Most women wore skirts at or near knee-length, with simply-cut blouses or shirts and square-shouldered jackets. Popular magazines and pattern companies advised women on how to remake men's suits into smart outfits, since the men were in uniform and the cloth would otherwise sit unused. Eisenhower jackets became popular in this period. Influenced by the military, these jackets were bloused at the chest and fitted at the waist with a belt.
Sidewalk scene in small-town America in the late 1930s or early 1940s. This photo was taken by Lew's sister from her above-the-stores apartment in Drumright, Oklahoma, where she was a high-school chemistry teacher and later a wartime chemist at the Tidewater Oil Company.