1950 Fashion Silhouette #1 The Hourglass

The Fall-Winter 1950 Simplicity Pattern magazine has a feature on the 4 most important fashion silhouettes for the season. We'll take a look at them this week.

Looking feminine with clothes that glorified the female shape was all important during the post WWII years, when most women had the goal of getting married and making a home. Fashions of the time emphasized a woman's curves and allure.

Take this suit, for example. The jacket is belted and the hip pockets have large flaps. Both tend to exaggerate a tiny waist, which was made even tinier with the firm control of a girdle. The jacket also flares out below the belt, and the skirt is pencil thin, giving the impression of more curves at the hips.

This suit was fashioned from Simplicity patterns 3327 and 3027. The sketch for the back view of the jacket shows that all the shape comes from the belt. Very interesting. I never would have guessed that from a quick look at the photo above.