Beginning around 1915, hemlines for daytime dresses left the floor for good. For the next fifty years fashionable dresses became short (1920s), then long (1930s), then shorter (the War Years with their restrictions on fabric), then long (the "New Look").Scandal Since the 1970s, no one dress type or length has dominated fashion for long,Officers with short and ankle-length styles often appearing side-by-side in fashion magazines and catalogs.