Find archive articles on Fashion from the 1950’s. Our site has great information from old magazine and newspaper articles on 50s Fashion.
As college girls talked back to school, it was clear that they had switched their allegiances from saddle shoes
to a new favorite: white bucks
Reference is also made to the rounded-button-collar dress shirts that were appearing on the backs of so many college men at that time.
White Bucks and the College Look (Quick Magazine, 1952) Read More »
Keep it short: that was the M.O. of the hairdressers of the Fifties (as you, no doubt, gathered from this 1949 article) – and this column, accompanied by eight photos, serves as proof. Much of this column pertains to the men who were active in 1952 hair dressing, and their deep thoughts pertaining to pny tails, perms and poodle-cuts.
Click here to read about the short hair craze of the late Forties.
Hair Fashions of the Early 1950s (People Today, 1952) Read More »
Red is the color which is going to add excitement to the fall scene. In a season when black is everywhere, the woman who wants to stand out is going to turn to red to express her own sense of drama. Red will be seen in suits, in coats, in after-dark dresses. The color itself is so dramatic that designers rely on cut and line for interest.
The Prominent Color (Quick Magazine, 1953) Read More »
Pictured herein are three fur hats by Sally Victor (1905 – 1977: Coty Award 1944) modeled by the actress Vanessa Brown (1928 – 1999).
Small Fur Hats (Quick Magazine, 1953) Read More »
From the Great Minds Think Alike Department came this small piece about two American sportswear designers, Claire McCardell and Vera Maxwell and their admirable approach in creating a light weather coat that served to both keep women warm in springtime gales, yet accommodate the full, billowing skirts that complemented their feminine forms (as well as the hip padding that accompanied many skirts of the Fifties).
Vera Maxwell and Claire McCardell (Quick Magazine, 1952) Read More »
In 1951 the finest minds in American millinery were asked to put their collective craniums together and design some hats; each brought something unique to the table – the most humorous design element that appeared in each hat included a telephone!
Collaborators in the struggle to produce a taller plume, a more involved bird’s nest, are the hat designer’s – to whom carrots and cornstalks, bean bean pods and bumper-shoots are all perfectly acceptable decorations for the head.
The Milliner’s Collaboration (Collier’s Magazine, 1951) Read More »
So much had changed in the world as a result of the Second World War, and although those shifting sands had moved much of the fashion industry to New York, the heart and soul of women’s fashion was still in Paris. This article is all about the fashion kings and queens who remained in the French capital. These columns explain what all the finest French designers were up to: Dior, Balmain, Schiaparelli, Fath, Balenciaga, Lanvin etc, etc, etc…
To read further about post-war Paris fashion, click here…
Setting the Trends from Paris (Pathfinder Magazine, 1951) Read More »
Attached, you will find three articles on fur in Fifties fashion: one pertains to fur jewelry, the other two stoles, wraps and coats.
Fur Jewelry and Wraps (Quick Magazine, 1952) Read More »
They clogged the shelves of every thrift shop, church bazaar and Goodwill outlet throughout all of the 70s and 80s – and during that same period costume designers used them to signify how detached and estranged a feminine antagonist was in dozens of movies and TV productions. We are referring, of course, to the basket bags of the early fifties and their heavy presence in the bric-a-brac shoppes of yore only serve to testify as to how remarkably popular they were as fashion accessories in the land of the free and home of the brave. The attached article from 1952 is illustrated with six images of the various swells of old Palm Beach clinging proudly to their wicker trophies.
(We were delighted to see that basket bags enjoyed a small come-back in the fashion world during the summer of 2017.)
The Basket Bags (Quick Magazines, 1952) Read More »
