Pre-War Vintage Evening Dress (1920s ~ 1945)

These vintage styles that have been recognized as belonging to a certain time period are not the only styles of vintage evening dress that appeared during that time, but they are certainly some of the most popular during their hey days.

1920s

The 1920s is considered to be the age where fashion first took roots on its own and gained independence. This was the age of jazz and also liberation for women. The First World War had just ended and the old world structure had pretty much collapsed.

Women were no longer restricted to the rigid social status structure of the early 1900s. Women cut their hair cut into a boyish bob and experimented with outrageous and elaborated fashion.

This radical change in society can be seen in vintage evening dresses as hems rose scandalously to the knees and waistlines dropped as low as they could possibly go. This was very different from the conservative Victorian styles when women’s wore corsets and skirts never went higher than their heels.

Vibrant colors and exotic motifs were also a mainstay of vintage evening dresses during this period. Many of them were heavily influenced by art movements of the era, notably Art Deco.

1930s

After the wild days of the 20s, the vintage evening dress returned to milder and basic styles as the 30s was lead much of the way by the Great Depression. Most of the people had lost their jobs and few people had any money to spend. Fashion took a backseat for a while and the sombre mood calls for plain and modest evening dresses.

Designers during this period tried to overcome the lack of colors by designing evening dresses to be elegant and sophisticated, emphasizing a more ladylike appearance. A vintage evening dress from the 1930s is designed to highlight the female form.

They shape of the evening dress tapers to the natural form of a woman’s body, shaping bosom, waistline and hips. The warm and tender form of vintage evening dress during the 1930s reflected the desire of the common people who were seeking comfort in difficult times.

1940s – 1945

In the days leading to the Second World War, countries transformed their economies to cater to the war effort, and once again, fashion exited from the spotlight. Resources, including clothing were rationed and heavily regulated.

Despite all this, women never stopped caring about what they wore. This unintentionally led to an explosion of new styles and somewhat special, unique designs. Women from all walks of life took to making their own evening dress from whatever materials they could find. Many one of a kind evening dress was reinvented from old clothes and other furniture fabrics during this time.

Mainstream fashion of the day was largely inspired by military uniforms due to the strong military influence during the war. Vintage evening dresses from the 1940s were practical garments with simple colors and usually knee-length.

As the war progressed, many women had to enter the workforce to fill in gaps left behind by the man whom were sent to the front. It was during this time when working clothes for women also became an integral part of women’s fashion.

A particular characteristic of a vintage work dress from the 1940s is its fitting jacket and shoulder pads. This was coupled with tight skirts with slits along the sides or the back seam. This was primarily designed to accentuate the commanding presence that women of that time needed to step up to a position traditionally held by men.

This design is so successfully that working clothes worn by powerful women today continued to be modelled after this basic design.

Because resources were so scarce during the war, many vintage evening dresses, including those from the 20s and 30s were taken apart or re-invented again in the period after the war. Amidst the chaos and destruction, many more vintage evening dresses were lost or destroyed. This made pre-war vintage evening dresses extremely rare and highly prized today.