1940’s in fashion for women in WW2. Trends, utility dresses, seamed stockings, peplum’s, shoulder pads, and the post war New Look.
Women in World War 2 left us an iconic and beguiling style which is forever celebrated in movies, books and magazines. Rationing encouraged women to “make do and mend”. With all resources going to the war effort, Fabric shortage meant longer skirts and less revealing evening dresses. Austerity was reflected by a more austere fashion in the early 1940’s. Makeup and hairstyles however never looked better.
Browse the 1940’s fashion trends as worn by women in that troubled decade. Find inspiration for your next 1940’s style dress, victory rolls hairstyle.
Now you know the highlights, dive in to our archive of 1940’s fashion history. Find out how women in WW2 lived, worked, served in the forces and of course dressed.
The feminine knee is returned to prim seclusion by Paris – The liveliest argument has raged since February over this years major style change, which returns via Paris decree, a woman’s knee to beneath her skirt. There are naturally many who are not pleased about the dipping hemlines 1947, while there are other young women who …
Profile of a French actress in 1946 – A revealing social document in pictures by Nina Leen of bohemian life in Paris immediately after the Second World War. She is blue-eyed, ash-blonde Barbara Laage, aged 25, an up-and-coming young French actress, enjoying the biggest theater boom Paris has ever know. During the past season, 50 …
Vogue Magazine introduces Dior’s New Look – This was Europe’s worst winter since 1870. There was little coal, electricity was rationed and Paris was buried in snow. With fingers stiff, but with ideas running free, designers worked against the cold toward exciting new ideas.Perhaps nowhere but in Paris would the rise of a new designing star …
Typical Wardrobe choice in 1949 – 1940s fashion Photos by Nina Leen Not all young college girls are content with thee gold standard college look of bobby socks, skirts and loose sweaters.Many, influenced by older sisters, friends or simply an urge to grow up quickly, aspire to more mature clothes, thereby facing a double wardrobe …
Longer Skirts on the way 1946 – Usually the sign of a depression? An uneven hemline with a back slip, is clearly a sneaky device to trick women into longer skirts. This device was last used in 1927. Skirts had gone knee high in the flapper era. Soon they began to dip in the back. …
Poignant farewells in 1940s wartime – A moment in time captured by Life Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt ( best remembered for his iconic Vj day kiss in Times Square in 1945) at Pennsylvania Station, New York,in April 1943.Here is the original report. The grey, insistent feeling of war has washed now into the lives of most …
Leave her to Heaven 1945 – John Stahl’s classic noir movie Leave her to Heaven, stars possibly the best dressed ever femme fatale – Gene Tierney. It was recently restored with the help of director Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and has been rightly claimed as a forgotten masterpiece. It’s a feast for fans of 1940s clothing, …
Profile of an American Fashion Icon 1945 – With a “look”, a little suit and a knowledge of all the angles, Hattie Carnegie has risen from poverty to be absolute boss of a $6,500,000 dress business. Nobody has ever been able to define style to the satisfaction of anybody else. It might be called a means …
1940s Vintage Lingerie advice – Glamourdaze just published a page devoted to the secretive world of vintage lingerie. We’ve chosen excerpts from a book published in 1948 called Foundations for Fashion and provided links to our recommended supplier of faux vintage style undergarments. The guidebook – Foundations for Fashion is an excellent 1940s and 1950s …
All things to all women – 1940s fashion report by Wilhela Cushman Fashion editor of Ladies Home Journal If you simply love a long coat to wear with many summer dresses, your favorite could be this sophisticated green over a printed 1940s frock. (1) The same style dress alone with (2) a big green hat and …