A 1940’s depression-era Bride may have worn her Sunday best suit with a military air to be married at the Courthouse, or perhaps made herself a simple off-white, ivory or beige dress she designed from furnishing fabrics with Gibson or mutton sleeves that billowed at the top and tapered to fit below the elbow.  She may have made her Veil, too, from lace curtains worn on top of swept-up hair, and carried a flower bouquet made from paper due to war-time rationing.  
A wealthier '40’s Bride may have danced the Jitterbug at her wedding to the sounds of a Big Band in a borrowed  Wedding Gown that featured netting or the hint of the first “sweetheart” shaped neckline and corseted waist made of rayon, or sometimes silk.  But as the era turned the corner to the 1950’s, the influence of Christian Dior’s “New Look” hour-glass dress with it’s flowing skirts made of yards of cloth set the stage for Bridal Wear. 

The '50’s Brides are seen encircled in lace or cutwork, overskirts and puffed sleeves, and yards of transparent gauze or satin inspired by the billowing, luxe skirt, tight-waist and barely visible “sweetheart neckline” of the gown that Grace Kelly wore in 1956 to wed Prince Rainier of Monaco, or by Elizabeth Taylor’s hour-glass Wedding Gown. 

The lifting of rationing on fabric allowed women to celebrate their figures with hoop skirts, crinolines and other full-skirt techniques to emphasize the waist and “pointed bosom” bodice.  French lace was the rage as post-war lace began to be manufactured again, bringing back tiers of Chantilly Lace and flouncy frills to the skirts of Wedding Gowns.

Audrey Hepburn equally influenced Bridal Wear in 1954 with her “Modern Princess” look in a ballerina Tea-Length Lace Wedding Dress with sleeves and few embellishments.  Gloves became the standard fashion of the '50s, with fingerless bridal gloves made of tulle, lace, or satin.  Shorter, flutter hemlines led to shorter veils and many gowns were designed with layered materials, three-quarter or long sleeves, upstanding gothic style collars, or to be worn as strapless evening gowns after the wedding. 

Coordinating flowing or opaque Stoles or Lace Boleros worn on top of a strapless dress for coverage at the wedding became popular at the end of the decade as dress lengths moved from floor-length to ankle-length, and dropped hemlines and scooped necklines appeared. 

The 1950's was a decade defined by decorum, elegance, and etiquette. Traditional, classic wedding receptions featured Wedgewood china, white roses, cut glass, and silver on damask cloths.  Wedding cakes, often displayed under a floral arch, were styled with popular motifs from the era, like poodles. 

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All you have to do today is look at any fashion magazine or runway to witness that the future of fashion has arrived….and it’s all about dreaming of the past.  Fashion’s tendency to sample and recycle is certainly nothing new.  This truth can be seen as early as Dior’s famous hourglass New Look silhouette, which was hailed as a watershed moment for post-WWII fashion, but it wasn’t altogether original.  

Afterall, Dior’s fanciful design was inspired by the corsets and petticoats of his own Belle Epoque childhood.  What made his designs wildly resonate for so many, however, was that they contrasted sharply with the long war-years of frugality.  Dior wrote in his autobiography in 1956: “It happened that my own inclinations coincided with the spirit or sensibilities of the times.”  And as the world turns, the attraction of timeless couture is proof that it never goes out of style.

Historically, natural fur marked certain stages in the lives of a girl of good family: at eighteen, Daddy would buy her a beaver and a mink jacket or coat for her marriage.   In 1962, Time magazine was asking: “After mink, what?”  In 1964, Valentino began to think about Evening Wear and in that year presented a short natural jacket with kimono sleeves over a long gown.  In fact, the reign of natural fur was to be a long one that also revisited us in its many evolutions.

This 1946 vintage photo by Gjon Mili of Evelyn, Sunny and Dovima in pure White Mink Stoles over evening gowns brings forth the vision of pretty beauty that brought the era under Dior’s hourglass influence.   White Stole calls this inspiration Quintessential!

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Under the influence of the New Look, followed by the “H,” the “A” and the “Y” lines suggestive of balloons, trapezoids and sheaths, the 50’s were the glory years for Haute Couture as well as the rapid growth of Italian and French fashion. This new decade ushered in victory with women wearing nylon, imitating Debbie Reynolds wearing red lipstick and eyeliner, the arrival of feminine curves in fashion with the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the season of full-busted "poor but beautiful" women on both sides of the Atlantic. 

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“We love Rene Gruau for how he loved women.  His elegant sketches of women define glamour with their emphasis on the ultra-feminine silhouette in rapture with a flowing gown, stole, bolero, cape or wrap over evening wear…making women and their luxury fashion the most natural thing in the world”  Roberta

Few people had a more iconic influence on 20th Century women’s fashion design than Rene Gruau.  Rene Gruau’s drawings of elegant women in bold, rhythmic and colorful lines with fluid style have attracted legions of couture-devotees to his illustrations.

Rene Gruau’s creative collaboration in 1947 with his friend, Christian Dior, who entrusted him with drawing the Miss Dior advertisement and the famous “Bar” suit, created Dior’s New Look in women’s fashion and brought Gruau’s fashion drawings to critical acclaim. 

Fashion designer John Galliano said “Gruau captured Dior’s style and spirit better than any other…for me, a Gruau sketch captures the energy, the sophistication and daring of Dior.”

Rene Gruau ultimately worked with all of the greatest names in Haute Couture - from Balmain, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Givenchy, Rochas, Shiaparelli, and Fath to Molyneux.  Gruau is renowned the world over for groundbreaking illustrations that were published in Femina, Marie-Claire, L’Officiel, L’Album Du Figaro, and later for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Flair, and influenced the graphic style of a whole generation of fashion illustrators.  Equally influential was his new way of photographing everything from vintage perfume bottles to women’s fashion accessories, the industry benefits of which are still vividly present in fashion photography today. 

Rene Gruau was born in Italy in 1909 of an aristocratic Italian father and a French mother, Marie Gruau - an artist whose name he took.  While still a teenager, Rene’s fashion sketches were already being accepted by German, French and Italian magazines.  Rene Gruau is said to have been inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec’s sketches as well as by classical Japanese Kabuki theatre and woodcuts, which influenced his motifs on a ground of flat tone using broad, flowing brushstrokes, pen, Indian ink and gouache.  

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Postwar era of women’s styling was characterized by extravagantly romantic and uber-feminine fashion that carried on into the 1950’s.  In 1947, Christian Dior declared that it was because women longed to look like women again that they adopted his New Look after the war.  

“After the narrow, restricted styles of the war, the New Look was an explosion of fabric and petticoats – everything everyone had been denied all those years” said Babs Simpson, of Harpers Bazaar.

“Coming after so long a period of restriction, it was a kind of volupte” said Fancoise Giroud, of Elle Magazine.

The elements of the New Look were full, billowy skirts that fell just below the calf, narrow waists, and soft, distinctly feminine shoulders that required a significant amount of fabric – a signature look that marked a cultural shift in women’s couture.

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Any study of fashion can not be separated from women’s fashion history and an understanding of the beginnings of Haute Couture literally meaning “high-quality sewing.”  Paris had been the center of couture since the 19th Century when couture was transformed from a craft into business, and high art. 

Women’s fashion had been put on ice during WWII from 1939 to 1944.  During the occupation of Paris in 1940, many fashion houses were forced into war-related industries.  The progress of the war made it necessary to prohibit all superfluous material and labor.  America followed Britain in clothes rationing with L85 restrictions, promoting the approved ” Victory Suit” with its narrow styling as being more practical and patriotic. 

The Allied Nations were at a loss when Paris fell because they had looked to Paris as the World Capital of Fashion since the 17th Century.  Despite materials rationing on both sides of the Atlantic, some 20 Parisian couture fashion houses violated the wartime silhouette during this time and continued to produce approximately 100 models per year – primarily for wealthy collaborators or for export to Germany.  From Designers to Apprentices, the French declared they had fought to keep Parisian Couture alive because it represented a Parisian industry of prime importance, a means of employment…but most importantly, because it preserved Haute Couture in the eyes of the world.

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