Pierre Balmain's Voluminous Sleeves - 1950

For the Spring of 1950, Pierre Balmain showed many blouses with huge voluminous sleeves.  I love this look, and wore sleeves like this often when they became popular again in the 1970s.  But there was always the problem of bunching and twisting when you tried to wear a blouse like this under a coat or jacket with slim sleeves.  Take a look at how Balmain solved this problem.

Here, the designer has shortened the sleeves of the tunic to 3/4 length, given them a slight flare and added a slit at the outside edge of the cuff.  The big white cotton sleeves of the blouse billow out below the tunic.

Balmain uses the same short flared sleeves on this suit jacket.  The white lace sleeves puff out below the jacket in a most feminine way.

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