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Chiffon Dresses – Feminine and Durable
 Sally Bartlett
Chiffon is a very soft woven fabric with a very fine net or mesh. It drapes beautifully and wears well. It can be made from any fabric: cotton, silk, velvet or synthetics. Used predominately in modern times for evening or bridal wear, silk chiffon was worn as far back as 4000 years ago in ancient China. Velvet chiffons were used in the elaborate long gowns of the 1900s, and the 1920s brought the sheer chiffon little flapper dresses. But the 1950s era had some of the most beautiful and colorful chiffon party and prom dresses. These dresses of the 1950s can still be found by collectors in antique and vintage shops in wearable condition, mainly because of a fabric that had been manufactured in the 1930s that changed the durability and made advances in the fashion industry. That fabric was nylon.
A chemist and inventor who worked for DuPont, Wallace Carothers, is credited for the invention of a synthetic, durable, lightweight material called nylon. Ladies' stockings, lingerie and dresses were being made from this wondrous new material in the 1940s and with the onset of WWII another use surfaced, when DuPont was given the wartime contract of making parachutes.
What has this got to do with chiffon dresses? After the war, chiffon was manufactured from the synthetic nylon to create "nylon chiffon" commonly used from then on in nightgowns, slips, blouses and dresses. These nylon chiffon dresses of the 1950s were mainly knee-length or ballerina length of many, many layers. Aqua blue was a predominant color as well as white, pink, yellow, green and other shades of blue. Appliqués, ribbons and beading were applied and many of the dresses had matching shawls or stoles. The fashion at that time was very feminine and chiffon dresses clearly enhanced femininity to the maximum!
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