Throwback Thurs to 1950s - YouLookFab Forum

Think you have problems figuring out wtw? Don't you wish you could go back to 1957 when life was much simpler? Girls were not allowed to wear pants to school or church, and most of us only had 2-3 pairs of shoes to choose from: Sunday best or school shoes. We wore dresses or skirts 90% of the time.

This was our new 1957 Ford Fairlane with automatic transmission! Wearing typical styles for the time: from left to right: me in a dress my Mom made for herself but didn't like, so gave to me. (I didn't like it much either.) Skirts were still long, it would be a couple more years before hemlines rose. Everybody wore dropped waist dresses or skirts with crinolines underneath, or else like the sister standing next to me, a sheath, here with a little spring jacket, spring because there are no leaves on the trees.

My Dad in a suit, so I know it was a Sunday, and little sister in a full skirts and her pony tail. Also note that we school girls wore ankle socks, even on Sunday.

That black lump at my Dad's foot was our dog Janie, who slept on the end of my bed nearly every night for her 17 years, at least until my Mom caught her there and sent her to the basement.

Not sure why the two on the left look so grumpy and the other two so cheery.

Okay, back to work. Took a little break after wrestling with latest computer update. Enjoy.

This post has 1 photo. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.

7 years ago

Ginger

Veteran

Thank you for sharing, MsMaven! I love to see these. And that is a great car!

Anonymous

I remember these styles well and would never want to go back to 1957. I was going to be far from the curvy pin up girl that those styles show to advantage. Ah, I see the socks!

I LOVE that picture. Throw back Thursday is fun.

rachylou

I like your dress! Your skirts are really long! I have to go back thru the family albums now. I don’t think of the skirts as being so long.

My grandparents had a car for one week. A kid ran out in front of it at the church picnic - wasn’t hit or anything, but that was it for them. They didn’t want it anymore.

MsMaven

I could dig out some photos from my high school yearbooks. '57-'58 was a year when big changes were about to roll out.

L'Abeille

Oh my I love that silhouette. I was a baby that year, but I can remember skirts that full on dress pattern covers (a few years later) and begging my mom to make me one. She told me that was an artist's rendition and the skirts didn't look like that in real life.

Apparently she was wrong. How many crinolines did you have to wear to get that effect? How scratchy were they?

JAileen

Oh, wonderful picture!

I was a baby then, too. We had a 57 Ford two tone station wagon. Many years later I learned to drive in it.

In junior high (late 60s), when a field trip to the tide pools was cancelled, I was sent home to change out of my jeans. Just a year or two later *everything* changed.

Jaime

(website)

Love this! Thanks for sharing!

Cardiff girl

I know that life was somewhat restricted in those days compared to now but boy don’t you look feminine and elegant in those skirts.and that car!
Thank you so much for sharing this blast from the past.

chocnlock

Active Member

Wow! Those skirts are fabulous!

Mainelady

I love those big skirts and I wonder how easy, or hard it was to move in them. They do take up some space, but in the name of fashion, I think worth it. Fun throwback!

Angie

Fashion Stylist

YES. Loved fashion back then. What a fun pic. But much prefer our rights as women TODAY.

Bijou

What a wonderful photo and great to see what people really wore in the 50's. Here I was thinking it was what Olivia Newton John wore in Grease! I cannot imagine her black skin tight pants being appropriate.

I love the photo! And I remember well the voluminous petticoats my sisters and I wore under our church dresses. Mine was so fluffy that when I sat down, the skirt flew up in my face and I couldn't see anything. Good times!

Katerina

Thank you for sharing this lovely photo. Fun to see and read about the real fashion of 1957. Fabulous skirts. It would be fun if they would be a part of today’s maximal trend too ...

L'Abeille, we wore 3 or more crinolines. I recall starching them in sugar water to make them stiff, and probably dipped them in starch too. In winter our basement clothesline was full of hanging crinolines.

Some girls had a hoop petticoat for the bottom layer, and some wore as many as 5.

In school we had fixed desks in rows back then, so for a girl to walk down an aisle between rows sometimes resulted in knocking items off desks or skirts billowing up in back.

One of my fairly close neighbors was an excellent pianist and played in school and church. She was also one of the most extreme as far as petticoats, so when she would walk to the piano and sit down, there was quite a bit of rearranging and pushing aside. Not too convenient for riding in a car either. This girl hung on to the petticoats long after everyone else gave them up.

Mainelady, it could be a pain to navigate tight spaces.

A bunch of my classmates dressed in '50s styles for one of our reunions. I'll see if I can find one of the photos from the event.

We also wore wide "cinch" belts too.

Category