Peterson A.T., Hewitt V., Vaughan H., Kellogg A.T. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through American History, 1900 to the Present. Volume 1: 1900-1949
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and ‘‘five & dime’’ stores proved to be vital resources for fashionable dress
to large segments of the U.S. population throughout the Great Depression.
Even during the Great Depression, the American population was
becoming increasingly mobile, with continued access to and improvements
in the automobile. The automobile allowed rural families, whose only ave-
nue for acquiring fashionable goods had been mail-order catalogs, to
‘‘drive to town’’ and shop for the latest fashions. In response, the mail-
order giant Sears, Roebuck and Company opened their first store in their
Chicago-based mail-order facility in 1925. Sears, a trusted name in rural
areas, was so successful with the first store that seven additional stores
were opened by the end of the year, a fact that inspired Sears’ catalog
competitor Montgomery Ward to do the same. In a time of economic
depression, while many businesses were c losing, by 1933, Sears, Roebuck
and Company operated 400 stores, with store sales exceeding catalog
sales. Mail order, although still a major segment of the retail industry, had
diminished in importance as individuals now had the means, thanks to
the automobile, to view and tr y on fashions first hand.
1940S
Major department stores continued to be popular with consumers. They
were a fixture in American popular culture. Even the 1947 movie Miracle
on 34th Street features the Gimbels department store in New York.
After the war, department stores began a shift in location. They had
traditionally been located in the center of city shopping districts. As
Americans moved out to the suburbs after the war, the department stores
followed their customers. They began building stores in suburban shop-
ping malls, a trend that continued for the remainder of the century.
They carried designer fashions at affordable prices with some custom
tailoring. Line-for-line copies of designer garments were available in
many department stores. They were attractive because women could rarely
afford the originals, which were extremely expensive as a result of import
duties during the war.
Most department stores offered store credit cards to consumers. This
was not a new practice but, in the 1940s, credit card sales began to exceed
the other popular form of credit: installment plans. Credit cards made it
easier for customers to purchase the latest fashions, because they did not
need to save up to afford the latest trend.
Larger stores began to use market research to improve sales in their
stores. They learned through personal contacts what teenage girls wanted.
Special shops and departments were set up within department stores, and
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market research was conducted by hosting panels and discussion groups.
Buyers for major stores began relying on teen magazines and Hollywood.
After the war, women became the main purchasers of the family’s cloth-
ing, even their husbands’ c lothing.
Department, boutique, and specialty stores placed more emphasis on
marketing campaigns and drawing in customers. Easter, Christmas, and
back-to-school campaigns were launched each year with newspaper adver-
tisements. Easter was an especially important clothing buying event,
because the whole family needed appropriate and fashionable clothing and
hats for church on Easter Sunday.
Smaller retailers continued to thrive. These were usually family-run
businesses, and they were located in large and small cities and towns. This
type of retailer included men’s stores, women’s stores, family stores, and
specialty shops.
FASHION COMMUNICATION
1900S AND 1910S
Designer Paul Poiret was not only an innovator of fashion design but also
of fashion communication. He developed inventive new ways to dissemi-
nate his ideas in an age that had limited means of communication com-
pared with the modern day. He hired illustrator Paul Iribe to help him
create fashion booklets called Les Robes de Paul Poiret. He launched fash-
ion shows of his designs at garden parties and theme parties, and he went
on lecture tours across Europe to promote his fashions.
Fashion and ladies’ magazines were a primary form of communicating
fashion to women. They were inexpensive and readil y available to most
American women. Initially, fashions within these magazines were hand-
drawn pictures of several women within an appropriate surrounding, such
as a garden or a parlor. They illustrated several women to show the variety
in styles. When illustrating accessories, the magazines would of ten group
together a variety of the same type of accessory, such as brooches, under-
garments, hats, or fans. Another typical type of illustration isolated por-
tions of a garment. For example, a series of sleeves might be shown. In
the 1910s, it was not uncommon to see additional illustrations of the back
of a garment. These magazines often included articles about fashions in
addition to illustrations. As the century progressed, photographs were
often reproduced in the magazines.
The periodical Women’s Wear Daily was established in 1910 as an out-
growth of the men’s wear publication Daily News Record. Despite its early
Fashion Communication
161
existence, it did not gain prominence until the 1950s and 1960s. Vogue
magazine transformed fashion communication beginning in 1909, when it
was purchased by Conde Nast, and the company slowl y began to grow
the magazine.
Mail-order catalogs and pattern catalogs provided another source of
fashion communication. Both of these featured a variety of details about
fashionable silhouettes, fabrics, and trims. They also were an important
style resource for women who purchased ready-to-wear clothing or made
their own clothing.
During the early years of the twentieth century, the United States’
wealthiest class was a visible and publicized component of American soci-
ety. The elite were often featured in newspapers through both articles and
photographs. When women in the uppermost social circles went to parties
and events, their fashions were often described in social sections of the
newspapers. This provided another helpful resource for women looking
for the most up-to-date fashion information, because the social elite’s
fashions usually came directly from the haute couture designers in Paris.
1920S AND 1930S
The increased popularity of photography and the use of photographs in
magazines increased the pace at which fashion trends were disseminated
across the country and around the world. Rather than illustrations, maga-
zines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Esquire carried photographs of
major social events, society balls, and weddings, including the marriage of
the Prince of Wales to Wallis Simpson in 1937. Photographs were also
incorporated into mail-order catalogs, such as Sears, Roebuck and Com-
pany, that were distributed to the smallest towns in America. Photographs
of Hollywood starlets were also popular to collect and provided clear and
complete details on the latest fashions, hairstyles, and cosmetic trends.
Film stars such as Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, and Joan Crawford even
made appearances in Sears catalogs, endorsing the latest fashions available
for the mass market (Blum 1981, 2).
Another new medium, film, also played a pivotal role in fashion com-
munication in the 1920s and 1930s. Movie houses, or cinemas, opened
across the United States, in large cities and small towns, where new mov-
ies, first black and white and later color, were virtually simultaneously
released in New York City and Smallville. Going to ‘‘the shows’’ was a fa-
vorite pastime of young and old, all of whom were immediately and
directly influenced by the fashions and mores projected on the silver
screen. Whereas the 1920s films paved the way for women to drink,
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dance, smoke, and wear make-up, the 1930s films attempted to mask the
economic struggles engulfing the American economy. Plot lines involving
champagne and ballroom dancing transported moviegoers from their diffi-
cult routines during the Great Depression through glamorous gowns, tux-
edos, and top hats.
Before each screening, cinemas also ran newsreels to bring political
and social news to every town. Newsreels became another source of fash-
ion information by taping ‘‘real people,’’ especially Hollywood celebrities
and socialites, attending sporting and social events. The fashions seen in
the newsreels were perhaps even more influential than those in the films,
because the newsreels depicted how people really dressed and looked, not
how characters were stylized for a movie plot.
Building on the popularity of the ‘‘PB,’’ or Professional Beauties, of
the Gibson Girl era, an American icon was established in the 1920s: Miss
America. The first Inner-City Beauty Pageant was held in 1921 in Atlan-
tic City, New Jersey, and was renamed Miss America the following year,
Beauty contests began to be popular in the early 1920s. Here, four beauty contest
winners, at Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, DC, 1922. [Library of
Congress]
Fashion Communication
163
in 1922. Miss America became a standard bearer for beauty and fashion,
and the photographs and newsreels of the event were seen across the
country, influencing women’s fashions and social conduct. In an era
marked by increased autonomy amongst women, the pageant caused out-
rage and protest by some who considered the display of the female form
indecent. By 1928, the Miss America Pageant was discontinued, but, in
response to the despair of the Great Depression, the pageant was reborn
in 1933, once again broadcasting beauty and fashion ideals for women
around the country through both photographs and newsreels.
Improvements in air travel in the 1920s and 1930s increased the mo-
bility of Americans. Cross-continent and transatlantic flights opened the
door to holiday travel and airmail service for magazines, postcards, and
letters, both of which helped to decrease the time required for a fashion
trend to move from Paris to New York and vice versa. The prosperity of
the 1920s increased travel in the United States and Europe, a trend that
continued for those with the economic means in the 1930s. The world
was becoming smaller, and the lag time in the dissemination of fashion
trends from Paris to New York to Smallville was decreasing exponentially
with each passing year.
1940S
The Nazis censored fashion magazines, which was a primary fashion com-
munication vehicle. So Hollywood and American periodicals picked up
where the fashion magazines left off.
In the United States, Mademoiselle, Woman’s Day, and Vogue continued
publication. They inc luded plentiful images and articles about fashion.
Copies of these magazines were often shared among women.
Hollywood, which served as a welcome distraction during the war,
had a profound influence on the fashion of the 1940s. Unlike women’s
magazines, Hollywood influenced not just women’s fashions but fashions
for everyone in the family and every ideal.
Young girls wanted to look like Shirley Temple as she grew up from
toddler to young lady. Young starlets such as Judy Garland, Gene Tierney,
and Myrna Loy gave teenagers an image to copy. The wholesome yet so-
phisticated look of Lauren Bacall and Grace Kelly kept pace with the
pinup selections of Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe.
Men had their silver screen models as well. Fred Astaire and William
Powell showed men how to dress stylishly. Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck, and
Humphrey Bogart established ideals for men as well. Movie stars were
featured on posters, billboards, calendars, and pinups.
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Movie studios had aggressive publicit y departments that ensured that
their stars were well covered in the media. They staged photo opportuni-
ties that gave the stars more exposure. The clothes that stars wore both
onscreen and offscreen became an interest of American women. Fan mag-
azines, which featured photos of popular stars, were well read by much of
America.
The costume designers from movies retained prominence and influ-
ence during the 1940s. Most had established themselves by the 1930s, but
continued to costume Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1940s. Travis Ban-
ton clothed Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami (1941), Rita Hayworth in
Cover Girl (1944), and Merle Oberon in A Song to Remember (1945).
Adrian designed costumes for Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year
(1942), the cast of Ziegfeld Girl (1941), and Rosalind Russell in Flight for
Freedom (1943). Walter Plunkett’s notable 1940s design credits include
Summer Holiday (1948) and Joan Blondell in Lady for a Night (1942).
Mail-order catalogs such as Sears, Roebuck and Company and Mont-
gomery Ward were the most popular communication tool for fashion after
Hollywood. Because of WWII, these catalogs often marked pages with
‘‘unavailable’’ as wartime restrictions depleted stock and raw materials.
When women could not get new clothes because of lack of availability or
expense, they consulted pattern books to remake existing garments into
more fashionable ones. McCalls, Butterick, and Vogue produced patterns
that allowed the war-sensitive consumer to create new items out of old
suits and tablecloths.
FASHION TECHNOLOGY
1900S AND 1910S
Fashion technology did not evolve much in the first two decades of the
century. The technological advances of the previous century were becom-
ing more widely used during the 1900s and 1910s. Sewing machines, cut-
ting machines, and sized patterns became commonplace. The industry
had adopted a piecework model of clothing manufacture, in which a
worker only completes one step in the manufacturing process. The repeti-
tion allows the worker to complete the task faster than if she had to tran-
sition from one type of task to another.
Although electricity began to be harnessed in the 1890s, it was not
widely available. In the 1900s and 1910s, electricity was installed in more
areas, and it became important as the power behind the new sewing and
cutting machine technologies. In essence, the new technologies being used
Fashion Technology
165
during this period sped clothing manufacturing and helped make ready-
to-wear clothing more widely available.
1920S AND 1930S
Viscose, renamed rayon in 1925 by the Department of Commerce, was
developed by English scientists in 1891 and manufactured in America by
the American Viscose Corporation in 1910 ( Joseph 1988, 82). However,
it was not until companies such as DuPont and Celanese began producing
viscose between 1916 and 1930 that production levels were sufficient for a
significant volume of apparel production.
Initially dubbed ‘‘artificial silk,’’ garments made from rayon were ini-
tially rejected from both performance standards (they did not withstand
laundering) and a skepticism over anything artificial. During the 1920s,
the performance properties of rayon were drastically improved. The 1920s
was also a period of increased mechanization, whereby mechanical and ar-
tificial items were met with fascination, not resistance. Rayon found par-
ticular favor among working and middle-class women who wanted to
dress like their wealthier counterparts but could not afford to do so. The
need for an inexpensive fabric that could imitate silk was also impor tant
during the 1930s Depression, whereby women wanted glamorous silk
dresses but could not afford silk fabrics.
Acetate, a modified cellulosic fiber , was first produced in 1869 and was
developed for use in apparel in 1904. By 1924, production of acetate had
also reached sufficient levels to support apparel manufacturing demands. Ac-
etate, like rayon, could be woven into ‘‘s ilk-like’’ satins for inexpensive wom-
en ’s evening wear during the 1920s and 1930s. By the late 1930s and early
1940s, experiments with two new man-made fibers, nylon and polyester,
would soon provide even better alternatives than acetate and rayon to silk.
Rayon and acetate both played another important supporting role in
women ’s fashions: undergarments. The new underpants and brassieres, as
well as slips, were made from woven or knitted rayon or acetate and provided
‘‘silky’ ’ smooth undergarments for women’s tubular dresses in the 1920s and
clingy bias-cut dresses in the 1930s. The crinolines, corsets, and bustles of
previous e ras disappeared, as did th e manufacturers, and were replaced by
undergarments that provided natural shaping and support. The new shorter
hemlines in the 1920s also meant that, for the first time in centuries, women
were showing a substantial portion of their legs. Rayon, which could be knit
as well as woven, provided an inexpensive alternative to silk hosiery.
Menswear also underwent a technological revolution in the 1920s and
1930s: zippers. Although zippers were first invented in 1891 (Tortora and
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Eubank 2005, 378), they were not reliable and regularly fell open. Zippers
were improved in the 1920s and 1930s, with new ‘‘locks’’ or catches to
keep the zipper up and closed. With zipper closures secure, they rapidly
replaced buttons on the fly of men’s pants and drawers. Zippers also
became a novelty item and were incorporated into coats and boots.
Technological advances in hat blocking increased the quantity and
quality of mass-produced headwear available in the 1920s and 1930s.
Headwear, an important component of a woman’s wardrobe, was previ-
ously custom made. Hats were carefully fitted and trimmed to the wearer’s
specifications and, because of the great expense, were typically retrimmed
each season. With the popularity of the cloche form of hat, the simple felt
shape could be easily blocked on a form by mechanical equipment.
Because most cloche hats were simply trimmed with hat bands and cock-
ades, new machines were also developed to support the mechanization of
hat decorating. The end result was increased availability of goods and a
lower price point, allowing women to purchase numerous hats rather than
having to retrim a single hat regularly.
1940S
Many new fabrics and uses of material came from the material shortages
and technologies developed during the war. Faced with severe shortages of
leather, Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo used synthetic resins and
cork to produce stylish and colorful wedge-soled shoes. Because leather was
used exclusively for soldiers’ boots during the war, Ferragamo used diverse
materials such as rhodoid from Bakelite, hemp, felt, and raffia.
Artificial fabrics developed during the war led to new sportswear such
as ‘‘drip-dry’’ poplin sport shirts and lightweight quick-drying ‘‘wind
breakers’’ for sailing; waterproofing and lightweight warmth alternatives
to wool made outdoor activities more comfortable.
One of thes e new fibers, nylon, was marketed in 1938 but wa s not
widely used for consumer purposes until after the war. It became a popular
and affordable fiber for stockings, eventually replacing silk as the most com-
mon type of stocking. Also, nylon was widely used in its stiffened form for
the petticoats under the full skirts that characterized the early New Look.
REFERENCES
Baker, P. 1992. Fashions of a Decade: The 1940s. New York: Facts on File.
Blum, S. 1981. Ever y Day Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other
Catalogs. New York: Dover Publications.
Fashion Technology
167
Blum, S. 1986. Every Day Fashions of the Thirties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs.
New York: Dover Publications.
Bordwell, D., and Thompson, K. 2002. Film History: An Introduction. 2nd revised
edition. Columbus, OH: McGraw Hill.
Dolfman, M. L., and McSweeney, D. M. May 2006. 100 Years of U.S. Consumer
Spending: Data for the Nation, New York City, and Boston. BLS Report 991.
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Eyles, A. 1987. That Was Hollywood: The 1930s. London: Batsford.
Joseph, M. 1998. Essential Textiles. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Kaledin, E. 2000. Shifting Worlds: Daily Life in the United States, 1940–1959.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Kellogg, A. T., Peterson, A. T., Bay, S., and Swindell, N. 2002. In an Influential
Fashion: An Encyclopedia of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Fashion Design-
ers and Retailers who Shaped Dress. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Kyvig, D. E. 2002. Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1940. Chicago: Ivan R.
Dee Publisher.
Laubner, E. 1996. Fashions of the Roaring ’20s. Atglen, PA: Schiffer.
Laubner, E. 2000. Collectible Fashions of the Turbulent 1930s. Atglen, PA: Schiffer.
Matanle, I. 1994. History of World War II, 1939–1945. Little Rock, AR: Tiger
Books International.
Mendes, V. D., and De La Haye, A. 1999. 20th Century Fashion. London:
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Milbank, Caroline Rennolds. 1996. New York Fashion: The Evolution of American
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7
Women’s Fashions
Women’s lives changed dramatically during the period from 1900 to 1940.
During the first two decades of the century, women fought for and
won the right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement divided house-
holds and made the role of women a topic of public debate. The ways in
which women acted and dressed was scrutinized and discussed. On one
side of the spectrum, people thought women should maintain a sense of
propriety, dress femininely, and be confined to the private, domestic
world. On the other side, they thought women should express their opin-
ions publicly, dress comfortably in clothing designed for an active lifestyle,
and be part of public life and work.
By the time women won the right to vote, they had brought their suf-
frage arguments to publ ic forums for over sixty years and taken ove r
men’s jobs during WWI. During th e war, women took on many of the
responsibili ties and jobs that men left when they enlisted in the servi ce.
Women’s clothes adapted to meet the nee ds of their more active life-
styles; they became shorter and allowed free movement. They also shed
the confining corse ts that had been an integral part of women’s fashion
for centuries.
The first half of the twentieth century was characterized by a shortage
of materials and suppressed consumerism because of WWI, the Great
Depression, and WWII. WWI resulted in a scarcity of materials for mak-
ing clothing. Manufacturers found themselves with very little wool,
169