11 Billion Dollars in 1947 on Fashion

This little tidbit was the thing that literally took my breath away while reading this article. $11 billion dollars in 1947 seems an unimaginable amount of money for that time.

Today's Statistic: American women spend about $30 billion a year on beauty, which includes $20 billion on cosmetics. They also spend $104 billion on apparel. This totals $134 billion spent on beauty and fashion annually.

I did an inflation calculator and it came to this for 2011:

$11,000,000,000.00 in 1947 had the same buying power as $112,138,093,023.26 in 2011. 

So they spent what would amount to $8 billion more on clothes and accessories in 1947. Now remember that advertising was NOTHING like it is today. Now Malls, no real clothing chains, no teenagers with deep pockets, and women were not in the workforce in ANY way like they are today. They were just getting out of WW II and the Depression. And please let's not forget how many women sewed their own clothing. I don't think this number is taken into account in the 11 billion dollars. Quite impressive don't you say?

So here is what they spent all of their money on.

THE SHOES

THE HATS



THE DRESSES





THE PINCHED WAIST



THE CAPE


Which boasts 6 1/2 yards of wool and costs $210.00

THE DISGUST

Yesterday I spent the day with my parents and my brother. My brother Tim was headed back to Japan after spending the holidays here. It is always sad to see him off, but knowing how much he loves his life and wife in Japan makes it a bit easier. My parents cried. :( ...I cried and then we pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps and realized how very blessed all of us are.

What does all this have to do with this post? Well I told my mother about the magazine and right away she said, "I remember the "new look" like it was yesterday. I was one of the first girls in my class to get the new 'longer look". She was 15 years old. She said that because she was a teenager she was ready and eager to try the new fashion, but she remembers it did not go over with the older women. It was a huge change. Maybe they felt like they were going back in time rather than forward. What do you think the reason behind the furor was? Is this like The Beatles haircut? Pants on the ground? 

I have never been one to spend lots of money on clothes. I love fashion, but have never felt it is worth the money asked and I just did not have the money to purchase. How about you? What do you spend your hard earned money on?