World War Ii and Womens Fashions

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WORLD WAR II AND WOMENS FASHIONS INTHE UNITED STATES, FRANCE AND BRITAIN Carolyn DelVecchio SUNY @ Empire WORLD WAR II AND WOMENS FASHIONS INTHE UNITED STATES, FRANCE AND BRITAIN World War II (WWII) is a fascinating era of fashion in our history. The fashion of our era was represented by the world events in a historical age. This era made lasting marks on our future designers and the science of fashion as the world knows it. Fashion and costume designers, were influenced and changed the limitations presented to the world by WWII. WWII represented a great change socially, technically, economically and politically. While WWII affected the entire world, the war affected fashion and costumes of the United States France and Britain (Lauer, J.C., Lauer, R.H., 1981). Wartime, brought restrictions of natural materials, as well as bans on some imported materials, manmade materials were born and became a popular supplement to making garments. The impact of the war was not only seen in fabric choices but in the style and silhouette of clothing. This was a new simplicity in women’s clothing designs, and, theses women, who wore the fashions, to explore their imaginations. This made the government mandate fashionable. The silhouette lines of the clothing made in this period are still found in clothing today, as are in the manmade fabrics, which were developed during WWII. Because of the rationing and the unavailability of material, the differences in social classes were not as noticeable, as the dress and style of all the women and their dress became similar under the government mandates. This was reflected in the style of dress for work, formal events, and in the movies of Hollywood. WW changed its fashion and set limitations on fashion for a country ((Steele, 1997) It started in 1929, with The Great Depression and the stock market crash and then the export
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