Working Woman Series: Blouses, Sweaters, and Cardigans

Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans

The blouses and top layers of working women in the 1940s had to be hardy, comfortable, safe, and-- preferably-- fashionable.  Sometimes work in factories or outside on farms would be hot, messy work in which t-shirts or short sleeved blouses would be the norm.  Other times, women were working in cold weather, or they had to protect their skin from metal bits or wood dust.  In these cases, long sleeved shirts and sweaters or cardigans would be used.

Luckily for us, it is not too difficult to track down tops that resemble the blouse styles of the 40s working woman:

Button-up short sleeve blouse
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
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According to the photos I've seen, this seems to be the most common kind of top.

Button-up long sleeve blouse
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
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Sweater
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
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T-shirt
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
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Cardigan
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
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Now of course, these trends are all well and good, but where could you get your own versions of tops like these?  Well, you have a few options:
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
{1} yellow sweater {2} striped yellow {3} green cardigan {4} ski sweater {5} blue shirt
{6} blue sweater

Flashback Summer: 1940s Working Woman Style Series- blouses, sweaters, and cardigans
{1} Wearing History 1930s Sports Togs {2} Sun-Glo Series 91 {3} Simplicity 2277
{4} Sun-Glo Series 62 {5} McCall's 6436 {6} Simplicity 1170

2 comments

  1. Though both sexes had been wearing them in very causal and sports based settings before, I think it's really interesting how WW2 ushered in the more frequent wearing of t-shirts both women (hard at work on the homefront) and men off fighting (as part of their standard military issued uniform as an undergarment). I'm sure that that really helped lead the way for the mainstream acceptance of tees as a standard wardrobe item for guys and gals alike in the decades that would follow.

    ♥ Jessica

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  2. I really like the idea of making a button up blouse of my own from vintage cloth. Thanks for the inspiration!

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