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WWII Influence On Women's Wear In Fashion

Decent Essays

This extended essay sets out to prove the extent of the influence that WWII had on women’s wear during that time in canada and the different technological, social, political and economic factors that contributed to it. With the war fashion design was, to a large extent, suspended; the silhouette of the time frozen in place, thus allowing us to understand the war years as a parenthesis in the history and evolution of fashion. There were several factors arising from the war that not only influenced women’s wear in canada at the time, but also conditioned the subsequent fashion evolution. This extended essay aims to examine them. In order to do so, first a brief overlook at women’s wear at the time is necessary. Women’s wear in canada during WWII …show more content…

With the start of the war, fashion design ceased to a large extent, freezing the silhouette of the moment in place, narrow and austere. Although a large scale incorporation of women to work was taking place, brought on by the deployment of men to war, women still dressed mainly with dresses, skirts and suits. However, pants were rapidly gaining popularity as they had to be worn in factories as women were joining the workforce, and before long women were not only wearing them to work, but outside of it. Furthermore, Katherine Hepburn wore them in many of her films, for example, on The Philadelphia Story, helping them become more popular. Fashion was very slowly becoming more androgynous. The short evening dress became very popular, allowing for fewer yards of clothing to be used and at the same time focusing the attention on the shoe. Daytime dresses often had Peter Pan or wide neck collars and were characterized by their padded shoulders, which made them look broader, and the typical A-line skirt, often with belts. Because of the rating of materials, skirts became shorter and hemlines rose. As a whole, styles became leaner and more

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