Like many people all around the world who are not currently working, I have had a great deal of time to obsess over my favourite topics and discover new things to obsess over.
As someone who gets very passionate very quickly about things that I like, it's pretty unsurprising that this is how I have spent my summer so far. Luckily, my special interest this summer will be able to tie into the classes that I am taking in fall!
As you could probably seen from past posts, I have been mostly fascinated with clothing from the 1950's lately. After watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel with her incredible costumes and learning more about the early years of Dior, I have been coming up with all sorts of ideas that are very heavily inspired by the 50's.
The fun thing with this collection is that it is made completely from scraps! All of the fabric for the five pieces that I made were in my stash and had been purchased for other projects. I had to do some piecing at the end, but I was pretty proud of myself for managing to get everything that I wanted out of the lengths that I had left in my closet.
This twill dress has some classic 1940's details in the neckline and bodice shape, with a more 50's silhouette in the long, a-line skirt. I made a bolero out of a pinstripe wool to go with it. The bolero has dolman sleeves (the sleeve and the bodice are one piece- very popular through most of the early 20th century) and a very small collar.
I thought that I would talk a bit about the inspiration for each of the pieces. I am starting with this twill, late 1940's styled dress, since that is the first one that I made.
This dress was cut out using a vintage Vogue pattern that I have used before. The last dress that I made out of this, I used a soft wool (actually the wool that I used for the straight skirt, which I will talk about in a bit). I loved it so much, but eventually ended up selling it to make some space in my closet. I decided that I absolutely needed a new version of this dress, and was thrilled to find that I had just the right amount of soft twill to make it (and I mean just the right amount. My cutting layout was very interesting to make sure that I didn't need to shorten the skirt).
I love this style of skirt so much for a few reasons. First of all, I think it is incredibly elegant. The a-line skirt is wide enough that my movement is not hindered in the slightest, but it is long enough and narrow enough that I don't need to worry about a Marilyn Monroe moment happening. I have done everything in skirts of this shape--moved into a new house, ridden a bike, gone for a short hike, etc.
The second reason that I love skirts like this is because of the history, and how it fits into a very narrow time between the end of World War 2 and the start of Dior's New Look.
The New Look debuted in February of 1947, and it took the world by storm. Never before has a single collection caught so much attention and innovated such a new shape.
Although it was extremely loved, it also had a ton of controversy behind it. The war had just ended two years earlier, and many war-torn places were still dealing with rations. The reason that the silhouette of WW2 is so boxy is because clothing and materials were strictly controlled: only two box pleats allowed per garment, hemlines to certain lengths, etc, etc. Seamstresses had to be crafty to make new designs, and they also had to think about what the wearer would be doing. Many women were working in factories and doing other difficult jobs that needed comfortable, utilitarian clothing to avoid getting hurt.
Dior hated the masculine look of the 40's. In the New Look, he lengthened the hems, nipped in the waist, lost the strong shoulder by removing shoulder pads, and seemed to use as much fabric as possible in the skirts. The extremely large skirts were offensive to those who were still struggling to get food, and many felt like it was thoughtless and selfish to use so much fabric on just one garment.
Despite that, the New Look caught on quickly.
The twill dress that I made is based on a pattern from 1949, not long after Dior's house opened, just at the time that people were slowly adapting their wardrobes to look more modern.
As you can see in this design, it has a much longer hem (halfway between the calf and ankle- a very Dior length) and a fuller skirt than many dresses in the 40's. However, the rest of the details are very WW2, with the unique neckline detail and strong shoulder. The pattern actually has a short sleeve on it that look very 40's, but I chose to leave it off for this version. If I recall correctly, the pattern even asks for a shoulder pad to give a stronger silhouette, something that Dior would not be on board for.
This shape of dress was popular in magazines for only a few years, while the New Look was still controversial. Once people were on board with the intense hourglass that Dior created, this shape all but disappeared.
This dress is a pretty common length for a woman in the 1950's, just about calf length. The dress includes a back vent for ease of movement and a center back lapped zipper. It is shaped with a whopping 10 darts and has a matching cropped jacket, which has a mandarin collar, 3/4 length sleeves, and a large button closure.
I thought that it would be fun to have different styles from different parts of the 1950's in this little collection. Instead of opting for the super popular shirt dresses and poodle skirts that are synonymous with the era, I designed more streamlined styles. These were just as popular as the others, and were also debuted in the first collection from Mr Dior.
The next dress that I made could be called a sheath or a wiggle. If you have ever watched The Marvelous Mrs Maisel or Mad Men, you will have seen many versions of a wiggle dress. Joan's appear to be a size too small, to bring attention to her and her unique style in a mans world. In both shows the tighter fitting dress is used as a professional style. In Mrs Maisel, she nearly always pairs hers with a matching jacket.
After looking through all of Dior's collections up until his death in 1957, I decided to also make a matching cropped jacket. The dress has no waist seam, instead using fish eye darts for shaping. It also has a scoop front and back neckline, which is one of the most popular necklines in Dior's collections. While the asymmetrical neckline was very popular for evening gowns, more modest day dresses often used a scooped or square neckline to keep a feminine feel.
The fabric that I used for the dress and jacket are a thicker twill than the 40's dress, with a slight bit of stretch to it. I though that the stretch would be handy for a more fitted style, although it ended up being a bit big at the hip and bust. A part of me wants to spend a ton of time altering it to get the perfect fit, and another part of me wants to shrug and say it fits well enough.
After climbing around and hiking in this outfit to get photos, I will have to admit that the extra ease is extremely handy in day to day situations, so I will probably leave the fit as it is.
The first collection that I was able to find a truly cropped jacket from Dior was the Spring/Summer 1956 collection, which introduced the "Ligne Fleche (Arrow Line). At the time they called the piece a 'loose jacket', and it was praised by Vogue. The short jacket could be 'adapted to every hour of the day and every occasion' (from Dior Catwalk: The Complete Collections by Alexander Fury through Yale. This description comes from the collection notes, page 90). This was a fabulous way to give your outfit a more professional look while still showing off your waist and hips. These cropped jackets and blouses could be paired with an a-line or a straight skirt, but it always had to be short enough to show your waist. This gives the illusion that the bust and waist measurements are much farther apart than they are, to give the wearer an hourglass figure. You will probably recognize this style from stores now! Crop tops have come in and out of style ever since, often with high waisted skirts and pants.
A matching jacket/blazer with a dress has been a staple from Dior right from the first collection, but the jackets were usually hip length, like in the Bar Suit.
The bottom of the dress has a seam detail, which was not originally in the plan, but I did not have much fabric left and I wanted the skirt to be long. Piecing came to the rescue, and I actually love how it looks.
The last piece in the small collection is a just-below-knee length pencil skirt with a wide back pleat. I have it paired with the cropped jacket in some of the photos.
With the left over wool from my first version of the late 1940's dress, I made a pencil skirt! Although this is a 1950's version of one, so it is actually more of a straight skirt. The tapered in pencil didn't really gain popularity until closer to the 60's, and even then they were not usually as fitted as many pencil skirts now. That is mostly because of the fabric used- wovens (like a wool or cotton) have little to no stretch, so it is necessary for the garment to have some ease for movement. This is why vents or pleats are in most pencil skirts unless they are very stretchy (a vent is the small slit at the back of a pencil skirt for walking. The wiggle dress in this collection has a vent even though the skirt is not very tight, and it makes it much more comfortable to do things in... like getting in and out of a vehicle).
Dior's most fitted skirts usually were either for an evening dress, or they had a pleated panel in them to give the wearer ease of movement (the pleated panel also could show off how much fabric was used to make the garment).
This skirt has two small pleats at the waistband on the front and two darts in the back for shaping, and a deep box pleat at the back for movement. It has a two inch waistband, and it goes to just below the knee. This is the shortest garment for the collection since I really wanted to look at the longer skirts of the era for the dresses. Honestly the main reason for this one being shorter is for me to be able to wear it more often in 'real' life at work. However, I was able to add a fun 50's detail, which is the very wide hem.
Many skirts and dresses had incredibly wide hems that had been topstitched, so it could be used as a detail. Sheath dresses, pencil skirts, and wide pleated skirts all often had a super wide hem.
If you are interested in reading more about anything, I have some sources linked here:
Dior's Silhouette's in Vogue over the years (a great crash course of his favourite silhouettes)
Thank you for reading!
~Katherine