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1940s fashion is so 2023.
Julia, a 28-year-old from the Chicago area, has always been close with her grandmother and admired her for being a wonderful mother, wife, and woman. But during the pandemic Julia began to truly understand another talent of her grandmother’s: fashion design.
Julia tells Glamour that she knew her grandmother, whom she refers to online simply as Grandma to protect her privacy, had dropped out of fashion school in the 1940s but didn’t know a lot about her time there or her design dreams. That is, until the COVID-19 lockdown, when Grandma went through her things and uncovered old sketches from when she was studying and asked Julia if she wanted to see them.
“I was really blown away,” she says. “They were really beautiful. She mentioned that when she passes away, she wants people to know that this was part of her life. She wanted them either sent out to magazines or displayed at her funeral. And I thought, Well, why would we wait for you to pass away?”
Although Julia had no design or sewing experience, she decided that her pandemic project would be learning how to sew so she could bring Grandma’s designs to life. She began documenting her process on TikTok and has since has posted more than 90 videos about her “Grandma designs.”
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A few years, millions of views, and nearly 800,000 followers later, Julia and Grandma have introduced a whole new generation of women to this refined and chic but whimsical and feminine era of fashion.
If you’ve been similarly captivated by Grandma’s designs, or if you’re just interested in incorporating some elements of the era’s style into your wardrobe, here are Julia’s tips for putting together a modern outfit with a 1940s fashion twist.
Grandma loved a “big, billowy” sleeve, Julia notes, as did many women hip to the 1940s fashion trends. “That was very popular in the 1940s,” she says. “Whether it was short sleeves or long sleeves, that’s in a lot of her sketches. It’s like in every single design.”
Reformation Wanda Top
Nobody’s Child Gingham Puff-Sleeve Dress
One of the styles Grandma drew the most were two- and three-piece suits for women, which Julia says reflected the changing social norms of the time. “That was very contemporary for daily wear, because this is really when women were starting to go into the workplace,” she says. “In the ’40s through the early ’50s, you see women finally getting desk jobs that they’re holding down.”
She notes that Grandma’s suits often had a full skirt with a “Coke bottle silhouette to it,” but you can choose a straighter cut to modernize the look.
M.M. LaFleur Gabriella Dress
Amanda Uprichard Braswell Top
For millennial women, peplum tops may scream 2010 (which is coming back, btw), but Julia notes the silhouette was also popular during Grandma’s day.
“That’s going to give you a silhouette that many women find pleasing and flattering to the eye without wearing certain corsets or undergarments,” she says. “That sort of upward peplum style was in a lot of two-piece suits, and is very indicative of the ’40s, as you had to dress sensibly because there was a war.”
Express Puff-Sleeve Peplum Top
Maeve Peplum Corset Sweater Tank
If there’s one thing Grandma loves, Julia says, it’s a big, full skirt. “A lot of her sketches, regardless of if they’re long-sleeve, sweetheart neckline, any sort of style she has, it’s always cinched in at the waist with a giant skirt,” she says. “Whether it’s a short skirt or a long skirt, it’s very exaggerated, and at the waist, either with a belt or some sort of cinching…when I’m sewing or making different designs, she always is like, ‘Okay, bring it in the waist. Bring it in the waist.’”
Madewell Signature Poplin Maxiskirt
Maeve Full Skirt
Grandma loves a good pair of pumps, Julia says, but with a 1940s twist. Back in the day, she notes, women didn’t have the money for a whole closetful of shoes.
“Instead of having a collection of different shoes, you would trick the men in your office into thinking you were more wealthy than you were by wearing shoe clips,” she explains. “They were almost like clip-on earrings. They would clip right to the front of your shoe, sit right on top of your toes, and that would make it look like you had many different pairs of shoes. You could buy these shoe clips for maybe $2 to $3 a pop.”
Um, can we bring these back?
HZYFPOY Bow Shoe Clips
Lauthen.S Rhinestone Shoe Clips
One important fashion lesson Julia has learned from Grandma, though, is to wear what makes you feel like your most gorgeous self. “It’s very much about how you look in the garment and how you feel in the garment versus just, ‘Oh, that’s a pretty garment.’ She wants you to wear the garment, not the garment to wear you.”
