The 1950s | The 1960s | The 1970s | The 1980s
Emerging from a long and bitter war, the countries of the western world looked forward with optimism to what was seen as a very promising future. The focus quickly fell on the baby-booming family - for the husband the goal was find secure employment and so provide a happy, comfortable home environment for his young family to grow up in. For the woman, it was to get married, have children and become a good housewife; these were the measures of success.
This focus on building a happy family contributed greatly towards the conservatism of the 1950s. Television culture began arriving in Australian homes in the latter years of the decade, and the American family way of life reflected protrayed in the majority of early programmes, like I Love Lucy (left) and The Honeymooners, reflected the ideals of the time on both sides of the Pacific. Movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, and Elvis Presley introduced a smoldering sex appeal that lay just below the surface during this conservative decade.
The post war boom provided a sense of economic optimism and heralded an era of intense consumerism. New gadgets and gizmos proclaimed the future was here and liberated women from many onerous household tasks. Homemaking, it seemed, was not so bad when you had electric stoves, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and the like. Women could now concentrate on making a comfortable home for their families, and still have time to have a life outside of the kitchen.
Clothing
The bright colours that appeared immediately after the war were a reflection of the optimism of the time and a chance to shake off the darkness of the previous half decade. Within a short time, however, security and conservatism became the catch phrases, and this was reflected in a shift from the bright and gaudy, to a more conservative look, particularly for men.
Men's Fashion
1950s fashions for men are often thought of in terms of the Fonz from TV's Happy Days and the movie Grease. Whilst they represent aspect of life in the 1950s, they are very much the exception rather than the rule. The real image of men of that decade is one of uniformity, men conforming to the standard of the day, all attired identically, which is what inspired the book and movie, Man in the grey Flannel Suit.
In 1953 the grey flannel suit began its reign, often in double breasted style. In that same year, President Eisenhower refused to bow to tradition at his inauguration and chose to wear a jacket and homburg with his striped trousers instead of the usual top hat and cutaway. Looking back on his decision, it could be seen as no more than the choice of a man who wanted more informality and a less rigid way of dealing with ordinary affairs. In reality, it was an early ripple on the surface of what was to become a full scale revolt by the young. Elvis Presley was just waiting in the wings with his blue suede shoes!
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At the beginning of the 1950s men didn't have many workplace colour choices. Dark blue, dark brown and charcoal was the limit of variety for the dress suit. Some time would have to pass before men began to reclaim the sartorial splendor which has been historically theirs. Yes, there were young men at school who looked just like the Fonz, but not many. The average 1950s guy was a conservative fella; if you want to know how men dressed then, you need to think about Ritchie and Mr. C - not the Fonz.
This conservative look was often called "Ivy League" or preppy. The cardigan was a popular style which was chosen for more formal occasions ahead of the "letter" sweater, so popular among athletes. There was some flexibility in casual wear. Shirts often had a semi-sloppy look to them with the shirt tail out. Every kid wanted to be a cowboy. Influenced by the dominance of the TV Western, they all went a little Yehaw. Fashion adapted nicely to the "home on the range" look, even in Australia in the pre-television days (before 1956). Davy Crockett/Daniel Boone-style coonskin caps were all the rage, particularly among kids, and even found their way into many womens' wardrobes.
Pretty In Pink
During the latter years of the 1950s, pink was the 'in' colour. Bathroom vanities and tiles, carpets, walls, concrete paving, cars - everything was coloured pink. Men began wearing pink shirts and ties, pink carnations (with a white sports coat) ... anything pink. Wild! The ultimate car to drive was a pink Cadillac, which is why Elvis Presley bought one for his first set of wheels in March 1955. A pink and white 1954 Cadillac, it provided transportation for Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys for about three months. The car went up in smoke when a brake lining caught fire in June 1955. Elvis had roof racks fitted to carry the Blue Moon Boys' equipment. During his lifetime Elvis bought three more pink Caddys.
Right: Elvis Presley's second pink Cadillac parked outside his Graceland mansion after he moved there in the Spring of 1957. Though he owned and gave away many different kinds of cars to friends and total strangers, this 1955 pink and white Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special (originally blue in colour) is said to have been his favourite and the one car he never sold or gave away. Elvis bought it for his mother (although she never drove) in July 1955. According to Art, who lived next door to Elvis in Lamar Avenue, Memphis, at the time, he made the pink paint for Elvis and is the only one who knows the formula, he named it "Elvis Rose." On 2nd September 1955, the car sustained $1,000 worth of damage in an accident just south of Texarkana. The top of the car was painted white around March 1956. The car has become one of the ultimate icons of Elvis and the 1950s, and it is arguably the most famous car in the world from the 1950s.
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Dior 'New Look' casuals
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Women's fashion
Social events became the norm and all required dressing up. For those women who liked going out in style, Christian Dior's 'New Look' was a major fashion influence, as was the conservative elegance of Coco Chanel. Charles Jourdan introduced a new kind of shoe style, the stiletto heel, in 1951. The goal quickly became to have the slimmest possible heel, eliminating earlier "chunky" styles. The pump was the basic shoe, but its toes might be cut, the vamps curved or cut in enticing 'V's, or the heels molded into a variety of shapes. Every colour of the rainbow was used; shoes were intended to match an outfit perfectly.
Fashion icons: stiletto heels
The Bikini
The most revolutionary clothing invention of the 1940s - the bikini - had the greatest impact on women's fashion in the 1950s. Simply defined, the bikini is an abbreviated two-piece swimsuit with a bra top and bottoms cut below the navel. Broadly defined, the bikini represented a social leap involving body consciousness, moral concerns and sexual attitudes, and pre-empted all that the revolutionary 1960s had in store. In the 1950s, the bikini was worn mainly by movie stars and the teenage girls who emulated them; it was frowned upon as inappropriate beachwear by adult women who continued to wear the one-piece bathing suit to the beach or the local swimming pool. More ...
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Poodle skirt |
Skirts
In the 1950s, pink was the 'in' colour, and was the most popular colour for the poodle skirt. A 1950s fashion icon, the poodle skirt is a wide swing skirt with a poodle appliqued or transferred onto the fabric. Poodle skirts were very popular among teenage girls and became the standard outfit when a "smart casual" dress code was requested. Poodles were not the only items used to adorn these skirts, they are just the best remembered. Another popular skirt was the circle skirt, which were cinched in the waist, with pleats and A-line flaring.
Christian Dior's New Look
The "New Look" was born in 1947, created by Christian Dior. It was a backlash from World War II's stringency, and was typically defined by a generous use of luxurious fabrics, a wasp-waisted silhouette with widely flared skirts. Not content with enhancing the proportions of the body, however, Dior effectively set out to remould and idealise them. Waists were boned in, breasts uplifted and pushed out, long hemlines, narrow shoulders and closely fitted bodices, and full, crinolined skirts were distinctive features.
Wonen's suits
In contrast to the full skirt New Look, Chanel who had re-opened her fashion house in 1954, began to produce boxy classic suit jackets and slim skirts in braid trimmed nubbly highly textured tweeds. Fabrics were sometimes designed by the textile artist Bernat Klein. The silhouette was straight down and veered away from a nipped in waist. The beautifully made suits were lined with lovely silk fabrics and weighted along the facing join and inside lining with gilt Chanel chains. The look was easy to copy and very wearable. Major chain stores sold suits based on the design. Accessorised with strings of pearls the style has frequently been revived over the seasons and collarless coats and jackets are now called Chanel line.
Fashion accessories
Men: cuff links; shoestring ties; leather driving gloves; bow ties; shell, bone and horn bracelets and rings; cowboy-style clothing and accessories; coonskin Davy Crockett-style fur hats; plaid and tweed Borsalino caps; homburg hats; straw hats (in a variety of styles); folded handkerchieves in the suit breast pocket; double breated suits.
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Tweed Borsalino caps |
Women: Sweetheart bracelets; elbow length jersey gloves; wooden and plastic bead bracelets and necklaces; gecko-shaped jewellery; pearl ear rings and necklaces; hair clips; hair slides; hair bands; hair bows; hair combs; hair ribbons; tapestry purses; scarves; matching hats, purses, belts and gloves; cherry red lipstick; square carved shell bags; straw hangbags, baskets and hats; wooden flower sandals; shell inlay sandals; sequin bags; brocade boots and shoes; shell, bone and horn bracelets and rings; decorative eyes glasses; fishnet stockings and suspenders; gaucho hats. The pointed pre-formed conically stitched bra actually became a fashion accessory, as without one the sweater girl look was certainly not right.
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Combine pony tail holder and hair bow |
Eyewear
One unexpected facial accessory of 1950s was spectacles. Fleetingly popular, these glasses were inlaid with diamante or scattered glitter dust. The exaggerated wings at the outer corners flared in the style of butterfly wings, which arched upward in twirls and could be studded with rhinestones. Dame Edna Everage later took the fashion accessory and made it her own.
Hats
Hats added the final touch of 1950s glamour to a woman or girl's outfit, particularly in the decade's early years. Last year's dress or suit could be updated easily with a new hat or a fresh ornament such as flowers, an autumnal bunch of acorns and leaves, or a bunch of cherries. Balenciaga had first shown the pillbox and it became the hat of the 1950s and later the hat of the 1960s when it was greatly favoured by Jackie Kennedy. The pillbox often had veiling attached as shown below.
In the mid 1950s, glorious hat styles covered less in plumage and more in floral blooms appeared. Some designs consisted solely of bomb like shapes covered with flower petals, almost like a more full blown version of the swimming cap. Later, hats consisted of folds of tulle, organza, nets or swirls of georgette. Other simple hats included neat beret varieties and also knitted beret hats with tassels or pom-pom. The Jester 4-cornered beret hat was made of felt and velvet and available in a riot of glorious colours.
The head hugging Baker Boy beret was in a fabric called suedeen and jersey. Hats began to lose favour in the late 1950s as they were unsuitable for the new hairstyles. Women spent more time at the hair salon and the last thing they wanted to do was spoil their latest hairdo with a hat. Fashionable hairstyles began with simple ponytails and ended the decade with complex beehive arrangements. Milliners could have designed hats more suitable for the new fuller bouffant hairstyles, but they failed to see the possibilities and designs continued as before, and they lost the market for hats eventually.
Men wore hats in the 1950s. Not sometimes; all the time. There was some variation as to style, but no man was considered dressed unless a hat adorned his head.
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Jester hat |
Cosmetics
In the 1950s, colour films made an enormous impact on cosmetics. The huge cinema screens illuminated the unblemished appearance of stars and caused the make up artist Max Factor to invent an everyday version of the foundation he used called "Pan Cake". This was a makeup to gloss over skin imperfections. He also brought out a range of eye shadows and lipsticks which helped create the 1950s glamour.
Later in the 1950s titanium was added to tone down the brightness of products and this resulted in lips with a pale shimmering gleam. Magazines taught step by step how to use recently introduced lip brushes and young girls began to blend and mix their own lip colours often having first blotted the lips out with Max Factor Pan Cake make up. The idea was extended to create frosted nail varnishes of pink, peach, silver and a host of other colours.
In the late 1950s the make up company Gala introduced pale shimmering lipsticks with added titanium. Later Max Factor brought out a colour called Strawberry Meringue which was a pastel pearly pink. They really caught at a time when young girls were frowned upon if they wore brazen red lips, so the softened pink and peach colours were acceptable initially to parents and then became a trend. As the decade ended, Vogue magazine had started to coordinate the colours of the season's latest clothes with those of the cosmetics on offer. Eventually all the make-up houses followed, producing ranges that picked up colour changes.
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Gloves
Gloves were worn everywhere in the 1950s and completed a woman's grooming. Without gloves she was not properly accessorised. Gloves were also the hallmark of a lady - white or cream were the most favoured colours. Gloves worn in other colours were usually made of cotton as this was more affordable than leather gloves or the newer nylon, and they could be washed very easily. Even so, many women owned a special pair of leather gloves, sometimes referred to as Gauntlet Gloves. Dents and Pittards were popular glove names, but women could also make their own gloves using a McCall's pattern. The formality of wearing gloves even continued into the 1960s with interesting cut out peephole variations in the popular stretch nylon and designed almost like a golfing glove. By the 1970s, gloves had functional use only, being worn mainly for keeping the hands warm.
Furs
Fur trimmings abounded and adorned collars and cuffs as well as being made into brooches. Stoles were worn on every occasion; they too could be of fur, but were just as likely to be of lace or a silky fabric.
Bags
Bags in the 1950s were literally handbags and were usually held by the hand or over the arm in a manner following Grace Kelly. Many handbags had side pockets or even grip clasps or rings for a woman to keep track of her gloves. Larger bags to hold possessions were also popular when women travelled using public transport. They could keep all their essentials with them as very few women realistically had regular car access in those days. Bucket bags and raffia bags were also useful accessories as winkle picker stiletto shoes were not so comfortable. Often a pair of flat shoes lurked in the bags out of necessity just in case entrance was forbidden. Carpet was not universally used then in buildings and many floors of the period were linoleum or wood tiled, which stilettos indented easily.
Shoes
Early 1950's shoes were often very high, but with rounded or peep toes and low cut front uppers and sometimes had sturdy Cuban heels. Strapped sandals with finer heels were popular as were heavier thicker heels for lower shoes, but by the mid fifties kitten heels and metal tipped steel stiletto heels replaced styles that owed more to designs that had been brought out to compliment the New look of 1947.
Charles Jourdan introduced a new kind of shoe style, the stiletto heel, in 1951. As time went on the goal was 
for the slimmest possible heel, eliminating earlier "chunky" styles. The pump was the basic shoe, but its toes might be cut, the vamps curved or cut in enticing 'V's, or the heels molded into a variety of shapes. Every color of the rainbow was used; shoes were intended to match an outfit perfectly. Saddle shoes (above right), penny loafers (left) and colored sneakers were popular with bobby-soxers (a term intially used to call fans of Frank Sinatra, who were mostly teens). Sandals, ballet slippers, and other casual footwear became increasingly fashionable, as casual outdoor activities became popular, particularly pool and beach parties.
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Teen fashion
Prior to the 1950s, what are today known as teenagers did not have a name tag, and so were more often than not descriptively referred to as either adolescents or young people. The term 'teenager' was coined in the mid-1950s, and appears to have originated as a marketing term used by clothing manufacturers to identify a new, niche market for their products - the flood of sons and daughters of post-war mums and dads who were now entering high school and about to become consumers in their own right. To anyone who had anything to sell, be it clothing, food, records, movies, entertainment, or anything else for that matter, teenagers became the focus of their activities and the focal point of this era. Films such as Rebel Without a Cause were influential in how teenagers dressed. leather, denim jeans and sneakers helped create the look.
A common term for teenage girls, particularly in America, was "bobbysoxer". They were so named after the type of socks that became fashionable for girls in their teens to wear. Bobby socks are characteristically ankle-length and frilly, and worn by girls often as part of a school uniform. They were popular to wear with saddle shoes or loafers. Bobby socks, poodle skirts, frilled blouses and penny loafer shoes were the standard in "smart casual" attire for teenage girls in the 1950s.
Umbrellas
The long slim umbrella was available in many bright colours. Almost as if to match the spindly heel, umbrellas were elongated with huge steel spikes and many a woman considered a furled umbrella as protection from attack when walking home late at night. Many a floor was ruined by stiletto heels and umbrellas. The main problem was caused by the stilettos being metal tipped as economy conscious post-war Britains preferred the longer life of steel than rubber tips, despite the click clacking irritating noise they made. Stilettos became banned in many buildings and remain banned in National Trust properties and stately homes around Britain.
Beatniks
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The Beatnik culture, inspired by authors such as Jack Kerouac, was in vogue in the 1950s. The Beatnik included oversized chunky long sweaters with huge cowl collars worn over slim fitting pencil skirts or slacks with stirrups. Men wore circular or semi-circular pencil beards. The girls usually had a French pleat hairstyle or showed the start of a beehive. Wearing all black or light grey was a favourite choice for beatniks. Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver), Dobie Gillis' best friend on the TV sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, was the first Beatnik on television and remains the most famous Beatnik in history.
Hairstyles
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- poodle style |
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- French ponytail |
Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) |
- Poodle style - The poodle dog was 'the' fashion accessories of the rich and famous in the 1950s, so it stands to reason that a haqirstyle matching that of one's pooch would not be inappropriate, if not an essential.
- French braid/French plait/French twist - a classic "updo" in which long hair is gathered into a ponytail, then twisted together, and finally tucked and pinned together along the length of the roll.
- Bob Cut - a style popularised by actress Audrey Hepburn (below).
- Ponytail - as depicted in the movie, Grease, it was popular among teens.
- Crew cut -similar to buzz, originally worn by college rowers in the 1900s to distinguish themselves from football players, who had long hair.
- Short back and sides - a popular boy's haircut, often part of the high school dress code.
- Pageboy - often with Bangs. The Pageboy style evolved into the Beehive for women and Mop-Top Beatles' style for men in the early 1960s.
- Perm, or "permanent wave".
- Pompadour - big wave in the front, named for Madame de Pompadour aristocratic fashion leader of pre-Revolutionary France. Elvis Presley and James Dean (below) had one.
- Side-part - hairstyle where the hair is, instead of being parted in the middle, parted on the side.
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- bob cut |
- pompadour |
- permanent wave |
Barbara Eden |
Fashion Icons
Movers and Shakers in Entertainment
- Frank Sinatra
- Elvis Presley
- Frankie Avalon
- Buddy Holly
- James Dean
- Paul Newman
- Steve McQueen
- Marilyn Monroe
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Frankie Avalon |
Buddy Holly |
Elvis Presley |
Movies that mirror the fashions of the 1950s
- Rebel Without A Cause
- Grease
- American Graffiti
- Blackboard Jungle
- The Wild One
Motoring
While the Sunbeam Mixmaster and the new electric pop-up toaster was foremost in the minds of the housewife, owning a motor car became the focus of the breadwinner. Before the war, the idea of owning a motor vehicle was little more than a dream for most, but for the post war family, it became almost as important as owning a house, and they worked had to make the dream a reality. Immediately after the war, the choice of vehicles was limited to re-worked versions of models available before the war, but before too long a new range of basic but affordable cars hit the streets. In Australia, they were nearly all small four cyclinder vehicles - the Volkswagen (nicknamed krautwagens or Hitler's revenge); the Morris Minor; the Ford Prefect; the Austin A4 and the Triumph Mayflower; predominantly English cars either fully exported from the motherland or exported in pieces and assembled here.
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