Walford - 1950s fashion: 1950s American fashion design

Advertisement for Anne Fogarty, Vogue magazine, May 15, 1956.

Advertisement for Gay Gibson, a line of clothes made by the Gernes Garment Company, from Vogue magazine, January 1, 1957.

T HE 1950s BELONGED TO AMERICA . The country led in postwar economic recovery and industrial production; refrigerators, televisions, and automobiles were churned out in huge quantities for the vast numbers of new families relocating to the sprawling suburbs. Despite a swing toward social and political conservatism in the 1950s, American culture was at the forefront of modern artin painting, sculpture, theater, and literature, as well as contemporary music in the form of jazz and rock n roll. In the field of design, American architects, furniture designers, and textile artists were internationally influential. And now even American fashion designers were being recognized as originators and leaders in their field.

The American fashion industry originated when the country became a leading industrialized nation in the late nineteenth century. The building of factories turned large towns into small cities and small cities into metropolises. Railroads crisscrossed the country, bringing goods manufactured east of the Mississippi River to the western frontier. What could not be found at local dry goods stores in the most rural locations could be ordered by mail from Chicago or New York, where, by the turn of the century, full-service department stores carried more ready-made fashions than ever before: corsets, shoes, petticoats, capes, stockings, hats, gloves, and wrappers (house dresses).

In the early twentieth century, American designers, both native born and naturalized, were hired by manufacturers to adapt Paris and London fashions for the American market. America was not yet confident in its ability to originate design, but it was confident in its ability to adapt fashion for mass production. New York became the center of the high-end ready-made trade, and by 1920, even the elite were buying New York ready-made clothes for everyday wear.

By the 1930s, Americas international reputation as a creator of fashion was evident in Hollywood films, but while movie costumers received screen credits for their designs, most fashion designers still worked anonymously under manufacturers labels, unless the designer was also the owner of the company. American fashion magazines continued to report on styles from Paris rather than about anything made by domestic design talent. This began to change when Stanley Marcus of the Dallas-based Neiman Marcus department store created an annual award for distinguished service in the field of fashion. The first awards, in 1938, were given to American and European designers, equating the two as equally important for the American market. Similarly, the Coty perfume company created an award in 1942 intended to promote American, especially New York, fashion and design.

After Paris was occupied by the Nazis in June 1940, American fashion journalists turned to American designers for fashion news to fill their magazines. When the United States also became involved in World War II after Pearl Harbor, the American fashion industry was hobbled by austerity measures that limited the type and amount of materials allowed for clothing production. Despite these restrictions, American fashion design flourished under the challenge to find clever and artistic ways to manipulate rationed materials. More designers opened for business during the war than ever before, and American women soon began recognizing the names of homegrown design talent.

Before World War II ended in the Pacific, Paris was already promoting its fashions in an attempt to regain its role as international style delineator. Within two years, Christian Dior launched a debut collection, in February 1947, which became the epitome of Pariss postwar regeneration. American fashion editor Carmel Snow of Harpers Bazaar was particularly enamoured with Dior, exclaiming his collection had a New Look. However, the full-skirted, nipped-waist, soft-shouldered styles of Diors collection were not universal hits with American women who did not want to be weighed down in corsets and crinolines like their grandmothers.

Sportswear separates were the strength of the American fashion industry. Haymaker Shirts, Vogue magazine, August 1, 1953.

By 1951, it looked like Paris might be in charge again of high fashion silhouettes, but from New Yorks Seventh Avenue to California, American fashion was becoming increasingly self-determined, and by the end of the decade, the United States would be exporting styles back across the Atlantic to its former fashion mentors.

Advertisement for Unidure, a trademark name filed in 1947 for a process to render textiles crease resistant, from Vogue magazine, August 1, 1953.

T HE ECONOMY OF THE EARLY 1950s was strong in the United States, but prices were on the rise, especially for clothing, and American women purchased their wardrobes carefully. Versatility became one way to counteract higher prices: reversible coats with sleeves that could be turned back into deep cuffs for a dressier late day look, dcollet dresses for dinner or theater that could be transformed into daytime outfits with the addition of a matching jacket, and suits with two skirts (pleated and straight) were all economical ways to stretch the clothing budget.

In 1950, daytime coats were full and flaring from the shoulders, but by fall 1951, narrow, column-shaped coats had debuted. Both styles were available simultaneously in many materials, especially in a newly imported French looped pile called poodle cloth that was quickly imitated by American textile manufacturers. By 1952, Parisian-designed full-skirted princess-line coats were being avidly copied by American designers. In fur, dark mink and sable were the most desirableand least affordableof all fur coats. Blonde furs, ranging from natural Aleutian mink at the high end to midpriced golden fox, down to bleached and dyed raccoon, gained popularity early in the decade. For those who could not afford a full coat or jacket, there were capes and stoles, especially of mink, fox, black seal, and rabbit.

The high cost of fur led to more interest in faux fur; nylon pile mouton Teddy Bear coats and jackets became a hit in 1952. The 1950s was the first decade to flaunt fakes of many types. If a woman could not afford a cashmere sweater, for example, an Orlon sweater looked almost as good. If she couldnt afford a sparkling diamond brooch, a frankly fake rhinestone floral or starburst spray worked just as well. Oversized rhinestone brooches were essential pieces of jewelry in the early 1950s. They appeared as often on tweed suits as on silk dresses. For evening, rhinestone necklace and earring sets were favorites, while multiple-strand fake pearl beads were popular for filling in suit necklines during the day.