(11 Jul 2014) The romance and the detail in the dress "Antonia" belongs to another era of tailoring and haute couture.
Intricately stitched with roses, this Pierre Balmain's haute couture evening dress from 1954 is on show at Palais Galliera - or the Fashion Museum, in Paris.
From flirty cocktail dresses, to the nipped in jackets, the feminine look of the 1950s is celebrated in this exhibition.
Olivier Saillard, curator and Palais Galliera Museum director says the 1950s was the bastion of elegance in the 20th Century.
"From historical point of view, the 1950's represent a kind of a last swan song of elegance. It was a decade with many of fashion houses in Paris and that will significantly reduce with the introduction - and democratization of ready-to-wear by the end of decade. And from the stylistic point of view, for everyone that fashion stays in memory and is unsurpassed by its refinement, complexity, fabrics, colours and shapes."
The austerity of World War II was ending, and fashion became more feminine and carefree. Women could once again consider bright colours, and lavish fabrics.
The romance of the era is on show in this full-skirted Christian Dior frock from 1954.
Saillard says this was a high point for Paris fashion: "It (the 1950's period) was the period of supremacy of four great fashion designers: Christian Dior, (Cristobal) Balenciaga, Jacques Fath, Pierre Balmain� but it was also a period of great fashion houses that were going from charming to sophisticated."
Women were beginning to have more freedom, and this was reflected in the fashion of the era, says Saillard. Bathing suits became more popular, and hems got shorter.
The passion for fashion was on show with bright and vivacious design reflecting a new positive era in the world.
The nouveau-riche could afford to have a wardrobe with clothing for cocktails and lunches and dinners.
Saillard says this kind of social life would soon disappear, but it was reflected in the fashions of the time.
"In the 1950's woman had more options - not all of them of course - a possibility to buy clothes and change five to six times per day. One can have a morning suit, a dress for lunch, a suit for the beginning of afternoon, a dress for the end of the day, a cocktail dres, ball dress, a dancing dress� that can appear as unnecessary or sumptuous but they were living a kind of social life that would soon disappear."
Today, the love affair with 1950s fashion continues.
On the catwalk for Ralph and Russo's Autumn/Winter collection 2014/15, the influence of the fifties lives on for a new generation.
And off the catwalk, women are flocking in greater numbers than ever to buy the flattering vintage designs of the 1950s.
At this vintage store in Paris, the owner, Katia Rap says vintage shops keep popping up.
Katia Rap opened a webshop in 2006, but the demand from Parisians was so big, that she opened a boutique as a showcase for her Internet site. Since then, her turnover, she says, is growing by 20 per cent every year.
She says TV programmes such as "Mad Men" are reminding a new generation of women that 1950s fashion is immensely wearable and fun.
"Those vintage shops are growing in Paris like mushrooms. Since 2009, 2010 it (vintage shopping) really became a trend� especially thanks to American series like Mad Men," she says.
Rap says people are nostalgic for the innocence of the 1950s.
"There is a kind of nostalgia, we are in (financial) crisis now so people are thinking on how was before and it is true that 1950's were years of discovery."
The exhibition at Palais Galliera continues until 2 November, 2014.
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