How Changes In Female Perception Is The Twentieth Century

Topic: How did Fashion affect changes in female perception is the twentieth century?

Introduction - to be written

“The end of the nineteenth century saw tremendous growth in the suffrage movement in England and the United States, with women struggling to attain political equality. ”In 1837, Queen Victoria made a great impact on how men perceived themselves and how women perceived themselves. At that time, a women’s “job” was to be a homemaker, wife and mother. The wealthier of the lot, followed Queen Victoria’s lead on leisure and clothing. After the death of Queen Victoria, the Edwardian era, that lasted from 1901 to 1910. During the Edwardian era, the upper class enjoyed leisure sports that allowed rapid developments in fashion as more
The 1920s is often known as the “era of the flapper” or the “roaring 20s”. The eradication of corsets offered designers more freedom to explore different styles and innovation. Evening dresses, coats and jackets were often trimmed with fur. Hemlines rose for most of the decade but dropped slightly toward the end. Dressmaking became a popular culture amongst women who wanted to explore more styles but couldn't afford it due to the aftermath of the war. Women became more confident since they had to handle the burden of lost fathers and husbands, after the war. Many of these women looked towards fashion as a solution at the time of crisis, the fashion industry was a booming industry and since fashion became more liberal, women were more convinced about their identity in the world. Pantsuits, hats and canes that gave women a sleek look without frills and avoiding the fickleness of fashion were popular for a while. The style was named after the novel La garçonne by Victor Margueritte. In Europe, this look featured women with short hair (Bubikopf) for the first time; in the U.S., "the bob" was reintroduced by actress Louise Brooks in the late 1920s. Women resorted to a more masculine look with short hairstyles such as the bob cut, Eton crop and the Marcel wave which coincided with the power given to women in order to curb the loss of men during the war. Until the 1930s wealthy
At the same time the rumble of warmongering in Europe became more evident through the growing interest towards military fashion. On the other hand, the 1940s experienced two distinctive set of styles. From the beginning of the decade until the “New Look” in 1947, women’s dresses were knee-length and featured padded shoulders. This added a flair to clothing that was otherwise simple, because of wartime rationing. Women became more open to experimentation, with skinnier waistlines and homemade accessories. Bright make up became very popular such as the “red lip” which showed the boldness of women at the workplace. The pride of women continued to rise as time past, women were now more focused on their physique and flaunted this characteristic through “the peplum” which became popular and helped to narrow the hips and show off a trim waist. In 1943, clothes were at once less cautious and less tricky. However they were still marked by the simplicity that wartime fabric shortages and the wartime work and psychology of women demanded, the simplicity was tempered by inventiveness of cut, a genuine suppleness of line. Women were made to work longer hours without the same recognition they had before the war. Now, women were only needed to replace the men and not for their skill. Fashion was now simple and did not have the presence and quality of the clothes the women were used to, this diminished their