Introduction:
In this time period, the great depression and WWII led to the end of the extravagant look of the 1920s and a return to a more modest look. Due to the war many essential resources were rationed; one of these materials was fabric. Because of the rising scarceness of fabric, skirts and dresses were cut slightly above the knee, as apposed to marginally longer skirts of previous time periods. Women wearing pants was almost completely unheard of until this time period, where many women decided to wear men's pants in order to be more comfortable in the workplace. This led to the mass production of pants targeted towards women. Since most of the men in this time were fighting in WWII, many men's fashion stores began to target their clothes towards women, since there were not many men around to buy their products. This led to the popularity of the Eisenhower jacket, a military inspired jacket that fitted the higher waistline of this era's beauty standards. This time period led to an increase in modesty in fashion, yet the addition of many men's items into women's fashion due to practical necessity.
Primary Source:
This Primary source is an advertisement for women's fashion from 1941. This advertisement shows many of the previously discussed drastic changes in women's fashion. Most of the dresses seen in this advertisement seem to me knee length or above,with a few exceptions. This is due to the scarcity of fabric in the era, as much of the fabric in the era was used to make parachutes for the military, as well as military uniforms. You can also see pants being advertised, which was unheard of before this time period. The addition of pants was due to it's practicality in the workplace.
Photographs:
This picture from 1945 shows a woman wearing a two-piece swimsuit. This clothing design was made in order to minimize fabric use. These two-piece swimsuits were the predecessor to the modern-day bikini, however it had a slightly more modest design due to it's high waist. This high waist was due to the fact that women showing their bellybutton was seen as incredibly scandalous.
This image shows women window shopping in 1937. This picture shows the significant decrease in length for skirts (although I think that skirts length was still a bit unusual for the time period) due to the rationing of fabric. The same two women with the shorter skirts are also wearing blazer similar to the blazers in which men wore with suits. This is due to men's fashion being repurposed due to the decrease in male customers because many men joined the war effort.