#40s suit style

[resplendentoutfit]

1940s Fashion History Mini Lesson

The 1940s were, of course, marked by World War II and the sacrifices and rationing that were enacted. War shortages applied to many products, including fabric. Women were told to "make do and mend".

This photo depicts hemlines being measured in the name of austerity, not modesty. Designers who dared create and showcase floor-length gowns were met with protest and even picketing.

By the start of the war, silks and satins were reserved for war purposes. Gone were the sleek, bias-cut gowns trailing the dance floor. Instead, the simple, minimally adorned utility suit became the woman’s uniform. The uniform was characterized by its boxy look, a nipped waist, padded shoulders, and the hem just below the knee.

Even bridal and special occasion women's clothing was in the suit style, though of whatever finer fabric than wool was available for purchase with ration coupons. And, perhaps whatever was available as embellishments.

The Vogue, January 15, 1942 issue contained this quote about the suit uniform:

"A suit to work in, serve in, live in, all through the busy daylight hours of your new double-duty life”.

By 1947 Christian Dior opened his Paris store and revealed a new silhouette. The Dior "New Look" was dubbed Carolle” or “figure 8,” a name that described well the prominent shoulders, accentuated hips, and small waist, as seen in the outfits above.

[crazycometspecular]

Bit of design tampering

[no ill intentions]

[noxious-fennec]

Trying out some new designs (aka playing dress up)

[everythingisahoax]

Christy Turlington classy as hell in 1993.

[histonics]

[esleep]

i just had the most crystal-clear, narratively coherent dream i've had in a while and i NEED to write it down before i forget it. i dreamed that while on a camping trip i discovered a doorway to a world of intelligent, talking, semi-anthropomorphic animals. they walked upright but otherwise looked the same as their mundane counterparts, besides the fact that they wore clothes, and the fact that some of them were considerably larger than a regular member of their species (they all towered over me, however i am quite short irl so i'm used to that).

i made friends there and returned repeatedly over the next few weeks so i could visit with my good friends Elk and Tiger and Wolf and Rabbit (there were a couple others as well but i can't recall them all clearly enough to describe them). we would often sit in Elk's sunny dining room with the windows open while we chatted and had tea, or sometimes we'd take my van (in the dream i had a large van i sometimes camped out of) out of Elk's neighborhood and to a scenic spot in the woods for a picnic. it was lovely - all my new animal friends were good company with distinct and unique personalities.

there were also regular animals inhabiting this world. they were referred to as "cousins" of my intelligent friends, and while i was in the company of my friends, i knew i had nothing to fear even from the wild wolves and bears that roamed the woods. they would simply observe us curiously as they passed by.

after i had been visiting a while, i learned that there was another human who knew about this place. his name was something like Galarian or Galadon or something similar, it's a bit fuzzy. he lived full-time in the animal world, and he was something of a boogeyman to all my friends. he was a scientist who performed horrible experiments on "cousin" animals in the secluded laboratory he'd set up in this world, trying to figure out how to turn them into their "intelligent" versions like Dr. Moreau - so far without success, according to my friends. still, the mention of him sent a visible shiver down Elk's back.

one day, while we were picnicking in the woods, we noticed a "cousin" wolf in the distance running straight at us. my friends observed its movements with concern for a moment, then urged me to pile into the van with them as quickly as possible, leaving behind all our adorable picnic supplies. just as we closed the door behind us, the wolf reached us and slammed into the van so hard it rocked. the wolf was making horrible snarling sounds, muzzle dripping with lathered drool that it smeared across the windows as it circled us, testing every possible entrance and snapping its jaws horribly. my friends and i bunched together inside the crowded van and quivered in fear until the wolf finally gave up. we watched it ragefully destroy our picnic, and then at last it ran off into the wilderness. Tiger advised me to leave the picnic stuff behind - it was contaminated now - and head back into town.

the next part i remember is all of us gathering at Elk's house, talking quietly about the situation. all the lights were kept off, and gray clouds obscured the sunlight that normally streamed in through the front windows, so it was quite dark inside for our somber conversation. my friends told me there was a virus that would make animals go mad, and they were starting to see it appear more and more frequently. they weren't sure if it was the evil scientist's doing, or some kind of natural phenomenon, but either way they told me to be cautious and avoid traveling alone. they weren't sure what the virus would do to a human, but they didn't want to take any chances.

as we were gathered in the dining room, i noticed a Deer wearing a ripped, mussed-looking suit wandering dazedly in front of Elk's house. i pointed him out just as he noticed us through the windows, and then the same mad fire lit in his eyes as he launched himself toward the house. my friends and i immediately jumped to lock the front door and close all the windows we had half-opened to admit the breeze. just like the cousin wolf had, this Deer battered at the windows roaring and snarling, leaving streaks of foamy drool behind, before finally running off in frustration.

there's a big chunk here at the end that's fuzzy, but i do recall going on a mission to find out if the evil scientist knows about the virus or if he even may be the cause. as we observed his laboratory we learned that he actually had a couple of intelligent animals working for him, a Bear and another Tiger (not my friend Tiger, a different one). as we watched, they brought him a vial of what looked like spit and told him it was a "sample", which my friends and i took as evidence that the scientist was only just now learning about the virus and planning to study it. we all deemed this a bad thing and started making plans to raid his laboratory when i woke up.

upon awake reflection, this is clearly just rabies. i should've introduced them to the miracle of vaccination and been the hero who stopped a rabies outbreak in furryland.

[alcibiade-0]

[lylethewaterguy]

I’m gonna (attempt to) sew my own Hal Jordan flight suit cosplay, but I don’t know what style I should go for (any alteration suggestions are very welcome)

[monkeyssalad-blog]

1948 fashion illustration by Fenton by totallymystified Via Flickr: For the article Guide For The Bridegroom. From Esquire magazine.

[thestylesplash]

Slouchy Floral Print Suit + Style With a Smile Link Up

I’m running behind with all things blog and social media related this week…a whole day late with the link up! Yesterday I just ran out of steam and had to park it. I think all the gardening I did on Monday and Tuesday caught up with me! (BTW, these garden waste bags are brilliant for when the green bill is full – we filled them several times over). I bought the matching jacket shortly after the…

[roccinan]

It seems that the fashion sense of Andrés (spin off) and Berlin (LCDP) are totally different things

I feel the same way, anon asdfasdf in @spiny-norman's words, "he would not wear that."

[horrorwebs]

good goth stores in greenwich village? specifically looking for boots

[endershit]

ALSO i imagine candys dress to be like a raven??? crow?? idk what is the correct name in english but armin said he likes them and my candy also likes them so i imagine her dress smt like this plis tell me you see my vision

[gingerblivet]

The writers on The Nanny really nailed this joke

eXCUSE ME???????????????????????

[mewpirate]

Dunno for some reason but like on the cast and crew prompt I intentionally tried to make Melrose resemble a Barbie and Janice similar to a sesame street puppet 😢

Lowkey just wanting a more kiddish / childlike show style that's supposed to be more nostalgic but idk how to achieve it

I'm mass producing slop left and right , my art is the definition of literal slop being spewed out

[hellotailor]

armand’s costumes are such an interesting data point re: his nebulous sense of identity.

when analyzing any costume, there are always many factors to consider: the setting, the character’s personal taste and economic constraints, storytelling concerns like tone and genre, etc. with armand, we also need to remember that he’s 500 years old and violently disconnected from his human origins. everything he wears has an element of disguise, selected to blend into a new environment.

armand was enslaved as a child in 16th century delhi, and barely remembers his mortal life. unlike louis - who can return to new orleans after 80 years and reconnect with his past - armand has no home to return to. his whole backstory, even his name, is rife with traumatic subtext, leaving him with an obsessive need for structure and control. this adds an extra layer of meaning to costuming choices that initially seem like straightforward menswear. 

armand’s 1940s wardrobe is very put-together - primarily three-piece suits and coats that make him look wealthier and more formal than louis, who is purposefully dressing down. most of these outfits are tailored to bulk up armand's frame, leaning into the "maitre" persona. and like his business-casual dubai wardrobe, he always leaves his collar open. when i interviewed costume designer carol cutshall, she described this as a symbolic power move, signalling that he's an apex predator who doesn't need to protect his throat.

my personal interpretation is that while armand clearly likes to look good, he has a complicated relationship with attractiveness. he doesn't always want to draw attention. his color palette is shadowy (black, grey, brown, olive green), and he’s much less flashy than the other Théâtre vamps. however when he’s feeling confident and flirty, he becomes more of a power-dresser - for instance his hunting outfit with the big coat and sunglasses, or his habit of wearing kohl.

interestingly, most of armand's 1940s costumes set him apart from the coven. the Théâtre vampires dress like cabaret performers, embracing a lot of period-specific styles. by contrast armand is more timeless and neutral. in fact, due to the relatively minor changes in men's suits over the past 100 years, there's a lot of overlap between his wardrobe in the 1940s, '70s and 2020s:

the rest of the Théâtre squad share an unofficial uniform of boldly clashing monochrome patterns with pops of bright color. meanwhile armand has a very plain wardrobe, emphasizing the image of him as a businesslike authority figure surrounded by zany artistes. he only wears subtle stripes on a few occasions in the '40s, reflecting the recurring prison motif we see in lestat's trial suit and (most famously) the dubai penthouse bedroom:

if we ask the question, "what does this person like to wear?" there are easy answers for lestat, louis and claudia. we understand their tastes, and the motives behind them. but armand is more enigmatic. we can recognize through-lines in his wardrobe, but his "taste" is dominated by whatever role he's currently decided to embody, whether that's a parisian theater director or a real estate mogul in dubai.

the times when he appears to have the most fun with clothing are when he steals a pair of sunglasses from his human dinner (!) and when he's pretending to be rashid. in other words, when he's explicitly performing for an audience. "real armand" is still a mystery.

(i may write more about armand's dubai wardrobe later, but for now, you can find all of my iwtv costumes posts on this tag!)