1939: Women's Fashions

Trend of the Year.

In fashion parlance, the year 1939 was the year that fashions 'grew up.' Fashion was a 'little girl' in the spring 1939 and 'une grande dame' in the fall 1939. The spring 1939 fashions were pretty, young, innocent. The fall 1939 fashions were beautiful, mature, sophisticated.

Spring 1939 dresses were short and wide at the bottom. White collars . . . some stiff and schoolgirlish, some frothy and angelic . . . were fashion firsts. Starched white petticoats and crisp petticoats that showed in motion were shown by fashion magazines and worn by ultra-smart women.

The fall 1939 dresses were still short but were cut intricately and draped in the grande dame manner. The first fall fashion note was the bustle which appeared in modified back-bows and back drapery for daytime and in less modified forms for evening. As the coat season progressed, back drapes and fullness remained but bustles grew less prominent. Necklines were high and simple and thus perfect foils for costume jewelry. Shoulders were broad but not exaggerated. Waists were tiny, hips rounded. Late in the season the 'peg top' silhouette, wider at the hips than at the knees, came into the fashion picture and was marked as a forerunner of spring 1940 fashions.

The most publicized fabric development of the year came in the spring. This was the 'sanitized' process for odor. The chief value of this development lies perhaps in its promotional possibilities. Later in the year the sanitized process was applied to leathers for shoe linings where it seems most important. Sanitized gloves were scheduled late in the year to appear early in 1940.

Color.

Color in fashion came well to the front the spring of 1939. Color in ready-to-wear garments but color most prominently in accessories. Accessory manufacturers worked together in groups to offer hats, gloves, belts, and costume jewelry to match. January, February and March saw many light pastels featured in accessories and worn by women of the great American middle class as well as women of the four hundred. Chartreuse and fuchsia were among outstanding accessory shades. Cosmetics were keyed to featured accessory colors, notably fuchsia and bright red. The Easter parade was a colorful one, and color continued after Easter though white came in strong. Patriotic red, white and blue gained social and fashion significance with the beginning of summer. The two outstanding fall 1939 accessory shades were bright red and moss green, an olive shade.

Millinery.

Spring 1939 hats were tiny as to the amount of head they covered (back of the head from crown down was stylishly bare), but they often towered skyward and were top-heavy with flowers and veiling. Veils as a fashion came back and added to all the demureness and prettiness of the season. (Another old-timer to gain fashion significance was the umbrella which was dubbed a 'Chamberlain' in honor of Britain's umbrella-carrying ambassador.)

The smart fall 1939 hat was still tiny but was trimmed to cover the back of the head. 'Bustle' backs of looped ribbon or fabric were early fall favorites. Mesh and fabric snoods became pet trims for milliners. Silk scarfs hung from the crown of the hat straight down to the back of the shoulders or draped across the throat. The hat itself was made of felt or fabric or feathers and was likely to be colorful either in toto or by trim. Fur trimmed hats and all-fur hats were popular. Gloves, bags, even shoes and umbrellas took to fur trims for the sake of coordination!

Shoes.

Open heel and toe shoes which were a fashion long before the opening of 1939, became generally accepted by women in the spring and led to a demand for greater and greater foot comfort. Soft boxless toes and the 'wall last' — wide square box toes with plenty of toe space — appeared importantly for fall 1939. Elasticized suede and gabardine were shown in close fitting shoes in the spring and their use was hailed as an important development. Fall shoes with their demand for comfort employed much of this treatment, though it proved most valuable in side insets and gores. In 1939 flat heels, medium heels and high heels all had fashion acceptance. The wedge sole, of continuous sole and heel construction, which had received promotional emphasis early in 1938 with no signal success, became popular in the fall 1939 and was seen frequently in flat heel heights on city streets. Low 'keg' heels, shaped to a point under the arch of the foot, and 'tipped toes,' turned up slightly at the tip, were among 1939 shoe fashion successes. Ankle high boots made high-fashion shoe history in the winter 1939-40.

Handbags.

The most outstanding handbag style of the year was the shoulder strap bag which was successful during the spring and summer months. Throughout the year bags continued large and soft. Fashion interest was expressed in smaller bags for fall, the season of feminine elegance, but popular demand was still for large types. Top handles were the rule. Black patent leather was the notable spring handbag material, black suede the notable fall leather. Bags in bright colored suedes sold well both spring and fall.

Gloves.

Fashion news of gloves for 1939 centered around the success of color both in early spring and early fall. Longer gloves began to come in for fashion emphasis early in the year. Important novelty treatment consisted for the most part in structural treatments, unusual fourchettes, thumb and little finger construction. Hand-sewn classic styles sold well. 'Dressmaker' types . . . draped, shirred and ultimately feminine . . . were fall fashion focal points. Glove fabrics news centered around further improvement of American-made cotton fabrics. Nylon mixed with rayon was introduced at the end of the year in $1.25 gloves, but production was limited.

Two international and one domestic event of 1939 seriously affected the glove market. Czechoslovakia was an important source of popular priced leather and fabric gloves for the United States. German annexation in 1938 of Czechoslovakian Sudetenland considerably lessened the flow of gloves to the United States. Annexation of the rest of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939 cut Czech imports off abruptly. The fall of 1939 saw French and Belgian imports in the limelight, but the declaration of war by France and England against Germany in September saw these sources jeopardized. Again it was the glove business of the next season, in this case the spring of 1940, which stood to be affected. In December 1939, French and Belgian gloves continued to arrive in the United States. Dates of arrival of shipments were uncertain but spring orders on French and Belgian business continued to be taken and filled by a large percentage of importers. Prices had advanced surprisingly little over last year's levels. Prices on glove leathers saw a sharp rise immediately on the declaration of European War. Leather shortage was predicted and abrupt price rises on domestic gloves foreseen. At the end of the year, however, retail standard price ranges had been largely maintained in domestic spring lines. Wholesale price rises, wherever evident, stood at around 10 per cent on popular priced gloves.

The domestic event which had reverberations in the glove market involved the loss of cheap Puerto Rican labor in the making of hand-sewn gloves, which loss affected especially spring 1940 fabric glove lines already in the making. In November the United States Government ruled that as citizens of the United States, Puerto Rican glove sewers must come under the tenets of the Wage and Hour Law. The difference between the cost of gloves sewn under the Wage and Hour Law and those sewn at former Puerto Rican wage scales about doubles retail price of a former dollar seller. Thus quick revision of spring lines was necessary.

Jewelry.

Costume jewelry enjoyed the biggest year it had ever known. Necklaces were an accessory of the first importance. Shells, light-weight plastics, bright enamelled metals were materials of significance during the spring. White and soft pastel plastics sold right through the summer and the height of the fall season saw the largest producers of costume jewelry almost hopelessly behind on production. Large 'bib' necklaces that covered the whole front of a dress were best sellers. Bracelets, pins, clips and earrings were also best sellers. Necklaces to retail for ten dollars (a high price for costume jewelry) made good re-order items, while twenty-five and even fifty-dollar retailers were sold by specialty shops. Gold metal was the outstanding material. Colored stones of all kinds were hung together and well received by the consumer. No piece of costume jewelry seemingly could be too big or too gaudy to please American women.

Corsets.

Most exciting and widely publicized fashion of fall 1939 was the 'wasp-waist' corset. Wasp-waists were, of course, in keeping with the trend toward beautiful, mature and sophisticated fashions. The 1939 version of the wasp-waist was designed to give the hour-glass figure of our grandmothers plus the solid comfort which women of today demand. That the garment gave few women during fall 1939 either the hour-glass figure or solid comfort is an admitted fact. However, it cannot be denied that corset departments (and women's figures) profited by all the promotion and publicity which the wasp-waist corset stimulated. Fall 1939 will be remembered as a corset season.

Hosiery.

There were only two significant developments in the hosiery market during 1939. One was a fashion, the other a structural development. Three-quarter length sport socks were introduced in the spring and accepted widely by girls of the college class in the fall. The other development concerned the exploitation by many manufacturers of a patented knit-in elasticized band in the top of the stocking. This feature had already been patented and exploited by a few licensees but fall 1939 saw wide use of the feature and placed it as a factor in hosiery lines. Nylon hosiery was still in 1939 a coming attraction. It was promised for production in February 1940.