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Women's Fashion Throughout 20th Century
By Michelle Bery
If we were to take an unscripted took
throughout history – looking at pictures that were not identified by
year or event – we could still more than likely place the period of
time by the fashion worn in the pictures. Fashion is a visual
timeline, distinguishing one generation from the next and, yet,
having the uncanny ability of finding its way back around again from
time to time.
Nothing influences American society more than
fashion. It’s a trend seen over and over again as designs find their
way from the designers to the masses. As a culture, we are
pre-disposed to be “in style;” and those who set the benchmark of
style have changed throughout the generations. But no time period
saw greater changes in fashion than the twentieth century.
The fashion of the early 1900s was influenced
by the advent of the automobile – as women’s dresses began to
include the dustcoat which protected clothing from the dirt coming
off the road. Then as quickly as the 1920s, women’s fashion shifted
completely as the Jazz Age produced the “flapper” style – complete
with short, simple fringed dresses and long pearls.
Not even a decade later, the Depression greatly
changed the style of fashion – no longer was material a luxury item;
women wore what they could find and afford. The 1930s began a trend
towards following movie star fashion. And in the war-torn 1940s, a
uniform-like sophistication including padded shoulders, short
skirts, and a close tailored look became popular.
The 1950s were a return to the full skirt and
cinched in waists.
Nineteen-seventy fashion was all about loose
and comfortable – bell bottom pants and tie dye. Disco was hot in
the early seventies and didn’t fade until the end of the decade. But
the disco fashionistas of the day influenced an entire generation of
clothing choices.
When Madonna hit the scene in the 1980s she
changed the music world as well as the world of fashion. Young girls
emulated her look of leggings, skirt, off-the-shoulder sweatshirt,
headband, and bracelets.
The 90s had their own look; completely
different at the end of the decade - with sleek and sophisticated -
as it was from the beginning of the decade - with acid wash jeans.
Fashion will always change. But the one thing
we can always count on is the influence that fashion will have on an
entire culture.
