The Hottest Names to Look for in 1950s Designer Vintage Clothing

The 1950s is a perennial favorite among #vintage clothing fanciers – and with good reason. The silhouettes were iconic, the designers were high-profile and the clothing was fabulous. After the austere 1930s and the rationing imposed by the war years in the 1940s, the ‘50s ushered in a new era of femininity and opulence. The design trends in 1950s dresses celebrated the female form with glamorous fabrics, glitzy accessories and all the frills and furbelows for which haute couture is famous. Whether you’re going for the glam for a night at the Grammies or a wedding, you can’t go wrong with vintage dresses in the style of any of these iconic vintage clothing designers.

Balenciaga

#Cristobal Balenciaga’s opulent gowns and women’s suits personified the glamour of the fifties style dresses with gorgeous fabrics and styles that emphasize the feminine form. They were characterized by open décolleté, narrow waists and sweeping skirts in lace, chiffon and stunning satins.Original vintage clothing by Balenciaga is hard to find and prohibitively expensive, but you can often find retro clothing in the style of Balenciaga’s golden years.

Christian Dior

Perhaps no designer captured the evening glamour quite as well as Christian Dior. Dior’s New Look 1950s dresses featured yards and yards of lush fabrics, feminine prints and silhouettes designed to show off the classic hourglass figure. Check out the stunning vintage dresses in this YouTube vintage clothing clip previewing Dior’s 1952 Spring/Summer line to get a feel for the classic Dior 1950s vintage clothing style. Then check out today’s modern Christian Dior Twitter feed  (@Dior ) to see just how well the classic Dior endures throughout the decades.

Pierre Balmain

Luxurious, sweeping skirts, off-the-shoulder silhouettes and stunning floral prints characterized the 1950s dresses of designer Pierre Balmain. The icon of #50s fashion worked closely with Christian Dior before opening his own fashion house in 1945. His fifties dresses designs were sculptured, but had a more delicate, ladylike aesthetic than either Dior or Balenciaga.

Other 50s Vintage Clothing Styles

One of the most enduring fifties style dressesis the classic rockabilly dress. The shirtwaist bodice, nipped waist and belled skirt appeared in dozens of Hollywood films on such stars as Marilyn Monroe, the classic 1950s pinup girl, who is shown in some stunning shots at +MarilynMonroeSlide. Whether you choose vintage designer fashion or generic 1950s vintage clothing styles, you can’t go wrong if you model yourself on the original divine Miss M.