The dream had come true: the war was over; the postwar economic boom was in full swing. It was time to live it up. And what a life people were living! Rip-roaring parties took place the world round, especially in newly liberated Paris, where rockabilly music gathered just as much of a following as in its native United States.
After the war, Christian Dior turned women upside down like an hourglass when he joined forces with fabric manufacturer Boussac in 1947 to create rounded shoulders without padding. The Dior woman is a flower, whose thin figure is wrapped up in forty meters of silk, wool, lace, and feathers. Carmel Snow, the editor of the American edition of Harper’s Bazaar, wrote: “Dear Christian, your dresses have such a new look!”¹.
Yes Mr. Dior, your creations were conceived to amaze women, or rather, to make women amazing. The dress was no longer a simple utility, and soon the New Look would start invading even homes: in architecture or interior design, New Look opulence and optimism started cropping up everywhere!
The luxury craze of the 40’s was now taking over the fashion world, led by a new wave of couturiers like Jacques Heim and Nina Ricci. France, epicenter of all things fashion, was subject to a rationing system all the way up until 1952. As a result, cotton came to be thought of as a “quality” or “luxury” fabric, and couture started moving towards more fitted (aka crazier) cuts.
In 1958, Jacques Charrier, couturier for the Jacques Esterel house, designed a flower-like dress of his own for Brigitte Bardot. The Vichy dress, with its red and white picnic table print, was created. A veritable homage to the New Look. It was around this time as well that Givenchy began making its mark in the couture world. Its flippantly elegant style dressed up the most beautiful women of the day, but the designer still saved the best of its arsenal for the graceful Audrey Hepburn. When she took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in “Roman Holiday”² in 1954, it was in an ivory lace Givenchy dress. This astonishing decade of refinement was decidedly feminine: the pin-up was born, twirling her colorful skirt in the wind, never short of breath.
1. International Fashion Dictionary, collective under the direction of Bruno Remaury and Lydia Kamitsis, Regard, Paris 2004 2. Kerry Taylor in association with Sotheby’s, PASSION FOR FASHION, 29th November 2011
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