War, Fashion and Women’s rights_Huaiyu Dong-1dy59ol
Stripe is one of the most prominent trend of this season. Surprisingly, this illustration dated from 1915 also shows the recent trend in such bold color. During World War I (1914-1918), women’s fashion changed greatly along with the scarcity of resources and the change in women’s roles. As women gained more power and started working, hemlines became wider and higher and people started to appreciate simplicity in fashion.
The picture I chose is the cover of American Vogue 1915 March 1st.[1] When I was browsing the vast amount of illustrations in the online archive, it immediately grabbed my attention because of the strong striped pattern and the sweet spring vibes. There is a beautiful woman standing beside a pool with her body reflected on the surface of the water. She is wearing a huge red floppy sun hat with flowers and long ribbons, a red striped dress with long sleeves and nipped-in waist and a pair of mid heels.
It seems to be a sunny afternoon in Spring. Cream yellow flowers are blooming in the green bushes. The girl puts one hand on her waist casually while carrying a red umbrella on her shoulder with the other hand. She seems to be walking slowly and contemplating her image in the water. She is wearing very traditionally feminine makeup including red lipstick and red blush. Her dress is blown up by the gentle spring wind with sweet floral smell. The overall vibe is laidback, cheerful and elegant.
The silhouette shows a transition between the early prewar style to 1920s La Garçonne style. Before World War I started, the late Edwardian silhouette in which the woman wore a shirtwaist and long, narrow hobble skirts was the most popular. Paul Poiret was a leading French fashion designer at that time. He claimed that he started the trend of hobble skirt and was inspired by Mrs. Hart O. Berg, the first American woman to fly on a plane. She tied the skirt with a rope at the ankle to prevent it from being blown by the wind. The hobble skirt remained popular for a brief six years and caused several deaths due to the restriction of women’s stride. For example, in Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present, David stated that “In September 1910, an unhobbled horse at the Chantilly racecourse near Paris bolted a crowd of spectators. A ‘hobbled’ woman who could not run ‘owing to the tightness of her skirt’ fell under the horse.” [2]As WWI entered, hobble skirts quickly faded out due to lack of practicality and were replaced by more flared, bell shaped design.
The illustration I chose clearly demonstrated the bell shape silhouette. The skirt is huge and allows a lot of motions. As men joined the war, women took on the jobs originally filled by men. They worked in factories, performed administrative tasks, worked as nurses, farmers and drivers. They also volunteered at organizations such as the Red Cross.[3] Practicality became prominent in the fashion world. And this kind of dress work perfect both for work and leisure. During this period, the skirt had become a bit shorter than the prewar period and fell slightly above the ankles, while it’s still longer than the Garçonne skirts in which the hemlines falls between the knees and ankles. Women can move arms around and walk in these dresses conveniently without worrying losing modesty. In order to satisfy the needs of male dominated jobs, women also got better education. Higher education increased women’s social status and influence their styles. According to Clemente in Prettier Than They Used to Be: Femininity, Fashion, and the Recasting of Radcliffe’s Reputation, 1900–1950, the number of Americans attending colleges grew from 238,000 to over 2,660,000 during the first five decades of the twentieth century, and women rode the crest of the wave. [4]The period I investigate is among the beginning of women’s college education, so most women still dressed in a stereotypically conservative way. In the illustration, the dress covers the legs and arms and only the neck area is exposed. Compared to the miniskirts in the 60s when much more women have finished college education, this style is relatively traditional and conservative. Albeit being conservative, women were still seeking to dress stylishly. Fashion magazines and newspaper acted as the major style promoter. There was an article called “The College Girl’s Wardrobe — What Should Go in the Freshman Truck” in The New York Times to coach women college students to dress in a good taste. To sum up, the trendy style during World War I is practical, conservative yet elegant.
Simplicity is one of the new themes of 1910s fashion. In the Edwardian Period, fashion is generally maximalist. The well-known fashion house, House of Worth provided huge couture dress made of silk ad satin. They were usually decorated by embroidery, metal threads, lace and iridescent beads. Even after the “empire” high waistline and hobble skirts were introduced, complexity is still on the central stage of fashion. Women were used to wear extravagant wide-brimmed hats and their dresses were covered by patterns, embroidery and ruffles. [5]
However, when the war started, the shortage of domestic labor and resources no longer allowed those luxurious designs. Cheaper fabric such as jersey was introduced. This illustration reflects a lot of aspects of the transitions from complexity to simplicity. The dress only contains one pattern: stripes. No extra notions were added. The brim of the hat is much smaller than before and is discreetly decorated. There are only two tiny bow ties and a red long ribbon attached; while the hats before war time were usually lofty, wide and decorated with a lot of huge feathers. The girl in this picture has a natural waist instead of an extremely skinny waist. The corsets from the Edwardian period were eliminated during the Great War and were replaced with brassieres. This allowed women to bend their body more easily for work and also save fabric.
When I was investigating some other fashion illustrations at the Parsons fashion archive, I also notice the similar trend towards simplicity.[6] There were less jewelries included in the outfit and the drawing style also became more less elaborated. The models were often placed in a natural environment which seemed to suggest the increase of sports among women.
In addition, the motif of stripes also showed up in other illustrations. According to Michel in The Devils Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric, striped fabric used to be people “on the margins or outside of social order” such as “jugglers and prostitutes”.[7] However, the connotations of stripes became positive gradually. During the first world war, stripe has already been viewed as stylish, playful and free. Despite of being a fashion trend, I think it also symbolize patriotism in this specific illustration. The red and white stripes mimic the flag of the United States, while the combination of red dress and blue pool resemble the flag’s color palette. During the war time, patriotic fashion can serve as a good way to boost people’s confidence. Fabric is the canvas for people and government to express their patriotic passion and serve as a propaganda for unity.
The war time period style soon led to the 1920s La Garçonne style. La Garçonne is the French of the flappers. Flappers were a generation of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, wore heavy makeup and treated sex in a casual attitude. [8]The natural waist during the transition period helped the society to accept the new drop waist. The ankle-length flared skirt also helped the people to accept knee-length skirts of the flapper girls. As women got more power by taking over men’s jobs and going to college, they finally got the rights to expose their legs, be casual with sex and eliminate the traditional, man-pleasing features such as tiny waist and long hair.
To conclude, women’s fashion shows a transition from modesty to modern simplicity during World War I. It was characterized by less decorations, higher and wider hemlines, and the elimination of corsets. The first wave of feminism also happened during this period by providing women more civil rights and educational opportunities, which affected both women’s lifestyle and fashion tastes.
Bibliography
- Parsons Fashion Archive, Parsons School of Design, New York.
Clemente, Deirdre. ““Prettier Than They Used to Be”: Femininity, Fashion, and the Recasting of Radcliffes Reputation, 1900–1950.” The New England Quarterly82, no. 4 (2009): 637-66. doi:10.1162/tneq.2009.82.4.637.
David, Alison Matthews. Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress past and Present. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2017.
Mendes, Valerie D., and Amy De La Haye. Fashion since 1900. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.
Monet, Dolores. “Women’s Fashion During WWI: 1914 – 1920.” Bellatory. July 27, 2017. Accessed April 30, 2018. https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Women-and-Fashions-of-the-World-War-I-Era-Clothing-of-1914-1920.
Pastoureau, Michel. The Devils Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001.
Rosenberg, Jennifer. “Flappers in the Roaring Twenties.” ThoughtCo. Accessed April 30, 2018. https://www.thoughtco.com/flappers-in-the-roaring-twenties-1779240.
“Spring Pattern Number.” Vogue, March 1st, 1915
[1] “Spring Pattern Number,” Vogue, March 1st, 1915.
[2] Alison Matthews. David, Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress past and Present (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2017).
[3] Dolores Monet, “Women’s Fashion During WWI: 1914 – 1920,” Bellatory, July 27, 2017, accessed April 30, 2018, https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Women-and-Fashions-of-the-World-War-I-Era-Clothing-of-1914-1920.
[4] Deirdre Clemente, ““Prettier Than They Used to Be”: Femininity, Fashion, and the Recasting of Radcliffes Reputation, 1900–1950,” The New England Quarterly 82, no. 4 (2009): doi:10.1162/tneq.2009.82.4.637.
[5] Valerie D. Mendes and Amy De La Haye, Fashion since 1900 (London: Thames & Hudson, 2010).
[6] 1915, Parsons Fashion Archive, Parsons School of Design, New York.
[7] Michel Pastoureau, The Devils Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001).
[8] Jennifer Rosenberg, “Flappers in the Roaring Twenties,” ThoughtCo, , accessed April 30, 2018, https://www.thoughtco.com/flappers-in-the-roaring-twenties-1779240.
