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Images of the thirties

Throughout the 1930s and early '40s, a second influence vied with the Paris couturiers as a wellspring for new fashion ideas: the American cinema. Paris designers such as Schiaparelli and Lucien Lelong acknowledged the impact of film costumes on their work. LeLong said "We, the couturiers, can no longer live without the cinema anymore than the cinema can live without us. We corroborate each others' instinct. Throughout the 1930s and early '40s, a second influence vied with the Paris couturiers as a wellspring for new fashion ideas: the American cinema. Paris designers such as Schiaparelli and Lucien Lelong acknowledged the impact of film costumes on their work. LeLong said "We, the couturiers, can no longer live without the cinema anymore than the cinema can live without us. We corroborate each others' instinct. The 1890s leg-o-mutton sleeves designed by Walter Plunkett for Irene Dunne in 1931's Cimarron helped to launch the broad-shouldered look,and Adrian's little velvet hat worn tipped over one eye by Greta Garbo in Romance (1930) became the "Empress Eugenie hat ... Universally copied in a wide price range, it influenced how women wore their hats for the rest of the decade." Movie costumes were covered not only in film fan magazines, but in influential fashion magazines such as Women's Wear Daily, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue. Adrian's puff-sleeved gown for Joan Crawford Letty Lynton was copied by Macy's in 1932 and sold over 500,000 copies nationwide. The most influential film of all was 1939's Gone with the Wind. Plunkett's "barbecue dress" for Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara was the most widely copied dress after the Duchess of Windsor's wedding costume, and Vogue credited the "Scarlett O'Hara" look with bringing full skirts worn over crinolines back into wedding fashion after a decade of sleek, figure-hugging styles. The lighthearted, forward-looking attitude and fashions of the late 1920s lingered through most of 1930, but by the end of that year the effects of the Great Depression began to affect the public, and a more conservative approach to fashion displaced that of the 1920s. For women, skirts became longer and the waist-line was returned up to its normal position in an attempt to bring back the traditional "feminine" look. Other aspects of fashion from the 1920s took longer to phase out. Cloche hats remained popular until about 1933 while short hair remained popular for many women until late in the 1930s. Jean Patou, who had first raised hemlines to 18" off the floor with his "flapper" dresses of 1924, had begun lowering them again in 1927, using Vionnet's handkerchief hemline to disguise the change. By 1930, longer skirts and natural waists were shown everywhere. But it is Schiaparelli who is credited with "changing the outline of fashion from soft to hard, from vague to definite." She introduced the zipper, synthetic fabrics, simple suits with bold color accents, tailored evening dresses with matching jackets, wide shoulders, and the color shocking pink to the fashion world. By 1933, the trend toward wide shoulders and narrow waists had eclipsed the emphasis on the hips of the later 1920s. Wide shoulders would remain a staple of fashion until after the war. Gloves were "enormously important" in this period.Evening gowns were accompanied by elbow length gloves, and day costumes were worn with short or opera-length gloves of fabric or leather. Manufacturers and retailers introduced coordinating ensembles of hat, gloves and shoes, or gloves and scarf, or hat and bag, often in striking colors.For spring 1936, Chicago's Marshall Field's department store offered a black hat by Lilly Daché trimmed with an antelope leather bow in "Pernod green, apple blossom pink, mimosa yellow or carnation blush" and suggested a handbag to match the bow. Garter belt is a woman's undergarment consisting of an elastic piece of cloth worn around the waist to which garters are attached to hold up stockings. In British English they are also known as suspender belts. The garter belt was the vintage precursor to pantyhose (tights in British English). A return to retro styled garter belts and stockings has become especially popular due to the ultra feminine iconization of pin up girls of the past. Once a forgotten and overlooked undergarment from the past, the popularity of garter belts and matching stockings have made a terrific comeback with most modern department stores selling a wide assortment. Austerity also affected men's civilian clothes during the war years. The British "Utility Suit" and American "Victory Suit" were both made of wool-synthetic blend yarns, without pleats, cuffs (turn-ups), sleeve buttons or patch pockets; jackets were shorter, trousers were narrower, and double-breasted suits were made without vests (waistcoats). Men who were not in unform could, of course, continue to wear pre-war suits they already owned, and many did so. A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers (called tramas) and a long coat (called the carlango) with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (called a tapa or tanda) and pointy, French-style shoes (called calcos). A young Malcolm X described the zoot suit as: "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell." Zoot suits usually featured a key chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket. Zoot suits were for special occasions such as a dance or a birthday party. The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items. Many young people wore a more moderate version of the "extra-bagged" pants or styled their hair in the signature "duck tail". The oversized suit was an extravagant personal style and a declaration of freedom and auto-determination; although many people still consider it a "rebellious garment to the era."

The lighthearted, forward-looking attitude and fashions of the late 1920s lingered through most of 1930, but by the end of that year the effects of the Great Depression began to affect the public, and a more conservative approach to fashion displaced that of the 1920s. For women, skirts became longer and the waist-line was returned up to its normal position in an attempt to bring back the traditional "feminine" look. Other aspects of fashion from the 1920s took longer to phase out. Cloche hats remained popular until about 1933 while short hair remained popular for many women until late in the 1930s. Through the mid-1930s, the natural waistline was often accompanied by emphasis on an empire line. Short bolero jackets, capelets, and dresses cut with fitted midriffs or seams below the bust increased the focus on breadth at the shoulder. By the late '30s, emphasis was moving to the back, with halter necklines and high-necked but backless evening gowns with sleeves. Evening dresses with matching jackets were worn to the theatre, nighclubs, and elegant restaurants. Skirts remained at mid-calf length for day, but the end of the 1930s Paris designers were showing fuller skirts reaching just below the knee; this practical length (without the wasteful fullness) would remain in style for day dresses through the war years. Short hair remained fashionable in the early 1930s, but gradually hair was worn longer in soft or hard curls. Most hairstyles were smooth at the crown to accommodate a hat, with curls framing the face and at the ends. By the early 1940s, shoulder length curls or page-boy cuts were most popular. Hair was also worn up with the curled ends piled on top of the head. Through the mid '40s, hair was worn high over the forehead in a puff or in rolls, in a pompadour. Knotted hair cauls or hairnets, called snoods, of velvet or chenille yarn, were one of the historic revivals seen through out the period. Hats were worn for most occasions, almost always tipped to one side and decorated with bits of net veiling, feathers, ribbons, or brooches. The popularity of stockings increases and decreases with fashion. It was formerly made of woven cloth but now of knitted wool, silk, cotton or nylon (see hosiery). The word stock used to refer to the bottom "stump" part of the body, and by analogy the word was used to refer to the one-piece covering of the lower trunk and limbs essentially tights consisting of the upper-stocks (later to be worn separately as knee breeches) and nether-stocks (later to be worn separately as stockings). Half-stockings, covering the foot and part of the calf only, are commonly called socks. This word is an adaptation of Latin soccus, a slipper or light shoe. It was the shoe worn by the actors in Roman comedy and so was used symbolically of comedy, as buskin, the high boot, was of tragedy. Pierre Balmain opened his own salon in 1945. It was in a series of collections named 'Jolie Madame' that he experienced his greatest success, from 1952 onwards. Balmain's vision of the elegantly-dressed woman was particularly Parisian and was typified by the tailored glamour of the New Look, with its ample bust, narrow waist, and full skirts, by mastery of cut and imaginative assemblies of fabrics in subtle color combinations. His sophisticated clientèle was equally at home with luxurious elegance, simple tailoring, and a more natural look. Along with his haute couture work, the talented businessman pioneered a ready-to-wear range called Florilege and also launched a number of highly successful perfumes. Menswear was also influenced by movies and its actors. "During the 1930s men also began to discard their undershirts supposedly because Clark Gable took off his shirt in a movie and only his bare chest was visible. Warm shirts in large plaids, and early in the 30s the single breasted jacket was the male look. Later in the decade, double breasted jackets became popular yet again and the front of the man's jacket was higher

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