Fashion in 1945

U.S. fashion designers displayed remarkable creativity when using the limited amount of textiles allotted to them by the government. The rounded line replaced angles, which was the primary means of avoiding boring designs.

The Canadienne

At the beginning of 1945, the roundness was first achieved by pulling the waist tight, emphasizing fullness above and below the waistline. Eventually the round look took every costume. Often the only tight parts of an outfits were at the neck, waist and wrists.

Suit jackets had round collars and round-cut hemlines, while suit skirts belled out in front. The Canadienne, a French twist on the coat of a Canadian soldier, was one of the year’s biggest fashion hits.

Evening dresses often came with farthingales to make hips seem larger and the waist thinner.

The cholo was hugely popular on beaches in 1945. It was worn over top of the swimsuit.

The trend of wearing “separates” continued to grow. Shirts were ready to wear, came in a wide variety of styles and mixed well with skirts.

A few horseblanket skirts appeared among the younger crowd. These unique skirts were made of plaid wool horseblankets, bound with black braid and fastened with horseblanket buckles.

Gold neckbands, African-inspired metal rings and gold chains were wrapped around the neck and wrists.Buttons were brassy and belt buckles shined like a cowboy’s saddle.

Due to the absolute necessity of belts in the wardrobe, manufactures began producing more inventive belt styles than had even been seen before. Some were wide burnished bands of leather and others were cut to fit the waistline.

Women were particularly fond of ballet slippers in 1945. They came in all colors: plaid, black, pink — you name it — and were worn with everything from skirts to dresses to dancing tights.

It’s hard to deny that as 1945 progressed, the fashion world took on a much more relaxed and peaceful tone. Like a huge sigh of relief. Colors lightened and fancy fabrics slowly came back. European designers didn’t have the worry of a war in their backyard and, with the end of World War II, people felt like it was OK to care about something as trivial as fashion again. It certainly had been a while.