It’s been over sixty years since the height of the 1950s. So much has changed, yet we keep gravitating back.
Back to the era where the epitome of elegance and fashion shone, not just in our homes and the outwards of our dress but also graced our screens. It has us seek to embody just a pinch of the glamour, costumes, clothing and cultivated beauty standards set by Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Jayne Mansfield.
“A different time, a different life,”: often the terms heard when speaking of the 1950s, but a different way of life seems most certainly true – women earned just around $12 at work compared to $655 p/w today. You may be thinking that yes, we did dress differently – even our behaviour was different – but can we separate physical differences so distinctly between our grandparents and us in just over 60 years?
I mean, it’s not like the gap in time is that big that we are comparing ourselves to Homo erectus. It’s a time stuck in our memories where most of you or your parents can still remember sitting in the living room watching I Love Lucy and popping a Pez in your mouth.
The retro trend that’s come and stayed since 2018 is all too hard to keep up with when it comes to fashion, especially for those of us who love vintage op shopping for the “realest” of clothing items straight from ‘55. But, when it comes to trying on the real thing, we’re left wondering why we can’t get a skirt past our thighs, thinking, “Am I just too bloated?”, or “Why oh, why won’t these seams stretch?”.
Well, we’re not alone and it’s not just the cake we ate at breakfast that’s making our authentic and trend setting (or returning) outfits too small. Putting aside the fact that the fabric and stitching was designed in a way that was very much so custom fit, there are more things to consider; the boxy designs, the years of girdle wearing girls training their waists and the seams that can be let out by 1-2 inches. Heaven forbid having a waist greater than 10” close to your bust size.
According to the Daily Mail, data gathered from the Office of National Statistics, the NHS and the British Bra Survey display evidence of just some of the ways the female figure (height included) has changed over the years. From an average of a size 12, 5’2” and a weight of 57 kilos, the female body – of 2017 – is taller by two inches, up four dress sizes and is a 6 in shoes.
The biggest change is the average bust size for women, which today is a 36DD, up from a cup size of 34B. There go my hopes of ever wearing an authentic and classic Audrey Hepburn shirt/pant duo. Perhaps I could still fulfil my fantasies with a pair of her classic ballet flats (she had rather big feet – a size 10, in fact).
Though we may not be able to fit into all the authentic clothes of our silver screen desires, we can rejoice in the fact that firstly, the fashion world is delving into the past and reproducing many similar designs from those of our 50s hearts, and secondly, we’re much healthier today. Lingerie firm chief executive Emily Bendell has said about women’s full figure silhouettes, “Miss Average is likely to exercise at least twice a week – consuming 2,300 calories a day compared to 1,800 calories back then,” and “She is much healthier than her Fifties counterpart.”
So, it’s not that bad now is it? Yes, it’s sad we might never fit into our favourite dress from nanna’s gloriously 50s fitted keepsake box, but we can create and recreate styles and looks and do so to suit our much healthier bodies of now. It’s true, for the next generations of Grace Kelly’s and Hepburn in Roman Holiday wannabees, we can have our cake and eat it too.
What’s your favourite 1950s fashion aesthetic? Let us know in the comments below.