By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
1940s Fashion History
These post World War II vintage Pattern Cutting Design Fashion Pictures are from 1948. Each image is also shown with the vintage pattern draft required to achieve the sewn style. Many of the details of earlier 1940s fashions are visible in these images as well as elements of the New Look of 1947.
The pattern-cutting drafts are often complex but interesting to those of us able to pattern draft and construct garments. All thumbnails below enlarge to become full A4 pictures and detail can be magnified in image software such as Paint Shop Pro.
These fashion sketch images were bought from a 93-year-old woman and they were described as 1940s. I would estimate them at after 1947 or 1948, as the fuller skirts hint at being copies of the Dior New Look silhouette. Although many have fuller skirts, some of these square-shouldered styles have a more mid 40's feel than those fashion designs. Real 'New Look' garments had narrower neater shoulder lines.
I have NOT made up any of these styles and cannot be held responsible for errors in designs. Use them as inspiration.
All thumbnail images enlarge into A4 size pages for personal use only for printing and study. I've cleaned any background clutter so you can really see the silhouette and fashion detailing.
Please Note the straight skirt is not repeated on all drafts, so see suit pattern draft 3028, otherwise a standard straight skirt block such as my free skirt block you can draft would be suitable to do adaptations. If you do not own a dress block, bodice block, jacket block or similar sloper you may find Vogue V1004 shell dress fitting pattern a useful alternative to get you started on ideas.
Hats are very helpful when dating photos as are hairstyles so try the 1940s hats and hairstyles sections.
Page added 26 June 2005
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