Dresses, No Pants For Women | Forties Fashion | Club Dahlia

I never actually thought of it that way. I was only a child then. I do recall that my mother and grandmother always did work around our house in a dress. I wonder how often they ruined their clothes doing all of this housework, especially with a dress. I suppose they had dresses for housework set out, and dresses for entertainment also set out.

I never was one to wear a dress often. I have friends who are members of the United Pentecostal Church though and they do not believe in wearing anything other than dresses. They also don't watch television and they don't believe in cutting their hair. I wonder if religion had more to do with it in the 40's or if it was just mostly a viewpoint from the majority of people?

I tend to wear dresses or skirts almost all the time myself, and I don't think my mother actually owns any trousers.

 

I'm quite short and curvy, and trousers just do not look good on me.

It was all about dresses in the 40's except during the war.  Some women did start dressing in slacks beause they took on 'men's work' as they say.

The Hollywood actresses looked quite spiffy in their Army attire when they did public relations ads and such.  Even in the movies, like White Christmas, which was actually done after the war.

justontime said:

You know to British eyes, the heading for this thread means something different. Something that my grandma would certainly not have approved of!

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Ha ha, yes we say "pants" to mean underwear, but the land army girls used to wear trousers, overalls and dungarees because, of course, they worked on the land, ploughing fields and tending animals. They did the work of all the farmers who had gone off to fight the war.

enJoyingLife said:

I can't imagine doing housework in a dress like the women of the 40s did.  I like the styles they wore, especially the shirt-dress styles that were a little below the knee.  Women of that decade were very stylish and classy.

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Yes they were very classy and stylish.  I would never consider doing housework this way now.  I have to have old clothes on when I do housework as I feel so gross when I do it.