Abstract
This article deconstructs the nostalgic image of 1950s fashion by studying how Finnish women experienced the ideals and practices of 1950s dress and how they narrate those ideals and practices. The article focuses on women's wearing of trousers and the attitudes towards it because, on the one hand, in their wearing of trousers, women in the 1950s were restricted to sportswear, work wear, and leisure wear, while on the other hand, this conservative dress code with its traditional feminine ideal was challenged by jeans fashion. On the basis of oral histories and life stories, the text scrutinizes what women of different generations and with various social backgrounds thought of the dress styles and the dress codes of the 1950s. For an older generation of women, the 1950s dress represents better, postwar modern times while in the memories of the younger women, the 1950s dress represents conservative values and poverty. The text compares the narratives of these women with the grand narratives of the 1950s and considers the role of nostalgia in their reminiscences.
