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Costume Sites on the WWW #5:  WWII Resources

Military Uniforms

  Canadian Uniforms of the Second World War Broken Link can be found at The Canadian War Museum, and other war museums also have large numbers of images that are useful for this era. The Imperial War Museum, London has a searchable database of images at http://www.vads.ahds.ac.uk and the German Historical Museum has a uniform page at http://www.dhm.de/ENGLISH/sammlungen/militaria/uniforms.html 

The California Historical Group Broken link of WWII battle reenactors includes uniform information for four nationalities in the conflict, including Soviet Infantry Uniforms http://www.chgww2.com/150th/150equip.htm In fact military reenactors consistently provide the most information online about uniforms: Isiu Island Provisional Infantry Homepage has images and an equipment list for Japanese Infantry http://patriot.net/~jstevens/Isiu-Island/equipment.html while the Finnish Re-enactor Site http://www.geocities.com/tulatuco/uniformcenter.html has images of Finnish soldiers.  The WW2 Reenactor’s Webring http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=ww2reenactor&list lists many more groups of this kind.

 Reenactors keep a number of companies in business reproducing WWII uniforms, including Lost Battalions http://www.lostbattalions.com Castle Keep [this site no longer online] and World War Two Impressions  http://www.wgn.net/~ww2imp More are listed at my own Military Costume and Armor Links http://www.costumes.org/pages/militaryuniforms.htm  you can also find many dealers in vintage uniforms and insignia listed here.

  Civilian Fashion  

Rationed Fashion, American Fashion During WWII broken link  by Chloe Black has a good brief outline of American Women’s Civilian dress with pictures. 

1940’s Fashion [this site no longer online] by Katherine Rohe (?) is more detailed, with many pictures of women’s dress including museum examples.

Yesterdayland-Fashion in the 1940’s Dead Link conveniently provides definitions and images for most of the pop-culture fashion terms and fads of the era. 
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Retro Magazine: 1940’s Hairstyles [this site no longer online] by Yvonne Hawker and Malvina DeVries describes how to recreate several 1940’s hairstyles, with pictures. So does this site: broken link Another hair page is Nocture Hair-Dos [this site no longer online] a site for swing dancers. Retro Magazine http://www.retroactive.com also has lots of other free online articles on 1940’s themes, including fashion how-to tips on Marcel waves, tying bow ties, and wrapping Dorothy Lamour style sarongs. 

1940's Fashion - A Progressive Chart http://www.skaro.com/1940s_1.html by John Peacock has a year by year outline of men’s and women’s fashion silhouettes, with variations on hems, collars, etc. 

Sleek and Chic http://www.sleeknchic.co.uk/main/  sells real Vintage Stockings, Vintage Girdles and Lingerie. 

Patterns from the Past http://www.oldpatterns.com/ has a large selection of vintage sewing patterns, including many 1940’s styles, as does Rusty Zipper http://www.rustyzipper.com and Blue Gardenia http://www.thebluegardenia.com/ 

Savoy Style http://www.swingdanceshop.com  sells ready made “swing dance” styles (1930’s-1950’s) of clothing and shoes. For Feet First http://www.forfeetfirst.com  also sells “swing” shoe styles.  In fact, the Swing dance enthusiasts on Swing, Swing, Swing (In a Ring) http://nav.webring.yahoo.com/hub?ring=daddyo&id=12&hub have a total of 167 sites with useful information for dancing and dressing in this era, including many that sell ready made products, or vintage items. 

K.N.O.T. http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/4026 has many images of 1940’s and 1950’s neckties, especially the more exotic varieties that were made in California, and so came into favor late in the war, as servicemen were routed through West Coast ports.  This site also has links to vintage tie dealers that sell collectable neckwear of this era. 

Everything you wanted to know about the history of the Aloha shirt http://www.alohafunwear.com/funfacts.shtml   originally designed in the 1930’s and then popularized outside Hawaii by returning servicemen in WWII. 

1940’s Fashion Links http://www.costumes.org/pages/1940links.htm at my site lists more civilian clothing links as well. 

Clothes Rationing & Renovation 

Christine's Costume Page http://www.100megspop3.com/adira  by Christine Hawkins has fashions of World War II, from the “Australian Home Journal”, Hints for making-do from “The Lux Wartime Clothes Service” and more tips from the Commonwealth Rationing Commission of Australia, in addition to images and articles on Australian fashions of other eras. 

Make Do And Mend, Wartime advice from the British Board of Trade http://www.goodnightsweetheart.co.uk/makedo.html is self-explanatory.

Nylon 

Vintage Heels.Com http://www.vintageheels.com sells both vintage and reproduction seamed Nylon stockings. The Nylon Drama http://www.edc.org/CCT/lemcen/u7sf/u7materials/nylondrama.html (Link no longer in operation) and The History of Hosiery: Nylon Stockings http://www.lovebugs.com/nylon tell the historical background of nylon fiber and it’s use in fashion. 

Zoot Suits  

The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare http://www.edc.org/CCT/lemcen/u7sf/u7materials/cosgrove.html (link no longer in operation) by Stuart Cosgrove is primarily useful for it’s in depth text on the Zoot suit riots. 

The Zoot Suit Store http://www.zootsuitstore.com sells custom made suits from Siegel’s a store that has made and sold Zoot suits since their inception, at very reasonable rates. Siegel’s also rents. El Pachuco http://www.elpachuco.com and Suavacito’s http://www.suavecito.com also make and rent Zoots and all the attendant male accessories (hats, shoes, ties).  

The Holocaust  

Concentration Camp Prisoner Symbols [this site no longer online] has a color chart of the various triangle and star badges worn by different groups of prisoners.  Badges at the Pink Triangle Site http://www.pink-triangle.org/ptps/symbol.html  has another, similar, chart.  Uniformed prisoners with triangular identifying badges are shown here:  http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/76278.htm Two concentration camp badges bearing purple triangles worn by Jehovah's Witnesses are here:  http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/photos/4207?hr=null  A uniform jacket worn by another prisoner is here:   http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/photos/4204?hr=null And at this site is a large database of prisoner images: http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_query/photos?hr=null&query=kw110035

 The Jewish Badge http://history1900s.about.com/homework/history1900s/library/holocaust/
aa031298.htm by Jennifer Rosenberg, has a long essay on it’s history and day to day use under the Nazis. This photo page broken link has an image of Jewish citizens wearing the badge. broken link has a color photo of a surviving similar star badge from Holland. This page:  http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/8839-3.htm has one from France.  In Bulgaria Jews were ordered to wear Bakelite buttons like those here: broken link  Here is a database of many images of European Jews wearing the badges (link no longer working) 

THE EVOLUTION OF TATTOOING IN THE AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP  COMPLEX broken link by George Rosenthal, a camp survivor, who explains the numbering systems, and their use, is quite detailed.

If you have good web links for any topic related to costume, please e-mail me at Tara@costumes.org 

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The Costumer's Manifesto is proudly hosted by William Baker.

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This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.  Copyright 1996-2010.   You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays.  You may link to any page in my site.

This page last edited on 10/08/2007