Costume History
Fashion Silhouettes 1940 - Timeline Drawings

By Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com

Fashion Silhouettes 1940 - Timeline Drawings

I have drawn a variety of shapes to illustrate women's fashion silhouettes from 1940.  These illustrations capture the elements of silhouettes found in old magazines such as Le Petit Echo de la Mode, Butterick and McCall's pattern books of the day.  I have redrawn them in my own style then finally enhanced elements with computer software.

In 1940, styles began to pare down losing the late thirties softness.  As war took hold, so garments became rationed and it was hard to obtain fashionable clothes.

These silhouette costume drawings show just some of the body shape outlines found in 1940. They create costume history detail which also makes them very useful when dating the line of vintage dress.  Costume drawings, magazine covers and fashion plates of 1940 can all act as a source of inspiration for making your own drawings.

Like many costume enthusiasts, I sometimes need a basic costume history line image for a specific year.  These 1940's fashion illustrations should give you a clear understanding of the changing lines and variety of women's silhouettes.  As a result you can date a picture within a few years.  Each thumbnail enlarges to produce an A4 print and is suitable for colouring in and producing timeline scenes, collage foundation guides or guidelines for amateur dramatics.

You may use these 1940 fashion history silhouettes below in personal school or college class projects, but they must not be reproduced in printed book form matter, as greetings cards, gift wrap etc., nor used as part of any electronic material such as a CD, DVD, TV show, videos, YouTube topic/video, ebooks, websites or similar.  You are reading an original 1940 fashion silhouette page drawn by Pauline Weston Thomas for www.fashion-era.com 2009 ©.

My original detailed text information on the 1940s can be found in the main section in Utility Clothing and there are many more 1940s images including the 1940s fashion plates.

Women's Fashion Silhouettes from 1940

Fashion Silhouettes Timeline Drawings 1940 In 1940 styles began to pare down losing the late thirties softness.  As war took hold, garments later became rationed.  Many of the dresses shown here have shoulder and gathering emphasis which also highlights a narrow waistline. Suits take on a crisp boxy look which when teamed with a shorter length skirt kept fabric to a minimum. In these drawings high V-necklines predominate. You may use these 1940 fashion history silhouettes above and below in personal school or college class projects, but they must not be reproduced in printed book form matter, as greetings cards, gift wrap etc., nor used as part of any electronic material such as a CD, DVD, TV show, videos, YouTube topic/video, ebooks, websites or similar.  You are reading an original 1940 fashion silhouette page drawn by Pauline Weston Thomas for www.fashion-era.com 2009-2013 ©. © Copyright www.fashion-era.com 2009.
1940	1940	1940	1940
1940	1940	1940	1940
You may use these 1940 fashion history silhouettes above in personal school or college class projects, but they must not be reproduced in printed book form matter, as greetings cards, gift wrap etc., nor used as part of any electronic material such as a CD, DVD, TV show, videos, YouTube topic/video, ebooks, websites or similar.  You are reading an original 1940 fashion silhouette page drawn by Pauline Weston Thomas for www.fashion-era.com 2009-2013 ©. © Copyright www.fashion-era.com 2009. Later this year these images will appear in a more convenient offline storage format in a fashion-era PDF format and available for sale here. Click thumbnails to create A4 enlargements.

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Date Added 1 July 2009 - Ref: P.716

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For more information on C20^th Silhouettes go to:-

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