Feminism and Fashion of the Twentieth Century: A Material Culture Study by Miranda DiCenzo

Publication date: 2018

Type of source: Master's Theses

Impact: 5/5

Why I read this source: Prohibition project

Would I recommend: Yes

I read pages 27-55 of DiCenzo's Master's Theses. I focused on Chapter 2, their section on First Wave Feminism: 1850s-1920s for my project on Prohibition and the Mommy Needs Wine culture. I enjoyed learning about this time period through focusing on fashion, and material culture. This is study looked at lot's of different dress styles and included European fashion.

 

I really enjoyed the visual depiction they used of the "New Woman" culture. They used Charles Gibson's drawing from 1900; "Picturesque America: Anywhere in the Mountains." I really wanted to use this image in my project but I took it out, it just didn't feel relevant enough. 

I learned a lot about how World War I and women joining the workforce effected fashion. All of this brought women out of the old-fashioned private sphere and into the modern age. This is a point I focus on in my paper.

 

I have two favorite points made. The first being this quote between pages 40 and 41: "The power of Vogue combined with the popularization of feminism through the social elite made feminism fashionable in itself, and therefore gave the movement the opportunity to connect women of all classes." I like this quote because it is just as accurate then as it is today. Feminism is often used as a fashion trend which can both be beneficial and detrimental to the social progress the movement is aimed at. Then feminism was made fashionable through affluent women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul and today women like Taylor Swift and Emma Watson continue this trend.

 

The second piece of information that I just found fascinating was on page 48: "Technical advancements such as construction of sky scrapers influenced the long and thin silhouette of 1930s fashion." The idea that the appearance of buildings effects fashion is something I never considered. However, I would love to know the proof for this to make sure it wasn't just a coincidental observation.

 

My main question from the reading was: what did the author mean when they said Alice Paul saved the suffrage movement? Saved the movement from what?

Overall this was a great source, well written and well studied. 10/10 would recommend.