Fishman's Findings
Major Designers, Colors, & Shapes
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Seldom does fashion change almost overnight, but in 1947 an exceptionally rapid shift in styles took place. After the war, the Western nations began to recover from the wartime devastation. World War II ended in August 1945. After a little more than a year in which there were no major fashion upheavals, the French designer Christian Dior caused a sensation by introducing a line of clothing at his spring 1947 show that deviated sharply from the styles of the wartime period and that came to be known as the New Look. It was accepted rapidly and became the basis of style lines for the next ten or more years.
Some individual members of the French couture continued designing in Paris throughout World War II, but most had left Paris or closed their ateliers. Mainbocher and Schiaparelli had gone to New York, Balenciaga had gone to neutral Portugal. Chanel gave her last show in 1940. But once the war had ended, the couturiers began to plan for a revival of their businesses. This revival was given an enormous push forward by the collections of 1947 and the New Look, the name given by the fashion press to the collection mounted by Christian Dior.
Dior had worked before the war for Piquet and after, briefly, for the House of Lucien Lelong. (Lelong was not a designer but ran an establishment carrying his name.) In 1945 Dior was offered financial backing to open his own establishment, and in 1947 the House of Dior made fashion history. The new styles were successful overnight, and the House of Dior became one of the most influential of the houses in the haute couture. Dior remained a major designer until his death in 1957.
Another major designer of the postwar period was Cristobal Balenciaga. The Spanish-born Balenciaga opened his first Paris establishment in 1937. When he returned to Paris after the War, he became a favorite of Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar who featured his work often in the magazine. His work showed a mastery of almost sculptural forms and shapes and frequently his styles were well ahead of their time. A major force in the haute couture for the 1950s and on into the 1960s, he suddenly and unexpectedly closed his establishment in 1968. Balenciaga died in 1972.
Chanel did not reopen her atelier until 1954. Once again she became a major force in the couture, continuing to influence styles until she died in 1971. The couture remained a vital, active force in fashion throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Interest in the couture remained exceptionally high and many other Parisian couturiers were active in the postwar period.
To achieve the fashionable look, women returned to more confining underclothing than had been seen since before 1920. Fortunately for the comfort of women, many of the undergarments required to maintain the soft curves of the New Look were made of newer synthetic fabrics that pulled the body into the requisite shape without the rigid, painful bones and lacing of the early 20th century. Necklines were plain, round, or square and ended either close to the neck or lower. Many dresses had small square or rounded Peter-Pan style collars, larger round or square collars, and Chinese style or “mandarin” standing collars. Although some full-skirted suits were worn, most tended to be made with narrow skirts. Jackets fit closely to the waistline, extending below the waist where they either flared out into a stiffened peplum or had a rounded, stiffened, and padded hip section ending several inches below the waist. Suit necklines varied in placement, but tended to stand away from the neck somewhat.
Skirt lengths dropped sharply. Examination of fashion magazines of the preceding months shows that there was already a tendency toward somewhat longer skirts. Many other designers in the spring of 1947 also showed longer skirts, but to the women on the street who had worn her skirts just below her knees for the preceding four or five years, the change was radical. Although there were pockets of resistance to the longer skirts the change seemed irresistable and within a year the longer skirt lengths were widely adopted. The square, padded shoulder that had been worn since the late 1930s was replaced by a shoulder-line with a round, soft curve which was achieved by a shaped shoulder pads. Whether the skirt was full or narrow, the waistline was nipped in and small. The rounded curves of the body were emphasized. Many daytime and evening dresses were cut quiet low. The curve of the hip was stressed. In jackets with basques, sections that extended below the waist, the basque was padded and stiffened into a full, round curve. The colors of clothing during this time were of plain and solemn colors. Most outfits were of a solid color such as ivory, black, navy, or other dark colors.
Refrences:
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/40sclothes.html
Survey of Historic Costume
Entertainment & Music of the Decade
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Television became commercially available to the American public about 1948, but in that year only 20 stations were on the air and only 172,000 families had sets. According to the Census of 1950, 5 million families reported having a TV set in the house. As a medium for the spread of fashion information, television had an indirect impact on fashion. Influences on fashion from television were more evident among the young. Styles directly attributable to television included the wearing of white buckskin shoes after singer Pat Boone wore these shoe styles, Elvis Presley look-alike pompadours, a slick, combed-back hairstyle copied from a character named “Kookie” on a show called 77 Sunset Strip, and a fad for Davy Crockett coonskin caps.
When Lucille Ball allowed the story line of I Love Lucy to incorporate her pregnancy into the format of the TV show, more attention was paid to maternity clothing. Women began to emulate television fashions that were concentrated on ball gowns and cocktail dresses worn by singers of those shown off by actress Loretta Young in the entrance scene to her weekly series.
Air travel made it possible for people of the postwar period to move easily from one place to another. The relatively low-cost of this transportation and its speed, as compared with ship travel, coupled with and increased affluence for many Americans, encouraged more of them to travel abroad. In 1929, 500,000 Americans travelled abroad and by 1958 the number of Americans who went abroad reached 1,398,000, and they spent and estimated $2 billion in their travels. Travelers returned with fashion goods from the countries they visited. They also became more receptive to imported goods sold in the United States.
Music in the 1940s was mainly built around the jazz and big band styles that were popular during the day. Artists like Rosemary Clooney, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw helped to define the musical era with their unique brand of entertaining crowds through their music. This was also the era of World War II, and many musical acts strived to reflect the pain that the country was going through while still remaining upbeat and positive about the impending future. The 1940s was a time for many breakthrough artists who made their mark in the history of music and several of them are still recognized as innovators in their day.
One of the innovators of the 1940s musical style was Dizzy Gillespie. Known for his trademark puffy cheeks formed from being a prominent jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie was one of the prominent band leaders of the day. He also helped to create the bebop style of music, which consisted of a fast-tempo style of jazz combined with scat singing. Scat singing was a phenomenon that came to prominence during this era and it consisted of several nonsense but rhythmical syllables strung together to fit with the music. Dizzy Gillespie was also known for having a bent trumpet because it produced a unique sound that was characteristic of his particular sound.
Bing Crosby helped to define the music of the 1940s as well as much of the music today. Crosby was a great musical talent during his day and musicians continued to be influenced for several decades, including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. He was also a prominent entertainer in the field of improving troop morale during the war as he appeared several times to perform for them. Crosby instilled the idea into popular music that a performer could be a genuine artist rather than becoming a novelty act. He opened the door for future artists to have a well-rounded persona with lyrics that had significance. His popularity continued to throughout the 1940s and he also appeared in several movies.
The 1940s were a boom time for movies also. Government declared the movie industry to be essential for boosting morale and sharing war updates and propaganda. Hollywood was full of glamorous movie stars and the number of costume designers and young stars grew. If you lived in the city, every Saturday night the thing to do would be to go to the movie house where they would start out with news reels of updates on the war.
Refrences:
Survey of Historic Costume (fifth edition)
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/40smusic.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY–4SXzwkw
Political, Social, & Technological Influences
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Political Influence: In 1947 after World War II Parisian fashion turned in dramatic new directions that the fashion press labeled ”The New Look.” These styles dominated fashion design until the mid-50s when some silhouette changes began to appear.
The changing patterns of life in the United States and Western Europe had a major impact on what people wore. Many American women had returned to fulltime homemaking after working for pay during World War II. Department stores expanded sportswear departments for men, women, and teens with the changing lifestyles for a large number of Americans living in suburbs after returning from war.
Social Influence: Changes in the socioeconomic status of adolescents had begun during World War II. Before the War many young people become wage earners and members of the workforce soon after they entered their teens. But the postwar socioeconomic changes kept many young people dependent on their families for a longer period of time- through high school and beyond- and this accentuated the period of adolescence as a separate stage of developement. The teen market in records and clothes grew rapidly and teenage fashions and fads played an important role in the garment industry.
But it was Britain in the late 1940s and 1950s that the Teddy Boys created the first truly independent fashions for young people. Teddy Boys were working-class British adolescents who adopted styles of menswear that had a somewhat Edwardian flavor: longer jackets with more shaping, high turned-back lapels, cuffed sleeves, waistcoats, and well-cut, narrow trousers. Teddy Boys adopted an exaggerated version of these styles, somewhat akin to the prewar zoot suit. They wore elongated loose jackets with wide, padded shoulders and, often, a velvet collar. Trousers were very narrow and tight, and short enough to allow garishly colors socks to show. In the 1950s, flat, broad shoes were replaced by wrinkle pickers, shoes with exaggerated pointed toes.
Technological Influence: Before World War II clothing was made from a limited number of fibers: the natural fibers and the manufactured fibers. The successful marketing of nylon, invented before the war but not given wide distribution to the civilian population until after the war, touched off a search for other synthetic fibers. Many of these came onto the market in the 1950s. The major apparel fibers appeared at this time included modacrylics, acrylics, polyesters, triacetate, and spandex. Other fibers were also developed, but these either has limited use or were found mostly in household textiles or industrial applications. Many companies that had formerly been chemical companies began to manufacture fibers, which were chiefly derived from chemical substances.
The expansion of travel helped to promote drip dry fabrics. In the late 1950s, there were wash-and-wear fabrics and with manufactured fibers, and especially with blends, American consumers experienced difficulty in identifying fibers and knowing how to care for these products. Congress passed the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act in 1960. This legislation decreed that, as an aid to consumers, textile products had to be sold with labels that identified the fiber content.
