Nov, 12, 2020
Art
A Brief Look at the Evolution of Women’s Fashion
Over the past 1,000 years, the female form has been shaped and shifted through various artificial means to achieve societal ideals of beauty, often with exaggerated results. Whalebone corsets, for example, were meant to help women achieve an extreme hourglass shape, while the binding of feet sought to produce small “lotus feet.” In the West, women’s fashion also included very strict standards that dictated the amount of skin a woman could expose; up into the 20th century, just a brief glimpse of a lady’s ankle could be considered scandalous throughout much of Europe and the United States.
Miss Foley, Black satin brocade bodice with yellow flowers and green velvet bows, c. 1890. Brocaded silk satin, cotton net, and beads. Gift of Mrs. Theodore P. Grosvenor.
At the turn of the century during the Edwardian period, however, some concepts of women’s fashion began to relax. The corsets of the past gave way to the acceptance of a more natural body shape, and the amount of fabric and the scale of women’s dresses began to minimize, too. These changes aligned with the suffrage movements in both Europe and the United States.
Although these shifts in beauty standards were remarkable for the period, and the end of corsets, which constricted the lungs and organs, would provide some measure of improved health for women, new fashion trends also put forth what were known as “hobble skirts,” which, to lengthen the silhouette, confined the knees together and made it increasingly difficult for women to walk freely.
R & G Corset Company, Corset No. 234, 1885-1900. Satin with embroidery. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stone.
Then, swiftly, came a tidal shift that took women from tea-length to knee-length and beyond, as the age of the Edwardians gave way to the Flappers. But what sparked this dramatic change of course in the world of Western fashion?
Put simply: World War I. The Great War was a conflict fought on a scale never seen before in human history, and its impact on society was profound. All women on the homefront found themselves thrust into new roles, working in hospitals, munitions and factories; tending farms; and even driving ambulances, roles that had been previously denied to them. As a result, their clothing changed. Long skirts and extensive trim were no longer practical, while the supply chain for copious amounts of fabric diminished. As a result, for the average woman, skirts became shorter, undergarments focused more on practicality, and even hairstyles quickly evolved.
Unknown, Sapphire blue velvet bias cut evening dress with jeweled shoulder clasps, 1930. Velvet (blue), jewels. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stone; Unknown, Pale gold beaded velvet evening dress with sequins and embroidery, 1922. Velvet, beads, sequins and silk. Gift of Mrs. Jane Urban Linde.
By the mid-1910s, fashion had been permanently impacted, never quite to return to pre-War norms. Hemlines moved to the calf, in a new style sometimes known as the “war crinoline.” Then in the late 1910s and early 1920s, the famous Flapper style was born, resulting in necklines that dropped into scoops and deep drapes and sleeves that took on a batwing shape before disappearing entirely to birth the first sleeveless styles for women.
As daywear became increasingly less conservative, evening wear kept pace, with the first backless gowns appearing in the late 1910s and into the 1920s. Although some conservatism would return in the 1930s, a trend toward more traditional values in dress likely inspired by the hardship and austerity of the Great Depression period, the return of global conflict in World War II and, with it, even more expanded roles for women would cement the changes in women’s fashion, leading to ongoing evolutions in the 20th and 21st centuries, in line with the expansion of women’s rights and personal freedom.
