1950s Silhouette Dress

Video Transcript

"At the end of the '40s, actually 1947, Dior introduced what he called the "new look" which involved a full skirt on the bottom, and some sort of jacket or collared top. Now this is an example of a "new look" silhouette and this was popular throughout the entire '50s, actually into the '60s, but more popular towards the earlier part of the '50s. You can see there is a full, longer skirt, as we come to at least a mid-calf, and it nips in at the waist. It gives you an hourglass right here, and you can see that there are buttons and a collar. So it would come back out around the shoulders, really creating an hourglass feminine shape. Now this was really the silhouette that people think of when you think of the '50s. It's the silhouette that was mimed in poodle skirts, in general casual skirts, a long flowing skirt that would emphasize the hips. The '50s were really all about the hips and the breasts because you wanted to emphasize being a woman specifically. Men had come back from the war, they were entering the work force, and women were leaving the work force and staying home. And so they wanted to emphasize a female shape within fashion to delineate between men's fashion and women's fashion. And so, in the '50s, you really think of these big, poofy skirts and collar tops, and that was really one of the most popular and most iconic looks that come from that decade."