1940s
In Britain, fashion during the Second World War (1939–45) was greatly influenced by the introduction of rationing by the government. The aim was to produce fashionable but functional clothing without wasting any resources.
In 1941 The Board of Trade introduced the ‘Utility Scheme’ with strict instructions to manufacturers controlling the amount of fabric that could be used in a garment while maintaining a good standard of production (see figure 3.102). Design features were also limited with dresses only allowed two pockets and five buttons, and skirts two inverted or box pleats or four knife pleats. However, creativity and ingenuity were not restricted and, in the UK, designers like Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies were asked to contribute to the design of Utility Clothing.
During the War, as well as ‘Utility Regulations’, military uniforms influenced the style of garments (see figure 3.103). The silhouette of women’s wear, whether it be a jacket and skirt suit or a dress, was neat and close fitting. Shoulders were square, bodices fitted with cinched in waists, and skirts short, usually to just below the knee. Long trousers continued to be worn by women both as work-wear and as fashionable garments (see figure 3.104).
French fashion continued in Paris but, under occupation, it was largely unavailable to the rest of the world. In the USA the inability to import from France allowed American designers to dominate the home fashion market.
Another trend that gained popularity across all levels of society was the fashion for ‘make do and mend’ with garments being skilfully reimagined and fabrics reused. Starting in the UK it spread around the world (see figure 3.107).
Figure 3.101 Dress patterns available from Weldon’s, 1940. Alamy Stock Photo.
Figure 3.102 Utility dress, c.1940, red viscose rayon printed with a simple repeating pattern of a small white dog and a lamp-post. © Leicestershire Country Council Museums.
Figure 3.103 Military style navy wool twill suit by American designer, Hattie Carnegie c.1943–45, with square shoulders and brass buttons. © The Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum. Photo by John Chase Photography.
Figure 3.104 Women began to wear trousers when working and as leisure wear. © Getty Images.
Figure 3.105 Utility style deep brassiere 1941. The Symington Collection © Leicestershire County Council Museums.
Figure 3.106 Avro Utility corset, 1941, first designed in 1912 and remodelled for production under the Utility Regulations in the Second World War. The Symington Collection © Leicestershire County Council Museums.
Figure 3.107 A poster for ‘Make do and Mend’. Fabrics were rationed and ‘Make do and Mend’ encouraged unpicking garments and remaking the fabric into new styles following the Utility Regulations. © Getty Images.
1950s
In England clothing rationing continued until 1949, but in 1947 Dior’s ‘New Look’ revolutionized the fashion industry. The ending of restrictions on the amount of cloth that could be used in a garment led to the popular 1950s silhouette with its uplifted bust, cinched waist, wide, exuberant, full skirt (see figure 3.109). Dress bodices were tight fitting and skirts longer to around mid-calf, exploding into widths not seen for many years. Circular cut skirts were popular as were, straight, tight-fitting pencil skirts.
Cinched waists emphasized the bust, once more giving an hour-glass figure. Strapless dresses were fashionable, worn for both for day and eveningwear. As day dresses they were often worn with a short bolero covering the shoulders. In the summer, flowery printed cotton sundresses were very popular, in England produced by Horrockses Fashions (see figure 3.109).
Underwear was very important in the 1950s both to control the body shape and support the wide skirts. ‘Waspies’12 were introduced to cinch in the waist, longer girdles smoothed the hips under straight skirts (see figure 3.112) and pointed, up-lifting bras controlled the bust silhouette (see figure 3.111). Full net petticoats were sometimes worn under the wide skirts for special occasions to give extra support to the wide hems and prevent the skirts from collapsing.
Figure 3.108 1950s UK Woman magazine cover, advertising a free dress pattern. Retro Ad/Archives/ Alamy Stock Photo.
Figure 3.109 Printed cotton summer dress by Horrockses c.1950–55. © The Olive Matthews Collection, Chertsey Museum. Photo by John Chase Photography
Figure 3.110 Model posing from the first Yves Saint-Laurent’s Dior collection in 1958. The dress has a tight-fitted bodice, small waist and voluminous skirt. © Getty Images.
Figure 3.111 Liberty ‘Grace’ bra with ‘Nulift’ 1953. Nylon with straps under the bust allowing the bust size to be adjusted. The Symington Collection © Leicestershire County Council Museums.
Figure 3.112 French advertisement for Rosy Girdles, 1958. © Getty Images.
Figure 3.113 1950s UK dress patterns magazine plate. Retro AD/Archives/Alamy Stock Photo.
Summary
Whatever the date of a garment, capturing its silhouette will instantly put it in its own time frame. The more diverse your background research the easier it will be to understand not only what the garment looked like when it was worn, but why, and by whom and what the society at the time understood by the sartorial choices people made.
From the end of the 1950s there are an increasing number of visual reference sources available when researching style and shape options for garments. Film footage, newsreels and television archives all add to the information available. Many museums internationally have their collections online, giving immediate access to a wide variety of garment images. The wider your search the clearer your image of the garment silhouette will become and the more effective your display.
Figure 3.114a and b a, stays 1750, © Museum of London, b, brassiere 1950, The Symington Collection © Leicestershire Country Council Museums.
NOTES
1. The Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Manchester City Galleries, have a rump in white linen with a green supporter. Patterns of Fashion 5, The School of Historical Dress, ISBN 9780993174421, p. 150.
2. Stomacher: a pointed front-piece of a woman’s dress covering the breast and pit of the stomach, often jewelled or embroidered. Oxford English Reference Dictionary, second edition, Oxford University Press, 1996.
3. Busk: narrow, flat insert at the front of a corset made from wood, bone or metal.
4. Hilary Davidson, Dress in the Age of Jane Austen, Yale University Press, p. 26. © Text 2019.
5. The name is derived from ‘crin’, the French term for horsehair. Lucy Johnston, Nineteenth-Century Fashion in Detail, V&A Publications, 2005.
6. Whale bone: thin strips of baleen found in the mouth of some whales for straining plankton from the water.
7. Fine, flexible wire which when flattened produced a thin, flat wire that could bend and twist in different directions following the contours of the corset.
8. Princess dress – Period: 1840s to mid-twentieth century. A dress made without a seam at the waist, the bodice and skirt being cut in one and the skirt gored. A style popularly associated with the Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexandra, when it was very fashionable c.1878–80. A style that follows the natural outline of the body, with darts providing the shape but without a seam at the waist. Cuirasse bodice – Period: 1874. A very long, tight day bodice, boned, descending over the hips; often made of a different fabric from the dress. Valerie Cummings, The Dictionary of Fashion History, second edition, Bloomsbury.
9. Leg-o-mutton sleeves, also known in France as Gigot sleeves, were originally named because of their shape, tight at the wrist, and gradually widening into a very full puff at the shoulder. At their largest in the mid-1890s, sometimes almost a yard of fabric (approx. 90 centimetres) was needed to cut each sleeve.
10. ‘Gibson Girls’ refers to the drawings of American artist, Charles Dana Gibson. His iconic illustrations, based on drawings of his wife, Irene Langhorne, and her sisters, defined the ideal American femininity at the turn of the century.
11. Alison Carter, Underwear, The Fashion History, B.T. Batsford Limited, London, p. 100.
12. The ‘waspie’ was a very short corset, extending above and below the waist only and designed to cinch the waist under dresses in the 1950s.