Maximalist tendencies quickly rose to the front once again, in line with the dynamism of the Jazz Age. Art Deco style, for example, fused the modernist tendencies of the Machine Age with visually stimulating eclecticism. However the stock market crash of 1929 signaled the start of the Great Depression, and precipitated a trend for understated displays of luxury. In turn, the eclecticism of the Jazz Age gave way to a more “modern” streamlined aesthetic that emphasized the natural female form.
World War II continued the fashionable minimal aesthetic, which was now governed by wartime restrictions. Confronted with such constraints, designers were challenged to rise to the occasion, to create with an economy of means, yet broaden notions of what was wearable.