Victorian to Vamp: Women's Clothing 1900-1929 [Anglais] [Broché]

Step into another world as Victorian to Vamp shows you women's clothing at the turn of the last century.

Victorian to Vamp: Women's Clothing 1900-1929 covers styles from the turn of the century until the Great Depression. A predominant ideal silhouette marked each of these three decades from the S-shaped Gibson Bend in Edwardian times to the long, slender, upright lines of dresses in the Teens and finally to the boyish flat-chested look of flappers' short chemises in the Twenties. Learn about: clothing styles of three decades, how women accessorized their wardrobes, the influence that women's participation in sports had on their dress, why some women advocated dress reform, how designers Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel affected women's fashions. The book is illustrated entirely with period drawings and photographs of the time.

As we enter the new century, it is intriguing to look back on American culture as it was a hundred years ago and compare it with our society today. Certainly one of the most striking changes is in the status of women, and one of the most outwardly noticeable differences is in women's attire. Victorian to Vamp: Women's Clothing 1900-1929 explores what women were wearing at the turn of the century and how their dress had changed radically by the end of the Roaring Twenties.

This book concentrates on fashionable styles during the first thirty years of the Twentieth Century. The author, Paula Jean Darnell, describes and identifies a distinctive ideal silhouette for each decade. Illustrations help the reader visualize how women's clothing and accessories looked during these three decades.

Victorian to Vamp is also the story of the evolution of women's clothing, as women themselves, tired of having restrictions placed on their lives and their dress, changed from prim Victorians to flamboyant flappers. We think women of the Twenty-First Century will enjoy this look backward into fashion history.

Paula Jean Darnell collects and deals in women's vintage fashion accessories and teaches college English and humanities courses. Victorian to Vamp: Women's Clothing 1900-1929 is based on her Master of Arts degree thesis. She is also the author of Victorian Millinery, Victorian Bathing Costumes, and co-author of Outstanding Iowa Women: Past and Present.

The years 1900 to 1929 covered a transitional time in American society as the population shifted from rural and agricultural to urban and industrial, and Americans grappled with the problems that accompanied change. In the political arena the Progressive Era was in full swing with legislators passing numerous laws dealing with the regulation of business, the political process, and social welfare. People optimistically looked forward to the future, confident that reform would improve the country.

Women's position in society from 1900 to 1929 was changing also, but very slowly. Both the bicycle and the automobile led to new courting styles and eventually to more freedom for women. High school and college enrollments by women increased during this time, and more young women entered the workplace although, for many, their working years were a prelude to marriage. Only a few women had careers.

In the Nineteenth Century, women had been expected to concern themselves only with domestic matters. They could not vote and had limited legal rights. Even so, women were idealized because they were thought to have a higher sense of morality than men. Victorian women's clothing reflected their place in society; although frequently beautiful, their dress was extremely constricting and confining. The woman's costume of the 1800s featured a pinching corset with whalebone or spring steel stays, tight bodice, long, heavy skirt, and gloves a size too small. When fully dressed, women completely covered their bodies and only their faces and hair showed under their hats. Victorian morality dictated that a woman should not show her "limbs," and even a glance of a woman's ankle was considered shocking.

By the turn of the century, clothing had begun to change only slightly. The Gibson Girl became a symbol of America's model woman. Idealized in the drawings of Charles Dana Gibson, the Gibson Girl possessed a beautiful face framed by a lovely hair style and often crowned with a wide-brimmed, elaborately decorated hat. She had a very peculiar silhouette because the type of corset worn at the time forced the figure into an unnatural bent position, sometime called the "Gibson bend." This style continued for almost a decade until the new mode of a straight, upright figure, which Paul Poiret, a Parisian designer, introduced, became popular. Long skirts continued to be the norm until the mid-teen years when women raised their skirts to ankle length.

By the 1920s women's clothing had changed drastically and now featured chemise-style dresses with short skirts, light-weight fabrics, and short or no sleeves. In order to look good in the waistless chemise, which had a rectangular shape, women had to have boyish figures. As they had in previous decades, women used foundation garments to achieve the ideal silhouette so that they could wear the fashionable styles.

During the transition from the Victorian times of the 1890s to the modern times of the 1920s, women's increased interest in participating in sports influenced clothing styles for, even in sports, women had been hampered by clothing that restricted their movements. The bicycling craze of the 1890s had caused a grassroots movement among women cyclists to alter their clothing so that they could cycle more easily. This was the first sign that women meant to adjust their clothing to their lives rather than their lives to their clothing. Sportswear changed very slowly also, but by the 1920s it permitted the movement needed to swim, golf, play tennis or other sports.

From the 1850s, some women had been concerned with dress reform for reasons of physical comfort, ease in movement, and as a political statement. Even after the woman suffrage supporters decided to abandon the drive for dress reform, a few women continued to agitate for dress reform. Ironically, not long after the Nineteenth Amendment became law, the reformers' wishes came true; women's clothing styles reflected a new-found freedom, a change from Victorian to modern.