By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
I have drawn a variety of shapes to illustrate women's fashion silhouettes from 1940.
These illustrations capture the elements of silhouettes found in old magazines such as Le Petit Echo de la Mode, Butterick and McCall's pattern books of the day. I have redrawn them in my own style then finally enhanced elements with computer software.
In 1940, styles began to pare down losing the late thirties softness. As war took hold, so garments became rationed and it was hard to obtain fashionable clothes.
These silhouette costume drawings show just some of the body shape outlines found in 1940. They create costume history detail which also makes them very useful when dating the line of vintage dress. Costume drawings, magazine covers and fashion plates of 1940 can all act as a source of inspiration for making your own drawings.
Like many costume enthusiasts, I sometimes need a basic costume history line image for a specific year. These 1940's fashion illustrations should give you a clear understanding of the changing lines and variety of women's silhouettes.
As a result you can date a picture within a few years. Each thumbnail enlarges to produce an A4 print and is suitable for colouring in and producing timeline scenes, collage foundation guides or guidelines for amateur dramatics.
My original detailed text information on the 1940s can be found in the main section in Utility Clothing and there are many more 1940s images including the 1940s fashion plates.
Fashion Silhouettes Timeline Drawings 1940
In 1940 styles began to pare down losing the late thirties softness. As war took hold, garments later became rationed. Many of the dresses shown here have shoulder and gathering emphasis which also highlights a narrow waistline.
Suits take on a crisp boxy look which when teamed with a shorter-length skirt kept fabric to a minimum. In these drawings high V-necklines predominate.
1940
1941 Silhouettes
A variety of 1941 body outlines capturing the elements of ladies fashion silhouettes found in old magazines such as Le Petit Echo de la Mode, Butterick and McCall's pattern books of the day.
These silhouette costume drawings show just some of the body shape outlines found in 1941 creating costume history detail which also makes them very useful when dating the line of vintage dress. Costume drawings, magazine covers and fashion plates of 1941 all equally act as a source of inspiration for making your own drawings.
Like many costume enthusiasts, I sometimes need a basic costume history line image for a specific year. These 1941 fashion illustrations should give you a clear understanding of the changing lines and variety of silhouettes.
As a result you can date a 1940's picture within a few years.
In 1941 styles began to look more sleek and less fussy. They pared down losing the late thirties softness, taking on a more functional, utilitarian form.
As war took hold garments became rationed. Many garments started to take on military touches and skirts were uniformly shorter everywhere. Incidentally, these body outlines are suitable for creating retro garments of the 1940s era.
1942
These silhouette costume drawings show just some of the body shape outlines found in 1942 creating costume history detail which also makes them very useful when dating the fashion history line of vintage dress.
Costume drawings, magazine covers and fashion plates of 1942 all equally act as a source of inspiration for making your own drawings.
Like many costume enthusiasts, I sometimes need a basic costume history line image for a specific year. These 1940's fashion illustrations should give you a clear understanding of the changing lines and variety of silhouettes. As a result you can date a picture within a few years. Each thumbnail enlarges to produce an A4 print and is suitable for colouring in and producing timeline scenes, collage foundation guides or guidelines for amateur dramatics.
1943
I have redrawn them in my own style then finally enhanced elements with computer software. These silhouette costume drawings show just some of the body shape outlines found in 1943 creating costume history detail which also makes them very useful when dating the fashion history line of vintage dress. Costume drawings, magazine covers and fashion plates of 1943 all equally act as a source of inspiration for making your own drawings.
Like many costume enthusiasts, I sometimes need a basic costume history line image for a specific year. These 1940's fashion illustrations should give you a clear understanding of the changing lines and variety of silhouettes. As a result you can date a picture within a few years. Each thumbnail enlarges to produce an A4 print and is suitable for colouring in and producing timeline scenes, collage foundation guides or guidelines for amateur dramatics.
By 1943 the suit was am important functioning part of a woman's everyday wardrobe. It could be dressed up or down and it was practical and warm to wear. The jacket could hide a less than perfect piece of well worn knitwear or a threadbare blouse. The jacket line of suits was simple and fairly form fitting.
1944
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1949
You may use these 1940 fashion history silhouettes above in personal school or college class projects, but they must not be reproduced in printed book form matter, as greetings cards, gift wrap etc., nor used as part of any electronic material such as a CD, DVD, TV show, videos, YouTube topic/video, ebooks, websites or similar.
You are reading an original 1940 fashion silhouette page drawn by Pauline Weston Thomas for www.fashion-era.com 2009-2013 © Copyright www.fashion-era.com 2023.
Later this year these images will appear in a more convenient offline storage format in a fashion-era PDF format and available for sale here.
Date Added 1 July 2009 - Ref: P.716
