From June 1941
Rationing was on food as well as on clothing. Details of the rationing were announced in newspapers and women magazines. The message was in in simple language for the masses to understand without any misunderstanding.
Limited Coupons to Spend:
This meant that women were forced to wear clothes that they had in their wardrobes. This scheme ended in 1952. Some families were too poor that having the coupons made no difference on them.
During the Second World War Paris produced restrained clothing to match the economic atmosphere. The general wartime scene was one of drabness and uniformity. People were encouraged “to make do and meant”
1945 Post War Functionalism in Sportswear
After 1945 a whole new range of synthetic fibres often best suited in the early days of production to knitted fabrics were made into pullover dresses, underwear.
The fifties saw revolutionary changes in sports clothes much of due to the earlier invention and new use of synthetic fibres particularly nylon combined with practical techniques developed in military clothing for example hood
pockets in jacket
elastic inserted in the side of the sky pants
anorak
THOUGHTFUL COLOUR COORDINATION ONLY BECAME A NORM IN TH 60s
Functional Clothes for mass production
Functionalism became strongly associated with sports clothes in the 50s .Consumers noticed how useful the features often were in everyday life. Hooded anoraks and parkas for wet were a big feature. The greater availability of goods in the 50s meant that consumers now made choices.
After the War the new look of 1947
After the war the people became resentful and patient when rationing was not relaxed on clothes. People were bitter because clothes were being made, but were exported in an effort to rebuild the British textile and wool economy.
Paris continued to produce exotic fashions, but America was developing a look of its own which was mainly found in Claire McCardell’s designs. The American look was simple and classic.
New Times, new Look
Christian Dior’s New Look of 1947 was frowned upon by both the American and British governments and people were discouraged from wearing clothes that “wasted too much fabric”. The advice was ignored particularly by Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret who were soon wearing it because it had influenced her own designers. People were craving for newness .
The growth of a Media and Consumer Influence on Society
Hollywood Influence
In the 1940s and 1950s American culture became very dominant in Europe. The influence of movies films and the prominence of films starts set the fashion in manners, make up, hair and clothes. Women, Men, and youth all desired look- alike copies of outfits, accessories and jewelry worn by the most popular screen idols. One way to achieve the look was to make your own clothes and customize them to have a similar look.
FOR THE 50s EASY TO MAKE SWEING PATTERS WERE ALSO PROMOTED
Fashion sewing was very popular during the earlier 60s and was a major subject in secondary modern schools in the UK. Night classes abounded in the 60s were women who attended for about 10 sessions had the rudiments of using a sewing machine and cutting a pattern so they could manage to make a dress.
1960s Talent
For the first time ever in any fashion era, the younger became the leaders of fashion. Twiggy . Lesley Lawson née Hornby (born 19 September 1949) known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree.
Twiggy was initially known for her androgynous looks, large eyes, long eyelashes, thin build, and short hair.In 1966, she was named “The Face of 1966” by the Daily Express and voted British Woman of the Year.By 1967, Twiggy had modelled in France, Japan, and the U.S., and landed on the covers of Vogue and The Tatler. Her fame had spread worldwide.
Fifties fashion hangs on until 1966
The short skirt was not really worn by many women until 1966 and not nationwide until 1967.
John Bates was one of the most influential British designers of the 1960s. Ernestine Carter the fashion historian thought him the unsung inventor of the mini skirt. His mini dresses were the shortest, had the barest midriffs and the models wore the least undergarments - he preferred a bra-less silhouette. In 1959 he had set up the Jean Varon label and later a label under his own name. His influence in the sixties was such that he dressed Diana Rigg in The Avengers series. Other celebrities of the day such as Twiggy, Sandie Shaw, Jean Shrimpton and Dusty Springfield all wore his fashion designs. But so did the masses as he also designed for important key department stores in the UK.
John Bates has never been given enough credit for his role in the rise of the mini skirt. The facts are that John Bates was making shorter skirts long before others. But Mary Quant was the facilitator of this novel idea who was really noticed. She got the mini skirt out among trendy young girls about town and it soon became copied and popular everywhere.
article by Pauline Weston Thomas at www.fashion-era.com
What made the mini really acceptable was the introduction of pantyhose known mostly today as tights. It was hard to wear a mini dress with stockings and feel confident, but with tights there was protection from the elements and no unsightly glimpse of stocking tops. Stockings died in the mid 1960s and were only revived as leg wear in the 1990s or else kept for the bedroom.
When tights were first introduced in the 1960s it liberated women from girdles, roll-ons and suspender belts. It's difficult to know which came first the skirt or the tights, but the introduction of seamless stockings had started the tights revolution. What is certain it is unlikely the one could have existed without the other as no groomed young lady ever went out bare legged then.
Tights in the late 60s were often patterned with arrangements of diamonds or other motifs and a favourite colour of the era was a golden brown called American Tan. Fishnet tights were also popular briefly. Lurex glitter tights in gold or silver were a hit for the Christmas period.
Many of the fashions of the 1960s existed because of the fabrics. They introduced new fabric properties and when synthetics were mixed with natural fibres there was improved performance in wear. Some had been invented years earlier in the 1930s and 1940s, but it was only in the 60s that huge production plants for synthetic fibres sprang up globally.
In the UK in the 1960s Marks and Spencer was instrumental in bringing Elastomerics from America to their range of bras, corsetry and bathing wear. Other manufacturers and fashion retailers soon followed.
Ordinary people shop all over the world today. They take a bucket shop air ticket or limited stay ticket and jet to a major city like London, Paris, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Florence or Milan simply to shop until they drop. Every tourist office in the world will have day trips that make shopping its main purpose and cruise ships stop at ports for guests to stock up on even more local goodies than are already available onboard.
In England you are never more than twenty or thirty minutes from a town with shops or factory outlet shops a few miles further. In more remote parts of Britain you might have to travel up to an hour. And if you are immobile, shopping TV will probably solve your need for a shopping fix.
In the late 20th century no other country marketed fashion like the Americans. The best known designers in America and known by all, are Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.
'Dynasty' the 1980s television fantasy soap series promoted fashions which enlarged the shoulder. One of the main characters was played by the naturally broad shouldered film star Linda Evans. In the 1980s 'Dynasty' was watched by a global audience of over 250 million viewers. Many who watched did so for a look at the 80's fashions which were always over the top and frankly camp. Throughout the 80s styles
Jeans history would be nothing without Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss is credited with inventing jeans. Levi Strauss emigrated with his family to New York in 1847. His family sold dry goods such as canvas tenting and Manchester drapery goods. He moved to San Francisco in the early 1850s because he thought the same dry goods business would be brisk, because of the California gold rush.
About 20 years later, a solvent Levi Strauss and a Nevada tailor joined forces to patent an idea the tailor had for putting rivets on stress points of workman's waist high overalls, commonly known as jeans. Levi Strauss chose to use the stronger denim fabric and cotton duck, putting his own name on the product. Later the duck fabric was dropped as consumers found denim more comfortable, particularly after washing. Washing creates the faded bloom on the indigo blue dyeing that we all love.
Eventually in the 1950s people asked for denim jeans or just as often - Levi's jeans, rather than waist overalls. Other manufacturers began to produce jeans. Other brand names such as Lee Coopers and Wranglers also became famous. Each brand is renowned for having a particular cut.
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