Postwar Style.

Before World War II American fashion had little sense of national identity or style. Since the nineteenth century, in fact, Paris couturiers had set fashion trends for women in both Europe and America. Before the 1950s America's only distinctive contribution to international fashion was via Hollywood movies. This situation changed in the 1950s with the emergence of more than two dozen energetic and imaginative young men and women on the American fashion scene.

The "American Look."

"The 'American Look' is a young look because it comes from young minds," said a 1955 Look magazine article. "It's an American look because these designers are independent and free-wheeling, wary of imitating, anxious to create. They share a poxon- Paris spirit." These young American designers ranged in age from twenty-four to thirty-five in 1955, and they included such names as Anne Klein, Claire McCardell...