Fashions from the 1950s

What year is this from, OP, around 1957? The fashions of the late '50s and early '60s were the epitome of classic, simple chic. Many of them could easily be worn today with some small changes For example, the skirts are a little too long on these dresses, but that's a simple alteration. I agree with you about the dresses on the left and right. They're chic and stylish, but probably too dressy for most women's everyday lives these days, unfortunately.

Besides the hemlines, the other big difference that would be immediately noticeable in real life: These dresses are shaped using darts and seams, not Spandex. You won't find tailoring like that on modern women's clothes, and it would immediately date the outfits ... but they'd still look great.

Oops, forgot to add that they'd still look great but would require foundation garments. These dresses were meant to be worn with a girdle underneath. They wouldn't fit properly without one. Also note the high bust line that's designed to be worn with the super-lift, pointy bras of the time. A modern woman wearing these dresses would need a strong body shaper and push-up bullet-shaped bra unless she had access to vintage foundation garments.

The best of 1950s fashion is timeless, the New Look ultra-femme full skirts, and the "wiggle dresses" that Marilyn Monroe favored.

But a lot of 1950s fashion was dreadfully prim and twee. Dreadful short matronly haircuts, fussy little hats, white gloves, Peter Pan collars, etc. So prim that even the housewives with six kids looked like virgins.

Some fashions from the 1950s are classic, timeless, and endlessly fabulous.

And some fifties fashions should have been burned with fire.

The dresses at OP made me think of L'Wren Scott ("then she died"), which made me think this photo of her with Simon Doonan.

And this one with SJP:

Those sheath dresses looked simple, but in reality as pointed out they were anything but.

In days before natural fibers were blended with Spandex movement was constrained. Between small armholes, fitted bosom area and tightly fitted lines you had to fit the dress, not other way round. This meant women needed to wear various foundation garments, usually the ever present girdle and maybe a waspie or something else to shape the figure. Most dresses wouldn't be lined either, so a slip would be needed as well.

Once strapped into the gear and poured into dress, add a pair of high heels and women couldn't walk with long strides. Instead it was sort of a mincing foot in front of other movement.

Quite a lot of 1950's ladies fashions could be worn today with some modifications. But few women nowadays want to be bothered wearing dresses, skirts, etc.. Even fewer are going to strap themselves into required gear that provides a smooth line, well not on a daily basis anyway.

OP... Ladies? Where are you meeting ladies? I haven't encountered any ladies since, well... since these dresses new.

R8, to wear those small-waisted New Look dresses, women were basically wearing Victorian undergarments.

Not just a girdle, but a Merry Widow foundation garment that probably included fucking whalebones to cramp the waist, smooth the bum, and push up the bust, plus a crinoline to fill out the skirt. And stockings and high heels. Which is why loose waistless shifts and low heels and pants came in in the 1960s, along with "women's lib". Women wanted to be able to move and breathe.

I mean, imagine wearing all this shit every day.

Our new one-piece lace foundation garment. Zips up the back and no bone.

With Dior and many other designers foundation (corset) was built into the garment. This was true for haute couture, and perhaps "dressmaker" things depending upon skill of seamstress.

Ready made off the rack stuff, yes that would have required foundation garments mentioned. But then most ladies would also have to take whatever dress, suit, evening gown or whatever to a seamstress or dressmaker to have it fitted to themselves. This would have been done over whatever foundation garments Madam was going to wear.

Back when brides wore real gowns, not the strapless or spaghetti strap nonsense of today it was same thing. After gown was chosen off the rack as it were, it would have to be fitted to wearer over whatever undergarments she planned on wearing.

The original Playboy bunny hostess costumes were done this way as well. They were basically a one piece corset complete with steel boning that were fitted to each girl.

Of course depending upon how much controlling a woman's figure required, she may have worn foundation garments even with what was built into dress or whatever. And yes, there would have been something required to hold up stockings and perhaps contain derriere and hips such as girdle.

Well, any woman unwilling to wear restrictive foundation garments on a daily basis is nothing but a lazy slattern! Don’t get me started on them leaving the house without a hat and gloves.

And heels, R14. Do not forget proper ladies footwear.

R11

Could be worse!

I love you, R12.

Thank you, OP.

Before Lycra/Spandex rubber was used extensively for foundation wear. It must have been dreadful, think of all that sweating.....

They loved showing their arms in the 50s. I wonder why it was such a big deal when Michelle Obama brought this look back.

They were too long, Op.

They were too long, Op.

They were too long, Op.

My mother had a knock off of this one.

And she didn't have a big ass or child-bearing hips, either.

Foundation garments didn't go away until the 1960, they were big during the 1920s and 30s when flat slight figures were in. In the 1950s, a few women wore as much corsetry as their Victorian grandmothers, although most just went with the bra and girdle.

And then foundation garments came back in the form of Spanx, because real women's bodies are never in style.

I wonder why people don't seem to think the middle dress at OP could be worn today. It reminds me of some of the dresses in the most recent Jacquemus collection.

Some of the garments seen above still remain in use today.

I would wear it!

The Duchess of Cambridge seems to really gravitate towards modern interpretations of the 1940s/50s aesthetic.

R1/R2/R8/R10/R13 etc....great posts! Much appreciated.

The 1960s arrived in 1957 with the Sack Dress from Givenchy and Balenciaga

Audrey Hepburn in 1958.

There is a very popular Vogue pattern that updates these classics.

Most dress styles for women are sleeveless and the trend has continued for many seasons. The fashion industry loves sleeveless looks because they're cheaper to produce.

A modern look with a vintage feel...

During 1990's various designers brought back Dior's "New Look" including John Galliano who was designer for that famed house during this period.

That dog of a film Evita starring Madonna was dripping with Dior inspired items.

Dior's fall/winter 1997-1998 season collection by John Galliano was very much a look back at that house's grand tradition under M. Dior.

More:

No serious conversation about Dior's New Look and corseting can fail to mention Mr. Pearl.

More on Mr. Pearl

With DL fav Linda Simpson

Beautiful dresses. I would wear them in a heartbeat. Women were allowed to be curvier back then.

Women these days like easy, athletic leisure wear. Most of us, men and women, don't have that kind of social calendar where it's required, or preferable, to dress up. Those few who are still into religion don't even bother with showing up at Church dressed to the nines. I mean, back in the days people dressed up for a neighbor's or friend's BBQ or had the husband's boss and wife over for a fancy dinner.

Nowadays dressing up means wearing a cosplay costume for some Comic-Con or a LARPG get-together.

If it wasn't for clients from Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe and some other women whose husbands or whoever have amassed huge fortunes by varied means haute couture would largely have died out already. Certainly evening and ball gowns as few if any women in Europe or North America go in for that sort of thing to a great extent anymore.

Recall watching a television program about haute couture and they interviewed wife of former French president. The good lady stated neither she nor her peers had the time nor patience for such day or evening wear. She went on about all the buttons and other closures on any given dress/garment necessitating occupying a maid for ages to get in and out of things.

Madame went on to say while she did appreciate haute couture there was a time and place for everything. Unlike some of her friends she "doesn't get changed into a suit to play piano in another part of the house".

I just stay home and jerk off in my sweatpants.

Looking at those ridiculous 50s foundation garments gives you an understanding of why the feminist movement happened. Women finally said "fuck this shit!"

The Royals wear foundation garments today.

We can't leave this discussion without touching upon Dior's wedding gowns, both vintage and modern.

There was a time when a young woman put a bit of effort into the happiest and most important day of their lives. Now it's all barely one step up from a simple little frock.

Say what you will, but Princess Margaret wore the fuck out of Dior.

HRH had the figure (as a young woman) along with buckets of money. But more to the point she had the attitude to pull it all off.

^ feeling the teal

R23

One of the biggest methods of birth control in 1950's or so was a girdle; especially those made from rubber or latex.

The things were a bitch to get on when dressing at home, so getting out of one in a back seat of car or whatever much less getting back into it was quite a feat if not impossible.

Fathers, mothers, house mothers, husbands all did "girdle checks" when women came home. This simply involved running thumb or finger down side of skirt. If tell tale ridges weren't present there was hell to pay. Hence you read about girls/women coming home with their girdles rolled up/stuff into their handbags coats, or whatever. That was clearly a sign she had been up to something while out.

That finger test was merely often confirmation. It is fairly easy to tell when most women are wearing a girdle. Nice girls don't jiggle as my grandmother would say....

Like Ouiser says "It's like two pigs fighting under a blanket. (0:47)

R44, those elaborate Merry Widows and corsets were not worn by most women for everyday wear in the period of OP's illustration. They were for squeezing into an evening dress or perhaps a cocktail dress if you were very fashionable.

Most women, including well-dressed women, wore a bra and girdle for day wear. That's it. They needed a girdle to hold up their stockings anyway. The girdles were not particularly comfortable, so it's not surprising that women were happy to give them up, but they weren't in the same category as the pictures above. Here you go:

R44

Besides a girdle women had garter/suspender belts to hold up their stockings. That choice along with a vast and bewildering array of other foundation garments with sew on and or detachable garters/suspenders existed until the very end. Choice was often dictated by whatever clothing milady was wearing.

You don't need a girdle for a ball gown or most evening dresses, especially ones with fitted bodices and yards of material in skirts.

This how things would remain until 1959 when a textile mill owner's wife begged (some say ordered) him to come up with something to relieve her of discomfort caused by wearing garter belts when heavily pregnant. While the new pantyhose made that wife and her friends happy, it wasn't a runway best seller; then came the 1960's fashions of mini-skirts and hot pants which dealt a lethal blow to stockings and garters.

I love sleek 50s fashion --- yet earlier fashions were so much more comfortable

Caption on the above reads: "Excuse me, is this where we wait while our husbands vote?"

Love, love, LOVE this thread.

It's the perfect accessory to divert me from my contradictory mood of ambivalence and alarm over Covid-19.

Svetlana Lloyd worked for Dior as a house model in his Paris showroom in the 1950s.

[quote] ...my contradictory mood of ambivalence and alarm over Covid-19.

Thank you! You put words to my precise set of feelings as we segue into the unknown. And you did it with alliteration, too. Nicely done, Della.

I will now go perform my deepest salaam in your honor.

Another Dior house model tells her story...

[quote]Odile was a house model at Dior from 1953 until 1958, Odile’s career began when she fortuitously stepped into a lift with Monsieur Dior. Asking her what she was doing, Odile replied, “I work for (the designer) André Levasseur”, to which Dior countered, “Not any more, you work for me now”. Odile’s classic figure meant that more than twenty outfits in each collection were made just for her and she travelled with several of the collections to New York, South Africa and England and was one of seven mannequins sent to Australia with Dior’s final collections in 1957.

[quote]During the 1950s house mannequins were integral to the running of a couture house, assisting in the development and sale of each garment. Every design in a collection was fitted on the girl chosen to model it in a process that took up to six weeks.

[quote]Dior recognised the critical role mannequins played in successfully conveying his designs and played an active role in their selection, stating, ‘they are the life of my dresses and I want my dresses to be happy’. He also aimed for a variety of ages, personalities and figures so that clients could envisage themselves in the dress.

[quote]Each season, his house mannequins presented upwards of 150 dresses in salon shows of close to two hours’ duration that were repeated multiple times over successive days for the press, buyers and clients. They also modelled the collection during private appointments for individual clients.

1950s Loungewear. The middle look is very chic, except for that medallion thing hanging off the side.

"The 1960s arrived in 1957 with the Sack Dress from Givenchy and Balenciaga"

Even earlier. In 1956, I Love Lucy did a Paris episode with the sack dress as a plot point.

[quote]The 1960s arrived in 1957 with the Sack Dress from Givenchy and Balenciaga

In other words, no waistline.

The Sack Dress turning heads on the streets of Paris in 1957...

That looks like Lucy and Ethel's potato sack dresses from the Paris Episode.

I wish I could remember where I read this... it was a memoir by some woman, who visited Hollywood in the early fifties, when the New Look was at its height.

She said that at parties, all the women were wearing these strapless gowns with huge skirts that contained yards and yards of layered fabric, held up by a boned and fitted bodice. And that the actresses were all "... so slender they'd lost their bosoms", so that whenever they turned to one side the heavy dress would stay in place... and no boobs to serve as anchors, they'd find themselves 90 degrees askew from their dresses, and their boobs hanging out. That must have been a hilarious sight!

1950's fashions especially and including Dior's New Look were all about returning to nurturing, sex and lusty things after the deprivations and horrors of WWII.

It wasn't just about women now wearing dozens of yards of material in skirts, but the emphasis on hips, derriere, bosom in short life that is what women give to the world. Their unique and sole gift of bearing children if you will. Below the waist produces life, and bosom feed/nurture it through first months.

This was behind the whole Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell. Jayne Mansfield and other bombshells of 1950's, along with everything else that emphasized womanhood and motherhood in post war years.

Women who were built in similar molds as above represented being equipped for motherhood. This is a natural response in post war years as people seek to escape horrors that past by creating new life, and having a bit of fun while doing so.

It wouldn't last; by the 1960's such "full figured gals" were deemed tubs of lard by the sticks like Twiggy who now came to dominate fashion.

As it has done many times previously, the pendulum swung away from full bosom, big hips and ass; over to flat chested girls with boyish bodies.

For the record 1950's weren't just about Dior, there were other French designers making their mark on fashion.

Hubert de Givenchy was equally if not hotter than Dior. He did the costumes for film Funny Face, and you can see while there are some similarities to Dior (full skirts) M. Givenchy's look was different.

Then and now many women who buy couture or even ready made find certain designers favor their body and tend to develop a relationship.

Those are beautiful but too slim and stylish for today's society. Fat people now throw on sweat pants or, even worse, pajamas and go out in public looking nasty. A lot of people today have no sense of style or shame in what they wear to go out in public.

Norell wore by Suzy Parker.

They still make foundation garments such as girdles and all in ones so some women must still be wearing them. Also there is the modern equivalent of foundations, shapewear like Spanx. Foundations aren't just for shaping but for support. I wear the men's Spanx or compression shirts almost everyday, not for the shapewear qualities but for my back.

Smoooches, r56. Salaam received and back at 'ya.

Melania Trump either doesn't know about, or doesn't care about, foundation garments. Too many times her nipples, and post menopausal waist-line are right there, causing eye trauma.

She's achieved that busted can of biscuits look.

R30, there is an episode of "What's My Line?" where Bennett Cerf really goes off on the sack dress. It was affront to femininity and womanhood. He also hated that new music rock 'n' roll, so this period in th '50s was like the end of times for him.

/an affront... the '50s...

Of the “New Look”, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel said the following

[quote]Look how ridiculous these women are, wearing clothes by a man who doesn’t know women, never had one, and dreams of being one.

To his face on another occasion, Chanel said

[quote]I adore you, but you dress women like armchairs.

R26 Those looks from 1997 look very contemporary today

R65 And then Givenchy took that signature elegance and simplicity into the mod 60's...

Not everyone was enamored with the New Look, and many women saw it as a regression in fashion. The 1920s woman freed herself of the constrictive corsets and wore drop waist dresses and boyish silhouettes so that they had freedom of movement. The 1940s woman wore slacks and simple a line skirts and dresses, and mix and match separates for versatility and ease of comfort while out in the work force. Christian Dior put these women back in shape-shifting corsets and girdles and constrictive foundation garments, and big full skirts worn with petticoats and crinolines.

[quote]He also hated that new music rock 'n' roll, so this period in th '50s was like the end of times for him.

So many people of his generation were appalled by rock and roll music in the 50s. Elvis and Little Richard were like the end of civilization. So quaint and funny today, to think how riled up they got over such tame stuff compared to what was to come in the 60s and 70s.

R77 Some fashion historians think that the "New Look" was a delayed reaction to Gone With The Wind. People went crazy for the film and it played in many places throughout the war. It is thought that similar fashions would have came out in the early 1940s, if the war hadn't intervened. When you look at the "New Look" dresses they really look like a modern adaptation of the silhouettes of the 1850s/60s.

"When you look at the "New Look" dresses they really look like a modern adaptation of the silhouettes of the 1850s/60s. "

I suppose that's true.

Can I also theorize that the low-waisted short loose shift dresses of the 1960s were a modern adaptation of the low-waisted short loose shift dresses of the 1920s? Because the fashion of the 1920s and the mid-1960s were all about freeing women from the heavy constricting fashions that had come before. I mean a lot of 1950s looks were beautiful, but they must have been miserable to wear.

R80 Yes. And, there was a popular culture revival of the Roaring 20's in the 1960s, starting with tv shows such as The Untouchables, The Roaring 20's, and The Lawless Years and movies such as The Carpetbaggers, Elmer Gantry, Funny Girl, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Splendor in the Grass, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

The 1920s were huge in the 1960s

r80's dresses would still be fashionable today.

R63

That is because few women of 1950's knew something all Victorian, Edwardian ladies were taught; when wearing tight corsets and fitted bodices one did not turn one's head/shift body. If you watch actresses who have studied these things they know the drill; one turns entire body around to see what is behind them, not shift head and shoulders. This is because doing the latter would (and likely did) cause a lady's body to shift out of her stays and bodice. Once this happened the only remedy was to get undressed, remove corset and dress all over again. Considering it took ages to get into a corset and dressed women did everything possible to avoid any mishaps.

There is a scene in film "Her Majesty Mrs. Brown" where Queen Victoria is walking down a corridor with three of her ladies training behind. When HM stops, her ladies perform this little dance (rather like a three point turn) where they make a semi arch, ending up proper number of paces behind HM and each other (senior lady in front of two junior in precedence).

Point of that dance was simple; the ladies couldn't simply reverse as it would risk tripping over their skirts. Nor could they turn their heads or upper bodies for risk of shifting out of their corsets. Thus in order to look behind themselves and go backwards again they make that three point turn ballet.

These restrictions applied really throughout history whenever ladies fashions called for tight boning. You can add to this no bending (from waist), reaching, or really anything else besides remaining upright and encased in stays.

Leads for small children were invented because not only their mothers but likely any female caring for them were encased in stays, thus couldn't bend to go after/control a toddler (who can move at speed of light when motivated, *LOL*). So as with dogs children were put into leads, something you still can find sold for various other reasons today.

As mentioned previously original Playboy bunny hostess costume was really a corset (with steel boning), and same restrictions applied. The famous "Bunny Dip" was a way for those waitresses to do their job (which entailed bending) without coming out of their stays. If that happened a Bunny had to leave the floor, return to dressing room (or maybe restroom) and adjust herself. Bunny costume had a major zipper up back, but was still a PITA to get into so once strapped in most bunnies did all they could not to have to it again for duration of shift.

[quote]Not everyone was enamored with the New Look, and many women saw it as a regression in fashion.

By the late 40s women were finally driving cars in a big way. The introduction of the automatic transmission helped that along.

Who wanted to wear huge skirts with yards of cloth and crinolines while while getting in an out of a car?

WWII liberated women. Many were finally out of the home working (for the War effort).

I can imagine how many women saw the New Look as a regression.

Not only did the 1940s woman wear slacks and pantsuits and comfortable low block heeled shoes, she also wore military inspired fashions with shoulder pads and slim fitting a-line and pencil skirts that gave her a "masculine" silhouette. When the men returned from the war, they wanted their women back in the kitchen and put her in constrictive clothing to put her in place.

The 1950s was a socially regressive period. It was back to family values, conservative politics, June Cleaver-type wives, and voluptuous starlets in tight clothes, whispering and cooing like little girls. When I read about the old Hollywood gals like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck speaking disdainfully about the new crop of busty blonde starlets, I think of how they must've hated how all their hard won battles for womanhood were reduced to Jayne Mansfield whispercooing and falling out of her dress.

And of course 1950s America got Mamie Eisenhower for their First Lady, the frumpiest frump who ever frumped.

The slim-waisted, broad-shouldered look epitomized by Joan Crawford may have been a little too intimidating to the returning GI.

That's a stunning look R88.

R87 Please, Mamie was a vision a beauty, after Bess Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Timeless...simply timeless.

I wonder if model for female sketched in right of R25’s photo, may have been a pre-films Lucille Ball?

R92 She was a model, but I think she worked exclusively for Hattie Carnegie and Chesterfield Cigarettes. I don't know if Hattie Carnegie made foundation garments.

Bonnie Cashin's Classical Greek-inspired gown from LAURA (1944) could be worn today.

It helps if you had a body like Gene Tierney.

Another goldmine of a thread. Bravo to all of you! I loved late 50s and early 60s fashion. This thread open my eyes to the sacrifices in comfort that woman endured for these looks.

Early '50s young ladies fashions. Young, pretty and feminine. Dainty hand gloves required.

The 1950s: A return to the feminine

"Family was now the center of everything and being a lovely housewife was a dream for most of the women. Of course, television and mass-media encouraged this happy and perfect lifestyle as the world needed to procreate after the war."

Those big pleated skirts were so ugly.

R98, they're ugly if the fabric is ugly or if they're cheap and poorly made, but they're pretty and feminine when they fit properly. They do look best on women with a slim but womanly figure. The don't work well on women with flat chests or thick waists.

The sack dress never really took off, perhaps because it was ugly as sin and unnatural looking. It did, however, lay the groundwork for dresses that skimmed over the waist. In general, waists were de-emphasized as the '60s opened - suit jackets became loose and boxy (classic "Jackie look" or Chanel-type suits) and dresses moved toward a shaped, rather than tightly fitted, look. This led to the shift, which became ubiquitous by the mid-60s on women of all ages.

Another thing that's notable about the style of that 1960 plus or minus era is how simple the clothes are, that is, how little decoration and adornment many outfits contained. A women might wear a simple sweater, plain straight skirt and plain pumps and still be well dressed. Her only adornment, other than the quality and cut of the fabric would be a little jewelry. Or a dress might be a single, slightly shaped column of solid-color fabric. It was a very restrained, classic, elegant look.

This is such an eldergay thread.

R93

it was Hattie Carnegie who made Lucille Ball the carrot top red head she was famous for until death by ordering her to dye her brown hair.

Hattie Carnegie didn't make foundation garments IIRC.

More:

R68

Places like Orchard Corset still exist and sell corsets that are newly made. But girdles of old aren't really made anymore, much less finding shops that deal in heavy duty foundation wear.

There was a place on UES (on Third Avenue) that was an old school "foundation store", but it closed years ago.

Yes, you have Spanx and other shapewear garments,but demand for old fashioned girdles died off years ago. Aside from a few special occasions and or women who have a particular need no one else bothers with them; well there is the whole fetish/transvestite market but we're not going there.

More on finding girdles today.

Below linked article being said there is a huge business on eBay, thrift stores, garage sales, various online sites and other retail in vintage girdles. Highly sought after (for reasons unknown to me) are those vintage Playtex latex/rubber girdles that come in a tube.

[quote] well there is the whole fetish/transvestite market but we're not going there.

We don't have to go there. This is Data Lounge. We already live there.

I love the full circle skirts of that era. Also, even the pants suits were stunning (Jane Russell in the gym during one of the most homoerotic scenes from the 50s in Gentleman Prefer Blondes, FLAWLESS! Especially with the cape/coat)

Girdles were popular up until the mid 1970s. I remember going to church once and one of the women said to my mother, "I can't wait to get home and get this girdle off. "

My grandmothers wore girdles until they departed this earth well into the 1980's. Some women simply clung to what they knew, and that was that.

I have to admit, I liked the hats that ladies wore in the 50s. Some of my favorite I Love Lucy episodes revolved around her getting a hat. A hat just really finished off the look.

Mad Men's Betty Draper represented the era well. Her outfits at the beginning of the show (early 60s) had a lot of carryover from the 50s. Her undergarments were also shown early on and accurate.

My mother still has several girdles in her dresser from the 50s-60s ! I had no idea there was a market for them. I remember well into the 60s her wearing them to "smooth out the lines of her dress" . As an aside ,I have 2 nieces in their 20s,one beautiful,one cute . The beautiful one has had very little luck with men,the cute one has had her choice . My point ? The cute one has never worn anything but feminine pretty dresses and the beautiful one rarely puts one on . Men LIKE girls in feminine dresses , and were I a young woman in this day and age thats all Id don .

If I were a young woman in this day and age, I'd go with a kimono that I couldn't keep tied shut.

r111 I also thought Trudy, Pete Campbell's wife, displayed the tug of war between the 60s fashion on 50s sensibilities. She was about 6-10 years younger than Betty so she was young enough to wear the classic 60s look, but grew up in the last part of the generation that would have idolized the 50s housewife lifestyle. At the beginning of the show, she basically copied Betty's housewife blueprint, with a slight urban flare. Then they move to the suburbs and she goes into full housewife drab with prints and flowy skirts. Her sharp style recedes as she immerses herself into the suburban mold. By the end of the show, the family is literally jetting off to a job in the midwest. Trudy brings back her youthful style.

Trudy in the early 60s (yes I know this is about 50s fashion).

Trudy, by the end of the 60s. Someone like Betty would never lean this much into the 60s fashion, since she was a 50s girl at her core.

R111. Yes, Betty's early '60s looks were '50s surburban housewife. Full, pleated skirts, floral or feminine patterns, belted waist, etc. Very pretty, but very idealized WASP.

I like a pantsuit.

I'm assuming these fashions are more middle class. I like the polka dot number.

Slenderizing fashions for stout women

Glamorous housecoats

There was also an Asian influence at the time. There is one outfit that Lucy wears on I Love Lucy, I think in the early seasons, that is a shirt that is very tailored. If anyone can find a picture of it, please post it. My mother called it the Communist look.

Why does the one lady in R119's picture look kind of pretty but the other two look like old spinsters?

The woman in gray at R119 looks like a fat Celeste Holm.

I think the other two are the same woman, but with a slight change of hairstyle.

Regardless, they're all plump and unquestionably over 40, so they are technically old spinsters who will never know the love of a good man and who have betrayed their Maker's plan for the gentler sex.

Hong Kong

How quaint that the women in R119 were considered large. Compare them to the Lane Bryant models of today.

Silly R123! These women got that way from bearing children to the men they enticed with their kittenish ways. These ladies know how to work a pole. And have the child bearing hips to prove it.

Hong Kong fashion

Mother says that young women who don't wear proper hosiery may as well walk around with mattresses on their back, like prostitutes.

I'm going to share this thread with her after supper tonight, when I give her her pills and her "evening wine."

I think Mother will approve.

It looks good on women with feminine bodies living in warm climate.

1950's style of a traditional Chinese dress

A bunch of fags telling us what we should be wearing.

[R80] Very spot on. Although in my household in the '60s, those shift dresses were considered 'too mature' for me to wear as a 13 year old.

More "Oriental" styles from probably the late 50's. Hemlines are still below the knee.

Flattering beachwear

[quote]A bunch of fags telling us what we should be wearing.

Welcome to the history of Western civilization, madam.

And... you're welcome.

Practical street style

Things I realized: yesterday I went right from this thread to purchasing a vintage pattern. Good job everyone!!!

R125, Lane Bryant also had a Chubbettes line for chubby young girls, but the illustrations look nothing like the fat girls I see today coming out of Taco Bell.

They couldn't come up with a more flattering name than Chubbettes?

R139, it was the '50s. People didn't care who they were hurting with their words.

Chubbettes? That was Mother's nickname for the "ethnic" sorority back at SMU when she was head of the Kappa Kappa Gammas.

Good times.

Men's street style

r138 those girls are pretty svelte by today's standards. The "chubettes" of today are land whales.

R121, Lucy wore an Asian inspired housecoat in the Orson Welles episode.

I'd wear the top look. But the others seem a little high-waisted.

R142, Hot. And probably dead.

If any of those guys are still alive, they'd be in their 80s.

Rebel without a cause

R136 Like the costumes from Grease, a 70's lookback at 50's street style.

Women today aren’t going to be bothered with foundation garments. They want to let their ample breasts and various rolls of fat hang out everywhere, molesting everyone’s eyesight. They won’t even wear bras or wash their stinking pussies anymore.

R145, In the early '50s, men wore their slacks higher up, along the natural waistline. This was a holdover from the 1940s. Towards the end of the decade, slacks were worn lower, aligning with their navel, and the pants legs became narrower.

On I Love Lucy, Fred, being the older gent, wore his slacks way up high, the way he wore them the precious decade. Ricky, being youthful and hipper wore his lower, but still high compared to today's fashions.

I used to know how to sew a little. Darts are easy to put into a garment. Knit (stretch) fabrics are hard to sew; you need a good sewing machine.

[quote] Most dress styles for women are sleeveless and the trend has continued for many seasons. The fashion industry loves sleeveless looks because they're cheaper to produce.

I'm convinced that the past two decades of strapless wedding dresses are due to it being easier and cheaper to produce (no shoulders & armholes to tailor).

On an episode of Project Runway, the contestants were challenged to sew a men's garment (usual challenges involved women's garments). Results were shocking and tragic: really bad armhole/sleeve transitions. It was like an acid test for the contestants.

Cristóbal Balenciaga

Problem with those fucking high-waisted 1950's pleated pants - no VPL.

Piguet

Wedding

Dior - Spring 1957

If the 1950s fashion reflected the new social conservatism by copying from the hoop-skirt era of the 1860s, and the 1960s shift dresses and low waists celebrated social freedom by copying from the flapper era...

2020 fashion's new trend seems to be reflecting the New Puritanism, and taking its cue from Sister Wives.

Teens

This thread reminds me of a comment of a DLer who, years ago, posted on a thread that was started to complain about Streisand's costumes in "Funny Girl". The thread went on for at least two hundred posts.

He wrote:

"Just now, while reading and posting on this thread, my neighbor banged on the wall and shouted, "Hey, can you turn down the gay?"

Varsity jacket

Elegant suits

Can someone help? Was Marilyn Monroe always wearing a wig? Her hair just look unnaturally full with never a dark root in sight.

I've heard that in the 1950s girls used to wear circle pins like this one, and that they were called "virgin pins" and were meant to tell the world that the wearer was a virgin and wasn't going to put out.

I wonder what the straight boys thought of those things?

R163: Marilyn probably wore wigs in most of her films, as they help sustain continuity.

Audrey Hepburn in a maternity dress and wearing Dr. Scholls clogs

R164 The story is that unlike the "purity rings" of today, the "virgin pin" was given to the girl by their boyfriend to signify they were dating. If the girl wore it on the left, it told everyone they hadn't done it, the right signified they had. I guess if she wore it in the middle they just heavy petted.

R163 , I think that's a wig on Marilyn Monroe, at least in the photo you posted. The suspect areas are the patch of frizzy-looking hair in the middle of her forehead. Also, the area on her left temple (right side of photo) looks like an area of a wig that wasn't glued down well.

This looks like a wig as well.

Ponytails

R130, isn’t that a cheongsam? The cheongsam is one of the prettiest and most feminine types of dresses, and in its knee-length form is possibly the most chic single garment ever designed.

The generally terrific movie In the Mood for Love (2000), set in Hong Kong in 1962, has lots of examples, as does the now-canceled movie The World of Suzie Wong (1960). I couldn't find a good example on line, so here's a modern cheongsam.

The clothing stores at the local Asian mall sell cheongsams, apparently they're as classic a style as ever existed.

As for 1950s fashion, frocks like this were called "wiggle dresses", and Marilyn's shoes were referred to as "fuck me pumps", although not in print. So much for the prudery of the age.

Ankle-strap shoes were "fuck me pumps." Joan Crawford popularized them in the 40s.

Not to hijack the thread, but Joan Crawford had a tremendous influence on fashion in the 40s. Diana Vreeland even said so.

[quote]Joan Crawford had a tremendous influence on fashion in the 40s

Not so much in the '50s though.

Is Joan wearing one of those "virgin pins" in that photo at R173?

College students

As mentioned upthread, Coco Chanel so detested Dior's New Look that she came out of retirement, relaunched the House of Chanel, and introduced the boxy Chanel suit. It was simple, understated, and gave women freedom of movement.

College fashion

Dior gowns were elaborate confections with lots of pleating and draping and yards of wasted fabric.

^^ Oops. Top left is a Dior.

r175 gosh that style was so damn ugly.

Another Dior.

r178 & r176 I thought I saw Coco wearing similar gowns. Did she just hate the big hooped dresses?

r181 she does all that work to purchase nice dress and pairs it with black shoes?

Dior - 1950

I love them both, but my fancy butt prefers Dior. I love the excess.

1950s Chanel. Big full skirt, simple top, PEARLS. And Suzy Parker.

The US had it's own Dior: Charles James

One of fashion's greatest photographs. By Cecil Beaton.

Dior

r186 I'd pass on that dominatrix look.

R187, so much excess fabric.

Those Dior gowns are just too much, cumbersome and clunky looking.

Jean Dessès gown, 1950

Princess Margaret in Dior

The wasted, excessive, over-the-top yards of fabric were absolutely deliberate, a reaction to the rationing or unavailability of fabric during the WWII years. The lean silouettes of the 1940s were largely expedient, forced on women and designers, because they had to make things out of minimal amounts of whatever fabric was available.

The New Look was a celebration of the new abundance.

Balmain

Another Balmain. Exquisite.

R163: The photo you posted is a makeup and/or hair test for The Misfits. They shot the film on location in the Nevada desert. Because of the heat (over 100°F), Marilyn wore a wig in every scene. They couldn't do much with her real hair in that kind of weather.

From what I've read, she didn't use wigs in her other films. Her hair was very high maintenance. She had it bleached every three weeks, which is why we never see her roots in any photos. She also had her naturally curly and frizzy hair relaxed with chemical straighteners. Afterwards, it was usually pin curled all over or smoothed out with the ends curled under. She had her regular team of hairdressers to maintain her hairstyle for film and public appearances. On her off days, she hardly looked polished and skipped wearing makeup.

By the early '60s, she was bleaching to an even lighter shade she called "pillowcase white". Her hair was already heavily damaged from all those years of bleaching and straightening. One observer described the texture as cotton candy.

You can easily see the damage in the beach scene from Some Like It Hot (below). Compare that fried hair to the wig she wore in your photo, which, although not convincing, looks smooth and healthy.

Her hair must have felt like straw

I don't doubt it, R198.

I should add something more, R163. According to the source who said Marilyn bleached every 3 weeks, in between bleaching she used baby powder to lighten any roots that would show up. Another source says something different that I think is more likely: she had her hairstylist touch up her roots every 10 days with a Q-tip.

She went to the same lengths as Jean Harlow. No one saw her roots, but whatever the method, her hair was going to suffer.

Jackie Kennedy

Somebody's prom, 1953. Quite a lot of variations in skirt length, and none of the extreme wasp waists you see on the actresses and models of the period.

Just think, a lot of those high school kids would be married in a couple of years, and breeding.

YES, Charles James (not to be confused with that obnoxious attention ho, James Charles).

Thank you for mentioning him, R187. Mr James was an innovator. His evening gowns were original, influenced by his background in architectural design.

R73

Hope M. Dior shot back at Channel that at least he wasn't fucking Nazis and denouncing Jews to have them sent off to horror camps during German occupation of France.

@R73

Darn auto correction.... make that Chanel, not "Channel".

Sorry for typo, now carry on.

Here's a Charles James gown!

IMHO they tried to capture the luxurious glamour of James's 1950s gowns for the movie "Phantom Thread", but failed. Everything they put on the screen was exquisitely made, but missed whatever it was that made the real man's designs so classic.

agree, r205 - same dress , different lighting/angle

R201 = A Cavalcade of DLer's Mothers

Agreed, R207. Only one of them is smiling.

R174

Highly doubt it; early as her high school days Joan Crawford was known as an easy lay. One of the many things Bette Davis ragged JC about was her (allegedly) being a slut who slept her way into films, and by extension becoming a movie star.

R112

Quick search on eBay turns up a lively market for vintage girdles and "shapewear".

By the way a 40 C cup do be a big girl

Another one:

Adds shaping, not inches!

Bernadette Peters never needed help with the latter. Well not past puberty anyway.

r201 those basic looking girls in the front snagged some hot dates. Woman have it so easy in the dating department, just don't be fat.

[quote] By the way a 40 C cup do be a big girl

Possibly. More likely a drag queen.

Ooops. I meant to attach this.

R213

Those dates could have been anyone from their cousins to their sister's boyfriend's younger brother. *LOL*

You also have to remember unlike today these dance dates came often with nothing else attached. That is a guy usually wasn't expecting sex or anything, and maybe wasn't even that into a girl he escorted. But did it for a variety of reasons, other than outright physical attraction or even just lust.

That being said, yes will give you it was easier for a not so hot girl back then to land a man. But then again not every guy was Troy Donahue or Rock Hudson either, and they knew it.

Have some more.

For the love of god, I've barely finished breakfast and morning coffee. Put it away....

PHANTOM THREAD was ridiculous, if only for depicting Charles James as heterosexual (and incredibly dull). It's too bad, because he was an interesting figure and there's a great movie/TV series waiting to be made about him.

R198

Original Alberto Vo5 was created to deal with damaged, fried and abused hair of actresses (film and television) whose hair was punished even more by set lighting that was hot and bright. MM wasn't the only nor first bottle blonde in Hollywood, and even natural redheads and brunettes had hair that was often damaged. First again by the hot/bright lights, but also because it was fairly common for actresses and actors to have their hair dyed for various roles.

Needless to say all this damage predated modern conditioners. Worse shampoos tended to be harsh as well (Prell is still used today to strip oil from very greasy/oily hair), and best beauty industry had to offer were creme rinses which really didn't do much.

Enter Alberto Vo5. That greasy pomade smoothed down fried hair making it more manageable and looking less like straw. It didn't really change condition of hair nor repair damage, but at least things did look a bit better.

I'm shocked that they didn't just wear a wig and call it a day. But woman today are also damaging their hair with all the extensions, weave, and coloring.

Some actresses then and now wear hair when filming, but that can be terribly uncomfortable under hot studio/set lighting. If set/studio is air conditioned (and few if any were back in day), that would be one thing. Otherwise you sweated bullets.

Watch online videos of many AA performers (especially females) performing live in a studio or whatever, they often are sweating up a storm. AA women usually had no choice to wear wigs because their own natural hair just couldn't cope with damage caused by hot/bright lights. This and what would need to be done to get the desired straight hair look.

I like to watch old television shows like Mannix, Cannon, etc... and you can clearly tell most of the actresses are wearing wigs.

I wonder if Vera Wang got her inspiration from Christian Dior for her 2009 wedding collection. The dresses were simply magical.

Dior bridal gown

The skirt of this Dior gown looks like tiered wedding veils.

Jacqueline Bouvier and her sister, Lee, at a Debutante Ball (1951)

Jacqueline Kennedy's wedding dress

R227 Made by the African-American fashion designer and seamstress Ann Lowe, who didn't receive credit for it during her lifetime.

"Society's best kept secret..."

[quote]"I love my clothes and I'm particular about who wears them," Lowe once told Ebony. "I am not interested in sewing for... social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for the families of the Social Register."

She was clearly a Datalounger

Glamorous film actresses Paraluman, Susan Roces, Gloria Romero, and Amalia Fuentes wear beautiful "terno" gowns, modernized versions of the "traje de mestiza" dress.

R201: Most likely a lot of those prom girls would have gotten knocked up that night, if they weren't already "running late).

R90: Mamie with her saggy tits, billowy shirtwaists and ugly bangs, made it easy to idolize Jackie and her chic modern look. OTOH, Eleanor Roosevelt often made best dressed lists, but her blocky big boned figure wasn't that flattering to clothes. Bess Truman, love her, because she had no pretense at all and hated the limelight. You know she would have flattened Mamie in a cage match.

There have been very few truly fashionable First Ladies in the US, at least since the 1900s: Jackie Kennedy, , Nancy Reagan (regardless of what you might think of her style) and of course, Michelle Obama. They all loved clothes and understood dressing for the public eye.

Jackie remains a fashion icon.

Laura Bush was an attractive woman, but she never cared much about her clothes. Nor did Hillary, Barbara Bush, Pat Nixon, or most of the others.

Betty Ford had been a model. She wasn't a style setter, though. Rosalynn Carter liked having the nice clothes.

Fashionable First Lady

R233 Regardless of how one might feel about Mamie, you would need to include her on the list of fashionable First Ladies. Her clothes were all on trend in the 1950s, and she was the person who popularized one of the most iconic accessories of the fifties, the charm bracelet.

Mamie

Mamie Eisenhower's inauguration gown is probably the worst of all time. And of course it was in her favorite color, Pepto-Bismol pink.

[quote]Mamie Eisenhower's inauguration gown is probably the worst of all time. And of course it was in her favorite color, Pepto-Bismol pink.

Don't laugh, Mamie's gown was the most influential inauguration gown of all time.

Her love of the color and that gown kicked off the 1950s rage for pink.

After Jackie, it's Mamie Eisenhower who actually had the most influence on popular taste.

Dior - 1950

Pretty in polka dots.

Joe Kennedy made it clear from start that marriage between JFK and Jacqueline Bouvier was going to be his show, ran his way, period. As such JB was deprived pretty much what every young girl of her class dreamed of; planning her own wedding. She was reduced to basically being almost a bystander as Joe Kennedy called all or most of the shots regarding the wedding.

JB did not like her wedding dress, nor did she choose it IIRC; Joe Kennedy did, and that was that.

Ann Lowe did tons of work for not only Jackie's mother but other women of her class. All across USA there were various ethnic women (Italian, AA, Jewish, etc....) who were talented dressmakers, some extremely so who turned out near or exact Paris couture creations, but for fraction of the price.

From about the 1940's through well into the 1960's was era of "dressmaker suit". These dressmaker shops catered to women of say middle class up to well off to extremely wealthy. Some women used these American dressmakers to augment their clothing allowance, others relied almost exclusivity upon women like Anne Lowe to dress them in fashion, but within their budget.

Then and even still today there are so called fashion "designers" who cannot do more than sketch; others make patterns, cut, sew, tailor, etc... It is these/those women who look at sketches, a picture or whatever and do the pattern making. As such women like Anne Lowe who could design, but also knew how to make a pattern for a dress, suit or whatever by looking at a picture or sketch were in high demand.

Entire world of fashion knockoffs revolves around persons with such talents. This one reason why historically there was (and still is) so much secrecy before a designer or fashion house shows a collection. Someone with a good memory, sketch pad, or camera can provide image to proper talent and can have knockoffs rolling out on racks within a very short period of time. IIRC that dog of a wedding dress Diana Spencer wore was copied and hit racks not long after her wedding day.

Women of Jackie Bouvier's class took terrible advantage of Anne Lowe and others like her; especially if they were minority women or men. They knew work was worth far more than what was paid, but those women often wouldn't budge on a penny more. Many often took their time paying bills, but kept on placing orders. These dressmakers had very little leverage; they needed the references that came from Rich Bitches. More to the point if just one or two started bad mouthing them it could cost these women (or men) their entire business as Madame and her friends took their business elsewhere.

Lovely dresses to wear at a wedding

The chest area of Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress looks collapsed. Doesn't fit her well. Makes her look flat-chested.

Italy (1955)

"However, its designer, Ann Lowe, never received the credit for it in her lifetime. When asked who made the dress Jackie simply responded ”a colored dressmaker”

"when Kennedy was asked who was responsible for her beautiful dress, she said it was made by a "colored woman dressmaker." The outlet also reports that Lowe was only mentioned by name in a Washington Post article at the time, which said "… the dress was designed by a Negro, Ann Lowe."

That is just how those high society ladies thought of Ann Lowe, yet the woman kissed their lily white behinds.

R244

Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress looked better from other angles/pictures.

My guess is that the bodice was designed to remain snug/fitted around the bosom, but undisturbed by off shoulder neckline, but padded at bust (built in foundation?), that didn't always look good at certain angles.

Quite honestly can see why JB didn't like that dog of a dress, it looks like a bit of upholstered furniture.

Grace Kelly at her civil wedding

Another angle of Grace Kelly's civil wedding dress

Jackie's wedding dress is awful. It looks as if it was patterned after a chenille bedspread.

Id take Jackie's over that old lady dress Grace is wearing in the civil ceremony. Grace's public dress is so much better than Jackie's (who wasn't a celeb at the time).

Oh I just read Kelly's wedding dress was designed by Helen Rose, the head costume designer at MGM, no wonder it was picture perfect - and I like the the civil ceremony outfit just fine, it's meant to be modest and understated

Grace Kelly's is my favorite celebrity wedding dress. I like hers more than Kate Middleton's, who supposedly based her dress on Kelly's. Also, these church weddings are religious sacraments, so I like how Grace Kelly's dress is modest but still attractive. (No, I'm not a religious person.)

r252, I always sort of felt the neckline didn't look right on Kate's dress, sort of cheap, almost like they'd run out of fabric! Still lovely, of course.

If nothing else, I love the fact that Kate's dress inspired some brides to wear sleeves again.

I'm not a Kate fan, and don't want to derail this thread, but that dress was amazing. She knocked it out of the park. Grace's dress feels a bit more regal with the high collar.

Hate's dress unfortunately uses the wrong lace. The entire look of that bodice and sleeves would have been improved with more delicately detailed lace. The pattern selected is just too big and cumbersome for such a boney stickperson.

I never liked either Grace's or Kate's wedding gowns, too matronly and fussy!

I rather like this one that came up on a random search, such a simple bodice made fabulous by an extravagantly massive skirt! And I even like the veil a bit, I don't like those twee little fifties hat as a general thing, but they do make a nice foundation for a wedding veil. And pearls. Women should go back to wearing pearls in the daytime.

1953

Well, it seems that hideous bridesmaids dresses were a thing, even 70 years ago!

And some of the bridesmaids knew it.

Well, it seems that hideous bridesmaids dresses were a thing, even 70 years ago!

And some of the bridesmaids knew it.

Grace Kelly in "High Society"

The Queen of England and US First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, White House, Washington, D.C., 1957.

The Queen had some big ol' tittays!

The queen's didn't sag like that rabbit-faced wife of Ike's.

The Queen in a Norman Hartnell outfit. She was also wearing the designer's gown in R262.

His clothes were beautiful That hat is not.

R263 And a strong sex drive. Her father had to tell Prince Philip to cool it with his descriptions of her prowess in the sack and how he was worn out as a result.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

So, Norman had a hobby, where's the harm in that.

The Queen is wearing way too much fabric in R265's pic. It looks like someone sewed a bedsheet into a dress.

Balenciaga wedding gown, 1952

Lovely Suzy Parker in Dior.

The Queen and her Prince

Suzy in James Galanos

Suzy in Norman Norell

Suzy in Norman Norell

[quote]Norman was a bit of an odd duck. He liked to dress up as "Miss Polly" and be whipped and then "violated forcefully" by his business manager.

British men are famous for their kinks.

Suzy Parker had an intelligent face.

"An increasing number of men have chosen the beautification of womankind as their career."

1951 - Christian Dior ball gown

1951 - Dior

Sunny Harnett in Lanvin-Castillo.

Dior - 1958

One reason why socialites like Mercedes Bass, Nan Kempner, and others including the Duchess of Windsor kept themselves rail thin was to be able to fit into couture runway samples. After a dress/outfit was no longer needed for fashion shoots or whatever many were offered to good customers of a particular house at a discount. Thing is you had to fit into the thing; and since the model it was fitted upon and wore it was likely rail thin.....

Also for fashion shoots or even shows you'd be surprised at how many models are held together by safety and other pins. Same model dress or outfit was fitted upon doesn't travel with garment, so if whoever is chosen for shoot or show is smaller in certain areas things are pulled in; and pinned to fit.

Speaking of Nan Kempner, many have this image of her as some sort of rich bitch clothes horse; she wasn't. In fact Ms. Kempner likely had forgotten more about fashion later in her life than many ever knew.

Does Suzy Parker's grandson still post here?

He did some years ago, and was appreciative that someone still remembered grandma's glory days.

Ms. Lynn Wyatt shopping coutre (Chanel for a start) in 1980's.

BBC did a great series called "The Secret World of Haute Couture"

You can find all six bits on YT, but am only going to link to first, rest are easily seen from there.

Women in the public eye can be expensively, lavishly dressed in custom-made clothing, but that doesn't necessarily make them chic, fashionable, or iconic. (Melania, hon: have someone walk you through that some day.)

I'm thinking of both the Queen and Mamie Eisenhower. Both may have been appropriately attired for any occasion, even notably so in her day (the Queen wore ice-blue! Mamie wore pink!) but neither of them will be remembered as style influencers the way Jackie was and will continue to be.

Personally, I like the Queen's style now: it's completely her own, and it's fun to see this tiny older woman in her crazy hats and fruity colors. Never was and never will be a fan of the Mamie.

The Queen puts the "monarch" in monochromatic...

"Personally, I like the Queen's style now: it's completely her own, and it's fun to see this tiny older woman in her crazy hats and fruity colors. "

Some other Datalounger once said "The queen has always dressed like an old lady. Now that she actually is an old lady, it suits her.".

And that is totally correct. QEII is totally rockin' the little old lady clothes!

The queen's wacky hats are infinitely better than Mamie's ugly pink dresses. Mamie was a trend setter to the extent that she popularized one of the most instantly recognizable but not admirably trends of the 50s---pink stuff.

Lots of celebrities and couture here, which is great, but what were ordinary well-dressed women wearing in America?

Saks Fifth Avenue, 1959:

Bonwit Teller 1957:

(Probably for the grander of the bourgeoisie. The price in the ad translates to $2,256 in current dollars.

Shame QE2 didn’t have better clothes as a young woman.

1957: Kay Thompson says "Think Pink!"

"I Love Lucy" fashion show...

OMG, R292: that ad copy is going to become my new gay meditation mantra.

Repeat after me:

SOPHIE SETS SILK MARQUISETTE ASTIR IN A RUSH OF RUFFLES AND DEEP DRAPERY.

SOPHIE SETS SILK MARQUISETTE ASTIR IN A RUSH OF RUFFLES AND DEEP DRAPERY.

SOPHIE SETS SILK MARQUISETTE ASTIR IN A RUSH OF RUFFLES AND DEEP DRAPERY.

R296. I’m surprised Forest Tucker’s wife didn’t walk in the fashion show like Lucy. Forest had a horse cock.

Tell me about it, R298! Why do you think I even bothered asking Mrs. Tucker to model for me?

[quote]Marilyn Johnson (aka Mrs. Forrest Tucker) made her final of 25 screen appearances with this episode. Her husband is probably best remembered as Sergeant O'Rourke on the classic TV sitcom “F Troop” (1965). Johnson died in 1960 at the young age of 37. She wears “Sonata,” a ballgown in a color Loper calls ‘pink mink.’ The dress has Chantilly lace re-embroidered with sequins.

I love Grace Kelly's wedding dress in the film, "High Society".

Mrs. William Holden was a rather butch item, wasn't she?

[quote]Brenda Marshall (aka Mrs. William Holden) was born in the Philippines as Ardis Ankerson. Her husband was the show’s first celebrity guest star in “Hollywood at Last” (S4;E16). Marshall wears “Heathcliff,” a beige street suit of cashmere wool with taffeta. The jacket is lined in brown silk to match the blouse.

R302, She was an actress, who starred opposite Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk.

Forrest Tucker's VPL

1953 ... Jack and Jackie Kennedy - HyannisPort, MA

Jackie Kennedy's Cape Cod Style

John and Jackie Kennedy's wedding in 1953

I hate, hate, hate, the low waist gowns. The unnaturally long torso is just tragic. I assume that look fell out of styler later in the 50s.

R305 was Jackie pre-maturely graying?

Always like this one even if Rosie was a bit zaftig for the times. Beautiful.

Despite the hideous, restrictive undergarments, 50s fashion is actually easier and more flattering to a normal-sized, mature woman with breasts, hips, butt. (Was Rosemary Clooney actually considered fat in the 1950s? Later on, sure, but she's hardly obese in that photo.)

Fashions in the 60s are fun, but they're unforgiving to larger women, or those with curves. Curvy gals look like they're wearing a box in those outfits.

R310, the ideal woman of the 1960s was quite curvy, "fat" by the standards of today's fashion industry.

And "fat" by the standards of the fashion industry of the 1960s, where speed-thin models and Twiggy were the thing. The fashion industry was designing for thin women, when the women in the real world aspired to fill out.

Dovima in Madame Grès

Dovima in red

Jean Patchett in Jean Dessès

Jean Patchett

Those '50s models sure knew how to use their elbows.

That's a gorgeous photo, r313. When I see a photo of Dovima, it's usually the elephant photo.

Let's have some more Dovima! Not to derail the thread, but to get us started, a quick selfie from Mr Richard Avedon, with Diana Vreeland while she was editor of Harper's Bazaar

I wonder what the above photo was for - anyway I love this dress loose fitted, flattering, seemingly laid back, very elegant - easy to wear? Or does Dovima just make it look that way?!

It must be the magic of Dovima, R319.

That dress looks like a pain in the ass to wear. It's got to be falling off her shoulders constantly.

Dovima, Suzy, and Jean modeling Edith Small originals.

Dovima, Suzy, and Jean in Swansdown.

Dovima and Sunny Harnett by Avedon

Dovima and Sunny

The 1960s had twol trends: breasts and curves and thin and flat chested.

The 1950s bombshell figure carried over into the early 60s but by the decade's end it was the thin figure that was fashionable.

The world's oldest living supermodel, Carmen Dell -Orefice: images from the 40's and 50's...

Besides her clothes and figure and face, I realize that Grace Kelly is iconic because she didn't have the horrible shirt curls and bangs popular in the 60s. Her hair wasn't terrible off from the styles in the late 80 to early 80s, and 90s bobs. More woman should have worn her style than the crap popular in the 50s.

But these dresses are simply gorgeous. Copied so many times. Peak 50s style.

I agree, R327

Carmen Dell'Orefice and Dovima for Helene Curtis Spray Net.

R136 Those are pretty timeless looks! Would look current in any decade, including now.

Dovima was in the movie "Funny Face", as the model who looked like a swan and who spoke like a longshoreman. And who read comic books. She was surprisingly funny should have done more acting, but unlike Suzy Parker she didn't really have the potential to be a movie star. Parker was a decent actress, and beautiful but approachable and warm. Dovima's beauty was a bit otherworldly, she was someone you'd cast as Queen of the Fairies and not the lovelorn secretary.

Vanity Fair had a long article about her, back when Vanity Fair was a thing. Her story is about what you'd expect - top of her field, aging, husbands, fuckups, disappearance from the public eye. She spent her later years working as a restaurant hostess.

R331 Found the VF article, a relatively short catch-up piece, as it were...

Dovima, Suzy Parker, and Sunny Harnett were the three main models in the "Think Pink" musical sequence in "Funny Face."

They had BIZAZZ!

Vogue model, Carmen Dell'Orefice, in 1947

Carmen Dell'Orefice, Vogue, 1946 Photo by Irving Penn

R332, thanks for the VF article. Rather sad story. Fashion models used to have such short careers, and were often preyed upon by their managers and the men in their lives.

Carmen is remarkable. She was still working, at least until recently. Sadly, she reportedly lost bundles of money to Madoff--I hope she recovered some of that. She's a remarkable looking older woman.

R337 she is much better looking than Elon Musk's model mother.

A sixteen-year-old Carmen Dell'Orefice

Carmen Dell'Orefice

Carmen D'O wasn't all that when she was young. She got more striking with age.

Carmen Dell'Orefice in Vogue

A young Carmen Dell'Orefice

Vogue March 1954 - photographed by Cecil Beaton

Hats

What a legend.

More Carmen...

r328 Goddess!

Irving Penn for Vogue

A 1950 fashion photo by Gordon Parks, New York

Gordon Parks - Jackie Stoloff Wearing Paris Fashions, Paris, France

A photo by Gordon Parks

r352 That is a delightful rug she's wearing!

An outfit by Jacques Fath

'Dovima, Bettina and Dorian Leigh model haute couture by the unsung hero of 1950s fashion Jacques Fath'

The picture of Dovima matches a postcard I have of hers, now I know who the designer was - Jacques Fath. I'd heard he was one of the overlooked greats.

Here's the postcard:

1951 - Jacques Fath

An amazing dress by Jacques Fath

1953 Jacques Fath

Jacques Fath, Self-Taught Fashion Designer

r360 I followed your caption, thank you.

Ivy Nicholson in intricately sculpted evening gown by Jacques Griffe, photo by Willy Maywald, Paris, 1952

Unmentionables

Except for the evening and ballgowns, I see lots of "inspiration" from Fath in Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's favorite designer Yohji Yamamoto's creations.

Barbie in her iconic "Solo In The Spotlight" gown, 1959.

Swoon.

Better link for Barbie...

... with her mike stand.

Simple, charming cotton dresses for summer. 1960, I think.

Barbie missed a trick by not painting that mike. Would have tied the whole ensemble together.

Cristóbal Balenciaga

JFK had some hot assed groomsmen

Betsy Pickering wearing Nina Ricci 1959

The Poodle Skirt may have been the single most idiotic and unattractive fashion fad of the 20th century.

The rolled stockings of the 1920s and the sack dresses of the 1990s are sophisticated and elegant by comparison!

r372 Thank you! I love Nina Ricci, the best for making a woman feel feminine and chic when she feels anything but, to this day I think of it as a magical label

R373 The poodle skirt, wasn't high fashion. It was a teenage fad.

Nina Ricci, 1957-58

Nina Ricci,1956

"Rose-Marie in a short full-skirted dress with shawl-draped bodice fastened by a large rose just under the décolleté, by Crahay for Nina Ricci, Winter 1959, photo by Philippe Pottier."

Nina Ricci, 1959

Ivy Nicholson wearing Nina Ricci,1955

more NR

Fiona Campbell-Walter in crèpe afternoon dress by Nina Ricci, photo by Richard Dormer, 1952

I found a great flickr album, roughly in chronological order -

1955 Nina Ricci wedding dress

Spring/Summer fashion

Thank you, R385, those are the first Nina Ricci fashions that don't look like they'd be physically painful to wear.

R382 That is quite something.

Photo by Nina Leen

Polka Dot Bikini

Dress at R382 look simple, but bet getting into it was not. Likely series of small zipper, concealed hooks and eyes, buttons, etc.. Oh and you know a girdle or some other equally formidable foundation were was required underneath.

A truly terrifying Mamie Eisenhower mannequin in an authentic Mamie gown, which I rather like. Classic 50s silhouette.

Gay shorts

Hermes, 1953. Were sleeves always shorter on these roomy swing coats, and ladies gloves were longer?

ah yes, longer well fitted ladies gloves should make a comeback

R394 After the current crisis, they might. I'm surprised Dr. Brix hasn't been wearing them.

Sorry, I meant Dr. Birx.

North by Northwest (1959)

Dior 1953