Fashion: A Reflection of Society\'s Attitudes. Fashion

Fashion: a Reflection of Society's Attitudes.

Fashion is not just art, it is a measure of social attitudes for a particular period in history. Today, a woman cyclist will most likely be wearing spandex and skin-tight bicycle shorts. Her male counterpart will be wearing the same. What is acceptable now would have been scandalous in our mother's time. This paper will illustrate through example that fashion is a reflection of societal attitudes.

A British perspective shed some light on the idea of moral decency and on ideas about woman's dress in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Richard Gooch in Bad Fashion and Poor Dental Hygiene of American Women., New York, 1834 said the following.

"Perhaps one reason for American ladies wearing such short garments is that they are generally admired for small and pretty feet. Nevertheless, it is impossible for an English eye not to be shocked at the display they make of their persons, both at home & abroad; and it is surprising that amongst their divines some second Tillotson or Rowland Hill has not sprung up to censure & correct such dangerous incentives to vice, as the female habits & fashions in America really are. But in Republican America, where very many of their spiritual teachers are taken from the very outcasts of European society, who, it is well-known, rule the female devotees with as iron a hand as ever did the priesthood of any Roman Catholic community; when it is also well-known that at their American Camp-meetings, their love-feasts, etcetera, these same pastors assist in scenes of debauchery that would shock a practiced libertine; it is not surprising that the ladies of America are wanting in that greatest charm of their sex, a cultivation of the delicate, ladylike, adornment and concealment of their persons, which indicates purity of mind & sentiment, and the presence of moral sense; nor that American husbands are not gifted with a very savage sense of propriety. "

This passage echoes the attitudes of the British towards Americans, in general, at the time. They see this non-conformity to English standards of dress as just another example of American savagery. Americans are expressing their independence in their fashions as well as other mannerisms, which are meant to be blatant objections to English rule dictating their lives.

During the nineteenth century almost all women in the United States wore corsets. These constricting garments began to be rejected by young women in the 1910s as they began to reject Victorian moral standards. They argued that corsets were an outward symbol of a women's social restriction in public and private spheres. At the same time, reforms were being made concerning women's wages, academic pursuits, suffrage, birth control and participation in tango parties.[Fields, 2002] Studies examining nineteenth women's history explore the role of the corset in shaping women's behavior as well as to signify their subordinate status.[Fields, 2002].

In the post-World War I era doctors promoted corsetlessness as a dangerous transformation in male and female character. They claimed it was dangerous for the white American race in the post-war era due to the perceptions that it might project to other nations about our country. .[Fields, 2002]

The First World War made it necessary for women to go to work in factories. This made it necessary for fashions to become more suitable for this environment. Some women even wore pants, but only for work [Swift, 1999]. Similarly World War II had an influence on fashion as well. Simple suits became the style, military style had an influence on mainstream clothing. [Swift, 1999] Again it reflects to the support and acceptance of the men and women who fought in the war. Rosie the Riveter was an admired figure, the epitome of women assuming men's roles to help the war effort. However, many of these changes were government mandated. Turn up cuffs, double yokes, sashes, and attached hoods were banned as they wasted fabric needed by the war effort [Swift, 1999]. The prosperity of the 1950s was reflected in the return to dresses for women and suits for men. The anything goes era of the 1960s is a clear reflection of the anything goes attitude as well [Swift, 1999].