history of fashion excerpts

Two major silhouettes dominated women's wear in the 1950s. Both silhouettes showed the influence of Christian Dior in their rounded shoulders and slim waistlines. One silhouette paired the round shoulders and slim waist with a narrow skirt called a pencil skirt. The other silhouette combined the rounded shoulders and slim waist with a full skirt.

Simplicity printed pattern, 1950s

Dior had wanted to make women look like flowers, but he also designed a slim-skirted look.

Hardy Amies suit, 1951

The two silhouettes of the 1950s were evident in evening wear as well.

Christian Dior evening gowns, 1951

A new method was developed in the 1950s to construct the armholes and sleeves in dresses. In this new design, the sleeve was not a separate piece of fabric from the bodice. Both the sleeve and the bodice came from a single piece of fabric that was cut straight across. This method created sloped shoulders in garments.

John French, Blanes cotton checked skirt, 1957

Swim Suits

Strapless bathing suits became popular. These one-piece suits had built-in boning to create structure, and each suit consisted of two layers: a short skirt over briefs.

Jantzen bathing suit ad, 1950s

Christian Dior became the fashion leader of women's wear in the 1950s. He didn't sew -- he just designed -- but his ideas made him famous. Dior also knew how to hire the right people to work for him.

Christian Dior, Cigale dress, 1952

His elegant, ornate evening wear played with silhouettes.

Christian Dior, Cupolla dress, 1953

Christian Dior, Mai dress, 1953

Dior named his mid-1950s lines after the silhouettes he created for them. The H Line of 1954 consisted of long, tight lines that elongated the distance between the bust and hips. The A Line of the 1955 consisted of a triangular shape extending from narrow shoulders to a wider skirt.


When Dior designed, people watched. He dictated the hemlines of the mid-1950s. He measured the length of the hem not from the waist but from the floor, so that the measurement was uniform for all women. His ideas for hem lengths varied by year. He first changed hemlines when he introduced his New Look in 1947. There was some backlash to this longer skirt because women, especially American women, had become accustomed to showing off their legs.
Two other designers dominated fashion in France in the 1950s: Jacques Fath and Pierre Balmain. Fath and Balmain were among the designers who participated in Théâtre da la Mode to reinvigorate the Paris fashion scene after the war.

Jacques Fath

Jacques Fath (1912–1954) was known as a master of draping. He did not sketch, cut, or sew. He was known for diagonal details, plunging necklines, bustled skirts, and fin-like fishtails off skintight gowns. You can see in the fronts of these dresses the way he used draping to create the shapes of his dresses.

Jacques Fath dress, 1955

Pierre Balmain

Pierre Balmain (1914–1982) was a perfectionist with regard to detailing. He used fine, subtle embellishments on his garments. His signature details included draping or a bow across the shoulders and fur details, such as hoods, muffs, or trims. Like Dior, Balmain created a full-skirted look after the war.

Pierre Balmain, 1950

Balmain, Dior, and Fath were dominant forces in the postwar fashion industry.

Cristobal Balenciaga

Born in Spain, designer Cristobal Balenciaga (1895–1972) moved to Paris during the Spanish Civil War at the end of the 1930s. He opened his house in Paris in 1937, but it is arguably his work from the 1950s that has become most iconic. Balenciaga was known for his architectural approach to design. He was a master of cut and color. He created refined, tailored garments that effortlessly skimmed the body's contours. What Dior was to romance, Balenciaga was to drama. Unlike Dior, who relied on elaborate understructures, Balenciaga used fabrics that held their shape without support. He invented the stand-away collar, for example. He employed solid-colored fabric, and his design details were in embroidery and beading, not construction.

Balenciaga often framed parts of the body with his designs. One of his trademarks was the bracelet sleeve, which displayed the wrist. His work was also thematic. Each collection evolved from the last. He experimented with his most dramatic ideas for evening wear and late-day fashions. He also frequently referred to history in his designs and was particularly inspired by Madeleine Vionnet's bias-cut techniques. He draped, cut, and sewed every toile himself.


In the late 1950s, fashion at Dior and Balenciaga was dominated by the loose-fitting chemise dress, which the popular press referred to as the "sack." Balenciaga's take on the sack was directional. The simple black sheath-like cocktail dress he created in a shorter length became the look of the 1960s.


This sack dress, which looks like a dress from the 1960s, was created by Balenciaga in the 1950s. Again, you can see his trademark sleeves.

Balenciaga "sack" dress, 1957

Hubert de Givenchy

Hubert de Givenchy (born 1927) is known for his simple designs. His elegant simplicity is evident in his solid-colored black or white dresses.

Givenchy started as the assistant designer to Jacques Fath, and he took over Fath's line in 1954, the same year he met actress Audrey Hepburn. Givenchy became known for his designs for Hepburn in movies such as Sabrina (1954) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Jacqueline Kennedy also wore Givenchy to the funeral of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963.




Madame Grès

Madame Grès (1903–1993), also known as Alix Barton, designed from the 1930s to the 1960s. Her designs were considered "the epitome of haute couture." She did all the hand sewing to create her garments.

Grès was known for her mastery of draping techniques. Because she didn't like seams on her garments, she avoided cutting the fabric. This gown uses a single piece of fabric; the same circumference of fabric that is used around the skirt is scrunched up around the bodice.

Madame Grès dress, 1958

Norman Hartnell

The designs of Norman Hartnell (1901–1979) were characterized by elaborate embellishments. Hartnell, an Englishman, began designing in the 1920s, but he achieved fame with his designs for the wedding and coronation gowns of Elizabeth II. In 1955, he wrote a memoir titled Silver and Gold.

These Hartnell gowns display his intricate embroidery and beading.

Charles James

American Charles James (1906–1978) is often considered America's first couturier. James is famous for his evening dresses, which were usually inspired by elements from nature. Like other designers in the 1950s, he tried to come up with new ideas for how to create things.