Vintage Sweaters: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s Pictures

Today's post Vintage Sweaters: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s Pictures from Vintage Dancer.

1950s Angora “Fluffy” Sweater with beaded applique

Part two of this series of vintage sweaters continues with the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. These three decades were a time of refinement and embellishment for the plain sweater that had been in fashion since the 1900s. Sweaters in the 1930s moved from sportswear only to a blouse alternative with fitted feminine silhouettes and colors. The 1940s continued the shorter, tighter, fit while adding trim and embellishment to cheer women up during the war. Novelty designs also came about to add some fun into fashion. Pretty decorations and cute appliques were the norm for the 1950s sweater that now fit a little tighter creating a generation of “sweater girls.” By the 1960s all things fancy and fitted were out and in place a simple boxy with a handmade look reflected the new street culture.

The changes were mild in design with each decade reflecting cultural shifts and the invention of new yarns and knitting techniques. Let’s take a look at them in more detail.

1940s Sweaters

The 1940s are called the “Golden Age of Knitting.” Entire magazines were dedicated to home knitting patterns. Most home or women’s magazines also included free patterns for knitting sweaters for the entire family. During the war years when new yarn was expensive, an old knit sweater was often unraveled and reworked into new designs. Because of this colors were no longer just solid but included trims in contrasting colors.

1942 Sweater Tops

The fit of sweater remained the same as in the 1930s with waist length hems and thick 3″ plus bands. While the overall shaped relaxed some into the 1940s the teenager took it to new extremes. They wore Sloppy Joe sweaters – oversize men’s and women’s sweaters and cardigans slung over a shoulder. If she was really cool, she wore them with sleeves pushed up and shirt collar poking out.

Sweater sleeves grew puffy in the early 40s and thinned out to a normal fit by the mid 40s. Waist bands and sleeve bands narrowed a bit too to just a few inches which was enough to keep the sweater in place and cold air out. Both pullover and cardigan styles were worn throughout the decade. Colors were still bright and cheerful with red and blue being the most patriotic.

Angora “Fluffy” Sweater

With the invention of new synthetic materials, mostly Nylon, and the rationing of cotton and wool, 1940s sweaters looking to other sources of yarn. Angora hair (rabbit) was frequently used during war replaced by cashmere after the wore if she could afford it. Women often raised rabbits for meat in their backyards and the fur was collected and spun for knitting. They were very soft, warm and fuzzy hence the new sweater style name “fluffies.”

1940s Bow Applique Sweaters Cardigan

A few fashion designers started to incorporate sweaters into evening wear by lining them in the dress materiel and adding beading, sequins, embroidery or appliques. This advanced the utility sweater into something of glamour. However since so few could afford new evening ensembles the ready to wear market starting adding embellishments to their day-wear sweaters and patterns. The designs were less fancy than for evening wear with the use of contrast yarn, ruffles and homemade applique form scarp fabric. Motifs of bows, flowers, fruit and patriotic themes were the most common.

Knit in Cherry Print Sweater

Instead of attaching appliques to create design the later 1940s started to see designs knit into the sweater itself. These again were cheerful themes of animals, hobbies, or big patterns like wide stripes and windowpane. Adding small designs also helped women recycle old knit items into a new garment. These cheerful details uplifted spirits during hard times.

1950s Sweaters

1953-54 Sweater Tops

1952 Beaded Cardigan Sweater

1950s sweaters followed the New Look shape of the hour glass with protruding bust, tiny wasp waist and full hips. The look was snug tight to balance out the full circle skirt bottoms or match the confining pencil skirt. In reality they were no more snug than most sweaters on the 1940s but the lingerie made them look more fitted.

The term sweater girl started in the 1940s with movie star icon Lana Turner. She and other young women, wearing snug fitting sweater tops were seen as both innocent and sexy. The modest coverage of the sweater said “I am a good girl” while the two sizes too small fit said “I have breasts!” To be so flaunting with a woman’s natural assents was taboo in good company. With the invention of the Bullet bra in the ’50s the Sweater Girl look only became more pronounced.

1950s Knit Sweater with rolled collar

To keep women modest and refined was still the moral game of the 1950s. A new invention, the sweater set, allowed a woman to wear her tight short sleeves sweater top but was covered up with a matching (usually, not always) cardigan. The cardigan was usually worn with the top button buttoned only- otherwise it would defeat the peek-a-book seduction. Button size was also small and dainty. Sleeves were slender with a long narrow cuff that could be folded over.

The look was also rich with finer knit yarns of lambs wool, angora, nylon Dracon and acrylic synthetic Orlon. Milk beads were an expensive embellishment sewn into the sweater around the collar and lapels or all over if you were rich enough to afford one. Designs were floral and maybe snowflakes in winter or other novelty themes.

1957 Sweaters

Sweater colors exploded with more choices, especially light pastels- pink, blue, white, yellow. They were also quite plain again, except for those with sewn on embellishment. The sweater girl look was clean, thin, and minimal. Necklines were high and round or with a small V neck on cardigans. There was an overall lack of texture or knit in designs. Occasionally there were some stripes or a contrasting trim but these were mostly worn by older women whose style still reflect the 1930s and 1940s.

In the early years it was a fad for teens to wear their cardigans backwards but by the end of the decade it just meant they were too poor to own a real pullover. Nearly all girls owned and wore a cardigan or pullover sweater twin set with their school clothes. It was so polished and pretty to do so!

1957 Sweaters in Orlon

1957 Sweaters cardigans twin sets for mature women

Sweater Tops and Twin Sets for Mature Women

1960s Sweaters

1964 Boxy Fit Sweaters

The 1960s fashion world was in for a big shake up, a youth driven earthquake of change. The sweater was divided into two fashion demographics. The first was the old guard- for women who embraced the 1950s regal look of clean lines. These women, like Jackie ‘O, their fashion icon, wore sweaters that fit the new boxy silhouette. Sweater and cardigans were not form fitting anymore. Now they fit loose like a box from shoulder to hip. Embellishments were not fancy beading and buttons that were not small and dainty. Instead the chunky knit sweater or “bulkie” was developed.

1964 Patterned Sweaters

Sweater knits were heavy, defined patterns with raised knit in embellishment. Texture was the name of the sweater game. Vertical stripes, zig zags, flowers, leaves covered sweaters. Collars, if they had them, were oversized rolls, large shirt collars and short shawls. Even collarless cardigans had thick collar bands and matching cuff bands. Every detail that was hidden in the 1950s was dramatized in the 1960s.

Sweaters looked hand-knit, or arts and crafts like, which reflected the youth’s movement away from refined designer fashion to homemade arts. Many buttons were covered in matching knit yarn instead of plastic or made of wood for a more natural down to earth vibe. Buttons were back to being bigger overall. The similarities to early 20s sweaters is striking.

1963 Earth Tone Color Sweaters

Early 60s colors still favored pastels in spring while fall and winter saw new earth tone colors emerge- mustard yellow, moss green, burnt orange, sea blue. Just like in the 1920s and again in the 1940s more sweaters had knit in patterns. They were not quite mod art yet but they were Art Deco, Folk, and big florals.

The other demographic of 60s fashion was the youth. They heavily influenced matures women’s sweater fashion while developed their own trends.

1960s teens wore skirt and sweaters to school daily. They were not afraid of big patterns and brighter colors. More and more colors in clashing patterns were added to the styles as the decade progressed. The trend for the homemade or poor person look was simultaneously running against the Mod fad. Since sweaters naturally have a home arts feel they naturally tended that direction.

Poor Boy Sweater shirts

One trend in 1965 was to take large wool sweaters and boil them until they were half the size. They became crop sweaters since the length never reached below the waistaband and short elbow length sleeves. They were tight all over and looked look like doll clothes or “poor boy sweaters.” The mod’s especially love the tighter poor boy style. American teens were not quite Mod enough. they still wore baggy sweaters over their turtle neck shirts.

1961 Teen Sweaters- Big patterns, big collars

1961 Sears sweater

Large Collar Sweaters

1963 The boxy fit is very Chanel

1964 Mature Women’s Cardigans

1967 Folk Knit Sweaters

1967- A classic Cardigan never goes out of fashion

Sweater Patterns

Vintage Knit Sweater Patterns on Kindle reader- 35 sweaters form the ’40s and beyond. Great reviews. Or 25 sweaters from the 40s and 50s.

Free vintage knitting patterns – A mix of decades. Many ’40s.

Vintage Purls – Free vintage knitting patterns

1940s Patterns– WW2 era sweaters from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection

Susan Crawford vintage – A Stitch in Time book 1 and 2 with updated vintage patterns

Vintage Knitting Patterns & Garments Swap and Sell Group – A new group off vintage knitters and sellers of vintage knitting patterns. Ask questions and get help on your sweaters too.