Dipity
In 1965, Mary Quant, owner of a popular clothing shop in London, England, premiered the miniskirt. Popular with younger women through the early 1970s, it was usually accented with large curled hai...
Taken in 1963, this publicity photograph of the original seven astronauts of the Mercury program shows the new casual mens wear of the sixties. Suits were still common business attire, but now a b...
New First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy brings in the new fashions of the 1960s with her simple pillbox hats, sleeveless shift-style dresses for day wear, and elegant evening gowns. ...
Most popular in the early sixties, this suit was made up of a pastel wool knee length skirt, and matching boxy, short jacket with large buttons. A large, curled hairstyle and heels, often stiletto...
Comfortable capri pants and a top were the new fashion in casual wear for women and girls. Patterns and colors would become increasingly varied and bright as the sixties progressed. Photograph: ...
In 1956, Elvis Presley becomes internationally known, bringing to the fore the differences between adult and teenage dress, a change that started in the 1950s. Teenage boys wear "pompadour" hairdo...
Cotton or silk gloves were a fashion must for any woman of the fifties when going out in public. Pillbox hats, first designed in the 1930s and based on the boxes pills were kept in, or small disk-...
Stiletto heels up to five inches debut at a Paris fashion show, and are soon popular in the United States. Here, actresses Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell show off the elegant, simple dress fashio...
By 1950, the "hourglass" look premiered after the end of World War II had been joined by the full "swing skirt" most often associated with the poodle skirts of younger women. The skirt was usually...
Mens wear was typically very conservative in the 1950s, with either "Bahamas", like the one pictured here, a style made popular by President Harry Truman (1945-1953), or straight cut business suits...
With the end of the war, skirts resumed the fullness and length unavailable during rationing. Waists began to come in even tighter then during the 1940s, and carefully curled, full hair pulled bac...
After the restrictions on nylon issued in March, 1942, the last supplies cause riots in the stores, leading to a search for an alternative. Make-up is adapted for use on the legs to mimic hosiery,...
The U.S. War Production Board issues Law 85, restricting the use of wool, silk, cotton, and nylon, a synthetic substitute for silk. The materials were needed for uniforms, equipment, parachutes, r...
First marketed in Europe in 1939, knitted hosiery, soon to be known as "Nylons" is sold in the United States starting in 1940. The light weight, cool stretchy polymide quickly becomes popular.
Zoot (originally spelled "zuit") suits are first made popular by Mexican Americans and African Americans. The excessive fabric of the pants and jackets brings criticism by the War Production Board...
As the United States entered World War II, many regular consumer items, including cotton and wool, were in short supply. Women were told how to modify older clothing and men's suits unused by thos...
By mid-decade, sleek, simple evening dresses in cotton and rayon have become very popular among the middle class, showing off the feminine figure while allowing cheaper prices then those made from ...
Paris designers use modified mens clothing to allow women more freedom of movement. Pant suits and split skirts pave the way for the shorts of the 1940s. Photograph: Kay Palmquist modeling a tro...
Suits are worn by some as day wear with vests, small lapels, cuffs tailored to the wrist, and collars. The loose style of pant begun at Oxford in the 1920s has replaced the knee length "knickers"...
By the end of the year, dresses are emphasizing the "womanly" shape, pulled in at the waist, with flared sleeves with pads at the shoulders. Skirts also dive back down to the bottom of the calf, w...
Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli introduces the first womens clothing featuring a visible zipper. Seen by some as allowing the clothing to be taken off too easily, the zipper is not full...
Briefly, the hemline of evening wear follows that of the daytime "flapper" dress, extending up to the knee. Knee-high beige stockings and high-heeled ankle-strap "Mary Jane" shoes completed the lo...
These loosely fitted pants that originated at Oxford University with the banning of knickers in 1924 are quickly adopted when they debut at Wanaker's department store. Photo: Oxford bag pants, circ...
Famed Paris designer Jean Patou lifts the skirts of his new "flapper" day wear dress 18 inches off the floor, the highest point reached by this straight shift-like style. Easy to make at home, fla...
The cloche hat; a close fitting, bell shaped design popular since early 1900, becomes smaller, tighter and ever more popular as the decade progresses. Women found that only short cut, close fitting...
"The Flapper," a silent movie starring Olive Thomas, describes the hijinx of young Ginger King, the prototypical sporty, boyish light hearted young woman of the 20s. As the decade progresses, women...
F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is published in the Saturday Evening Post, in May of 1920. Well known actresses and singers popularize the look (like Louise Brooks pictur...
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