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Style and beauty

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Original poster

Clothes in the 50s and 60s

111 replies

Alarmset · 21/12/2021 08:47

On TV and in films, even "poor" people wear beautifully cut clothes. People like midwives, secretaries, struggling musicians.

Was that how it was, "cheap" clothes didn't exist or is that just for TV?

OP posts:

Floisme · 23/12/2021 13:53

Thank goodness for your posts BigFatLiar, KloppKrazy and Cazziebo, I was beginning to wonder if I'd been brought up in some reclusive, camera avoiding sect

peaceanddove · 23/12/2021 16:55

My GM trained as a seamstress and could do invisible mending too. She had a lovely, slender but hourglass figure so often worked as a fit model for other seamstresses/designers. She still had a 22 inch waist when she was in her 60s. She had far, far fewer clothes than I own (her and my Grandpa shared a small double wardrobe), but they were invariably excellent quality and expertly tailored to fit. She had the one good Winter coat and the one good Summer mac, and they lasted her for years and years. She has a small handful of good dresses for going 'out' and one real silk one for 'best'. She made them all herself. Because she was slender and yet still wore a girdle all her clothes hung beautifully on her. Putting on weight was literally unaffordable because there just wasn't the money to casually pop out and buy bigger clothes.

When I helped my Mum clear out my GM's clothes when she passed away, I remember the weight of them. They were heavy. Even her light summer dresses were made from quality, thick cotton. All finished with proper French seams on the inside, often double hemmed to make the skirt hang better. Even shopping in places like Harvey Nichols you would struggle to find clothes that are finished to such a high standard nowadays.

I dislike the current trend for loungewear, it looks slovenly to me. I don't care if it's from Lulu lemon. Every day my teen DDs potter about in expensive outfits that probably cost upwards of £300 (yes, I'm including trainers) but they're actually just in leggings and huge hoodies/sweatshirts.

EleonorBronte · 23/12/2021 19:40

i thin the pop, modern look in the 60's was heading to where we are today.
I recall Heartbeat, set in the 60's and gina the Liverpudlian girl always wore very time-trendy stuff, mostly plastic, polyester and garish materials. Just to add dome variation in the comments

sjxoxo · 23/12/2021 19:53

I work in vintage clothing supply & garments you are right that garments from those eras was typically better made than todays clothing. The material used in todays clothing is very different - old fabrics hold shape whereas today everything is stretch, for comfort/trends/cheap manufacturing/our growing sizes. I think the reality particularly still in the 50s, was that for those who were poor, clothing was very much worn and worn until it couldn’t be worn any more, (they’d be less on camera too) but for those who could afford it into the 60s, clothing was more of a consumable product, a bit like today and could be collected and replaced. In both instances it was better made for longer lasting & durability than todays fabrics & manufacturing processes. I also think people probably look ‘more put together’ as the style of clothing compared to today, was more classic- especially in the 50s. Today we are all living in what would’ve been considered ‘sportswear’- even denim for example! Also the 50s to 60s was a decade of enormous change- the sixties was the very very beginning of what we have today- fast fashion & accelerated consumerism driven by trends. Twiggy, BIBA, the TV & music scene developing, advertising all developed at a lightning pace at this time! Fashion & garment history is fascinating Xo

rslsys · 23/12/2021 20:32

Camera ownership by average people was reasonably widespread in the 50s.
Cost of film and developing meant the typical spool of film contained Christmas, summer holidays and the following Christmas!

Iamthewombat · 23/12/2021 21:02

If you remember Imelda Marcos, the wife of a dictator, made the news, not because it was the fall of a despicable regime, but when her palace was taken over they found that she had 3000 pairs of shoes. It was headline news as it was so outside anyone’s experience.

Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986. Not the 1950s or the 1960s. I think that any wife of a dictator of a poor country (or, in fact, anyone at all) owning 3000 pairs of shoes would be considered equally shocking now!

MedusasBadHairDay · 24/12/2021 08:49

I'm currently working on sewing myself a whole wardrobe of clothes, and the idea is to make them like they did in the past. So a few good quality items that will last, and undergarments that are designed to protect the clothes and make them last longer.

NeedWineNow · 24/12/2021 11:03

I've got my dad's photo albums from the 50's and there are some great photos of my mum looking very smart. She told me that she used to go to a dressmaker in the East End - she lived in Poplar - who made stuff for her. There was definitely no fast fashion as there is now.

GoodnightGrandma · 24/12/2021 11:04

DM made lots of her own, but she says clothes were made better then. They lasted and were handed on.

KimikosNightmare · 24/12/2021 15:00

It really struck me in the documentary film From Scotland with Love how much smarter everyone looked. This is all film from the National Archives of people going about their every day lives. It's not posed for the camera. Men are in suits or tailored jackets and trousers- women in skirts, dresses and tailored coats or jackets. And hats ! And no jeans.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Scotland_with_Love?wprov=sfla1
www.fromscotlandwithlovethefilm.com/

woodhill · 24/12/2021 17:21

I have a photo of me on the beach with dgf, early 70s him wearing a suit

KimikosNightmare · 24/12/2021 17:52

Today we are all living in what would’ve been considered ‘sportswear’- even denim for example!

No we are not. Speak for yourself !

Malibuismysecrethome · 24/12/2021 18:29

The quality and fabrics were far superior to what is for sale nowadays. In all honesty fashion is crap and standards are so low nowadays. Truly beautiful items of clothing were quite normal and shoes and boots were fabulous. I was looking through a wedding album from 1964 and everyone was so elegant and well dressed, and this was a wedding in Walworth, SE London so not a society wedding.

mylovelypresent · 24/12/2021 18:40

I don't know how anyone can claim that people are better dressed now.

There was more obvious poverty in the fifties but general standards of dress were much higher. People had very few clothes but they were better in fabric and fit.

We had no phone and no car in the fifties and sixties but we did have a camera.

supperlover · 25/12/2021 00:10

@woodhill

I have a photo of me on the beach with dgf, early 70s him wearing a suit

And I have one of my father at the seaside in the 50s wearing a linen jacket, Panama hat, shirt and tie . He was a farmer and even going to the cattle market he dressed smartly in tweeds and felt hat.

KimikosNightmare · 25/12/2021 13:07

He was a farmer and even going to the cattle market he dressed smartly in tweeds and felt hat

My grandfather was a farmer and I often went to the mart (Scottish version of market) with him- everyone dressed like that. This was mid 60s.

supperlover · 26/12/2021 07:36

@KimikosNightmare

He was a farmer and even going to the cattle market he dressed smartly in tweeds and felt hat

My grandfather was a farmer and I often went to the mart (Scottish version of market) with him- everyone dressed like that. This was mid 60s.

Actually was called mart where I grew up too, Northern Ireland. Blame me calling it market on the fact that I lived in England for too long! It's still ' the mart' and still on a Thursday in my rural Fermanagh.

woodhill · 26/12/2021 14:12

@supperlover

Twitterwhooooo · 26/12/2021 14:28

People definitely had fewer clothes.

My mother still has the bedroom furniture set that she bought when she got married.

One small double wardrobe 'for him' and one 'her her' and that was plenty for all seasons clothes etc.

Clothes weren't made in the same quantities and certainly not mass produced in factories in China and transported over.

I think the '60s was the start of 'fast fashion' ie shops like Chelsea Girl that sold cheaper fashion, only to be worn for a year or so, not kept and taken out every summer for example.

Women made a lot of their own clothes and definitely kept buttons, zips or finishing to be reused when the fabric was consigned to the rag bag. Having items altered was fairly usual.

Clothes were proportionally more expensive in relation to household income than now.

turnaroundtime · 26/12/2021 21:00

if clothes were spot cleaned and only washed once per season in some cases, didn't they smell of BO?

MajorCarolDanvers · 26/12/2021 21:08

My mother was born in 1949. Until her late teens her mother - my gran - made all her clothes.

She got one pair of leather shoes a year and otherwise wore cheap plimsolls.

She had one good outfit which she wore to church and parties.

Ddot · 26/12/2021 22:36

I am often embarrassed at the amount of clothes I own. Far more than I will ever need and with covid more than I can wear. I need to purge but find that hard too. I need therapy

mumwon · 26/12/2021 22:45

We had a buying system called (in Australia at least) standby (I think) you paid a deposit & they kept it for x weeks until it was paid (weekly sums) for & there was no interest paid. When I started work as a junior I had a low salary & that is how my friends & I bought our clothes in the late 60's

Ddot · 27/12/2021 06:03

Mumwon
Mam calls it the never never

Crowdfundingforcake · 27/12/2021 08:01

Mum won, it was 'layby' in NSW - I remember going into the shops once a week with my 5 dollars to pay against my laybys.

Ddot, I think it's slightly different to the 'never never' - with a laybys you can't have your new dress until you've paid all the installments. It sat on a shelf in the shop until you'd paid in full (by which time you'd forgotten what it looked like or put on a stone and it didn't fit anymore!).

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