The Start of a Century

    As woman entered the 1900s they were ready for a change. Their role in society had always been to lean on men. However, their role was now changing as they wished to become more independent. The women's civil rights movement acquired them the right to vote in 1920. Their working rates increased in vast amounts, and women felt more liberated.

     They proceeded to make changes and so did their clothes. They adapted more to prêt-à-porter (ready to wear) fashion and got rid of old trends. One of these traditional trends was the Victorian corset. The corset was used for during a long period of time to achieve a more feminine look. Nevertheless, it was now looked at as torturous unpleasant garment with no necessity. The overall silhouette became more free of form and masculine. The social mood of woman during this time period was one of freedom.

Prescott, HM. (2002). The corset: a cultural history.Oxford University Press, 57(3), 363-364.
The changing role of american women in the 1920s. (n.d.). The Roaring Twenties, Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/usa/1920srev2.shtml

An Overwhelming Amount of Illustrations

     In my search for resourceful information on the clothing used in this time period I went over to the library where I found a book titled Fashion Since 1900. The book overflows with illustrations from each year (over 1,000). It explains in detail exactly what woman were wearing at each giving time. It goes of to illustrate day wear , evening wear, and even bridal wear.
      It is fascinating to see in such depth how fashion has constantly been changing. It only took one century for woman to go from wearing corsets, ravishing hats, and dresses that touched the floor to cropped tops, denim, and trousers. From this book I can truly grasp all the style transformations, but they couldn't have happened by themselves. They were the result of other historic events. I plan to connect the two through my other sources.
 
Peacock, J. (2007). Fashion since 1900: the complete sourcebook. New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

A Fashionable Topic

     I have always found fashion to be an intriguing subject, and about a year ago I bought a book called 50 Fashion Designers You Should Know. I was reminded of this book recently when I was in search for a research topic. One of things that I found most interesting from the book was that at the top of each page it had laid out historic events along side with the fashion designers' timeline. This got me to think how historic events, especially political ones, have had an impact in the evolution of fashion.
     Through this topic I hope to find out what events during the 20th century lead to the bold changes in the fashion world. What defined fashion history? I aspire to find out more of how the political mood of the times during the 1900s changed fashion.