As Vogue celebrates its 125th year, we look back at the history of fashion,
and the magazine, in a series of “five points” videos by decade, narrated by the
stylishSarah Jessica Parker.
Elsa Schiaparelli escaped the German invasion of France in 1940 with three
dresses tucked in her bag. Later, she wrote an essay for Vogue titled “Needles
and Guns,” and touched on all the magazine’s wartime preoccupations.
NEAT, NARROW—AND LAW-ABIDING
It was the U.S. government, not Paris, that extended the long, lean look of
the decade. Restrictions on valuable materials during the war gave rise to a new
fashion credo for American women: “Fewer, simpler, better.”
WAR
Vogue’s coverage of the war went far beyond the world of fashion. Many
staffers looked to international editions of the magazine for a network of
information. Lee Miller documented the horrors of the conflict in Europe; Mary
Jane Kempner reported from Asia. Irving Penn shared his experiences, and so did
photographer and prisoner of war Constantin Joffé; Lee and Carl Erickson
sketched and recounted the exodus of refugees from Senlis, France, to Paris.
WOMEN GO TO WORK . . . FOR A WHILE
“Take a job! Release a man to fight!” declared the 1943 September issue of
Vogue. Throughout the war, the magazine threw the spotlight on the changing role
of women—from the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps to Lady Diana Copper and her
“one-woman farm”—proving that a “woman’s work is everywhere!” But women’s
“double-duty lives” were cut short toward the end of the war; one journalist
summed it up with an article called “Back on the Pedestal, Ladies.”
PARIS IS SILENT; AMERICA FINDS ITS VOICE
The follow-the-leader relationship between French and American fashion was
upended by the war. Chanel shuttered her business in 1939, and while the
business of couture limped along in Paris, no news was forthcoming from the
city. The Germans had suspended the publication of French Vogue in 1940. The
void was filled with American designers—couturiers like Adrian, whose claim to
fame was as a costumer in Hollywood; Mainbocher, who’d recently returned from
Paris; Charles James, who approached fashion with a sculptor’s hand; the
Ukraine-born Valentina; and Claire McCardell, who was known as the “mother of
American sportswear.” In October 1944, Vogue was able to publish the “first
report from the French couture since 1940”; the following spring, it reprinted
the Paris edition’s special “Liberation” issue.
THE CURVY NEW LOOK
A soft, curvy line was already forming in fashion before the conflict in
Europe.Christian Dior ditched the “shoe-string silhouette” with his postwar
debut. Dubbed the New Look, the collection was one of the most influential in
fashion history. With their high heels, nipped waists, and full skirts, Dior’s
women looked like beautiful upside-down flowers. His vision of fashion was
forward-thinking and fresh, yet inspired by the Belle Epoque curves of his
mother’s time. There was a rich symbolism in the New Look. What the world needed
then was love—and Dior delivered it in the form of a dress.Read more at:long prom dresses
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