Fashion In The 50's

Women’s fashion was a social controversy in the 1920’s. This controversy was influenced by women’s clothing, swimwear, hairstyles, makeup, and attitude alone. This attire and new found character traits added a certain attitude and confidence to these women, starting what would eventually be remembered as a revolution.

The Jazz culture inspired multiple dances, such as the Black Bottom and the ever-popular Charleston. These dances required lots of movement leading to a shift in women’s fashion. Women wore less undergarments, went without coresets, and designed dresses that allowed for more freedom of movement. In 1921, Coco Chanel introduced the “drop-waist” dress, which were worn with long strings of glass beads or pearls. By 1925 these dresses resembled the shifts that were worn under the dresses of the early 1900. Evening dress were made up of mesh material, sleeveless, low v-neckline or backless, and sometimes adorned with sequence. These new fashions were advertised in fashion magazines that made their appearance in the 20s, Vouge, The Queen, and the

As Coco Chanel quotes: “Fashion is an architecture: It is a matter of proportion.” Fashion during the Harlem Renaissance and the roaring 20s define the culture of males, females, whites & blacks.

“Popular myth has it that the 1950’s were the ideal decade for the American family.” (Coontz) Unfortunately it wasn’t. The 50’s was a stressful time where racism and sexism clouded the judgement of many. Not to mention the fear of nuclear war looming over the heads of our citizens. However, this was a fairly successful time for American citizens with high employment rates and a stable economy.

The Fight for Equality Can you just see it, the white picket fence that would surround the yard with the golden retriever and children playing in their striped shirts and polka dotted dresses? In the 1950s, the American ideal was to live a secure and stable home with equal and ordinary traits among the citizens. This ideal lead the changes of the cookie cutter model that was shaped during this era. Another factor to the change of ideals would be the lack of equality shown throughout the 1950s. Inequality led to the changes in economics, social and political adjustments of the American ideal in the 1950s.

What does source 1 tell us about women’s fashion in the early 1970s? Source one tells us that women’s fashion in the early 1970s had “Extreme, bright colors…”. It depicts an image that long, flared pants with a tiny waist were in high demand. The speaker in the source tells us that these styles of clothing were extremely popular because they “…were everywhere…”.

Throughout the 1960s the way people saw fashion had changed. Less

Upsurge in factories and industrialization made possible the quenching of the newfound American thirst for high fashion following the end of WWI and the end of the corset driven wardrobe. The 1920s was a time period that became known as the Roaring Twenties and the birth of modernism. During this time emerged beaded dresses and progressively shorter hemlines. The clothing embraced the new jazz style of music and people publicly enjoyed themselves. Many wealthy Americans wanted to enjoy life.

Although, they did start to get more laid back than they previously were in history. Like stated before there was more time for leisure, such as golfing for men. Men dressed in a white button up shirt, a tie and then a sweater overtop. As far as pants go for the casual attire they wore khakis with a belt that bunched at the calves and long socks underneath with nice gold shoes. Some men even wore fedoras and newsboy hats. (https://www.retrowaste.com/1920s/1920s-fashion/) Not all men wore casual clothing, many still liked to wear suits with a tie. While casual started to become the norm towards the end of the 1920s to the early 1930s, men started to wear leather jackets. They started to take on a greaser look much like the look in the Musical

The 1920’s was considered the greatest era of the united states. You had energy new machines, new dances and music, also movies. Cars and simple things like vacuums, toasters and washing machines were invented to help people do things easier. The fashion industry also boomed with beautiful and colorful clothes and makeup, but all that changed in 10 years. In the 1930’s it was the start of The Great Depression. The Great Depression was an economic crisis. Millions of businesses were failing because people couldn't buy from them so they couldn't pay their workers so people didn't have jobs. If people didn't have jobs then they couldn’t eat and that leads to everyone being malnourished. There have been many reasons or theories for why this happened, but the main reason was

Clothing from French designers like Balenciaga and Dior were worn by women in high society. Important figures like Jacquie Kennedy began to support less formal clothes, for example, things like shorter skirts. Fewer people now wore frill like caps and gloves.

Overview of 1920’s History   1920’s Fashion Women’s fashion during the 1920’s was unlike anything people had seen before. Hemlines in dresses began to rise and necklines began to plunge. Women began wearing dresses that were unfitted but showed off one’s legs. This trend in fashion inspired the “flapper” trend.

A change in culture is always a constant aspect to society. While In 2013 the main fashion trend was to wear sports clothing outside of the gym, in 2015 there was a more minimalistic view on the styles of dresses. As the styles have changed, so have the views on the ideal life for a woman, starting from being a mother to being someone who helps bring money to the family and works. A majority of this has occurred from the style changing from 50’s mostly modest blouses, skirts, and shirts to dress pants and much more minimalistic clothing that either has no huge pattern or a very small pattern. From these changes we can see how the view on women has changed, including their role in society.

Numerous youth had become disappointed with the usual mainstem social values, they considered them to be shallow and greedy, others strongly disagreed with the Australian participation in the Vietnam war, and starting embracing values like peace, love and freedom.

Throughout the decades, trends were made and set for all eternity while others faded as soon as a new decade rolled in. The 1970s created solutions and overcame many problems that the decade is still credited for today. These same events made the ‘70s for what it was; unique. During the iconic ‘70s, movies were brought back to life, fashion was rediscovered, and the Disco took night clubs by storm.