Fall Fashion Flashback: Plaids, Calfskin and Platforms Held Sway in 1938

When LIFE magazine published a fashion article on the trends that were expected to reign in the autumn of 1938, the editors focused much of their attention on one particular aspect of the coming season’s styles: namely, the indication that straight lines seemed to be giving way to a softer—or, at the very least, a somewhat less rigid—silhouette.

“Shoppers will find saleswomen swooning over romantic evening dresses,” LIFE assured its readers. “It seems the western fashion world is emerging from the second tubular cycle . . . into a bell-shaped cycle.”

“This July,” the feature continued, “buyers from all over the U.S., on their annual pilgrimage to New York showrooms, were amazed at the number of hoopskirts shown by Kallman & Morris, evening-dress specialists. Here were aristocratic hoops for the masses. Here was fashion repeating itself.”

Hoops for the masses. Not a bad rallying cry. But in pictures made by LIFE’s Alfred Eisenstaedt for that year’s fall round-up, other equally clear trends emerged: plaids, co-ed sweaters, calfskin everything—and in his inimitable, warm style, “Eisie” made them feel as vital as anything that the vaunted “bell-shaped cycle” could deliver.

Here, in photos that were published in LIFE in September 1938, as well as pictures that never ran in the magazine, we revisit some of the most promising themes and accents of a long-ago season, when fashion again repeated itself—yet still managed to feel utterly new.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.