1950s Postwar Fashion In New York City (Gallery)
The post-WWII era was a beautiful, yet complicated decade for women’s fashion in NYC. The 1950s continued the late 1940s style with very full skirts, cinched waists and sloping shoulders. Daywear consisted of skirts and jackets or day dresses in tweeds and woollens. Dresses with pencil or full skirts were seen in either plain fabrics or floral prints. Separates were popular, especially waist length cardigans. Hats were either small pill-box styles or large brimmed, saucer-like hats. Hair was often cropped quite short and set in curls, or kept long and tied in simple chignons or ponytails at the back.
In the 50s they believed certain clothing and fashionable looks would help women either please their husbands or help them find a husband, this making fashion a more wanted thing, making it more popular.
1950s Fashion In New York City
After the austere colors of the 1940s, prints came back in a big way. From stripes to florals, prints generally appeared in colors on a white background. Wild floral skirts, like the one above, contrasted with a plain-colored, short-sleeved knit top. Polka dots showed up in contrasting colors, like red on white (and vice versa), or dark blue and white, or white on white with nubby or textured dots.
Nylon, no longer needed for wartime parachutes, became a fashion staple used to make hose, lingerie, blouses, and sportswear. Though cotton was still a popular choice for summer clothing, Dacron and rayon reduced ironing chores with their no-wrinkle textures. Laundry chores became simpler with the new drip-dry garments. The new fabric blends included two-way stretch materials that offered figure control for swimwear. Synthetic fibers and blends cut into the wool industry’s market share while freeing consumers from pesky moths that, in the past, could destroy wool garments stored in the closet.
Link to Fashion of NYC men and women in the 1920s (Gallery) — Hello, Big Apple
Fashion of NYC men and women in the 1920s (Gallery) — Hello, Big Apple
There was far more to women’s fashion in the 1920’s than the iconic Flapper look of bobbed hair, long necklaces, cloche hats and flapper slang. Click here!
The famous Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn were two major fashion icons for the fifties. Marilyn Monroe was considered to be who all young girls should aspire to look like, and Audrey Hepburn made a lasting impression with her tight-waisted dresses and long flowy skirts.