1950s Evening Wear
Not all women could afford to wear couture designer clothes in the fifties and the majority of women wore mass produced goods. Yet fresh ideas and fashion concepts trickled down from the French salons to Madame dress shops and department stores throughout the world.
Miss and Mrs. Average were soon seen in looks that captured the essential style set by Paris. These are the clothes most vintage pickers find today. They were produced fairly rapidly by improved production methods in a post war economy boom for a society desperate for “new” goods of every description.
Clothes worn in the day were very feminine and designed to remind women they were women. Women also still craved luxury in dress after years of deprivation during the Utility period. Evening wear produced in the 50s even for the masses was often ultra glamorous. Aspects of 50’s vintage clothing to collect are clothes with tiny waists, shown often as glamorous, feminine, luxurious, low necked evening dresses or boned strapless dresses in taffetas, tulle, lace, nets, chiffon and satin or even nylon.
A wide range of net and nylon hoop crinoline style petticoats were produced to support the full bouffant skirts. Vintage under slips of the era are very collectable. You may even find a well designed vintage strapless bra of the era or wasp waist corset, but stiffened boned areas were often built into bodices and that forced a specific shape when on the wearer. Net and lace were both used extensively to make many mid priced dresses.