Fabulous! fashions of the Forties at fit

Sharp-eyed dress A Day reader Shawn sent this to me, which I’m pasting below for those of you who can’t/won’t/don’t hit the NY Times site (link here):

FABULOUS! fashions OF THE 1940’S This show affords a glimpse of the tip of an enormous historical iceberg. organized by Ellen Shanley, costume curator at the museum at the fashion Institute of Technology, around a selection of dresses from the museum’s collection, it is about what happened after Germany invaded Paris in 1940 and the city that had been the Western world’s unrivaled leader in high fashion lost that role to new York. In Allied countries, response to war by designers and manufacturers was partly determined by officially mandated conservation measures, but new styles also reflected the military spirit of the moment. In contrast to the elaborately frilly neo-Victorian gowns that were coming out of Paris just before the war, American designers like Adrian (see above) began to produce severe, streamlined, square-shouldered dresses: no-nonsense neo-Classical costumes for female warriors. Women’s sportswear took off, too, led by the elegantly functional designs of Claire McCardell. (Athleticism was a good cover under which to smuggle in eroticism in the form of tennis outfits and bathing suits.) The Paris fashion industry continued to produce for wealthy French collaborators and Germans, but it was isolated and its influence stifled. Then, shortly after the war, Paris bounced back with the new Look, the ultra-feminine style created by Christian Dior, which restored the city to its former place as ruler of world fashion. (The museum at FIT, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 217-5800 , through July 30.) KEN JOHNSON

Click on the image to go to the fit museum site. Admission is free, which I don’t think I knew. closed Sundays and Mondays.

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