Collection: War Belles
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Although the very wealthy could still afford to buy the limited collections produced by the couture industry, for the average woman the Second World War essentially put an end to the seasonal fashion cycle. It should be no surprise to learn then that wedding dress fashions of the 1940s often looked back to the Thirties for inspiration.
Wartime shortages of raw materials placed strict conditions on the production of new clothing. This particularly affected the style of the garment and how it was put together. Pleats, cuffs, linings and other decorative details were limited or banned outright in order to preserve fabric, rubber (elastics) and metal (fastenings). For many people, these restrictions heralded the need for ‘making do’.
For women getting married during wartime, ‘making do’ might include using fabric that had been carefully put away in ‘glory boxes’ before the war, borrowing a wedding dress from a friend or relative, altering an old wedding dress or reusing the fabric and trims from a former frock. If you were lucky, you might get your hands on a used parachute. Made of silk, these were in great demand for wedding dresses and lingerie in wartime trousseaux.
Some wartime brides married in their service uniforms but the more traditional searched high and low, and bartered, borrowed or begged for silk, in all its glorious forms, for this most special of dresses.
These dresses reflect a variety of styles worn by women from the late 1930s and through the 1940s. Despite the very different fabrics used, these gowns all feature similar stylistic details, some of which, like the extensive use of self-covered buttons secured by neat Rouleau loops, derive from 30s fashions. Other details, like the Early Victorian (c1840s) V-shaped waistline and long, fitted, sleeves with points extending over the hands, were popular into the 1950s and even the early 60s.
Perhaps the most glorious feature of these gowns, however, are the trains. For centuries an indulgence reserved for royalty and ‘high society’, extensive trains such as those seen on these dresses provided stateliness and of course the need for an extensive bridal party to fuss over them!
Although the very wealthy could still afford to buy the limited collections produced by the couture industry, for the average woman the Second World War essentially put an end to the seasonal fashion cycle. It should be no surprise to learn then that wedding dress fashions of the 1940s often looked back to the Thirties for inspiration.
Wartime shortages of raw materials placed strict conditions on the production of new clothing. This particularly affected the style of the garment and how it was put together. Pleats, cuffs, linings and other decorative details were limited or banned outright in order to preserve fabric, rubber (elastics) and metal (fastenings). For many people, these restrictions heralded the need for ‘making do’.
For women getting married during wartime, ‘making do’ might include using fabric that had been carefully put away in ‘glory boxes’ before the war, borrowing a wedding dress from a friend or relative, altering an old wedding dress or reusing the fabric and trims from a former frock. If you were lucky, you might get your hands on a used parachute. Made of silk, these were in great demand for wedding dresses and lingerie in wartime trousseaux.
Some wartime brides married in their service uniforms but the more traditional searched high and low, and bartered, borrowed or begged for silk, in all its glorious forms, for this most special of dresses.
These dresses reflect a variety of styles worn by women from the late 1930s and through the 1940s. Despite the very different fabrics used, these gowns all feature similar stylistic details, some of which, like the extensive use of self-covered buttons secured by neat Rouleau loops, derive from 30s fashions. Other details, like the Early Victorian (c1840s) V-shaped waistline and long, fitted, sleeves with points extending over the hands, were popular into the 1950s and even the early 60s.
Perhaps the most glorious feature of these gowns, however, are the trains. For centuries an indulgence reserved for royalty and ‘high society’, extensive trains such as those seen on these dresses provided stateliness and of course the need for an extensive bridal party to fuss over them!
