The Glamerous 1940's

British fashion has evolved through the centuries, from the Victorian period to the glamorous 1940’s and to the present fashion inspired by the past.

The 1940’s was an era that was greatly affected by the war and rationing was severe and where economies in designs could be made they were. In 1942 under the Civilian Clothing Order the British government introduced sumptuary laws designed to give the weight to the Utility scheme. The laws made it illegal and unpatriotic to spend time embellishing clothing for sale, and forbade manufacturers using the CC41 label shown in the header from using fancy trimmings, unnecessary buttons, extra stitching or tucks or pleats or pockets more than was essential to function.

Every type of cloth was short worldwide so material was severely rationed. Rationing was very strict in the UK and operated on a strict coupon system that for clothing started on Whit Sunday. During the Second World War Paris produced restrained clothing to match the economic atmosphere. The general wartime scene was one of drabness and uniformity, continuing well after the finished in 1945. There was an austere atmosphere and people were encouraged to ‘make do and mend.’ Uniforms were seen at all civilian social occasions from cinemas, weddings, restaurants to gala events. It was impossible to go anywhere without being aware of war.

To boost morale, the incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers led by Captain Molyneux created 34 smart Utility Clothing designs in 1942. They were officially approved by the board of trade and a selection was mass-produced. Finally they were finished off with the official and now famous CC41 label designed by the commercial artist Reginald Shipp. Utility designs followed the square shouldered and short skirted fashions of the war era whilst sticking to the strict regulations for minimal cloth usage. Even with the Utility scheme there were couture garments for those who could afford them. The wealthy also had their uniforms tailored at the best tailors.

Fashion items that became popular were the wedge sole shoe, the turban, the siren suit and the kangaroo cloak. Siren suits were the original jumpsuit and the all
Everyone hand knitted and knitted mitts and scarves and socks made up in open lacy patterns stretched yarns even further.

After the war the public became resentful and impatient when rationing was not relaxed on clothes. People were bitter because clothes were being made, but were exported in an effort to rebuild the British textile and wool economy. Paris continued to produce exotic fashions, but America was developing a look if its own which was mainly found in Claire McCardell’s designs. The American look was simple and classic and continues to have followers today.
Christian Dior’s New Look of 1947 was frowned upon by both the UK and USA governments and people were discouraged from wearing clothes that ‘wasted’ so much fabric. I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-spa waists above enormous spreading skirts.[1]Christian Dior wanted to express women’s femininity through his designs, despite restrictions like the war and uniforms. French Vogue marked a significant turning point for Christian Dior as he launched their new fashion house with a modest paragraph in its social pages on ‘La Vie de Paris’. This edition of Vogue also introduced some of Dior’s sketches and showed that his designs were influenced and based on two organic forms, the ‘Corolle’- the whorls of petals of a flower – and loops. The caption explained that the waist must be very; very small[2]. However it was not known how Dior’s designs were going to be received, Bettina Ballard, American Vogue’s fashion editor wrote

‘I was conscious of an electric tension I had never before felt in couture...We were witnesses to a revolution in fashion’[3].
(Figure 1)

In the past Dior had worked for Robert Piguet and then for Lucien Lelong for 10 years. Although, in 1946 Dior marked a significant change in his career, as he negotiated a partnership with the Boussac Group, who supported Dior in creating a new house. It is said that their relationship was intimate and their partnership gave Dior’s launch both credibility and assurance. It has been expressed that the ‘Cotton King’ started the craze of using lots of fabric to revive textile sales. Dior then replied to this notion

‘We were just emerging from poverty-stricken, parsimonious era, obsessed with ration books and clothes-coupons: it was only natural that my creations should take the form of a reaction against this dearth of imagination’[4]

Dior was born in 1905, Paris and was greatly influenced by his childhood memories that was greatly impacted by growing up in one of the most beautiful cities, Paris. ‘I thank heaven that I lived in Paris during the last years of Belle Époque- nothing will ever be able to equal the sweet memory of those days’[5] Dior’s designs were known for using fabric knots, fringed bows and artificial flowers as finishing touches on garments of stiff taffeta, duchesse satin and wool, which were firmly structured as those of Worth, the founder of haute couture. Dior wrote that

‘An ethereal appearance is only achieved by elaborate workmanship: I wanted to employ quite a different technique in fashioning my clothes, from the methods then in use- I wanted them to be constructed like buildings. Thus I moulded my dresses to the curves of the female body, so that they called attention to its shape. I emphasized the width of the hips, and gave the bust its true prominence; and in order to give my models more ‘presence’ I lined nearly all of them with cambric or taffeta, thus reverting in old tradition.’

Unlike Claire McCardell, who created a simple uniform that was easy for day to day wear, Dior revived a specifically Parisian from of dress with layers of underpinnings and ‘wasp waists- achieved by seaming, by corsets (both separate and built in). Edna Woolman Chase recalls:

‘His look was one of unforced femininity- a polished continuation of the rounded line, which had been seen in Paris since the first post-war collections, but with the fabric so worked, the silhouette so gently handled that there was no look of heaviness or stricture.’[6]
(Figure 2) Christian Dior


Whilst Dior was making a household name from his statement designs, Vivienne Westwood was also born during this period on the 8th of April in 1941 in Tintwistle, Derbyshire, England. Dame Vivienne Westwood is a British fashion designer largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. Very much like Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’, Vivienne Westwood also introduced her own statements into her designs. She has been recognised for her hard work and influence in the fashion world by receiving the award for British Fashion Designer of the year in 1990, 1991 and 2006. Westwood is also widely known as a political activist and has campaigned for Nuclear Disarment.

In September 2005, Westwood joined forces with the British civil rights group Liberty and launched exclusive limited design t-shirts and baby wear bearing the slogan I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don’t arrest me[7]. Vivienne said she was supporting the campaign and defending habeas corpus. Dame Vivienne has recently stated on television that she has transferred her long standing support for the Labour Party to the Conservative Party, over the issues of civil liberties and human rights.

The English Punk style began to grab society’s attention when the Sex Pistols wore clothes from Westwood and McLaren’s shop at their first gig. The “punk style” included BDSM fashion, bondage gear, safety pins, razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewellery, as well as outrageous make-up and hair. Essential design elements include the adoption of traditional elements of Scottish design such as tartan fabric. Amongst the more unusual elements of her style is the use of historical 17th and 18th century cloth cutting principles, and reinterpreting these in, for instance, radical cutting lines to men’s trousers. Uses of these traditional elements make the overall effect of her designs more shocking. Other influences in Westwood’s work have included Peru, the feminine figure, velvet and knitwear. Westwood and McLaren worked together to revolutionize fashion and their impact is still strongly felt today.
(Figure 3) Vivienne Westwood

Gareth Pugh, born August 1st 1981 is an English fashion designer that has recently established himself on the fashion scene. Like Vivienne Westwood he is a British fashion designer who expresses his thoughts through the media of eccentric designs. He plays around with shapes on the body and different fabrics like plastics and elastics. Like Christian Dior, Pugh currently works and lives in Paris where he is greatly influenced by architecture and the history of fashion in Paris. Pugh’s career began at a very early stage in his life; at the age of 14 he began working as a costume designer for the English National Youth Theatre.
(Figure 4) Gareth Pugh (Figure 5) Gareth Pugh
He started his fashion education at City of Sunderland College and finished his degree in Fashion Design at Central Saint Martin’s in 2003. Gareth Pugh gained valuable experience whilst interning with Rich Owens in Paris. His final collection at St.Martin’s, which used balloons to accentuate models’ joints and limbs (a technique that would become one of his trademarks), attracted the attention of senior fashion editor of Dazed and Confused magazine, who placed one of his designs on the magazine’s cover shortly after. Some of these eye catching and unique designs that established Pugh’s trademark are seen in figures 4 and 5. I find these designs extremely bizarre and extravagant but very appealing to me at the same time, as Pugh is playing around with the silhouette of the human body and doing something that no other designer has dared to do. This was also the case for Dior in the 1940’s as he abused fabric on the body by creating tight seamless silhouettes that was frowned upon as it was not making do and mending.


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(Figure 6) Gareth Pugh (Figure 7) Gareth Pugh


Pugh’s solo premiere was in London’s fall 2006 fashion week; he has since showed his spring 2007 and autumn 2007 collections there. Pugh has been recognised for his contribution to fashion, for instance, British Vogue called his spring 2007 collection

“An incredible, unmissable show, his genius is undeniable.”

Gareth Pugh has also been recognised by numerous celebrities and has most famously designed Kylie Minogue’s costumes for her Showgirl- the Greatest Hits Tour and Showgirl- the Homecoming Tour.


Pugh resembles Dior in the sense that he accentuates the waist, however he does this in a much more three dimensional way that almost creates an out of this world cyber design. The use of inflatable padded balloons is very striking and creates more than just a piece of clothing but also a more deeper statement that reflects fashion’s history and just how much fashion has evolved from Dior’s ‘New Look’ to Westwood’s hard aggressive punk but political designs to Pugh’s outrageous experiments.

One of the key aspects of Dior’s look was that it’s doll-like shape and was unmistakeable in silhouette, with its lavish ballerina skirts, smooth fitted bodices and moulded jackets. Despite the complexity of the original designs the look could be easily resembled and was significantly commercial. ‘Bar’, one of the most important designs of Dior’s first collection, combined tailoring and corsetry to create an armature upon which a silk jacket with padded hips and pleated wool skirt floated despite its heavy (8lb) weight. Pugh also uses the technique of padding but in a much more modern way.

Although Dior employed traditional corsetry techniques for the underpinnings, developments in new synthetics made corset-dependent fashions possible for all women. However rationing was still in place, and corsets were forbidden in the UK except on doctor’s orders. Full bell-like skirts could be cheaply achieved with nylon petticoats rather than Dior’s multiple layers of taffeta and net. The blatant defiance of austerity regulations required by such dresses was controversial, and the British Government tried to prevent the New Look from catching on. Settle recalled:

“We were forbidden by the Board of Trade to mention his styles in case they engendered a desire for more fabrics, pretty style, and some trade of elegance. Dior’s ‘New Look’ was supposed to be completely unknown to Britain.”

“I was conscious of an electric tension I had never before felt in couture...We were witnesses to a revolution in fashion.”[8]

However the New Look proved unstoppable despite shortages of fabric, which precluded even wealthy British clients from commissioning new clothes, skirts were lengthened with strips of fabric, shoulder pads removed and jackets taken in. In April 1947 Lady Gladwyn wrote:

“The dressmaker came and altered the jacket of my very ancient coat and skirt, nipping it in at the waist in the approved new fashion, and thereby, I hope, enabling me to wear it this season.”[9]

Vivienne Westwood also gained international recognition in the early 1980’s with her Pirate and New Romantics look. Vivienne Westwood has played a vital role in the emergence of Punk Rock in the 19670’s and has gone on to become one of the most original and influential designers of our time. Her designs combine a fearless unconformity with a sense of tradition. She is renowned for her gentle parody of Establishment styles, her use of very British fabrics such as Harris Tweed and tartan, her re-use of historic garments such as the corset and crinoline. This was the philosophy of the 1940’s ‘Make-do and Mend’. Yet her approach has always been practical, driven by a curiosity about how things work, a process she describes as ‘learning through action’, similarly to Gareth Pugh.
(Figure 8) Vivienne Westwood (Figure 9) Gareth Pugh

Vivienne Westwood is also recognised for her extravagant use of fabric and cuts in her designs. Supported by meticulous research, the Mini-Crini collection of 1986 featured shortened 19th century-style crinolines with Minnie-Mouse prints, polka dots and stars and stripes worn with rocking-horse platform shoes. In a period when other designers empowered women with shoulder pads, Westwood placed the emphasis firmly on the hips, like Dior and Pugh. This collection exaggerated the feminine forms and accents of historical clothing to create a sexually-charged vision that was outrageous and almost absurd. Ten years later the sexually confrontational Vive la Cocotte collection of 1996, which featured large bum-cushions and padded busts, again inspired by 19th century dress.
Westwood’s Harris Tweed collection of 1987 was named after the woollen fabric woven in the Western Isles of Scotland and took its inspiration from Savile Row tailors, incorporating a variety of tweeds including the traditional Tattershall check and red barathea. These clothes evoked the aristocracy, boarding school and country houses; hunting, shooting and fishing; and in Westwood’s interpretation, inevitably declared sexuality under the constraint of British understatement.
Westwood was also inspired by 18th century paintings, ceramics and literature and spent time studying the paintings of the Wallace Collection and the Victoria & Albert Museum’s archive in London. In Portrait (1990-1), Westwood used a photographic print of Francois Boucher’s Shepherd Watching a Sleeping Shepherdess on corsets and shawls. Always on Camera (1992-3) contained the Gainsborough Blouse which mimicked the delicate brushstrokes of the 18th century British portraitist’s work. Her considered reinterpretation of tradition came through again in Anglomania (1993-94). Westwood created her own clan (the traditional extended family and social unit of Scottish society) and tartan (the woven wool check identified with that unit), MacAndreas, named after her third husband and collaborator, Andreas Kronthaler. That McAndreas is displayed at Lochcarron Museum of Tartan in Scotland alongside time-honored traditional tartans is a very significant accolade to be bestowed on a contemporary designe
(Figure 10) Vivienne Westwood (Figure 11) Christian Dior

British fashion has changed tremendously over the decades and has become more about a sense of style and being able to fuse both personality and style together in garments that are daring and unique. Vivienne Westwood’s clearly expresses a strong streak of politics in her designs and being able to express yourself individually rather than categorising yourself among society. Dior revolutionized this as he went were no other designer dared to go in the war time period of the 1940’s. Dior was determined to change the face of fashion and pursued his designs regardless of what people thought, rationing and the war. Gareth Pugh although a young notable designer he has stormed onto the fashion scene with a very similar mind set as Westwood and Dior. His strange use of materials and focusing on how they are displayed on the human body gives Pugh an established and recognised trademark that reflects British fashion through the ages.















[1] The Golden Age of Couture Paris and London 1947-57, V&A Edited by Claire Wilcox, pg39
[2]IBID
[3] IBID
[4] IBID
[5] IBID
[6] The Golden Age of Couture Paris and London 1947-57, V&A Edited by Claire Wilcox, pg 40
[7] www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Westwood
[8] The Golden Age of Couture Paris and London 1947-57, V&A Edited by Claire Wilcox

[9] IBID