Lavishly illustrated history of vintage fashion, makeup, and hairstyles for women in the 20th Century
Four beautiful 1920’s Paris dresses – Evening Dresses 1926. The Paris designers are obtaining graceful effects in 1920’s evening gowns this season by the skillful use of hip-line accents either at the side or center-front. Sashes and draperies are used for emphasis of this silhouette and the effect is carried upward by means of delightful …
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, …
Sixty Years of Women’s Foundation wear – 1905 Corset Originating from England, this s-curve corset made with floral brocaded silk, silk ribbon, and elastic. The Edwardian corset rested low over the bosom and extended down over the hips. The straight-front, when laced up provided the infamous s-curve which pushed breasts out, stomach in and back …
Pathe News 1950 fashion report – A toast now to the women and where more attractive than this school for models, where we’re just in time for a lesson in the art of specmanship. Demonstrating this comparatively new art in using spectacles as a fashion accessory is top couturier Ronald Patterson. With this sophisticated town suit …
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 …
All about the Mouth and Eyes 1936- If Hollywood lipsticks could talk, what tales they would tell! The women of the screen rouge their lips along natural lines, always accenting the ‘lower’ lip, not the upper. In some magical way this adds character and a certain dramatic accent that many feminine faces lack! Witness Katherine …