Lillian Bassman

As much as I love vintage fashion itself, I think the photography behind it is, sometimes, even more beautiful and eye-catching to the viewer.  The way photographers captured the sharp lines of dresses, the wide angles of hats, and the slender curves of women against scenery of the age really draws one back into a time of classic elegance.

I recently stumbled across the works of Lillian Bassman, a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar in the 40s through the 60s.

Her use of high contrast between the black and white, the placement of the subject, and the almost glowing auras of her stand ins give her pictures an angel-esque feeling that could almost be a sketch transfer verses film itself.

During her almost twenty years of fashion photography, she captured many subjects and was considered one of the last great women in fashion photography, until she decided to pursue her own, private work, and actually threw out the majority of her negatives and originals.  Twenty years later, a bag of forgotten work was found and all was brought to life again.

Photo Source

Kodachromes of Women in the Workplace

I have a sister, not a brother, which meant that, while growing up, if anything needed to be done around the house, we had to help my dad do it.  He was a carpenter by trade, so we were always helping with the numerous home improvement projects around the house or we would take nails and pieces of scrap wood while he was building something and put them together to create little works of art.  I remember I once made a plane-looking thing, and he helped my put a working propeller on it.  I was beyond happy.

Because of this upbringing, I am fiercely independent (and slightly pigheaded when it comes to asking for help), and can do basically anything when it comes to renovations.  Paint, yeah, no problem.  Hang drywall, sure, why not?  Re-tile a floor or put down lamenent, of course!  Gardening, mowing the lawn, cleaning up this, shining up that, we did it all in terms of construction.

Looking at these photos, I think of how grateful I am that these women paved the way for me to be able to do these things and not be seen as a "wild woman."  As much as I love wearing dresses and makeup, I like to feel useful and have no time to wait around for a "man" to change my lightbulbs.  I'm sure these women felt the same way, even if they were seen as "rebels" of their time.

See more of the photo collection here.

Dior's New Look

The post-war world of the 1940s called for something new and exciting to happen for fashion.  Women were tired of looking like uniformed civilians in their war-rationed fabric suits and were longing for something feminine and beautiful, something different and new to put on.

Over in Paris, a designer by the name of Christian Dior was designing what women wanted.  Almost mocking the ideals of rationing, he was using bolts of fabric to create full, elegant dresses that would hit the runways and be dubbed as, "The New Look," for fashionistas everywhere.

The dresses in The New Look were meant to accentuate a women's natural shape and curves.  Each one had sloping shoulders, a tiny waist, and full bust and hips.  Dior wanted to idealize a woman's body, as well as draw on past eras of femininity, such as the Victoria Era, to give charm and grace to his designs.

However, Dior used his own little tricks to really give the look some flare.  The dresses had shoulder pads to create sloping shoulders, a "waspie" corset to create a thin waist, push up bra cups to accentuate the bust, and a padded petticoat to give the wearer full hips.  His dresses could practically stand up on their own with all the boning and padding he added to them to make them have this shape.  Women who were trying to get the look, but couldn't afford the design were encouraged to sew a "waist-liner" (a strip of muslim with boning sewn into it) into their dresses.

Though his designs were popular with celebrities and socialites and copied and produced for the all-American housewife, the dominance of The New Look in fashion ended shortly after Dior's death in 1957.  One could blame the complexity and restrictiveness of the layers and corsets for the end of the look, but the changing ideals of women and fashion probably had a lot to do with it, as well.  No matter the reason, the basic idea and silhouette of the look continues to show its face in fashion, constantly being replicated in design with each passing decade.

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Le Petit Echo de la Mode

 I stumbled across this site that sells authentic, vintage magazine covers, not reproductions, and had a lot of fun sifting through what they had.

I love paper euphoria, having for many years focused on just making my wallets with vintage and vintage inspired prints I found, so whenever I see it somewhere, I'm very drawn to it.

These covers are from a magazine called Le Petit Echo de la Mode, which was a French, weekly publication for women's fashion.  It stayed in publication throughout the war years, though publication became a bit sporadic during due to the shortage of paper brought on my the way.

For over 100 years, the magazine was in print, until sales began to decline in the 1980s, and it was pulled from the newsstands in 1983.

This website has lots of the covers from the publication throughout the year, and even has them categorized by events, such as Christmas, Funeral, and Off to the Races.  It's really worth a look!

Image Sources

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