Bras and Girdles, 1935ยŒ1950

Dress The Journal of the Costume Society of America ISSN: 0361-2112 (Print) 2042-1729 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ydre20 Underpinning Depression, Wartime, and Recovery Bras and Girdles, 1935–1950 Jane Farrell-Beck To cite this article: Jane Farrell-Beck (2011) Underpinning Depression, Wartime, and Recovery Bras and Girdles, 1935–1950, Dress, 37:1, 23-38, DOI: 10.1179/036121112X13099651318584 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1179/036121112X13099651318584 Published online: 18 Jul 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 113 View related articles Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ydre20 23 Underpinning Depression, Wartime, and Recovery Bras and Girdles, – Jane Farrell-Beck Jane Farrell-Beck is a retired professor from Iowa State University. She has published several articles in DRESS and elsewhere. She is co-author with Colleen Gau of Uplift: the Bra in America (Penn, 2002), and with Jean Parsons of 20th-Century Dress in the United States (Fairchild, 2007). Using government regulations, trade journals, consumer advertising, and dated examples of bras and girdles in museum collections, the writer traces the technical and stylistic innovations made by American bra and girdle manufacturers from 1935 through 1950. During the periods 1935–1941 and 1947–1950, innovations centered on creating appealing products. Lastex and nylon helped make foundation garments lighter weight and easier to care for, while shaping the figure. When critical components became scarce or unavailable during 1942–1946, producers developed creative ways to make garments as comfortable as possible within allowable quantities of elastic and even found substitutes for metal fastenings. Wartime brought restrictions on advertising, and challenged companies to rationalize their product lines and standardize some components of bras and girdles. The resulting efficiencies prepared U.S. manufacturers to compete effectively in the post-war boom. Keywords Bras, Girdles, Depression, World War II, Post–World War II In 1934, the abbreviated term “bra” began to replace “brassiere” in ’ , underfashions, technical innovations, economic conditions, common use, so I will use this short form throughout the paper. However, including bras and girdles, reflect societal government regulations, the roles of women in the trade, bandeaux were the conditions at the time of their production and in society, and — not least — the styling of abbreviated styles that stopped just below the breast and “bras” reached use.¹ These foundation garments manifest outer apparel. During the challenging, more than two inches below the cup. © Costume Society of America DOI ./X 24 n volume 37, 2011 Jane Farrell-Beck and Colleen Gau, tumultuous s and s, American bra 1935–1941: Late Depression and Uplift: The Bra in America (Philadelphia: University of and girdle manufacturers stayed afloat by Defense Buildup Pennsylvania Press, 2002). experimenting with new materials, styles, and Unemployment, very severe in –, Evidence for the changes in products new business methods, thereby emerging as abated slightly during –, and affected and processes comes from strong enterprises, nationally and government regulations, trade manufacturing jobs for men more than office journals, consumer advertising, and internationally, during the postwar boom. and service jobs — where women dated examples of girdles and bras in In this paper, which is a development from museum collections. predominated.⁵ The federal program of the my previous work,² I will examine the Works Progress Administration offered jobs L-85 governed the style features permissible in women’s adaptive designs as well as new to some people, but the private economy in manufactured outerwear: dresses, manufacturing and business practices of bra the U.S. started to revive when England and suits, and coats. The closing date of the Order comes from Jonathan and girdle makers through three periods: the other Allies began to receive supplies and Walford, Forties Fashion (New York: later Depression years and defense buildup, armaments under the aegis of the Lend Lease Thames & Hudson, 2008), 78–79. –; the war years and immediate Act. The terms of the act were devised to David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: aftermath, –; and the incipient The American People in Depression placate American isolationists, while allowing and War, 1929–1945 (New York: postwar boom, –.³ These dates cash-strapped nations to defer payment until Oxford University Press, 1999), 777. bracket the focal period of World War II and victory was achieved. A later writer observed William Klingaman, Our Lives in a allow me to utilize a treasure trove of that “. as late as , the nation [United World on the Edge (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988), 72. precisely dated foundations in the States] had more people employed in making Munsingwear Collection at the Minnesota knit underwear than in the aircraft industry,” Klingaman, Our Lives in a World, 71–72. Historical Society. so little were Americans prepared or willing to Product innovators in the first and third confront European aggressors.⁶ After a decade Lois Gordon and Alan Gordon, American Chronicle (New Haven, CT: periods aimed to create foundations that of economic hardship, newly prosperous Yale University Press, 1999), 333, 391. would appeal to women. In the middle period, citizens also resisted the idea of converting innovation demanded improvization in the civilian industry to military products.⁷ By absence of desired materials and fastenings. , however, the United States began to Inventive designers rose to the challenges of stockpile materiél (military supplies and L- (spring –January ), the equipment), recognizing the likelihood of restrictive wartime order for foundation going to war against the Axis powers. Jobs garments, but they demonstrated greater became more plentiful, with unemployment creativity before L- took effect and after its dropping from . percent in to . suspension. Just as product development percent in .⁸ The August Atlantic evolved, business practices adjusted, first to Charter framed by President Franklin financial stringency in the late s, then to Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston federal mandates and contracts during and Churchill precipitated a major reorganization immediately after the war, and finally to the of the preparedness program. By herculean challenges of transition to a peacetime efforts, the U.S. began to close the gap in economy. Naturally, the pace of fashion weapons with its adversaries. change in womenswear either slowed or Fashion continued to change, undeterred stimulated rapid production of new styles of by tight budgets and rattling sabers. bras and girdles. Wartime regulation L- Throughout the s, dress silhouettes (March , –October , ), governing gradually became fuller in the bust, slimmer outerwear, had a stifling effect, whereas the and higher in the waist, and gently curved New Look from Christian Dior and elongated in the hips. Although encouraged the proliferation of styles in curvaceous, the ideal figure for an adult foundations.⁴ woman was trim, likened in one Underpinning Depression, Wartime, and Recovery 25 figure 1 Example of “scissors” silhouette. Dry Goods Journal, January 1939, front cover. advertisement to a closed pair of scissors . Slim skirts shared the limelight with Formfit advertisement, Vogue, (figure 1).⁹ Shoulders became wider in the mid- draped or gathered styles, some even evoking October 15, 1939, 110. to late s, aided first by drapery and then the bustle of the late nineteenth century. Maiden Form Mirror (sic) January 1934, 2. The name Maiden Form was by aggressive padding. From onward, Sportswear began to include women’s casual eventually changed to Maidenform dress contours outlined each breast instead of pants, called “slacks,” worn mainly for active after a major ad campaign in 1949–1950. simply bridging the cleavage or pushing the sports, gardening, and the most informal breasts above the top of the corset, as typified social events. “Stores Plot Corset Sales Curve,” Business Week, September 23, 1939, earlier periods.¹⁰ An effort to introduce Bras and girdles had established their 30, 32. cinched waists and full hips in autumn usefulness in women’s wardrobes by the never gained momentum and was eventually mid-s, except for impoverished women or halted by the war.¹¹ Hemlines rose gradually those living in remote areas. Older women from mid-calf in to just over the knee in used rigid corsets or corselettes. Conversely, 26 n volume 37, 2011 Jane Farrell-Beck and Carol L. Hall, young women readily accepted the new types corsets totaled . million, with an “Adolescent Consumers of Foundations, 1920s–1950s,” DRESS of supportive undergarments. Breast anticipated ten percent increase in .¹⁵ At 31 (2004): 49–56. supporters had been produced as early as the the heart of this marketing miracle was Farrell-Beck and Gau, Uplift, 73, 81. s and had assumed a recognizable form Lastex, an extruded rubber latex yarn covered by the s. This was about the time when by mercerized cotton, which was brought to “The Corset,” Fortune, March 1938, 98. flexible girdles came on the market to appeal market in November . Two-way stretch “Rubberless Girdle?” Business Week, September 19, 1942, 60. to young or slim women who did not require was born in knitted versions from Warner

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