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African American Fashion In The 1930's

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Fashion of the 1930’s In the 1930’s fashion was at its peak. The fashion showed the elegance and beauty of the United States during a time of depression. During the 1930’s, fashion began to have a ready to wear mentality. The United States was just beginning the Great Depression and trying to adjust to a life with very little. The American people had to find cheaper ways and places to buy and manufacture clothes, especially after the stock market crashed (Dudbrige). Most of the inspiration for the fashion came from films which impacted the culture (Lewis). Most of the designers that designed for these films were located outside of the country where the bulk of the fashion industry was located (Lewis). In the 1930’s, fashion impacted the country …show more content…
During this time period people began to wear clothes inspired by movie film costumes (“The Democratization…,). Some of the women who influenced the fashion industry were, the Duchess of Windsor Willis Simpson, Joan Crawford, Vivien Leigh, Scarlett O’Hara, and Elsa Schiaparelli (who invented the zipper). Most of the designers who inspired American fashion were foreign, including Coco Chanel, and Norman Hartnell (Lewis). In this time period segregation was still around, but African American designers where starting to become popular. One African American designer that impacted the 1930’s American fashion was Anne Lowe. She was the woman who created the wedding gown for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, when she married President John F. Kennedy (Amay). Most women in this time period were changing the girly look in women’s clothes by adding pants, which gave their outfits a boyish look. This look was inspired by actress Katherine Hepburn (Katherine). Women decided to make this change in style because they were beginning to do more in their daily lives and wanted to have more of a laid back outfit than the outfits used in the 1920s (Thomas, “Men’s, Ladies….”). In addition to inspiring the designers of the 1930’s the fashion impacted the

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