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Archiver > GEN-TRIVIA-UNIVERSAL > 2004-06 > 1086490511


From: Glennis <>
Subject: Re: Clothing in USA from late 1800's to 1920's
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 19:55:22 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <000201c44b36$15aa0e40$5c3ae4d4@brittlestar>


Hi Lizzie,
That was very interesting and very informative! I really enjoyed reading it.
Glennis


Lizzie Love <> wrote:
Cece, ... a bit of fashion history

The ankle-length (or longer!) skirt for women was the norm for centuries.
Each country had certain traditions in its garments, but *society* was
global and from the 18C onwards it took its fashion cue from Paris. The
overall shape of woman was dictated there, as it still is. Each continent
adapts it slightly, but the basics are French.

By the time Queen Victoria died, the crinoline and bustle had come and gone.
There was still *rear-interest* in women's dresses, but in the form of
bunched material and long trains. Skirts were full, but narrow at the hip
with the nipped in waist giving an hour-glass shape. Hats were relatively
small. The new king's love of curves influenced women's fashion at this
point and the side view became an exagerated S with the bosom pushed up and
forward and the bottom curved out and back. Hats got bigger. Hems got
narrower. Cascades of lace hung from the bosom. Around 1908 the bum and bust
began to resume their natural positions. Waists were not so tight, but hips
were slimmer and hats were absolutely huge. Eventually the old Victorian
silhouette of tiny torso poised on a wide skirt was completely reversed.

Around 1910, there was an outbreak of eastern exotica caused partly by the
stage designs of Paul Poiret but also by the Russian Ballet's staging of
Scheherezade. Turbans and headbands appeared in evening wear adorned with
brooches and long feathers. Some women dared to shorten their skirts by a
few inches and wear harem pants beneath them. They were ridiculed and it
didn't last. Nor did the outrageous hobble skirt which only allowed a step
of three inches.

Skirts remained quite narrow and at ankle length, but a trend arrived of
wearing a long over-tunic which reached some way below the knee, and when
war broke out in 1914, and women went to work the impractical underskirt was
abandoned, and the lower leg covered with stout stockings. Hems were on the
way up.

Waists were on the way down however. The tight corset was abandoned, and
belts dropped to hip level. The high collars had disappeared years before
with the introduction of the V-neck .. the first examples denounced from the
pulpit and nicknamed *the pneumonia blouse*. Middle-class women who would
never have worked became post-women, drove horse-ploughs, or swung up and
down the outside stairs of double-decker buses taking fares. Some wore
jodphurs under a long tunic. Many cut their hair. The women's suffrage
movement was suspended for the duration, but they were out to prove
themselves ... and so they did. After the armistice nothing could be the
same again.

By the time the war was over there were day-dresses in light fabrics with
short sleeves and square necks. Hems were up to low calf and waists on
hips. The bosom had disappeared. Evening wear retained the turbans and
headbands, but suddenly exposed acres of back. Hems continued to rise. Arms
and shoulders were exposed in summer. The corset was gone and the bra not
invented. An androgenous look was appearing.

Some have said that women were denying their femininity. The novelist
Barbara Cartland gave her explanation. All through the war there was the
constant tension of waiting for the next terrible telegram. After the war,
all but the young were in mourning, some for years. The young needed to get
away from that. They needed to feel some lightness of heart and hope of a
brighter future. There was a huge surplus of marriageable women in the
1920s. The generation that would have been their husbands was decimated.
Marriage and motherhood had brought such grief to those around them that
many weren't sure they wanted to be married at all. Those who could afford
to went out and had a good time. The mood became frenetic and world
recession made it more so. Live now ... it may all be gone tomorrow. It
took years for balance to be restored. ... just in time for another war !!

Lizzie



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