Shoes were sturdy: Toes were rounded, and heels were substantial. Leather was in short supply, and thus alternative materials came into fashion, like cork and espadrilles. Vogue’s January 1, 1944, issue touted “Unrationed Raffia Shoes” that were “Footloose and Ration-free.”
Unexpected materials continued to proliferate in fashion; in 1947 Guccio Gucci famously gave us the curved bamboo-handle bag.
Actor Dorothy Lamour showcasing an inventive hat, c. 1944Screen Archives/Getty Images
A trio of stylish women and their accessories, c. 1940sScience & Society Picture Library/Getty Images
The Rise of American Designers
New York Was Put on the Fashion Map
In a few lines, the February 1, 1941, issue of Vogue captures the state of fashion succinctly:
“Since the fall of Paris, the influence of many of the last great French Collections which we saw has hung on. But in the past seven months, American designers—clothes, fabric, shoes, hat, jewelry designers—have come far; learned much; caught their breath; recovered a little from their first nervousness, their first protestations that ‘we aren’t afraid of the dark’.… Though we continue to import British designs from Molyneux and Creed and others, the most recent developments in fashion have stemmed from our own imaginations.”
Without Paris, the US looked inward for fashion direction. Designers like Norman Norell, Bonnie Cashin, Tom Brigance, Rudi Gernreich, Gilbert Adrian, and Claire McCardell rose in profile. McCardell’s pivotal “Pop-over” dress, which was originally introduced as a $7 Utility garment in 1940, marked the beginning of American sportswear: easy, practical, yet uncompromisingly stylish.
A design by American designer Norman Norell for Hattie Carnegie, 1945Genevieve Naylor/Getty Images
Designs by Clare McCardell (left) and Eisenberg (right) in Boston’s Louisburg Square, 1946Genevieve Naylor/Getty Images
Hollywood Set Trends
And Katharine Hepburn Wore the Pants
Throughout the 1940s, Hollywood pictures offered as much fashion to feast on as a magazine. Films like A Philadelphia Story, Gilda, and The Big Sleep gave us screen sirens who wore clothes with more command than your average mannequin. Actors like Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman were outfitted by the likes of costume designers such as Gilbert Adrian, Edith Head, Orry-Kelly, and Jean Louis, and their collaborations went down in fashion history—perhaps no one more so than Katharine Hepburn, who boldly wore a tuxedo in Woman of the Year in 1942 (costumed by Adrian Adolph Greenberg) and made strides for women while doing so.
Katharine Hepburn, stylish in pants, 1940Bettmann
The Return of Paris Postwar
All about Théâtre de la Mode
As Parisian fashion existed in a Nazi-sealed vacuum during the German Occupation of Paris, upon liberation Parisian fashion designers were eager to reclaim their voice and announce to the world that they were back and ready to dress it. With resources in short supply, Lucien Lelong, then president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, banded together 40 couturiers (Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Paquin, Jean Patou, Hermès, Madame Grès, and Nina Ricci among them) for a collaborative fashion show of dolls (smaller bodies meant less fabric!) that would travel the world. The show, “Théâtre de la Mode”, was a love letter to Paris, from Paris, and gave the cities it traveled to—Barcelona, London, Leeds, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna, New York, and San Francisco—a preview of postwar fashion.