fashionsfromhistory:Evening DressJohn Cavanagh1959The METOkay, this is awesome. Let me tell you why
fashionsfromhistory:Evening DressJohn Cavanagh1959The METOkay, this is awesome. Let me tell you why this is awesome.It’s got a sack back. That extra fabric just dangling from the shoulder serves basically no purpose except as conspicuous consumption–”Look how much fabric I’m using!” The last time sack backs were popular was in the 18th century, when fabric was EXPENSIVE. Rich women would put sack backs on their clothes basically as a way of pointing how out much they could afford to spend:So why would there be a sack back in the mid-20th century? Because during WWII, fabric and clothes were super expensive because of rationing. In fact, when Elizabeth II got married, some people actually sent her their clothing ration coupons to make sure she could afford a nice dress to be married in! (She sent them back with many thanks.) Skirts, in particular, were not very full because you couldn’t get much fabric for them.When the “new look” came in from Christian Dior in 1947, part of the reason it was so revolutionary was because the skirts were so FULL: they used a lot of fabric! It was a big shout of “The war’s over–LOOK HOW MUCH CLOTH I CAN WEAR NOW!!”Although the sack back dress that started this little jaunt through fashion history was from 1959, that joy in having lots of fabric appears to still have been going strong. The sack dress of the 1950s was a continuing, albeit possibly subconscious, rejoicing in the fact that you could use unnecessary fabric if you wanted to, because rationing was over. -- source link
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