Housewives and the birth of the baby boomers — these are iconic symbols of the 1950s in America. With that came a fashion style that was considered cute for home or for going out to the grocery store.
The Look: The Circle Dress
- Tight waistline dress that poofed out over the butt (think poodle skirt without the doggies)
- V-neck, short sleeved blouse
- Accentuated, cone-shaped bust
This period was also highlighted by super bright colors, plaid, polka dots and floral prints. These fun patterns and types of materials exploded after World War II and the end of rationing. Goodbye greys and browns and hello reds and yellows.
Fitting Into that Tight Waistline
Not much different than today, fashion in the 1950s had women trying to conform to a particular body type. Since we all know that’s pretty much impossible, corsets and other waist-liners were common. Even more common were padded bras and other bust enhancements to achieve a cone-like bust shape (yes, just like Madonna and her pointy bra).
While this commonly worn dress type wasn’t form-fitting, using a petticoat or hoop skirt made it easy to accentuate the hips, hide any extra belly weight, and made the booty look nice and full regardless of what was actually going on back there.
Another Shape for Party Wear
The Sheath Dress was another type of shape seen in the 1950s. More pencil-skirt like, this type of silhouette was reserved for outings and more formal events. In this type of dress, the booty was out there meeting and greeting the world, showing off its magnificent shape.
Now, whether these dresses were truly comfortable enough to bake bread all day is questionable, so we’re just glad petticoats and hoop skirts aren’t part of today’s daily dressing routine.
See Also: Booties Back Then: 1850s-1890s