1940s Fashion - How to get a Complete 40s Daytime Look With the Authors of Wearable Vintage Fashion

Hi, I'm Claire. Hi, I'm Jo. And this is Second Hand Rose, my vintage shop I've been running for six years. Through our joint passion for vintage, we put together this book, Wearable Vintage Fashion. The book's from the perspective of a vintage shop owner and we've tried to answer all the questions we get asked daily about styling and outfits to put together from the 20th century. In this video, we're going to look at styling from the 1940s, which is a really popular look at the moment. It's probably the most popular decade we get asked for due to theme weekends such as Goodwood and Twinwood, so it'll be a really important one to cover. So here is our 1940s look. A lady about town, a day-to-day. A very British 40s look. Quite Miss Marple in a way. This hat isn't an authentic hat, it's a 1980s hat. But you can see the colour is the kind of muted tones that were popular in the 40s. Often 40s hats did look a bit like men's hats. It was quite a tailored, masculine, formal look on some things. 40s hair was just very, very neat, very tidy. So we've used a hair rat under there just to kind of get that shape and tuck it in. It's not perfect, but it just keeps it neat under the hat. Just to talk about the makeup briefly. It's a very natural look with a small slick of eyeliner and then mascara. Penciled in brows just to make you look very smart and polished. 40s women, despite being in a war on, always made an effort to look as good as they could. Lipstick was a big part of their makeup. A very shaped Cupid's bow on the lips was popular. Oh, stop it! You didn't move. I didn't, you moved. We've chosen a tweed jacket. This is actually a 60s riding jacket, but it has three buttons, which is a very 40s utility feature, the three buttons. And it's sort of pulled in at the waist. When you do it up, you can get that lovely 40s silhouette. The 80s are a good place to look for a jacket. There was a lot of tweeds. And they had another key feature of the 40s, which were very tailored, sharp shoulders. So the dress is a 1980s cotton floral tea dress type thing. Very typical of the 40s era. And it had a bit of a revival in the 80s, so it's a great place to look. 40s dresses, they were made with synthetics and also crepes and silks are good fabrics to look for. We've gone for a very practical lace-up shoe in brown leather. These were popular lace-ups. Slingbacks and peep toes were all popular shoe shapes for the 40s. The shoes that we've chosen here, the lace-ups are actually from the 70s. And they go nicely with this handbag. It's a real boxy shape. It's actually, it's around, it's probably around the right era, actually, this one. But any kind of handbag in this very structured shape would be great for the 40s. You know, if you've got one, it can do for quite a few eras as well. With the earrings, I wouldn't look for anything bigger than about the size of a penny. They did like things diamantes and pearls, always safe options to go for. This is an instant but authentic cheat how to get the 40s look on your legs. We're just using an eyeliner to carefully have a steady hand and draw a line at the back of Rachel's legs. We've chosen a few authentic 1940s accessories just to kind of bring the look to life and finish it off nicely. This is an original felt brooch, very sort of make do and mend. A beaded necklace and some lace crocheted authentic gloves as well. We hope you found the video useful. It's just a snapshot of what's inside wearable vintage fashion. In here we cover all the eras of the 20th century. It's available to buy in April. And thanks for watching. Bye.