Fashion of the Fifties Continued

Dior's New Look 1947

A Post War Turning Point in Fashion History

In 1947 Christian Dior presented a fashion look with a fitted jacket with a nipped in waist and full calf length skirt.  It was a dramatic change from wartime austerity styles.   After the rationing of fabric during the Second World War, Dior's lavish use of material was a bold and shocking stroke.   His style used yards and yards of fabric.   Approximately 10 yards was used for early styles.   Later Dior used up to 80 yards for newer refinements that eliminated bulk at the waist.
The New Look and new approach to fashion was a major post war turning point in Fashion History.
Dior's New Look of 1947 and the design called Bar.
Dior's timing made his name in fashion history.  After the war women longed for frivolity in dress and desired feminine clothes that did not look like a civilian version of a military uniform.  Life magazine dubbed Diors Corolle line the New Look in 1947.  Evening versions of the New Look were very glamorous and consisted of strapless boned tops with full skirts and were ultra feminine.
The shaped fitted jacket Dior designed with his New Look full skirt was also teamed with a straight mid calf length skirt.  Women usually wore just underwear beneath the buttoned up jacket, or filled in the neckline with a satin foulard head scarf, dickey or bib.
Dior's New Look dominated the fashion world for about ten years, but was not the only silhouette of the era.   1956 was the year that introduced visible changes that separate the early fifties from the late fifties.  It places that fashion era firmly alongside the stuffy formality of the forties, whilst putting the post 1956 period firmly into the start of the livelier, anything goes sixties fashion period, often dominated by the young of the day.
There were those in the 1950s that rebelled against the pristine immaculate groomed look, so often associated with Grace Kelly elegance.  Leslie Caron and Audrey Hepburn both often wore simple black sweaters, flat shoes and gold hoop earrings coupled with gamine cropped short haircuts.  They gave a continental alternative often described as chic and had many fashion followers seeking to embrace the modern.

Paper Nylon and Net Petticoat Support 1950s

The full skirts needed support to look good and nylon was used extensively to create bouffant net petticoats or paper nylon petticoats.  Several petticoats often of varying styles were worn to get the 'just right' look of fullness which progressed from a gentle swish to a round ball like bouffant effect by the sixties. 
Each petticoat was stiffened in some way either by conventional starch or a strong sugar solution.  Eventually a hoop crinoline petticoat was developed and it had channelled tapes which were threaded with nylon boning in imitation of whale bone petticoats.  A single net petticoat worn over it softened the look of the rigid boning.
The full skirts needed support to look good and nylon was used extensively to create bouffant net petticoats or paper nylon petticoats.  Several petticoats often of varying styles were worn to create fullness

Another influential fashion silhouette of the period was that of the late 1940's swing coat by Jacques Fath, which was a great shape to cover up full skirts and an ideal silhouette for the post war high pregnancy rate.
This style was also often made as a loose full tent line duster coat, but often without the double breasted feature and buttons

Fifties Silhouettes

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In contrast to the full skirted New Look, Chanel who had reopened her fashion house in 1954 began to produce boxy classic Chanel suit jackets and slim skirts in braid trimmed, nubbly, highly textured tweeds.  She used richly textured wool slub fabrics sometimes designed by the textile artist Bernat Klein.  The silhouette was straight down and veered away from a nipped in waist.   The beautifully made suits were lined with lovely silk fabrics.   They were weighted along the facing join and inside lining with gilt Chanel chains.

The fashion look was easy to copy and very wearable.  Major chain stores sold suits based on the design.  Accessorized with strings of pearls the style has frequently been revived over the seasons and in particular a collarless style of coat and jacket she popularised, is now called the Chanel line.  The collarless Chanel line jacket was hugely popular again in both the 1980s and the 1990s.

America in particular bought Chanel's designs in large numbers.  Her influence of boxy suits of the fifties has far more bearing on sixties fashion style, than Dior's New Look design.