Fashion Between the Wars

What one wears and how they carry themselves can truly show numerous aspects of their life and status. The study of fashion is generally the comparison of the popular wardrobe choices across eras and time periods. This look at fashion is very visual and emphasis is put on face value, fashion changes over time and there are examples of different dress from each time period. Not as often, however, is the question asked as to why these fashion changes occur. What makes it so that the all fashionable dress of the decade before now seen as outdated and ludicrous to even consider wearing. Major economic and political events have the ability to either directly or indirectly affect fashion through lifestyle changes or specific legislation dealing with fashion materials and production. Events such as World War I, the “Roaring Twenties”, The Great Depression and World War II fashion was tremendously influenced and dictated by the economic policies of the given time.

 

World War I

Starting with a brief look into America before the beginning of World War I, fashion was rigid and structured in the 1800s and this began to see a decline with the turn of the century. When World War I began a large majority of the men went off to war, women were now required to take over and keep America running and producing. This meant women were now in factories, performing very taxing and labor intensive jobs that could not be done in flowing dresses and rigid corsets. The very color of clothing became much more muted and dark as to not be distracting in the factories and very often these dark colors played a double role as they were also to mourn those lost during the war.[1] “Women dropped the cumbersome underskirts from their tunic-and-skirt ensembles, simplifying dress and shortening skirts in one step, these new skirts were called the "war crinoline" by the fashion press, who promoted the style as "patriotic" and "practical.”[2]

 

Roarin' Twenties

With the end of WORLD WAR I, America saw two new economic and political evolutions that would tie directly into fashion changes. These two events were the 19th Amendment and the “Roaring Twenties.” The Women’s Rights Movement from the end of the First World War to 1920 ending with the 19th Amendment saw a change in fashion that was purely political and strategically planned. Women began to dress much more masculine with loose fitting and flowing dresses that gave them an androgynous shape. Women wanted equality in the eyes of the law, and that meant in some cases they had to look even more similar to men in order to be taken seriously. Other women took the other side of this argument and would not be swept under the rug because of their gender. “By the 1920’s more women could vote and entered the professions. They drove, smoke and drank cocktails and worshipped screen stars such as Clara Bow. Dress became relaxed and strikingly simple.”[3] Women were rejoicing in their newfound freedom and the liberties of peacetime. Another, more jovial, reason behind the fashion of the 1920’s was both backlash and celebration. The Great War was over it was abundantly clear it was time for celebration and grand parties. This change was seen in the elaborate and eccentric new flapper fashion. Women were tired of the structured fashion before World War I and also tired of the simple and standardized wardrobes necessary for war. They wanted color and simplicity and thus the flapper dress was visualized. It still had the lower hip giving the thin boyish body shape, but now there were elaborate beading and movement that had not been seen before. It was a new era, dresses were now meant to be comfortable and dance the night away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] James, Laver, The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, pp. 224

[2] Valerie, Steele, Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 237–238

[3] Susan, Brown. Institution Smithsonian, and Inc. DK Publishing. Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style. New York, N.Y.: DK Publishing, 2012, 255