20 Glamorous 1950s Fashion Trends That Deserve A Comeback

The glamorous 1950s silhouette actually got its start a few years before the decade began. On February 12, 1947, Christian Dior unveiled his Corolle collection in Paris, with some dresses using up to 20 yards of fabric. The designs featured cinched waists, sloping shoulders, and dramatically full skirts, bringing back the feminine hourglass silhouette associated with the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow famously dubbed the style the “New Look,” and the name just kind of stuck.

The problem beneath Dior’s New Look skirts was an engineering one. The 1950s bullet bra solved it with wire-free, concentric spiral stitching to shape a pointed, uplifted bust, giving fitted sweaters and cinched bodices the support the New Look demanded. It was made famous by actresses like Jayne Mansfield and Jane Russell on screen and in advertising, and became known as the “Sweater Girl” silhouette, a nickname originally coined for Lana Turner back in 1937.

From 1953 to 1954, French shoe designer Roger Vivier collaborated with the House of Dior to slide a thin steel rod into the heel of women’s shoes. This allowed the heel to come to a needle-like point while still supporting a woman’s weight. Thus, Vivier helped popularize the modern stiletto, alongside Italian and French contemporaries like Salvatore Ferragamo and André Perugia. If you’re aiming for a sexy siren look, then this one’s definitely a must-have in your closet!

On February 5, 1954, at age 70, Chanel reopened her house, 15 years after closing it. She showed a boxy, uncorseted tweed suit that had a brass chain sewn into the hem to hold its drape. The French critics called it passé. American magazines and department store buyers thought otherwise, and the Chanel suit sold well. Very Jackie Kennedy!

A 25-year-old singer named Juli Lynne Charlot cut a full circle from felt taken from her mother’s factory in December 1947. Because felt doesn’t fray, it required no hemming. In 1948, she added a coiffed poodle appliqué. Teenage girls across the country made and shared the craft themselves through the early and mid-1950s. As a lover of A-line skirts myself, I’d love to see this make a comeback!

During the 1950s, two-tone leather saddle oxfords with white cotton bobby socks, folded down once, were the typical school shoes for American teenage girls. The shoes were inexpensive and durable enough for the classroom and a sock hop and became an iconic symbol of postwar adolescence.

In Britain in the early 1950s, “Teddy Boys”—working-class teenagers—were wearing long drape jackets with velvet lapels, drainpipe trousers, and brocade vests. The style was an adaptation of a “Neo-Edwardian” line developed by Savile Row tailors for their elite customers between 1948 and 1950.

The Perfecto leather jacket was designed by Irving Schott in 1928. Twenty-five years later, it would be worn by Marlon Brando in the 1953 movie The Wild One. Young American men began wearing it as an emblem of youth counterculture. The film didn’t create the fashion; it simply sold what was already there!

G.H. Bass introduced its “Weejun” slip-on loafer in 1936, but by the 1950s, high school and Ivy League students had given the shoes their most famous accessory: a copper penny tucked into the slit across the front. That’s how they became known as “penny loafers.” You’ve probably heard that the pennies were kept there for emergency payphone calls, but take it with a grain of salt. Besides, by 1951, a call already cost ten cents in many cities, so that lonely penny wasn’t going to get you very far.

In 1945, German fashion designer Sonja de Lennart launched her “Capri Collection” concept, later introducing the slim, three-quarter-length, side-slit Capri pants in 1948. The style provided a practical alternative to skirts for everyday outfits and was subsequently worn by screen sirens like Audrey Hepburn.

Another 1950s favorite was the shirtwaist dress, which paired a tailored, button-front bodice with a full A-line skirt and fitted waist. American designers such as Anne Fogarty made the style in large quantities throughout the decade, adapting the fitted-waist silhouette Dior had introduced in 1947.

Swing coats had narrow shoulders and flared out into an A-line, which allowed them to be worn over a thick crinoline petticoat without flattening it. They enabled women to wear full skirts even when it was cold outside, making them popular as everyday outerwear in suburban closets during the 1950s.

For both men and women, tailored Bermuda shorts that hit about two inches above the knee and cropped pedal pushers were the fashion to sport as summer leisurewear. Until the mid-1950s, many universities, including Penn State, forbade shorts in lobbies and classrooms, though they finally lifted the ban, partially, in 1954.

The Atomic Age wasn’t just a thing for science and technology nerds. It also made its way straight into 1950s fashion and home decor! Dresses, curtains, and men’s shirts were all covered in boomerangs, starbursts, orbital rings—you name it. Basically, any futuristic motif!

In the 1950s, men’s leisurewear was characterized by Cuban collar camp shirts and bowling shirts with flat collar bands, two-tone color blocking, and chest embroidery. Intended to be worn untucked without a necktie, they provided a casual option for suburban weekends and bowling league nights.

Another classic 1950s look paired a twinset, usually a sweater with a matching cardigan, with one or two strands of cultured or costume pearls. You’d see the combination everywhere from college campuses to suburban neighborhoods. Despite what the pearls might suggest today, the look wasn’t necessarily about showing off wealth. It was more about looking polished, proper, and put-together during the day.

The “Harlequin” glasses, with their upswept arms, were designed in the 1930s by Altina Schinasi. The eyewear remained an obscure style for years until 1952, when American Optical collaborated with designer Claire McCardell to produce the first line of eyeglasses with a designer name attached. They made the cat-eye silhouette popular, and by the mid-1950s, they had become the quintessential accessory of the era.

Audrey Hepburn’s effortlessly chic wardrobe in the 1954 film Sabrina came with a little behind-the-scenes fiasco. Hubert de Givenchy created the Parisian outfits Hepburn wore in the film, including her famous black capri look. However, studio costume designer Edith Head received the on-screen costume credit and went on to win the Academy Award under Hollywood’s rules at the time. Givenchy may not have gotten the Oscar, but his clothes definitely made the Hepburn style we’re still obsessed with today!

Two-piece swimwear of the 1950s featured a high waistline that covered the navel and structured and boned tops, leaving nothing resembling the low-rise and string-style bikinis of today. Although skimpier bikini styles were first introduced in France in the mid-1940s, they were widely banned on public beaches in the U.S. and U.K. through much of the 1950s.

For the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch, 20th Century Fox costume designer William Travilla designed Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ivory rayon-acetate crepe halter dress with sunburst pleats on the skirt specifically for the subway grate scene, and his original drawings debunked speculation that she bought the dress off the rack. It fetched $5.6 million at auction in 2011.

This content was created with the help of AI.