What Makes You Choose One Decade Over Another?

[exquisitebones]

I am pretty new to this whole thing, but i was a "rockabilly" kid for a time.
so i guessi jsut always thought 50s..
but diving deeper, and Actually wearing real vintage and stuff, I have found i seem to like 1949-mid 50s..
that y fave hair, clothing, and such.
too bad its such an expensive era to want to recreate.

 

[Lady Day]

**merged thread**

I knew there was a thread on this already

I think there is another one as well....

LD

 

[Sunny]

I've always loved dresses, and the full skirts of the early 1950s were easily my favorite growing up. But my mother gently pointed out that on people with hips like ours, full skirts are somewhat... less than flattering. I must admit that when wearing one, and catching a glimpse of myself in a mirror as a whisked by, the simile "broad as a barn door" easily comes to mind.

So I was stuck for a while, since I knew that I didn't like anything later than the early 1950s. Then I started thinking that the late 1940s would be better for me. Late enough that the nipped waist was there, but the skirts weren't so inflating. I did know that the early 1940s, which my WWII interest steered me toward, were more slender and boyish and I didn't think my generous hourglass would work for that.

After I came to the Lounge, I really started training my eye by reading you ladies' expert opinions, studying photos and catalog drawings, and heavily browsing ebay for originals. I stepped out and bought a couple dresses that were definitely pre-New Look. Lo and behold, although the silhouette is tailored and boyish, the garments are cut to allow for Real Woman hips! I think that although the fashion ideal approaches an Upside-Down Triangle, the garments were allowing for hourglass figures. Garment design widened the upper half and narrowed the lower, but didn't assume the wearer already had that figure. Which is the big problem with modern fashions, and rather off topic in this thread...

So I was tentatively in pre-New Look 1940s up to a couple weeks ago, when I started browsing (shopping) for sewing patterns. Heaven knows why! I have NO time for sewing right now and a piled-up mending basket to address when I do. But suddenly something clicked - It's the late 1930s and very early 1940s styles that I really like. Here's why:

• The skirts have the shortness of the early 1940s, and could have fullness approaching that of the New Look. There's more variation, with gores, pleats, trumpet flares...
• The bodices aren't as long-waisted and conical as New Look bodices.
• There are lots of different sleeve options, from very short and fluttery through very long. Later in the 1940s the 3/4 sleeve becomes ubiquitous without much variation, and although it's pretty, I'm tired of it. It's not terribly practical for either cold weather or hot, either.
• The overall cut is vastly more interesting than anything coming afterward. There is immense variation in ruching and gathering and seaming, just as earlier in the 1930s, when the silhouette is too slender for my figure. They are more feminine in detail than the 1940s wartime dresses. And they are more intricate than New Look garments, which seem to go for overall shape and line rather than detail.

The two things I don't really care for are probably because they remind me of fashions when I was young - the very puffed short sleeves and the exaggerated shoulders. Very puffed sleeves seem to me instantly little-girlish. Fortunately there are plenty of patterns without much or any puff; I suspect it was, as it looks, a quite young fashion. As for the shoulders, I'm blessed with enough width to balance my hips and so far I haven't had any issues. I'll use light ones in coats or jackets or occasionally a dress, and so far I'm avoiding patterns that seem to call for big ones. Oh, and a third thing is the fussiness of some designs. I love intricate detail, but there's a definite line between detail and fuss. Some dresses, particularly the girlish ones, cross that line.

I don't quite hold to the late 1930s in shoe choice; I think that's pretty firmly in wartime 1940s. I need to do some more study about that to make sure, though. I like 1930s shoes, but I like the round peep toe of the 1940s better and always have.

Any more hints on the late 1930s for me, or have I said any inaccuracies? I'm always anxious to learn more.

 

[Sunny]

I knew there was a thread on this already

I think there is another one as well....

LD

I'm sorry, Lady Day. I knew I hadn't seen one, and it never occurred to me to search. I'm still not sure how I would've found it, though.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I love the 1920s and 1930s. More 1930s and more glamourised, romanticised MOVIE visions of that decade. I'm a huge 20s and 30s film buff and get most of my ideas from there. I love over-the-top glamour. While I *do* understand that the real 20s and 30s were *not* the movies, I still see no harm in romanticising a little bit.

The way I actually dress, though, is kind of a generic "old fashioned" style. Maybe "old lady" to some people, but I mix a bit of everything from 20s to the 50s. My hair and makeup are VERY 20s/30s inspired, yet I wear original 1950s cat's eyes glasses!! I like to mix it up.

The 40s is the one decade I tend to do the least with, though. I can't do any of the hairstyles and the clothing does nothing for me. I also don't look good with pale eyes and a big, bright orange mouth! I LOVE the look on others, but I just feel awkward and can't pull it off!

I'd say a lot of my clothing has a 50s flair to it, though it's not my favourite decade by a longshot. It just happens that way because 50s-inspired things are easier to find than 30s-inspired things. And it's either that, or the latest trends lol lol

So that's me. I do it all! I'm hard to place!!

 

[missjo]

I love the late 1930's and early 1940's, the ww2 style in a way.
Here in the Netherlands the fashion during that era was probably much like the general 1930s style in the US.
The US fashion style looks sometimes a bit fifties to us as here things happen a bit later and stood still for a while because of the war.

As an era I like the early 1930s as well but I dont like the flapper fashion or hairstyles.
I prefer the bit of glamour, the suits with long skirts, the hats, long dresses, etc.
As for music, movies, design, I like the thirties as well.
To the era up to and during the war in europe is what I like most.
After the war things are heading towards the fifties fast and im over that era

 

[SFSEAN]

Hello

Oh, I knew what you meant. We each have different styles that make us look our best. I'm just much more the girl next door than the sophisticate or vamp.

Hello. I just recently signed up for this forum and saw your picture. I also am in San Francisco. I am sure there are others, perhaps we could meet at Sams on Bush for a drink. I'd be interested in learning more about where you shop as well. Take care.
Sean

 

[pigeon toe]

I originally got into vintage through looking at 1950's dresses. That was the most accessible to me when I was in high school. I still love 50's for the casual looks (I own about 5 billion plaid button down shirts), but I also like a little glamour now and then!

The 40's is my favorite decade for fashion. I like being able to look put together and ladylike, but still flirty, fun, and beautiful. Although I love the 30's as well, it doesn't have as much of the flirtiness that the 40's does (but that's just me!). I've always loved the pin-up girl look, the mixing of innocent sweetness and vampy sexiness, and I think the 40's captures that perfectly.

Plus, the wedgies! They are the only type of non-casual shoe that I can walk in for more the 2 hours without needing a break. Makes me love the 40's even more!

 

[Lady Day]

I'm sorry, Lady Day. I knew I hadn't seen one, and it never occurred to me to search. I'm still not sure how I would've found it, though.

Oh, no biggie Sunny

Happens to the best of us.


LD

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Why?

I don't know why. In fact the 40s and the 50s can be quite different at times. Those are the decades I pull almost all my clothes from. I love the classy style of the 40s and I also adore the full skirted fun style of the 50s.

I adore 20s hats though I haven't a thing to wear with them.

 

[Mojito]

I love the 20s for so many reasons...

Those wonderful dress designs, that can combine simplicity of line with amazing intricacy of beading, embroidery, etc. In some ways they defy the actual physical build of women, trying to impose a geometric shape on curves, and yet in other ways they gave us so many design elements that are still in use today. Much of how I see it is, of course, influenced by Pochoir illustrations. I'm fascinated by how many online vintage clothing dealers, although they might only carry a handful of items from the 20s, use 20s illustrations in their shops. No wonder, with that gorgeous elegance. Luxurious fabrics, exotics designs, influences like Ancient Egypt and Eastern Culture. Bandeaus worn in the hair, feathers, fans and Mandalian handbags.

It's such an energetic time...and suffused with poignancy. So self-consciously the "lost generation"...a brief moment between the horrors of WWI and the misery of the Great Depression when Flaming Youth were busy burning the candle at both ends.

And I love dancing, drinking, kicking my heels up, jumping into fountains and generally having a good time with good clothes, good music, good company and good liquor. It's the flip side to my occasional crusading idealism...a self-indulgant hedonism. I love high Art Deco - the movement expressed at its apex at the Exposition Internationale des Arts D?©coratifs in Paris in 1925. I love sculpters like Colinet, Preiss and Chiparus and writers like Fitzgerald. Great characters - not just Scott and Zelda, of course, but Duke Ellington, the Murpheys, Josephine Baker and Louise Brooks.

Was it really like that? Not for many. But while we're reimaging the past, I'll choose the Party of the Century, tell the band to strike up the Charleston, roll down my stockings and balance my gin sling and cigarette holder as I take to the dance floor.

 

[goldwyn girl]

The 40's and 50's are my best era's. I have an hourglass figure an find these clothes suit me best. I love 30's evening gowns but there is to much of me to wear them, so I drool from afar. As long as I can remember I have been drawn to the glamour of these era's. The hair and makeup, elegantly dressed women and high heel shoes.

 

[KittyT]

sorry, didn't realize I was posting in the Powder Room!

no worries i think this is better suited to the Observation Bar anyway. i'm curious how the gentlemen weigh in on this as well.

 

[KittyT]

i'm probably in the minority here in that my preferred styles (on myself) are 1950s. i have kind of a thick waist, and even though there's a 10" difference between my waist and hips, i don't really have a true hourglass figure. the full 50s skirts tend to be much more flattering and make my waist look smaller and my figure more feminine overall. i don't have much of a budget for vintage clothing, though my collection grows steadily. it's much easier for me to find affordable vintage 50s that fits than 40s... i'm a modern size 10 and that stuff is just so hard to come by for 1940s garb. there's also a lot more 1950s repro, which suits me just fine.

my favorite styles are those of the 40s, but i just don't seem to be able to wear them well. my favorite hairstyles are 40s, and so are my favorite shoes. i try not to mix and match too much, but in the end it's not a tragedy if i do.

along with the era i'm drawn to being about the clothes that look best on me and are easiest for me to find, i'm really just a rock n roll chick.

 

[Elaina]

I'm the weird one: I don't choose any era over another, I wear what I like from any era.

Admittedly, I have fewer pieces from the 60-80s range, but I do have clothing from then (like a tiered dress ala Cher circa 1970's), and I've gone all the way back to the 1700's.

 

[Cheesecakecutie]

I

started wearing vintage when I was about 16, a combination of it being in a price bracket that suited my student purse, different to what everyone else was wearing (I've never liked looking like my peers) and actually would fit me. Clothes from high street shops just didn't work, I had this tiny 23 inch waist with a, erm, generous chest and hips. I looked like a sack of spuds in most of it. I started off wearing 60's vintage, all minis and shifts but the older I get the further back in time my wardrobe goes.

I too started to wear vintage for the same reasons...i was a 60's mod from 14-17 yrs old beehive the works. I then went through a seventies stage disco queen !

In my early 20's i got my first dress from the early 50's....i was amazed that it fitted me like a glove. I got more frocks from this era and realised that they all fitted me in a way that modern clothes don't. As i too had a large chest and tiny wasit thing going on

Heading towards my 30's i started to collect earlier pieces its like now i'm a proper grown up (if there is such a thing), I am drawn to the more sosphitcated look of the 40's, and some late 30's . But above all this i am a cheese cake cutie pin up kinda gal and this is evident in the way i put it all together.

 

[Shearer]

KittyT, if you're in the minority I'm in there with you!

I LOVE the 50s and everything about them, in all of their kitschy glory Don't get me wrong, I love the 30s and 40s too, and have a few pieces from those eras, but I think I get the best of both worlds in the 50s with the comfy cotton day dresses to the poofy princess skirts on evening wear.

When I was little, I must have seen every episode of I Love Lucy on TV at least three times each. And even though I grew up loving movies from the 30s onward, I think Lucy had a major impact on my fashion subconscious.

 

[KittyT]

I LOVE the 50s and everything about them, in all of their kitschy glory Don't get me wrong, I love the 30s and 40s too, and have a few pieces from those eras, but I think I get the best of both worlds in the 50s with the comfy cotton day dresses to the poofy princess skirts on evening wear.

I totally love the kitschy mid-century thing. Um, my room is painted light pink and black and decorated with old 50s ads and anything having to do with rollerskating back then, especially early roller derby photos, program covers and Skating Vanities stuff too

 

[HadleyH]

1920s all the way!!!

Yep, I'm another gal "in love" with the 20s ( also, early 30s)
It's the whole concept that fascinates me; the short skirt, the boyish form,the straight, long waisted dresses, the evident use of make-up, the pursuit of freedom, the flapper with shingled hair. These 20s women wanted to be -"men's casual and lighth-hearted companions, not mothers of the race but irresponsible playmates"-
The Ballyhoo Years will live forever in my heart!!!

(in my heart and mind only because I don't follow vintage in clothes or hair,I follow it in music, movies, books etc...)

 

[Liz]

I'm another one of the rare '50s/'60s people around here. I do love the decadence and glamour of the '20s and '30s, but could never pull it off myself, so I just admire the movies and stars of those eras! I'm not much of a '40s person, but before anyone gets offended, just think of it this way: none of you will ever have to worry about me bidding on '40s clothes on Ebay! I love the over-the-top femininity of the '50s, as well as much of the '50s pop culture, but I find more and more that the early-to-mid '60s is where my heart really is. I wear my hair in a flip everyday, I'm obsessed with pale pink lipstick (yes, I know most of you are shuddering by this point!) and I wish I had an entire wardrobe of vintage Courr?®ges clothing. I'm on the petite side and much more Gidget than Gilda, so I think this era probably suits me better than any other. I'm also fanatical about '60s pop music, which is probably a major part of why I love the decade so much. I guess I'm just the odd one out around here!