A place to find about styles of vintage clothing from the 1940's to the ‘80's and ethnic and art-to-wear fashion. Enjoy the aura that dressing in vintage clothing and jewelry will create.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Dressing like the 1940's

The glamorous, dynamic 1940s may be gone, but that decade's fashion ethos is around. Stars like Gwen Stefani have added '40s style touches to their wardrobe and Scarlett Johansen named the decade as her favorite fashion era. Vanity Fair glamorized the era with a gorgeous noir photo shoot featuring some of most well known celebrities.
It is just one of the eras that influence fashion designers. The fashion industry goes from one era to the other getting inspiration. Actually they mix all the eras to get ideas.
Platforms, which originated in the 1940s, are coming back into vogue and so are other trends
Late '30s, early '40s clothing has become very popular with many women. Shorter skirts are a characteristic of the 1940s because of fabric rationing during World War II. Shirts became short and straight and jackets got shorter to conserve precious fabric; women made suits for themselves out of their husbands' suits, since they were away at war.
Seamed silk stockings were very popular but soon disappeared with the rationing of silk, which was used to make parachutes; women painted seams on their legs to give the illusion of stockings.
Costume jewelry became bigger, flashier and the hats got wilder. Hats were small with big exotic flowers giving that very feminine touch.
If you want that classic, glamorous 1940s look, you will need to wear
For clothing:
 Non-natural fibers like rayon,
 Shorter skirts than previous decades, but not too high above the knee
 Women's suits
 Padded shoulders in just about everything
 Swing dresses
 Evening gowns

For Makeup:
 Red lipstick
 Well groomed, often, dark eyebrows
For Hair:
 Fingerwaves
 Pincurls
 Trademark rolls around the crown of the head.
For Accessories:
 Platform shoes
 Chunky heels with round toes
 Big costume jewelry