Bring the Style of the 50s into your Everyday Look

The 1950s were a fantastic time for fashion. Whilst not all aspects of the 1950s were brilliant for us women - it was a time where we were out to prove ourselves, our worth and pioneered a change in way women were perceived in the work place. However, despite the hardship surrounding women every day, the style and trends remained and were, undeniably pretty flawless.

Here at Hot Pink, we often feel inspired by the looks of the 50s: the beautiful bright patterns, the flattering dress cuts, bright lipstick, pristine up-dos and faultless accessorising. Nostalgia definitely isn’t for us, but taking inspiration from particular trends and eras is something that we love to do. A fantastic part of art, design and fashion is drawing on all the best parts of creative ideas from the past and bringing them into the modern day (without any of the political and societal baggage – we’ll happily leave that in the past thank you!).

Today, we’re focusing on our love and admiration for the style of the 50s and how you can take these trends and turn them into your own with the help of haberdashery!

Dresses

The most famous part of the 50s style! This stunning style of dress with their full skirts and nipped in waists are flattering for all different body shapes and sizes. To make your own 50s style dress, first choose your material. This can be literally ANY pattern or colour that you want. If you want to be more traditional with your look head for pastel coloured fabrics, if you want to go more modern choose brighter colours, or if you want a themed dress such as Christmas or Easter be sure to choose fabrics that are the right colour or have Christmas trees of Easter eggs on them!!

Check out how to make your own perfect dress here.

Skirts

Similarly to the 50s style dress, the full-bodied 50s skirt requires plenty of petticoats, and an accurate to size waist to create the full effect. We really recommend concentrating on the shape of the skirt, the fit and the length. Just like the dress, take some time to pick your ideal fabric that will give you the 50s look with your own twist. Think carefully about what top you would wear with it and be sure to pick your fabric accordingly.

Shoes

Creating your own 1950s style shoes is a great way to give a subtle nod to the era whilst also looking elegant and stylish. The 50s shoe didn’t have a huge heel which is a bonus for comfort – it also had a round toe and quite often had some kind of embellishment. Depending how you want to wear the shoe, you can pick from one of our fabrics to use, or, if you’re looking for a shoe that is more weather resistant, head for patent material.

Hair accessories

50s hair dos are renowned for being pristine, neat and voluminous. Getting your hair into one of these styles takes skill and practice but once you perfect it, you definitely need some sort of hair accessory to really make it pop! Depending on the kind of look you want, you could go for a rockability headscarf or a big bold flower. You can make both of these from any of our fabric ranges; in any pattern or colour you want. You could even make it more quirky by adding buttons to it!

All of our above ideas can be used to make up a whole 50s look, or individually to create a more subtle 50s themed look. The time of the 50s was full of turmoil for the women of the time, with a lot of hard work required – which is what makes the looks they achieved even more impressive! Working hard and looking good doing it is what we all aspire to do!