A Decade in Fashion: 1950s

Fashion history has often received a lot of criticism for the validity of the sources; that is how much can we learn from a garment? I would counter that fashion often gets shamed for being frivolous and irrelevant mostly because it tends to be a female dominated realm. Historically, women have cared more about being fashionable than men and as a remnant from a time when women could not make money, but had to rely on her husband’s, father’s or brother’s money, a degree of contempt was held by the old world historians.

Fashion is a central to many of our lives and has also been a key role. What you wear tells a story about you and it remains as true today as it has throughout history. As such, fashion is just as relevant when we analyse social history. The 1950s characterizes the importance of fashion to history as the emerging physical restraints of the fabric were manifest by the increasing social restrictions for women.

This iconic era in fashion responsible for the highly distinguishable silhouette created by Christian Dior with his New Look; the hourglass figure. However, to fully understand the significance of this silhouette, we need to discuss the years and social conventions preceding it.

The interwar period is a really interesting period for social conventions. There are extreme highs, with the 1920s where women challenged a “feminine” style and opted for a distinct boyish look reflected in the iconic flappers. The 1930s saw extreme lows during the Great Depression where many turned inward and focused on surviving with little thought to fashion as it was a luxury not many could afford.

These two decades set the precedence for the 1940s wear women opted, for the first time, for pants. The convenience of movement found with two separated pant legs made pants extremely popular with women working in factories. The Second World War limited the production of rayons and other luxury fabric as well as zippers; materials typically used for dresses. Dresses were made of durable materials that were more accessible during war time. Women chose more moveable fabrics that could be used while working in factories similar to military uniforms.

Dior’s new look came out in 1946, and it was no coincidence that it premiered right after the war ended. The New Look saw the re-introduction of wide romantic skirts and cinched waists of the 19th century. This would define the hourglass shape for this decade and much of women’s fashion to follow.

Dior's signature New Look

The rise of the New Look coincides with several factors that made it so popular. Most importantly, is that there was a post-war economic boom that saw a generation of middle-class women who were now affluent and could afford such clothing. Similarly, these same women were no longer working, nor were they expected to. Their jobs were to run the household and keep up with societal expectations of beauty and put-togetherness. Where a few years before, no one had time or the care to look at what fashion trends were coming out of Paris, many housewives now had all the time in the world to keep up with the trends.

Hair and makeup as well were just as essential as the clothes themselves. Just as each aspect of the silhouette had to be carefully crafted, a fashionable women of the 1950s did not have a hair out of place. 

There is nothing inherently wrong with the hourglass figure, nor with keeping up with the latest fashion trends. However, the release of Dior’s New Look is a distinct attempt at re-feminizing women post war. Which is where the importance of fashion history comes into play. One could read this history as seemingly innocent— women of this era enjoyed looking like they has just stepped off a Parisian fashion magazine in rural America. While partially true, 1950s fashion is part of a large whole. A larger attempt at re-introducing a traditional nuclear family with women at the centre of the household.

This is evident in the impracticability of the fashion which did not lend itself well to working in factories as women were doing during the war. Similarly, in the wake of the devastation of the Second World War there is a distinct shift in social policies in many western countries. There is a renewed focus on a traditional nuclear family. Women were no longer expected to work if they were married as their main priority was to care for the household and raise children with proper values. Single women were allowed to have fleeting professions with the expectation once they married a good man they too would join their sisters as a housewife.

Women’s duties as housewives were so prevalent and damaging that it prompted Betty Friedan’s seminal work The Feminine Mystique. What started as an innocent survey of her former college classmates, resulted in overwhelming evidence that women were not happy in their roles as housewives. Contrary to the belief that women found fulfilment as a housewife and mother, Friedan found that many of her classmates yearned for professional success, for education or to be free from marriage all together. The Feminine Mystique would go on to sell over 1 million copies and is often credited with sparking the beginning of second wave feminism.

The history of fashion is an important lens in which we can view history. Often the physical fibres of any garment is a physical manifestation of social conventions of the time. It is not always restrictive, there’s periods like the 1920s that saw loosening fabrics as well as loosening social restrictions. Fashion remains an important dimension for any historian to consider.