Inspired by my Auntie and her love for the 1950s.
I am going to highlight the key topics of the 50s, including the conical bra, feminine and masculine silhouettes, communism and more.
After the devastation of WW2, the 50s took to new ways of life, and as Winston Churchill said 'America at this moment, stands at the summit of the world.
The Conical Bra, my personal favorite 50s trend, also known as the bullet bra, started trending in the 40s and made it may into mainstream fashion in the 50s. They were made famous after the Sweater Girls started wearing them (various Hollywood actresses who adopted the fashion of wearing tight sweaters over a bullet-shaped or cone bra) personally i think Madonna absolutely rocked this and she's looks amazing. What Katie was the first brand to manufacture the bras and make them available to girls all over the world after many young girls saw the one Jean Paul Gautier designed for Madonna on her legendary Blond Ambition Tour in 1990. After What Katie opened the trend to girls all over the world, longing for a bullet bra, many manufactured started producing their own version of the bra.
Another trend from the 50s was the Cat Eye Sunglasses and trend still carried on now and very popular. These sunglasses mimicked the eye shape of at eye, very slender, small and sly looking with pointy edges that accentuated the cheekbones. The frames were produced for optical glasses until 1961 when Audrey Hepburn wore a pair of cat’s eye sunglasses in the breakfast at Tiffany. The cat-eye sunglasses design she wore were called the “Manhattan.
From the conical bra to the cat's eye sunglasses, I feel you can tell what mattered to women living in the 1950s, they chose styles that made them appear feminine and attractive. The conical bra to me is what I in vision when I think of over exaggerated femininity and I absolutely love it, the bra exaggerated the shape of the breast and created attention to female attributes. Femininity was evident in the fashion shapes and silhouettes; women wore slim silhouettes with a wrap waist and full skirt or slim pencil skirts, this either accentuated or exaggerated the female body. The silhouettes were portrayed as fun and flirty and super sexy depending on how you wore them. The figure inspired by movies by Audrey Hepburn and the womanlier hourglass figure represented by Grace Kelly, with tiny waists, padded hips and circle skirts. It was also the golden age of the fashion model – with the ‘big three’ in 1950s fashion models being Jean Patchett, Dovima and Suzy Parker. Both silhouettes accentuated the curves of the hips and bust, and it was impossible to avoid the sexy silhouettes.
As much as women embraced the feminine shape, women also moved to more masculine shapes and explored with different suit styles, taking men's suits and customizing them to their own likings. After WW2 the world of fashion took a small step back going back into war clothing with trench coats, and Military inspired wide shoulders, puffed sleeves, masculine necklines, A-line skirts, and minimal decoration. Although these were worn for practically women carried on the masculine style after the War and mixed the masculine form of suits with the feminine shapes creating women's suits and trending coats.
Away from fashion and femininity and more into the politics of the 50s, came the Golden age of communism. The 1950s propaganda Communism vs Capitalism was a flight to shape post WW2 life, Soviet Union started a cold war under orders from the Kremlin and started attacking and trying to take over countries left empty by the war.
The attack was a threat to Europe, so the US was forced to join in and safeguard European countries. Freedom of thought was banned and many authors, newspaper editors and anyone with the access to share their thoughts publicly were arrested and held hostage under Capitalistic politicians in Russia and America. Adverts and speakers spoke about how much better the world would be with a Capitalist influence and made it seem like the people in charge would look after the citizens, which we all know is bullshit even now in present day all politicians speak utter shite.
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