A short look at the styles and traditions of 1940s wedding dresses and trousseau.
The increasing popularity of a 1940s wedding theme these days suggests a genuine yearning for old style glamor.
The yardstick for vintage wedding themes certainly draws a lot from the 1940s fashion era. In those days a woman’s trousseau was placed in a wedding chest and drew its origins from the french term ‘trousse’ which is defined as ‘possessions, such as clothing and linens, that a bride assembles for her marriage’.
Normally a young 1940s bride to be – would collect together with her mother, in a decorated trunk or chest, items that help prepare for her future married life.The art of being feminine was perfected in the early 20th century, and though women’s liberation has freed her from many of the shackles of ‘traditional’ marriage, there isn’t a woman out there who doesn’t get sentimental when it comes to preparing for the big day.
The 1940s Wedding Dress.
In the austere World War Two days of the 1940s, many wedding gowns were minimalist but still in ‘vogue’ with the 1940s silhouette, consisting for example of rayon silk dress with long or short [ during the rationing period ] bias cut dress and matching jacket with padded shoulders and silk covered buttons on the front. The sleeves would start out with a puff and become narrower towards the wrist for that 1940s style tailoring! This vintage dress was found on ebay. After the war – synthetic fabris were all the rage and rayon satin and silk style dresses and lingerie became much more opulent.
1940’s Fashion – Wedding Dress Film
From the Glamourdaze vintage fashion film archive, we have another look at a late 1940s film- made by Dupont – concerning that all important extra item for a woman’s wedding trousseau – her lingerie. A bit bland by today’s standards but that was then. Note how the shoulder pads have disappeared in line with the new late 1940s silhouette.
Fashion Era -the webs premier vintage fashion site has a pretty good breakdown of the history of wedding clothing from this decade.
My mother’s wedding dress looked very similar to the one in the video.Do you know who the designer was?