I'm watching The Women, the film version of Clare Booth Luce's play, and remarking on the fashion. So much fabric, such lovely nipped waists, but such ugly shoes, and those puckered sleeves, oy.
Of course, the flick was made in 1939, during the Depression -- as my late granny loved to tell us, women were skinnier then because there wasn't a lot of extra food and people walked a hell of a lot more than they do today -- and as World War II was heating up. The styles, despite the fussy flourishes of hats, brooches, scarves, wraps etc., strike an almost militaristic profile, with wide belts, prominent buttons and those squared shoulders. 
What struck me most, especially while watching the gorgeous fashion show sequence (a Technicolor interlude in the black-and-white film) is wondering how very different the wardrobe and set designs would have looked just 10 years later, as Christian Dior was unveiling the "New Look." Take this dinner dress from 1947. The shoulders are much more natural, rounded, and the skirt, while still full, is now shorter and has crinolines underneath it. It's a much more bountiful, womanly design, and it's only a hop skip and a jump to the '50s.
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