| Crochet Made a Come-Back on the W.W. II Fashion Front (Click Magazine, 1943) When home heating fuel had to be rationed during the Second World War, a page was borrowed from Granny's play book and women once again began to sport crochet wraps, shawls and booties around the house. The Pin-On Hairdo (Click Mahazine, 1943)In light of the fact that we are patriots, we like to think that these hairdos were not as wide-spread on the home front as the journalist implies.
Michel, of the Helena Rubinstein salons, has been fingered as the one responsible for the two-tone "pin-On" hairdo, a look that was entirely reliant upon the false hair industry in order to achieve the preferred look. Three color images are provided as well as six "how-to" images. During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women; click here to read about the men who needed it.
Hello, Denim (Collier's Magazine, 1942)The editors at COLLIER'S MAGAZINE could not have known the significance of this subject back in 1942, yet to those Americans born after 1960 who read these old columns, it seems like a sign post that pointed the way to the sportswear of the future. Verily, few are the Americans who tread the fruited plane today who do not see at least one pair of jeans every day. Blue jeans have become the symbol of the nation, just as much as the flag.
This 1940s article pointed out that more and more Americans are waking up to denim. They found that it suited them and deemed it a sensible fabric in light of the new agricultural and industrial toil that needed to be finished if the fascists were to be beaten. However, denim was not some newfangled wartime invention; denim has been on the American scene since 1853 - in the Western gold mines and barnyards, roundhouses and cattle ranges.
Some seven years before this article hit the newsstands American teenagers began wearing jeans, but it was W.W. II that created a market for women's jeans, and for good or ill, the course of American sportswear was forever altered.
A far more thorough fashion history of blue jeans can be read here.
That Slim Wartime Silhouette (Click Magazine, 1943)Five fashion photographs and a few words on the "government-approved" look for the autumn of 1943. The wartime fashion news for 1943 was apparel order L-85 that had been issued by the War Production Board in order to "conserve material for victory": "For although the WPB is intent on keeping yardage used by the ready-to-wear industry down to a minimum, it will not freeze fashion ingenuity." To read another article about 1940s fashions and the hardships of fabric rationing, click here.
Click here to read about the fashion silhouette of the early Fifties. | 
'Key' not passed to script.
