The Wall Street crash in 1929 started a fundamental change to how people lived their lives. The previous decade showed people living beyond their means and due to the stock market crash unemployment was high. With no money to spend companies started researching cheaper methods of manufacturing clothes and cheaper fabrics were being created to replace the decadent fabrics of the Twenties.
With film becoming increasingly popular it was seen as a perfect medium for fashion. Parisian designers quickly realised that film would be the future of fashion and first to understand the power fashion and film could create was Coco Chanel who signed a contract to design costumes for the stars of United Artists.
“Gone with the Wind” was a hugely popular film of the decade which showed the effects of the Great Depression. Notably Vivien Leigh can be seen making a dress out of a pair of velvet curtains due to not being able to afford new fabrics. This decade began the introduction of fashion photography as it was now more widely recognized as an art form. Lee Miler was seen as a front runner in fashion photography for the period. She shot for Vogue and was an active part of the surrealist movement.
There was a surge in subscriptions for Vogue and Conde Nast during the Thirties. People were interested in focussing on the higher points in life with fashion, art and culture – which was a distraction from the depressing stock market crash.
