Fashion Time Travel Series : Nifty Fifties

The fifties era, maybe the most fashionable era of all!
If you read the post about fashion in the fabulous forties you'll remember Dior's New Look with long length skirts, wasp waists and an overall very feminine and opulent look. In the fifties women all around the globe started adapting his look, so the term "nifty fifties" is quite appropriate I think.

Though in the mid fifties , Coco Chanel's simple suit provided an alternative and created a much copied fashion that lasted well into the sixties. It was a more simple design, featuring a just below the knee skirt -Chanel considered the knee as the most ugly part of a woman's body, oh well-  and a collarless jacket finished with gold braid.

And then, last but not least, the birth of ROCK & ROLL shook things up a little bit in the fashion industry, girls stopped dressing like their mothers and went for a more youthful look again! This means colourful patterns and circle skirts, suited to rock and roll dancing. Oh and let's not forget about the trousers and jeans, they were becoming very popular in the fifties!

Harper's Bazaar 1950

Harper's Bazaar

Peggy O'Connor 1950

1950

1950

1950 Suzy Parker

1950 LIFE magazine (Tony Owens)

 

1951 Mike Schulman Coats (aren't they just lovely?)

1951 Suit by Irene's

1951 Balmain (blue suit) & Robert Pigue (pink dress)

1952 VOGUE (March)

1952

1952 Tip Hedren

1953 MODESS

1953 VOGUE (August)

1953

1954 SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE (May)

Levi's 1954

Nancy Berg 1955

Catalina 1955

1955

1956 VOGUE

Ladies Home Journal 1956

1956 VOGUE (October)

1956 Bruno Beninni

1957 Simplicity Pattern's book (Fall/Winter)

1957 Simplicity Pattern Book (Fall/Winter)

Dupont 1957

1957 MADEMOISELLE (September)

Cerulean Mink 1957 (a mink coat was supposed to be
every girl's dream in the fifties :)

Race Track Fashion 1958

 

1958

1958

1958 VOGUE

Butterick Spring 1958

Evan Picone 1959

Norman Hartnell Fashion 1959

Go back to the ROARING TWENTIES or the STYLISH THIRTIES, or plunge back in time to the FABULOUS FORTIES.

Fashion Time Travel Series : Fabulous Forties

Forties Fashion

The  fabulous forties were a very interesting decade because World War II had such a tremendous impact on fashion. It is true that social trends dictate fashion, and so you can imagine that WWII changed the world of fashion forever.  Basically, to keep it simply, we can say that during the war simplicity was very much forced upon women, I'm talking about severely tailored garments and cheap fabrics. After the war women's fashion became softer, more feminine and romantic again.

1947 DIOR's NEW LOOK

In 1947 Christian Dior then introduced what journalists would soon describe

as his 'New Look' with fuller skirts and longer lengths (during war this 

would've been considered as a waste of fabric), wasp-waists, barrel skirts,wrapped and bounded middles,...Vogue would describe The New Look

as being "from the era of Madame Bovary" .

"I wanted my dresses to be constructed, molded upon the curves of the

feminine body, whose sweep they would stylize," Christian Dior proclaimed in

his autobiography.

Harpers Bazaar 1941

1941 VOGUE

1941 VOGUE

1942 VOGUE

1943 VOGUE

1943 Montgomery Ward (spring/summer)

1943 Montgomery Ward

1943 Montgomery Ward (spring)

1944 Mademoiselle (january)

1944 Mademoiselle (january)

1944 VOGUE (march)

1944 LIFE magazine (Michelle Fallon)

1944 Ruth Warwick

1944 Ruth Warwick

1945 LIFE MAGAZINE

1945 LIFE Magazine (december issue)

1946

1946 SEVENTEEN MAGAZINE (October)

1946 LIFE Magazine

1946 Nelly Don

1946 Swansdown

1947

1947 LIFE  Magazine
Ruth Conklin wearing DIOR
New look: check out the wasp taille :)

1948 Minerva Knit Fashions

1948 VOGUE (photo by John Rawlings)

1949 LIFE Magazine

1949 LIFE magazine

1949 LIFE Magazine

Lingerie departmant Nieman Marcus (40s)

Go back to the ROARING TWENTIES
or the STYLISH THIRTIES