With the end of the war in 1945, many Americans speculated about new postwar looks. With no significant change in the silhouette since the late 1930s, fashion editors in newspaper columns across the-country speculated over materials and designs. By 1946 fabrics were returning to prewar levels of availability, and American designers began experimenting with more frivolous and feminine fashions. Skirts became fuller and longer and were dropped from a hip yoke. Coats were cut with much more cloth, and dresses featured leg-of-mutton sleeves. Tunics and bustles returned, as did high heels and sheer hose. As many Americans started moving from the city to the suburbs, American fashion designers pioneered a new style whose quiet feminine elegance was suitable for the home, not just the public world of the theater, the opera, and restaurants.

Nylon.

One of the most significant influences in postwar fashion was the...