On aika taas palata muodin ja tyylin vuosikymmeniin. Tällä kertaa vuorossa, ylettömän laiskuuteni johdosta kauan odotettu, 40-luku. Jos 30-luku alkoikin laman kourissa, ei 40-luvun alku ollut juuri sen helpompi sodan melskeessä. Materiaalien puute nosti naisten kekseliäisyyden arvoon arvaamattomaan. Klikkaamalla kuvan isommaksi näet paremmin lukea.

Jo käsitellyt vuosikymmenet löydät täältä:

• 10-luku
• 20-luku
• 30-luku

Ja jälleen kerran pahoittelen viitteiden ja kuvalinkkien puuttumista. Spank me!

IN ENGLISH
Time to return to fashion history. This time its 40’s. If 30’s started in the hands of depression, beginning of 40’s wasn’t easy either. During wartime shortage of materials pushed womens creativity on totally new level. Text in pictures in finnish, short translations under pictures.

Decades I already went through you find here.

• 1910’s
• 1920’s
• 1930’s

And once again apologies for missing links for photos. Spank me!


When war started, women had to go to work to do the jobs of absent men. That caused big changes in fashion and clothing aswell. Women started to seek comfortable and practical clothes outside work aswell. War industry used all natural fibres viscose (rayon) and other synthetic fibres were left for clothing indstry. Nylon stockings disappeared for couple years.

Compared to the elegance of 30’s, 40’s clothing seemed little bit pompous. Shoulderpaddings, heels and hats got bigger and higher. Only milliners had plenty of material for their creations. Hats could be made of newspaper, veil, strips of cloth, flowers, feathers etc. War caused shortage of everything so in many countries use of fabrics and other materials was strictly rationed. Some countries went even further with it and gave orders how long skirt could be and how many pleats you were allowed to have in your clothes.

Fashion was put on ice. Between years 1941 and -45 fashion changed radically. Clothes became more military-styled. Skirts got shorter and tighter. Hats became even more peculiar. Wartime tought people to value good quality and comfortable materials. Ability to sew was also essential when you could buy ready-made clothes only with coupons. Everything was used several times and womens magazines were full of instructions from mending to recycling old fabrics.

After the war women were totally bored with simplicity. Young Christian Dior introduced his Corolle-line which was soon renamed “New Look”. Skirts were full and increased with petticoats. It was very feminine style with laces, ruffles and decorations.
During war mens suits were mainly made of viscose. Unfortunately it wasn’t very warm and got wrinkled easily. Even men had to economize and suits were made without pleats and wests. 30’s zoot-suit took lots of fabric and thats why it was forbidden during war. After the war fashion changed dramatically for men aswell. Materials were luxurious and you could get suits in any colour you could imagine. Expensive handpainted ties became very popular.

After war men were fed up with military clothes and wanted to have something more relaxed. Suits weren’t so formal anymore and you could even see men walking on the streets without their jackets and ties. For first time in history young people were the ones to set the trends and older people followed.


To soften the strict and gloomy style of clothing women wanted their hair to look more feminine. In movies you could see soft curls and wavy locks. Women imitated filmstars’ looks and to create full look they started using hair buns (hair rats) inside hairdo’s. Hair dye was still little bit iffy. Sometimes it could burn the hair off your head.

In 1942 United States quit making cosmetics for two months because material shortage. It created such big fuzz that they had to start manufacturing again. So cosmetics was already considered as a necessity. But in Europe women had to wait for the peace to get theirs.

Make up was supposed to be as natural as possible. Skin tone was natural but matte. Make up was difficult to apply because of bad quality of make up products. Eyeshadows were natural. Liner could be thick but well blended and at that time liner was only on upper eye lid.

Shading under cheek bone was very fashionable at the style of Marlene Dietrich. Blush wasn’t that popular anymore. Lips were full and even enlargened to create full look if it didn’t come by nature. False eyelashes were the only “unnatural” part on make up. They could go all the way to your eyebrows. Sometimes when real mascara wasn’t available women used black shoe polish. Brows were precise, delicate and geometrically curvy.

As a result of shortage of nylon stockings women started to paint their legs. It was even more important than make up on your face. Easiest way was to draw just the seam on the back of your leg but it was tricky to get it straight. Soon they introduced a equipment to make it easier. Some women wanted to paint their whole leg and beauty salons started to offer leg painting services.

Designers and Idols of the decade.