930.  But that's a topic for my next post!