History of Fashion: The 1930s

“In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.” – Elsa Schiaparelli

The 1930s were an explosion of innovations in fashion, despite The Great Depression and all the economic hardships that people were enduring both in America and Europe. The fashion did change its direction though. While the 1920s were about rebelling, pushing boundaries and acting all androgynous, the 1930s were a return to the feminine and romantic style. They embraced the curves of a woman, adopting tight long dresses from silk or lace that highlighted the hourglass silhouette. While 1920s were about flat chests, not emphasizing the waist and wearing the loose playful flapper dress, fit for swinging, the 1930s highlighted a different body shape, very feminine, curvy and with a spotlight on the waist, shoulders and back.

The backless dress appeared during this time, becoming a popular trend and oh, so sexy! Tanning, made “a thing” by Coco Chanel in the 1920s, had to be shown, so the backless dress was the absolute perfect irresistible piece!

Ruffles and high cap sleeves were also very popular, adding both the dramatic and the romantic touch of the 1930s. One of the greatest inventions of this decade was “The Bias Cut”, invented by Madeleine Vionnet, who changed forever the way a dress was draping, offering a brand new feminine style. The cut was made at a 45 degrees angle, instead of cutting on the grain as all the rest of the designers were cutting, This meant the use of much more fabric, bringing the dresses to a quite expensive final price that at the beginning only stars like Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo could afford it and the fascinating fashion icon of that time, Wallis Simpson, who later became the Duchess of Windsor.

Another fascinating personality of that time was the designer Elsa Schiaparelli, a daring visionary who made fashion a little bit more interesting. She closely worked with Dali and Jean Cocteau and she was the one who introduced zippers in clothing in her 1935 winter collection.

Find out more fascinating things about the 1930s from our Vlog! Do you know what was the color used by Schiaparelli that outraged the fashion world? Would you like to take a glimpse of the Hollywood glamour of that time? Check out the video! Thank you so much and don’t forget to subscribe for more series on History of Fashion!