W.W. II Button Restrictions and Button Decorations (Click Magazine, 1943)
A well-illustrated article from the fashion-filled pages of a 1943 issue of CLICK MAGAZINE that served to document the contradictory days when wartime button-rationing coincided with a wide-spread yen for decorating with buttons:
"Keeping up with the Joneses' wardrobe is no longer a problem. Uncle Sam is standardizing the cut and fabric of wartime clothes. But already the American woman, with her zest for something different, has turned thumbs-down on style regimentation. In a frantic bid for individuality, fad-loving women are rediscovering the decorative button. Buttons are no longer just a practical devices for holding clothes together. They pep-up simplified silhouettes and restyle dated fashions.
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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.
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Churchill and Stalin Influence Men's Fashion - NOT (Click Magazine, 1942)
Illustrated with pictures of Winston Churchill's weird zipper suit and Joseph Stalin's "all purpose costume", 1940s fashion critic Elizabeth Hawes (1903 - 1971) taunts the Great-American-Male and challenges him to respond in kind by wearing copies of these comfortable threads:"Today's business clothes were worked out by the winners of the Industrial Revolution, whose descendants are the big tycoons of our day...Aspirants to leadership and success normally copy the clothes of existent leaders. Isn't it about time the most of you changed your suits?" Elizabeth Hawes wrote more on the topic of W.W. II fashions...
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World War Two Fabric Shortages (Yank, 1945)
A one page article explaining what fabric rationing was and how it effected the fashion landscape of 1940s America.Read a 1940s fashion article about fabric restrictions and the War Production Board.
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Color Trends in Men's Suiting 1935 - 1950 (Men's Wear, 1950)
Although there is black-out during the war years, the attached charts will give you a sense of the preferred suiting colors both before the war and upon it's immediate conclusion. The pointy-headed soothsayers who attempt to predict which colors men will buy were very surprised to find that in the aftermath of World War II, American men were quite eager to buy browns and khaki-colored suiting after all.
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When Fashion and Uniforms Meet...(Click Magazine, 1942)
When the general appearance of women's uniforms prescribed for voluntary war work by various charitable organizations were deemed unfashionable, uncomfortable or simply embarrassing, the well-known fashion stylist and costume designer Irene (Irene Lentz, 1900 - 1962) stepped up to the plate designing an all-purpose green wool suit, topped-off by a beret:
"The noted Hollywood stylist, Irene, performed a real service for defense when she designed her all-around defense suit. Of sturdy gabardine, worn with long cotton service socks and plastic shoes, it is nevertheless as attractive as any civilian suit, and more practical than most. In this outfit, women war workers will not feel self-conscious and ill at ease."
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