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Historical Context
Women’s fashion has long been dictated by what was happening in the world at the time. From the 20s to WW2, what we could wear was dictated. Beginning in the early 1900s, women were expected to be ladylike, while in the 20s, there was room to play around. When the 30s and 40s hit, women had to begin working, and thus, the fashion changed again. Since the beginning of fashion, the custom was to have very few outfits, and to keep them nice. With fast fashion on the rise, this has changed. -
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Purpose
In this timeline, I aim to explain what fashion was in some specific eras, and show how both the state of the world, as well as social media has influenced what we call fashion. For most eras, I am going to show the most generalized idea of what the popular dress would be, but for the current day, there is no one style that is the most popular. This is mostly due to the rise of fast fashion, as well as the newfound freedom that is social media. Individuality is encouraged, and not hidden. -
Day Dress c. 1916
In the early 1900s, and in the case of this dress, in the Edwardian era, women were not a part of the work force. They were often expected to stay home, or at most, run errands and cook meals. This is translated through the fashion of this era. This dress specifically was created by Harvey Nichols, who was a designer in London. This would've been worn by an upper class woman, as the poor couldn't afford silk dresses. This dress was advertised in magazines at the time as "high fashion". -
Day Dress c. 1950
Created by Claire McCardell, this dress embodies the feelings of women at the time. As America was recovering from WW2, women too were going back to staying at home and raising families instead of supporting America by working a job. This dress, with a fairly high hem, a side zipper (for independence), and a bright, bubbly pattern emphasized this change from the boring, monotonous fashion of the 1940s. This dress was also created as a ready-to-wear piece, which shows how faster fashion appeared. -
Casual Outfit
In a post by sb.styled with various hashtags to get the post more views, what I'd call a fairly average outfit for a women in their 20s is posted. As we can see, brands are viewed highly, and the outfit is put together to show off these. Along with this, women have shifted towards something more comfortable, and easy to move in. With the rise of social media, women now explore more styles than ever. From Gothic to Harajuku to Y2K, there is no doubt that social media has allowed vast creativity. -
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Summary
Throughout history, we’ve seen the rise and fall of many different styles, which can be tied to a lot of different reasons. While most every different style change can be traced back to the economic state of America or the desire for individuality, nowadays, it is much harder to determine when one style ends and when another begins. But the real question is this: what made us able to express ourselves so readily? -
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Conclusion
What I believe led us to the freedom of choice is social media. Unlike any other thing in America’s history, you can fall into your own niche group, your own echo chamber, and forget that people think poorly of you for your style. While it is not guaranteed that you can avoid criticism forever, most people are too scared to say anything in person, so unless you look for the hate comments, you’re most likely not going to run into bullies online. This is how current fashion is different.