"In the Mood"

On Wednesday afternoon a friend and I lost ourselves for hours in the Fashion Design Gallery at the Phoenix Art Museum. The "In the Mood" exhibition shows off 35 fashion ensembles from the 1940s.

Slinky dresses with football player shoulder pads were the fashion-of-the-day.  Several of the designers featured have many movie credits as well. Adrian has always been one of my favorite movie costume designers.  

"The Women" (the 1939 original movie) shows off his beautiful costumes!  


 If you are a devote of movies from 1939-45 watch movie credits for "Gowns By Adrian"  Take a look at this book devoted to his creations.


We were amazed to learn little details about how the war changed fashions. The beautiful drape of bias cut gowns was curtailed!  Designers cut on the straight grain to save fabric. Silk was no longer available for gowns or stockings instead silk was used for making parachutes. (see the link above - each chute was the equivalent of 36 pairs of stockings!)   Military uniforms of the period were displayed along with clothing styles influenced by the military.  

In those years, re-purposed garments were a necessity.  We saw printed diagrams showing how to cut an old parachute into garments. Articles in newspapers and magazines encouraged the public get behind the war effort.

Rationing

Of Clothing, Cloth and Footwear

From June, 1941

Rationing has been introduced not to deprive you of your real needs, but to make more certain that you get your share of the country's goods - to get fair shares with everybody else.

When the shops re-open you will be able to buy cloth, clothes, footwear and knitting wool only if you bring your food ration book with you.  The shopkeeper will detach the required number of coupons from the unused margarine page.  Each margarine coupon counts as one coupon towards the purchase of clothing and footwear.  You will have a total of 66 coupons to last you a year; so go sparingly.  You can buy where you like and when you like without registering.

One of my personal rationing stories was retold to me often. My grandmother wanted me to have a tricycle. Granddad worked at Montgomery Wards in those days. No tricycles were to be had due to rationing of metal. But at some point when I was around 4 years old  rationing was letting up a bit. My grandparent's diligence paid off and I became a terror on three wheels!  

My favorite gown at the Fashion Design Gallery is the black and white rayon gown pictured on the poster. 

It drapes beautifully even with the rhinestones in each square.