How the fashion industry was affected during the Word War II

During the WW2 women’s lives took a drastic change, as men joined the army forces women were forced to take on their husbands’ responsibilities whether it was at home or at men’s work place. Some women even worked in the military forces, which demanded of them to either go near or into combat zones, causing some women to loose their lives.

As women’s lives were more practical, fashion began to express the newfound force of women. Collections included big, broad shoulders and slacks, practical knee-length skirts and strict tailoring. Smart suits, simple frocks, sensible shoes and a serviceable shoulder bag which became the working woman’s fashion uniform. The fashion statement during the WW2 was the military uniform, a fitted jacket and a sensible skirt or slacks, the colours options were also limited to only olive drab, khaki, white and navy.

As the war years progressed, the fashion industry started to lack access to fibres as silk was used for parachutes, nylon for military supplies and metal for weapons. However the media was quick to promote methods for home sewers, assisting women on how to make dresses out of curtains, jackets from cushions and how to cut-down adult’s clothing and make them into children’s wear.                           

Fashion designs and creativity were limited, because most designers weren’t supplied enough of common fibres, such as leather (replaced by cork soles.) On the other hand fur which was not rationed and it was used to regain the glamour that was missing in fashion during the war. Therefore designers focused on the use of interesting colours, details and accessories, for example chartreuse, maroon, rust, ochre and teal replaced the plain styles. Shoulders decorations, which emphasized the strong top-heavy silhouette also became popular, and sweetheart necklines accompanied the look. Exotic floral and neat polka dots also replaced decorative elements (beads, braid…etc), also shoes collections changed from sophisticated to astounding sky-high platforms.

Britain was majorly affected during the war and the government took every opportunity to help produce affordable clothing. Therefore the British government encouraged women to reinvent fashionable items by recycling and reproducing old clothes. However, the Utility scheme was made illegal as the government thought it to be unpatriotic to decorate clothes and forbade manufacturers using the CC41 (Clothing Control 1941). Although the government thought of CC41 as unpatriotic the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, whom invented the CC41 thought of it as creative. The society was led by Captain Molyneux, Norman Hartnell, Digby Morton, Victor Stiebel, Angèle Delange, Peter Russell, Madame Bianca Mosca and Hardy Amies. Their 34 smart Utility designs included, squared shoulders jackets/blazers and short skirts. The Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers tried to keep fashion interesting while to the usage of cloth was narrowed. The items that became popular in the fashion industry were the turban, which was worn by women to prevent their hair from entangling in factory machines. Also the siren suit, the wedge sole shoe and the kangaroo cloak were also very popular. 

Paris was seen as the house of fashion and although there were many fashion houses in France before the war, a great number of them closed as WW2 broke, some closed for several years while others closed permanently. As some of the well known designers started to fade out, American designers started to emerge the surface of the fashion industry. Megan Spagnolo said "Though American designers couldn't completely pave their own way at this point, it really helped that they no longer had the competition from overseas."

Men mainly wore military uniforms; while women had to swap the then most fashionable convertible suit for a jacket, short skirt and blouse (the jacket could be shed for night wear). Stockings were unavailable and women used their eyebrows pencil to draw a line at the bake of their legs in order to create the illusion of them wearing stockings.

Fashion was thought to be invented in France, as many great French designers broke the fashion industry, such as Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel and Madeline Vionnet. However many fashion houses, including the Maison Vionnet and the Maison Chanel and fashion French designers started setting up fashion houses in other countries.

Due to difficult times, housewives were more appreciated for dealing with the responsibilities they had and the Vichy regime promoted models of wives and mothers supporting the new comfortable and practical fashion creation. Women’s evening gowns became shorter, their daywear’s colours were lighter and the clothes were practical.

Designers were able to create new collections only because they recycled fabric and made use of the material that would usually be thrown away. Although many fashion houses closed down in Paris during the war, other houses remained open and continued to produce astonishing new collections, such as Nina Ricci, Jacques Fath  , Marcel Rochas and many more.