1923-1955 Photographs

Pictures of Ordinary People and Children in Britain in Everyday Clothes

By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com

Pictures of Ordinary People

These are original family photographs of ordinary people in everyday clothes and taken between 1922 and 1955. They show fashion as it was worn and are an accurate record of fashion history of the early and mid twentieth century.

These photographs must not be downloaded or used without permission from Fashion-era.com.

Family Picture - Caerphilly South Wales 1923

The group on the right were photographed in 1923 - four sisters and one brother.  Later another eight brothers and sisters joined them, but with one stillborn baby.

The simple everyday clothes were changed for velvet outfits on Sundays, when the children attended church three times a day.  Their mother made the clothes using an old singer sewing machine.

Sylvia, the baby in the picture above right, now at age 17.  She is wearing a wool coat with astrakhan trim.  This photograph was taken at the start of the Second World War, shortly before Sylvia was married.

During times of crisis, or when people knew they would be parted they would visit a local photographers studio for a professional portrait.  Mostly this was simply because they did not own a camera.

School Group - South Wales 1945

Here on the right, is a primary school photograph of children taken in South Wales UK in 1945.  Bows were used to keep the girls' hair tidy and a fresh hair ribbon was a treat when new clothes were unlikely.

These children grew up in a time of food rationing and utility clothing restrictions.

Click for an enlargement of these delightful photographs.

Here on the left, are two of the children playing 'walking with sticks and poles'. Note the crispness of the girl's starched cotton pique frock.  Probably taken about 1946.

This was an era when of austerity, the government had yet to implement a policy of free school milk.

Assorted Pictures of the Late 1940s

On the right is a picture of Phyllis wearing a fashionable wool crepe dress circa 1940.

Florrie with her brother Will taken in the 1940s. Note Will's very wide leather belt called a Sam Browne belt.  Florrie's wet-look shiny top has a look about it that says it could be worn today.

Pictures of Ordinary Teenagers in the Early 1950s

1951 - Pat and Irene are teenagers, but their drab clothes are functional.  Pat wears a thick warm wool Melton coat and Irene wears her Grammar school gabardine Burberry and school scarf.  Both girls wear socks despite being old enough to wear stockings.  Shortages continued well after WWII finished.

The little girl wears a matching hooded wool windcheater and trousers and hand knitted fair isle mittens. The short windcheater jacket became popular after the American short jackets worn by servicemen popularised the style.

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Mothers out Walking in the 1950s

Lorraine and her sister Sylvia in 1951. Lorraine looks very severe, but well-groomed in her black, tailored, hard wearing, Utility wool suit.  With little spare money to spend on herself and feeling the deprivation after the war her hair is scraped back and simply parted.

Sylvia wears a two tone coat popular at the time.  Her hair is much softer and follows her version of the Veronica Lake hairstyle.  The children wear hand knitted cardigans and little dresses.

Young Cousins having fun in the early 1950s

In the picture to the left, the girls are wearing gathered skirt dresses typical of the era. and on the right simple little skirts. Note the shoulder straps on skirts in both pictures.  Tartan was always popular and was used often.

The boy wears a fair isle sweater and short trousers.  His hair was probably economically cut using a pudding bowl as a guide.

1951 - The little boy on the left wears a traditional warm woollen hooded coat.

The 1951 child's coat is typical of the neat "nanny" style coats as worn by Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

On the right, the little girl is wearing a hand-knitted cardigan over a liberty bodice.

Fireworks at Porthcawl in South Wales 1953

Here are a family wrapped up warm for a night at a 1953 Porthcawl fireworks display.  Lorraine (second from the left) is dressed in quite a glamorous way, whereas today such an event would be considered sporty and call for functional more casual clothes.

A Wedding of 1954

Note the Juliet cap half hats.

These photographs must not be downloaded or used without permission from Fashion-era.com

For more information about the 1950s Era and main links to 1920s, 1930s and 1940s sections click on the titles below:-