Fashion Economic Classes
Maya Murphy
Webb
AP Seminar Pd 2
16 January 2015 Fashion Influences on Economic Classes
Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion changes, but style endures.” Over time fashion styles went from tight corsets with long dresses in Victorian times to the chic, skinny jeans and basic
Tshirt style. Fashion has become an outlet that has placed morals and standards for womens’ clothing in America throughout history. In order for women to purchase clothing, money was an element that separated wealthy fashions from poor fashions. William Norwich, Time’s Style &
Entertaining editor, claims that the “ currency of New York 's fluidity is cash, and the society of cash is fashion”(Norwich 7). He believes that the way we talk about money is in resemblance to how we talk about fashion. This …show more content…
statement is true for the 19th century where different fashions corresponded to how much money an individual has, however this perception has changed over time . Throughout the 19th century, people could easily identify whether an individual strictly belonged in the upper, middle, or lower class based on their clothing; however, overtime, women have gained the freedom to determine what clothing they want to wear despite their economic class.
In the 19th century, wealthy people participated in balls, went to theatres, attended operas, enjoyed concerts, viewed horse races and art exhibitions, and went to luncheons. All these events differ in activity, however they all possess one similar classification an elegant dress code. In order to be seen as being in the upper economic class, proper fashion attire is a
must. These were set social norms that people lived with, usually wealthy people. According to the Victorian & Albert Museum, “fashions worn by the wealthy reflected their lives and aspirations” (V&A 1). This was their way of life and what people usually lived for. Meaning that their life value depended on if they had access to appropriate clothing for the time period and had an ability to maintain inclusion in the upper economic class. This put a lot of pressure on women in this century, where they prepared for numerous hours for events that they were going to attend for an hour or so. This popular culture of elegant clothing for extravagant events created a society where the amount of money defined whether an individual was in the upper class or not. Careers such as dressmakers and tailors thrived since they benefited tremendously from many wealthy men and women who required these services for their everyday clothing.
But what was fashion like for the middle class or lower class in the 19th century? A woman who was poor in the 19th century maintained a sole purpose to survive and provide for their families. Due to the lower class’s consistent need to survive and work, “ fashions of the
[19th] century were not practical for working women” (Tussing 3). Women spent all day constantly moving, and the extravagant dresses of the wealthy weren’t specifically fit for high class women. Socially and economically, women of the lower class were displaced and this culture influenced women to wear fashions fit to their economic class.
The luxuries of the wealthy were things that they desired, but they couldn’t economically afford because the little money they made was focused on eating and paying important bills. Women in the middle class however, possessed clothes similar to wealthy, but they weren’t usually as extravagant or the same elegant fabrics of the wealthy women. Overall, during the 19th century, fashions of
extravagant dresses and elegant clothes resembled wealth while fashions of simplicity and comfort resembled the middle class and poor.
Today, in the 21st century, the wealthiest of Americans are either “lawyers, physicians/doctors, or married” into the wealth ( NY Times 1). Of these wealthy Americans, do they carry the legacy of the 19th century, where fashion symbolized their wealth? Overtime the definition of fashion has altered drastically. Many wealthy people of America typically wear regular clothing through “online shopping”, thrift stores, or other common shopping locations such as Macy 's and etc (Adriani 6). The focus has shifted from traditions of elegant and extravagant clothing for simple events such as horse races and luncheons, and has shifted to rather simple clothing (usually composed of Tshirts and jeans) to basketball games, sporting events, or other common activities. In today’s century, fashion has rather become more of an art rather than an outlet for wealthy, rich people. More wealthy people that are in the top 1 percent of America usually are focused on their careers and making money. For example, the Dallas
Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, wears a simple Mavericks Tshirt that supports his team and jeans on a daily basis, but he owns a “765 million dollar” basketball team symbolizing his extreme wealth ( ESPN News Services 2). His fashion is similar to an average American
Mavericks fan. The only thing that separates Mark Cuban from the average American is his ownership of a multimillion dollar basketball team. Rather than fashion reflecting one’s wealth, like in the 19th century,currently people in the lower or middle class can wear clothes that resemble clothes of the wealthy, while people who are wealthy can wear clothing that one would identify as middle or lower class. This differs the 19th century where this freedom of choosing how clothing reflects one’s economic level wasn’t present. However an individual sets
themselves out to be, essentially establishes economically where they stand including the choices they make in life good or bad. Whereas in the 19th century if you were born poor, you were usually stuck poor; however, in the 21st century, if you are born poor, but work hard to gain a quality education and apply certain aspirations in life, qualifies one to establish themselves anywhere in the economic hierarchy whether its upper, middle, or lower class.
So the question is, what changes have occurred over time? Well, during the 19th century, the amount of or lack of money defined who and where you were in society socially and economically. Wealthy people are all over America, but sometime we wouldn’t be able to spot the difference from an extremely wealthy American to a normal, average American just by looking at the type of clothing they wear. Also someone who flaunts wealthy clothing/fashions isn’t essentially as wealthy as they appear to be. Now currently in the 21st century, the century of change and innovation, has shifted from traditional norms to more openminded and intuitive thinking. Many people find very nice and presentable clothing from simple places such as thrift stores and other name brands that aren’t as expensive. Our society has become less vain and has began to focus on ways to express themselves through clothing based on personal preferences, in contrast to previous times, where your fashion solely defined who you are. During the
19th century, fashion dominated wealth, however in the 21st century, despite economic level, one can dictate their fashion style. Fashion has become a way of one expressing themselves, as they’re are many different styles (hobo, nerd, emo, gothic, preppy, etc.) in comparison to the 19th century where there was one traditional style. As Coco Chanel stated, and which still lingers on today is that, “fashion changes, but style endures”.
The main focus of the research was to effectively provide information on what caused and initiated the change of women 's fashion over time throughout the 19th century in comparison to the 21st century. Initially, I believed that money didn 't affect fashion any differently than it did in the 19th century versus now. After approaching and reviewing the economic classes of the
19th century and it 's effect on womens clothing, my perception about women 's fashion and its connection with money changed. Throughout the 19th century, there was a huge divide between the have and the havenots. This illustration of the have and havenots was highlighted through the wealthy’s ability to possess extreme amounts of luxury items and the ability to travel and enjoy life worry free. The wealthy were also well clothed to an extreme, so there was an undeniable and obvious difference in the fashion of the upper class and the working class women. With that
I began to realize that money was a tool in determining where one stood economically in the
19th century whereas in the 21st century this establishment of economic classes based on fashion was more liberal and varied. When writing at first, I solely focused the simple connection between money and fashion. I failed input multiple perspectives and viewpoints that all contribute to an argument. I was simply stating information that I learned and not essentially presenting an argument. Not only did this make me have to reevaluate what I was communicating, but it was also a huge learning experience in understanding how to draw connections between outside viewpoints. Varied viewpoints weren’t the only thing that changed my initial views of fashion overtime, but diverging opinions such as crediting technological advances for the widespread liberal like feeling and freedom of clothing for women often emerged. This may have helped produce an abundance in the amounts of clothing in society, however this is not the main and sole reason of why women began to wear a variety of clothing.
With social movements such as the Women’s Rights Movement and the widespread popularity of affordable thrift shopping enhanced and allowed women of all socioeconomic classes to wear what they desired. This diverging opinion helped enrich my opinion and research, and made me think of our research problem thoroughly because it opened my viewpoint to different lenses and realize how fashion effected all sorts of political, scientific, social, ethical, economic,and other perspectives that I’ve previously didn’t consider in researching. With looking at historical museums, such as the Victorian and Albert Museum, that described the economic divide between classes to observing how individuals with power and influence shape how we think of fashion assisted in learning how fashion changed. By selecting evidence that truly supported my claim, analyzing and evaluating this evidence, and understanding the context and the argument, I realized how fashion was much bigger than just a simple piece of decorated material.
With all the new perspectives, diverging opinions, and new discoveries , I was able to conduct research on the factors that attributed to the change of fashion overtime. Our group decided to approach the research question by picking different lenses that would deem to be necessary in truly understanding the effects of fashion overtime. Our group concluded that the historical, ethical, religious, social, and economic lenses accurately establish a well structured argument. The difficult part of this component was ensuring that throughout our research that we were essentially on the same page throughout the entirety of the project. Coming together our group decided to write our theses and a main idea of our topic in order to all effectively understand what was going on throughout the research. This was an effective choice because I was able to understand fully the whole idea of the project which assisted in later creating a thesis for our group paper. We came up with a thesis that covered all of our claims under three main
points. The steps taken throughout the research were all focused in ensuring that the group continued to cohesively be on one page. Overall, I was satisfied in the way our group worked together in order to understand the effects on fashion. This procedure of keeping in mind to be on the same page helped our research, analysis and presentation to be executed in a presive manner.
Works Cited
Andriani, Lynn. “5 Things Wealthy People Don’t Do”
Huffpost OWN .
9 Oct 2013. 18 Jan 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/richpeoplehabits_n_4031667.html>
Carter, Shan , Fessenden, Ford , Gebeloff, Robert , and White, Jeremy. “The Top 1 Percent:
What Jobs Do They Have?”.
The New York Times: Business. 15 Jan 2012. 18 Jan 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2012/0115onepercentoccupatio
ns
/>
ESPN News Services. “Mark Cuban: Mavs Worth Over $1B”.
ESPN Dallas Forth Worth. 24 Jan
2014. Web. 26 Jan 2015.
<http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id/10343381/markcubansaysforbes765mvaluati
ondallasmaverickswaytoolow>
Norwich, William. "For New York 's Social Swim, Money Is Always in Fashion." New York
Times 03 June 2001. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/03/weekinreview/ideastrendshisocietyfornewyor
kssocialswimmoneyisalwaysinfashion.html>
Tussing, Maria. “How Did 19th Century Clothing Reflect Levels of Society?” eHow . 10 Nov
2014. 17 Jan 2015.
<http://www.ehow.com/info_8240846_19thclothingreflectedlevelssociety.html>
Victoria & Albert Museum. “Victorian Dress at the V&A”
V&A
. 2014. 16 Jan 2015.
<http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/victoriandressatvanda/>
Werlin, Kathy. “Head to Toe: Mid 1850s Woman”
The Fashion Historian.
18 Jun 2010. 17 Jan
2015.
<http://www.thefashionhistorian.com/2010/06/headtotoemid1850swoman.html>
Webb
AP Seminar Pd 2
16 January 2015 Fashion Influences on Economic Classes
Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion changes, but style endures.” Over time fashion styles went from tight corsets with long dresses in Victorian times to the chic, skinny jeans and basic
Tshirt style. Fashion has become an outlet that has placed morals and standards for womens’ clothing in America throughout history. In order for women to purchase clothing, money was an element that separated wealthy fashions from poor fashions. William Norwich, Time’s Style &
Entertaining editor, claims that the “ currency of New York 's fluidity is cash, and the society of cash is fashion”(Norwich 7). He believes that the way we talk about money is in resemblance to how we talk about fashion. This …show more content…
statement is true for the 19th century where different fashions corresponded to how much money an individual has, however this perception has changed over time . Throughout the 19th century, people could easily identify whether an individual strictly belonged in the upper, middle, or lower class based on their clothing; however, overtime, women have gained the freedom to determine what clothing they want to wear despite their economic class.
In the 19th century, wealthy people participated in balls, went to theatres, attended operas, enjoyed concerts, viewed horse races and art exhibitions, and went to luncheons. All these events differ in activity, however they all possess one similar classification an elegant dress code. In order to be seen as being in the upper economic class, proper fashion attire is a
must. These were set social norms that people lived with, usually wealthy people. According to the Victorian & Albert Museum, “fashions worn by the wealthy reflected their lives and aspirations” (V&A 1). This was their way of life and what people usually lived for. Meaning that their life value depended on if they had access to appropriate clothing for the time period and had an ability to maintain inclusion in the upper economic class. This put a lot of pressure on women in this century, where they prepared for numerous hours for events that they were going to attend for an hour or so. This popular culture of elegant clothing for extravagant events created a society where the amount of money defined whether an individual was in the upper class or not. Careers such as dressmakers and tailors thrived since they benefited tremendously from many wealthy men and women who required these services for their everyday clothing.
But what was fashion like for the middle class or lower class in the 19th century? A woman who was poor in the 19th century maintained a sole purpose to survive and provide for their families. Due to the lower class’s consistent need to survive and work, “ fashions of the
[19th] century were not practical for working women” (Tussing 3). Women spent all day constantly moving, and the extravagant dresses of the wealthy weren’t specifically fit for high class women. Socially and economically, women of the lower class were displaced and this culture influenced women to wear fashions fit to their economic class.
The luxuries of the wealthy were things that they desired, but they couldn’t economically afford because the little money they made was focused on eating and paying important bills. Women in the middle class however, possessed clothes similar to wealthy, but they weren’t usually as extravagant or the same elegant fabrics of the wealthy women. Overall, during the 19th century, fashions of
extravagant dresses and elegant clothes resembled wealth while fashions of simplicity and comfort resembled the middle class and poor.
Today, in the 21st century, the wealthiest of Americans are either “lawyers, physicians/doctors, or married” into the wealth ( NY Times 1). Of these wealthy Americans, do they carry the legacy of the 19th century, where fashion symbolized their wealth? Overtime the definition of fashion has altered drastically. Many wealthy people of America typically wear regular clothing through “online shopping”, thrift stores, or other common shopping locations such as Macy 's and etc (Adriani 6). The focus has shifted from traditions of elegant and extravagant clothing for simple events such as horse races and luncheons, and has shifted to rather simple clothing (usually composed of Tshirts and jeans) to basketball games, sporting events, or other common activities. In today’s century, fashion has rather become more of an art rather than an outlet for wealthy, rich people. More wealthy people that are in the top 1 percent of America usually are focused on their careers and making money. For example, the Dallas
Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, wears a simple Mavericks Tshirt that supports his team and jeans on a daily basis, but he owns a “765 million dollar” basketball team symbolizing his extreme wealth ( ESPN News Services 2). His fashion is similar to an average American
Mavericks fan. The only thing that separates Mark Cuban from the average American is his ownership of a multimillion dollar basketball team. Rather than fashion reflecting one’s wealth, like in the 19th century,currently people in the lower or middle class can wear clothes that resemble clothes of the wealthy, while people who are wealthy can wear clothing that one would identify as middle or lower class. This differs the 19th century where this freedom of choosing how clothing reflects one’s economic level wasn’t present. However an individual sets
themselves out to be, essentially establishes economically where they stand including the choices they make in life good or bad. Whereas in the 19th century if you were born poor, you were usually stuck poor; however, in the 21st century, if you are born poor, but work hard to gain a quality education and apply certain aspirations in life, qualifies one to establish themselves anywhere in the economic hierarchy whether its upper, middle, or lower class.
So the question is, what changes have occurred over time? Well, during the 19th century, the amount of or lack of money defined who and where you were in society socially and economically. Wealthy people are all over America, but sometime we wouldn’t be able to spot the difference from an extremely wealthy American to a normal, average American just by looking at the type of clothing they wear. Also someone who flaunts wealthy clothing/fashions isn’t essentially as wealthy as they appear to be. Now currently in the 21st century, the century of change and innovation, has shifted from traditional norms to more openminded and intuitive thinking. Many people find very nice and presentable clothing from simple places such as thrift stores and other name brands that aren’t as expensive. Our society has become less vain and has began to focus on ways to express themselves through clothing based on personal preferences, in contrast to previous times, where your fashion solely defined who you are. During the
19th century, fashion dominated wealth, however in the 21st century, despite economic level, one can dictate their fashion style. Fashion has become a way of one expressing themselves, as they’re are many different styles (hobo, nerd, emo, gothic, preppy, etc.) in comparison to the 19th century where there was one traditional style. As Coco Chanel stated, and which still lingers on today is that, “fashion changes, but style endures”.
The main focus of the research was to effectively provide information on what caused and initiated the change of women 's fashion over time throughout the 19th century in comparison to the 21st century. Initially, I believed that money didn 't affect fashion any differently than it did in the 19th century versus now. After approaching and reviewing the economic classes of the
19th century and it 's effect on womens clothing, my perception about women 's fashion and its connection with money changed. Throughout the 19th century, there was a huge divide between the have and the havenots. This illustration of the have and havenots was highlighted through the wealthy’s ability to possess extreme amounts of luxury items and the ability to travel and enjoy life worry free. The wealthy were also well clothed to an extreme, so there was an undeniable and obvious difference in the fashion of the upper class and the working class women. With that
I began to realize that money was a tool in determining where one stood economically in the
19th century whereas in the 21st century this establishment of economic classes based on fashion was more liberal and varied. When writing at first, I solely focused the simple connection between money and fashion. I failed input multiple perspectives and viewpoints that all contribute to an argument. I was simply stating information that I learned and not essentially presenting an argument. Not only did this make me have to reevaluate what I was communicating, but it was also a huge learning experience in understanding how to draw connections between outside viewpoints. Varied viewpoints weren’t the only thing that changed my initial views of fashion overtime, but diverging opinions such as crediting technological advances for the widespread liberal like feeling and freedom of clothing for women often emerged. This may have helped produce an abundance in the amounts of clothing in society, however this is not the main and sole reason of why women began to wear a variety of clothing.
With social movements such as the Women’s Rights Movement and the widespread popularity of affordable thrift shopping enhanced and allowed women of all socioeconomic classes to wear what they desired. This diverging opinion helped enrich my opinion and research, and made me think of our research problem thoroughly because it opened my viewpoint to different lenses and realize how fashion effected all sorts of political, scientific, social, ethical, economic,and other perspectives that I’ve previously didn’t consider in researching. With looking at historical museums, such as the Victorian and Albert Museum, that described the economic divide between classes to observing how individuals with power and influence shape how we think of fashion assisted in learning how fashion changed. By selecting evidence that truly supported my claim, analyzing and evaluating this evidence, and understanding the context and the argument, I realized how fashion was much bigger than just a simple piece of decorated material.
With all the new perspectives, diverging opinions, and new discoveries , I was able to conduct research on the factors that attributed to the change of fashion overtime. Our group decided to approach the research question by picking different lenses that would deem to be necessary in truly understanding the effects of fashion overtime. Our group concluded that the historical, ethical, religious, social, and economic lenses accurately establish a well structured argument. The difficult part of this component was ensuring that throughout our research that we were essentially on the same page throughout the entirety of the project. Coming together our group decided to write our theses and a main idea of our topic in order to all effectively understand what was going on throughout the research. This was an effective choice because I was able to understand fully the whole idea of the project which assisted in later creating a thesis for our group paper. We came up with a thesis that covered all of our claims under three main
points. The steps taken throughout the research were all focused in ensuring that the group continued to cohesively be on one page. Overall, I was satisfied in the way our group worked together in order to understand the effects on fashion. This procedure of keeping in mind to be on the same page helped our research, analysis and presentation to be executed in a presive manner.
Works Cited
Andriani, Lynn. “5 Things Wealthy People Don’t Do”
Huffpost OWN .
9 Oct 2013. 18 Jan 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/richpeoplehabits_n_4031667.html>
Carter, Shan , Fessenden, Ford , Gebeloff, Robert , and White, Jeremy. “The Top 1 Percent:
What Jobs Do They Have?”.
The New York Times: Business. 15 Jan 2012. 18 Jan 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2012/0115onepercentoccupatio
ns
/>
ESPN News Services. “Mark Cuban: Mavs Worth Over $1B”.
ESPN Dallas Forth Worth. 24 Jan
2014. Web. 26 Jan 2015.
<http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id/10343381/markcubansaysforbes765mvaluati
ondallasmaverickswaytoolow>
Norwich, William. "For New York 's Social Swim, Money Is Always in Fashion." New York
Times 03 June 2001. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/03/weekinreview/ideastrendshisocietyfornewyor
kssocialswimmoneyisalwaysinfashion.html>
Tussing, Maria. “How Did 19th Century Clothing Reflect Levels of Society?” eHow . 10 Nov
2014. 17 Jan 2015.
<http://www.ehow.com/info_8240846_19thclothingreflectedlevelssociety.html>
Victoria & Albert Museum. “Victorian Dress at the V&A”
V&A
. 2014. 16 Jan 2015.
<http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/victoriandressatvanda/>
Werlin, Kathy. “Head to Toe: Mid 1850s Woman”
The Fashion Historian.
18 Jun 2010. 17 Jan
2015.
<http://www.thefashionhistorian.com/2010/06/headtotoemid1850swoman.html>