The (Old) New Look
After covering Dior’s Winter collection based on his 1947 New Look, I thought it might be good to look back and check out what exactly the New Look WAS. Dior’s 1947 collection made a more significant impact on fashion history than any other single collection. The world was coming out of WWII, and for years women had been suffering under fabric rationing, scarce clothing and an austere wartime aesthetic. Suddenly the war was over, the country was celebrating, and women were free to go back to super-feminine fashions with as much material as they wanted.
Dior was in the right place at the right time, and on Feb 12th, 1947, he stunned Paris with a return to the Belle Epoque. Full skirts with upwards of ten yards of fabric (later versions would use up to 80 yards in a single skirt), wasp waists, and soft shoulders matched with curve-hugging fitted jackets were nearly the opposite of the working girls’ wartime outfits. And, as working girls were returning in droves to the home as the boys came back from war, his timing could not have been more flawless. A faltering Paris fashion industry found themselves swamped with orders, and the modern fashion industry began to emerge.
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Tags: Christian Dior, New Look
January 21st, 2009 at 11:17 AM
I adore old New Look fashions. I don’t care how impractical skirts that full are.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 PM
I love the look but have a really hard time getting into Dior’s New Look stuff. Dior was a huge misogynist and while the looks he made and sold were beautiful and well made, the attitude he sold, he sold it so well that he knocked women back into the kitchen for another two decades. So… i can’t say I’m a huge fan even though i’ve seen many of his garments from the era close up (the Chicago History Museum actually has a great collection of original Dior garments from the late 40′s and early 50′s in their study collection) and can attest to their absolute technical and aesthetic glory.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 AM
Elegant and pretty : I love ^-^