So You Want to Dress Like…The 1950s

Chanel! Dior! Givenchy! These brands all dominated the Parisian fashion scene throughout the 1950s. Once the fashion restrictions imposed by World War II cloth rationing were lifted, old styles were replaced by multitudes of fabric as full skirts and frills came back into fashion with Christian Dior’s revolutionary New Look in 1947.

However, not everyone was taken with Dior’s innovation. Coco Chanel, who was famously sharp with her comments towards her fellow designers, is said to have remarked that “[Dior’s models were] wearing clothes by a man who doesn’t know women, never had one, and dreams of being one.”

Chanel saw Dior’s clothes as wasteful and claimed that rather than dressing his models, Dior sought to “upholster them.” Where Chanel’s clothes tended to be more practical and masculine, such as her famous military style jackets and column skirts, Dior’s dresses abounded in ruffles and pleats. Was Chanel not right to criticize Dior, whose dresses could weigh up to 60 pounds? In the end, Chanel’s more modern take on clothing — which featured more practical and traditionally masculine elements like her famous military style jackets, column skirts, and, famously, women’s trousers — has had a far more widespread place in fashion than Dior’s. While full skirts were popular in the 1950s, Chanel’s innovation of making pants for women was forward-thinking.

Apart from obvious fashion details, how should one actually dress to resemble Grace Kelly? The good news is that 60 pound dresses and wacky hats are not necessarily a requirement. From the 50s to today, haute couture and its buyers played a major role in defining trends, but average people usually do not dress in such luxurious attire. Though slacks like those worn by actress Katharine Hepburn were eventually considered acceptable, women of the time preferred dresses and skirts — which are still easily accessible today. The modern cocktail dress was also born at this time. Women increasingly wore ankle high or “tea length” dresses rather than floor length ones with the decorations of evening wear.

Another style that rose to popularity in the 1950s was the stiletto heel. Although its exact originator is unclear, this new type of shoe complemented the Y-line shape of dresses at the time, lending new grace to women’s feet. The three designers who were credited most with this design were Roger Vivier, André Perugia, and Salvatore Ferragamo. It was Ferragamo, however, who first inserted steel rods into the heels of his shoes, replacing the traditional wooden style of previous decades. For people in search of their James Bond moment, these are the shoes to wear.

But which Golden Age of Hollywood stars wore it best? One famous collaboration existed between actress Audrey Hepburn and designer Hubert de Givenchy. Hepburn wore a range of Givenchy’s styles, from black pants and blouses to her famous floor-length gown in the opening scene of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Givenchy was also credited with bringing the boat neck back into fashion after Chanel introduced it in the 1950s. So if you want to be the next Marcel Marceau, you know which boutique on the Avenue Montaigne you should visit. More recently, actresses like Rosamund Pike and Anya Taylor-Joy have frequently worn Dior and Givenchy couture on red carpets like the Oscars and Golden Globes.

However, as it had been in the 19th century with the House of Worth, many of these brands desired only to dress the wealthy to maintain their desirability and exclusivity. It was not until Yves Saint Laurent opened his boutique Rive Gauche in 1966 that clothing made for public consumption, known as “ready to wear,” rose to popularity.

Luckily for those people who could not afford the extravagance of haute couture, less prestigious designers found ways to recreate these new Parisian designs for less, bringing the A-shaped gown and heels to the public. So if you aspire to be the next Audrey Hepburn, look no further. Just tighten up your girdle, grab your stilettos and ballet flats, and head to Givenchy for a well spent — if expensive — afternoon.