1950s American Fashion
1950s American Fashion

Author: Jonathan Walford

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-10-10

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 0747812764

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The 1950s was the first decade when American fashion became truly American. The United States had always relied on Europe for its style leads, but during World War II, when necessity became the mother of invention, the country had to find its own way. American designers looked to what American women needed and found new inspirations for American fashion design. Sportswear became a strength, but not at the expense of elegance. Easy-wear materials were adapted for producing more formal clothes, and versatile separates and adaptable dress and jacket suits became hallmarks of American style. This book follows the American fashion industry from New York's 7th Avenue to the beaches of California in search of the clothes that defined 1950s American fashion.

Fashion in the 1950s
Fashion in the 1950s

Author: Daniel Milford-Cottam

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-05-18

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 1784422045

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More than a footnote to the Second World War, or a foreword to the youth-obsessed exhilaration of the Sixties, the Fifties was a thrilling decade devoted to newness and freshness. The British people, rebuilding their lives and wardrobes, demanded modern materials, vibrant patterns and exciting prints inspired by scientific discoveries and modern art. Despite the influence of glamorous Paris couture led by Dior, home-grown fashion labels including Horrockses and the young Queen Elizabeth's couturier Norman Hartnell had an equally great, if not greater impact on British style. This book, written by an assistant curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, is a fascinating look back to the days when post-war Britain developed a fresh sense of style.

Trickster Travels
Trickster Travels

Author: Natalie Zemon Davis

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2007-03-06

Total Pages: 659

ISBN-13: 1466829303

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An engrossing study of Leo Africanus and his famous book, which introduced Africa to European readers Al-Hasan al-Wazzan--born in Granada to a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco, where he traveled extensively on behalf of the sultan of Fez--is known to historians as Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the pope, then released, baptized, and allowed a European life of scholarship as the Christian writer Giovanni Leone. In this fascinating new book, the distinguished historian Natalie Zemon Davis offers a virtuoso study of the fragmentary, partial, and often contradictory traces that al-Hasan al-Wazzan left behind him, and a superb interpretation of his extraordinary life and work. In Trickster Travels, Davis describes all the sectors of her hero's life in rich detail, scrutinizing the evidence of al-Hasan's movement between cultural worlds; the Islamic and Arab traditions, genres, and ideas available to him; and his adventures with Christians and Jews in a European community of learned men and powerful church leaders. In depicting the life of this adventurous border-crosser, Davis suggests the many ways cultural barriers are negotiated and diverging traditions are fused.

Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1950s
Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1950s

Author: DESIGN MUSEUM ENTERPRISE LTD

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 184091615X

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The Design Museum and fashion guru Paula Reed present Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1950s. The most exciting, influential and definitive looks of one of the most significant decades in fashion! The Design Museum's mission is to celebrate, enterain and inform. It is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to fashion, and carchitecture to graphics. It is working to place design at the centre of contemporary culture and demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance. This beautiful reference work showcases 50 iconic outfits from one of fashion's most influential and exciting decades. From the bombshell glamour of Marilyn Monroe in 'How to Marry a Millionaire' to the immergence of teenage style, via the sculptural forms of Christian Dior's New Look and Balenciaga's double A-Line, it celebrates all of the important looks that revolutionised modern fashion. With Paula Reed's lively and informative text and a wealth of fabulous photography, it is vital reading for design students, collectors of vintage, and everyone who truly loves fashion.

Couture & Commerce
Couture & Commerce

Author: Alexandra Palmer

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780774808262

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The 1950s were the golden years of haute couture, captured by iconic images of glamorous models wearing dramatic clothes. Yet the real women who wore these clothes adapted them to suit their own tastes, altered them to extend their life, and often could not bear to part with them long after the dresses had outlived their use. This gorgeously illustrated book demonstrates why so many of these designs are still in existence and why we are fascinated by them fifty years later. Couture and Commerce investigates how and why postwar couture fashion was important in its own day. The Paris couture houses survived due to the enthusiasm of the North American fashion press and commercial buyers. Alexandra Palmer traces the European haute couture trade with North America by following actual surviving couture dresses from the design house sketch, through the model used in New York fashion shows and as a template for copies and knock-offs, and finally to the consumer. Couture and Commerce is a remarkable mixture of accessible text, color photographs of the original garments, design house sketches and photographs, retailers’ advertisements, and society page images. Weaving together analysis of the clothes and interviews with those who traded, sold, and wore couture, Alexandra Palmer vividly recreates the 1950s fashion world.

The Little Black Dress and Zoot Suits
The Little Black Dress and Zoot Suits

Author: Alison Behnke

Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 0761358927

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Looks at the different modes of dress in America in the mid twentieth century, from every day clothes to high fashion.

1950s Fashion Print
1950s Fashion Print

Author: Marnie Fogg

Publisher: Rizzoli Publications

Published: 2021-06-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 184994587X

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An essential sourcebook of prints from a key fashion decade. The 1950s was the decade when an analytical approach to design, with a lightness and freshness, combined with whimsical imagery and idiosyncratic subject matter. Showcasing hundreds of print designs, this book celebrates the heyday of postwar fashion design. From Lucienne Day and Robert Stewart to Maija Isola of Marimekko, the designs and influences of the print icons of the time are all covered. In addition to finished prints, the book contains exclusive illustrations and original artworks. The major themes of the period are explored, including: narrative and novelty; abstraction, exploring the distorted and attenuated forms used in print; artistic licence and the influence of contemporary art on fashion print; and finally kinetic prints that capture the influence of the era’s ‘mobiles, doodles and spasms’. Each short chapter introduction is followed by a range of illustrations with captions to give provenance and relevance, making this a unique sourcebook for contemporary designers and students.

1950s in Vogue
1950s in Vogue

Author: Rebecca Tuite

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2019-12-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500294372

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A large-scale publication dedicated to the 1950s as captured in the pages of American Vogue. This book is illustrated by fashion’s greatest photographs of that period—the era when the magazine became the cultural force it is today. One of only seven editors in chief in American Vogue’s history, Jessica Daves has remained one of fashion’s most enigmatic figures. Diana Vreeland’s direct predecessor in the role, it is Daves who first catapulted the magazine into modernity. A testament to a changing America on every level, Daves’s Vogue was the first to embrace a “high/low” blend of fashion in its pages and to introduce world-renowned artists, literary greats, and cultural icons into every issue, offering the reader a complete vision of how design, interiors, architecture, entertaining, art, literature, and culture all connected and contributed to refining and defining taste and personal style. Daves profiled icons of American style, from John and Jackie Kennedy to Charles and Ray Eames, alongside Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and Balenciaga creations. Organized in multifaceted, thematic chapters, 1950s in Vogue features carefully curated photographs, illustrations, and page spreads from the Vogue archives (with iconic images as well as lesser-known wonders), and unpublished photographs and letters from Jessica Daves’s personal archives. Revealing a fascinating and hitherto little-explored moment in Vogue history, 1950s in Vogue is a must-have reference for lovers of fashion, photography, and style.

Blueprints of Fashion
Blueprints of Fashion

Author: Wade Laboissonniere

Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited

Published: 1999-01

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 9780764309199

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The most popular 1940s clothing styles were available in patterns for the home seamstress. Companies like Advance, Butterick, McCall and others marketed their patterns to housewives with beautifully illustrated envelopes featuring everything from couture to everyday workclothes, ensembles, sportswear, lingerie, and more. Collectible in themselves, these illustrations also document an era of fashion design.