American Women's Fashion Reform: 1870s to 1920s

Introduction

Whether sophisticated or simple, clothing speaks volumes about both an individual and society in general. Modern fashion has many outlets today — malls, retailers, and specialty shops — and although present-day fashion allows artistic freedom and individuality, historically, dress was a direct indication of one's social and financial class. American fashions were mainly dictated by European styles; therefore, much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries incorporated a rigid Victorian-era style that was the standard among the upper class, particularly in cosmopolitan cities such as New York. Due to the ornate and laborious qualities of these garments, fashion was restricted to the elite within society — those with both the leisure and the financial means.

Dress, therefore, was an outward indication of one's wealth and social standing. However, fashion suggested more than economic advantage. Changes within society, both big and small, were often directly reflected in attire. This change was especially apparent as America underwent many social and political transformations between the mid-1800s and the 1920s. The invention of the sewing machine allowed the general public access to fashion, as they could make their own clothing. It also contributed to the "ready-to-wear" industry, which forever changed the face of clothing in America and established New York City as the country's fashion capital. In particular, women's clothing underwent drastic and historically unprecedented changes within a relatively short amount of time.

Fashion moved from an exclusively upper-class luxury to including the middle class. This newfound accessibility to fashion had far-reaching implications in society, including helping immigrants to assimilate. By the late 1800s, as women entered the workforce, participated in sports, and lobbied for suffrage, it was obvious that an improvement in impractical dress was essential. As such, the style and comfort of their attire eventually changed to better accommodate their lifestyles.

For the most part, these changes in dress were small and may even appear insignificant: a hemline raised an inch, or a layer of petticoat removed. Indeed, these improvements were truly remarkable strides for women, especially when considering they were accomplished within a restrictive and intolerant environment. The changes and improvements made during the period from 1870 to 1920 provided the foundation for the total social upheaval that would take place in America during the Twenties.

To understand women's fashion throughout history, one must first grasp the situation that women faced from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Early America presented women with a life of work as unpaid wives who were required, in some cases by law, to be alongside or behind their husbands running the home, farm, or plantation. There were no modern appliances, so a chore we take for granted — such as cooking for an entire household — could consume a great deal of time. Fashion was essentially a nonentity, as clothing was created through the tedious tasks of spinning yarn, weaving fabric, sewing by hand, and constantly mending the family's garments.

Women's Lives in Early America

Once the Revolution came and went and America moved into the early nineteenth century, there was an even higher expectation for educating a family's children, and that responsibility also fell on mothers. It was expected that any widow, or a woman whose husband was off to war, would manage all aspects of the household or farm. Other women were indentured servants or simply enslaved. The laws were completely stacked against women, so any unmarried woman or divorcee without real property would be forced to work for others.

Of course, when women took on wage work during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, their familial roles did not simply disappear. Women had to work both at home without pay and outside of the home. In other words, women still had to fulfill their traditional roles before and after paid employment. Wage work did not produce independence for women because their responsibilities at home were not abolished — their family obligations actually increased, and fashion remained an impractical concern for most.

It was not unusual, however, for women to own their own businesses. Women often held positions as apothecaries, barbers, blacksmiths, sextons, printers, or tavern keepers. Another lucrative profession at the time was that of the midwife. As the 1840s arrived, the Industrial Revolution took hold and created a demand for new labor. This again led many women to turn to wage work outside the home. Historians have estimated that around 1840, almost ten percent of women in the United States held jobs outside the home, and by the 1850s this figure had risen to closer to fifteen percent, as factory owners hired women and children.

The topic of women's fashion is fundamentally a discussion about reform in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Fashion is by far one of the most controversial issues of the period. Consider that as late as the 1880s, women were typically required to wear five or six petticoats underneath a dress. The length of those dresses actually required instructions on how to lift them when climbing stairs or walking on a muddy street in a graceful manner.

Women during this period wore corsets that were not only uncomfortable but genuinely unhealthy. Fashion entailed day dresses with long sleeves and high necklines; evening dresses could at least be sleeveless or cut low in the bodice. Accessories were rarely meant to promote beauty or sexuality. It was, in every sense, a man's world.

Reform and the Victorian Era

The Victorian Era was a period largely recognized for its rigid and unyielding conservatism. Even though it was celebrated as a time that maintained high standards of morality, beauty, and social grace, Victorian society was in practice rather oppressive — especially regarding women and their position within it. This was also a time when people owned very few clothes. A typical country woman might own only three or four dresses, one of which was reserved for church and social events. Men were equally conservative; a husband would usually own only two or three shirts and one or two pairs of trousers for each season. Shoes were scarce relative to other articles of clothing and were most common among men who worked outdoors. Women and children were generally the last to receive shoes.

During this time, a woman considered to be of high social caste and affluence was expected to be purely ornamental, and her clothing reflected that function accordingly. Victorian-styled clothing was impractical in function and excessive in form. As Douglas Russell points out in Costume History and Style, "the fashions of this period, like the interiors, were inhibiting and oppressive for the most part." (351) This statement is especially applicable to women of the Victorian period. Though men's clothing of the same era is sometimes considered dull, it allowed men a full range of motion and free movement — a freedom that was simply not afforded to women.

Upper-class women were expected to dress as elaborately as the etiquette of high society dictated, thereby demonstrating their social caste to all other factions of society. Typical Victorian dresses consisted of a series of heavily weighted and therefore extremely restrictive undergarments: petticoats, crinoline, and tightly laced corsets made from steel and whalebone. Outer garments were worn in layers and were often equally impractical, restricting movement to a minimum. Hemlines were extremely long, making them cumbersome to walk in, and the large bustles positioned at the rear kept women from doing much of anything beyond embroidering.

This was, however, the very purpose of such clothing — fashion was deliberately used as a method of distinguishing the various social and economic classes, grounded in the socially accepted notion that the wealthy were not intended to work. Thorstein Veblen wrote in The Theory of the Leisure Class, "…that our apparel is always in evidence and affords an indication of our pecuniary standing to all observers at first glance." (167) Due to the notion that a tailor was required to sew the many complex and expensive costumes of the day, the middle and lower classes were systematically excluded from participation in high fashion throughout the period.

Special care was given to women's dress during this time partly because a well-dressed woman was understood as an extension of her husband's role in society. When a man held a position where he could afford to have his wife appear so richly attired, he was clearly demonstrating his elevated status. These social expectations made it especially important for women to convey to their peers — and to all others — that she not only did not work, but that she physically could not work. Apparel was expected to remain in a constant state of perfection: always spotless and free of wrinkles. Veblen commented, "…elegant dress serves its purpose of elegance not only in that it is expensive, but also because it is the insignia of leisure. It not only shows that the wearer is able to consume a relatively large volume, but it argues at the same time that she consumes without producing." (171)

Morality was directly linked to femininity, and women were required to dress both beautifully and modestly, covering their bodies almost entirely. To raise a hemline, for example, would have been considered completely scandalous, as societal expectations held such a change to be immoral and indecent if it openly showed a woman's foot or ankle.

There was no mistaking that women were in need of serious reform with regard to fashion. The sewing machine was still years away, and only wealthy Americans could afford to have professionals tailor their clothing. It was not until after the Civil War that all social classes could afford multiple garments. But this reform also entailed a push toward comfort, because women's clothing was purposely made neither comfortable nor practical. Even though many sought change, it took many decades for reform to take hold, and like all change, there were many setbacks along the way. One popular writer of the time quipped that the women of New York City should be paid as street sweepers for every stroll they took. Reform was a dangerous topic: the Victorian era was a male-dominated culture intent on maintaining sharp boundaries between masculine and feminine gender roles.

The United States in the nineteenth century was a time when abandoning accepted norms of fashion could provoke violence and ridicule. Even clothing for children was slow to change. Infants were almost habitually dressed in long nightgowns, and older children in both urban and rural families wore poorly fitted, dress-like garments until they were old enough to work on the farm or around the home, at which point they adopted the styles of their parents.

By the year 1870, there were several attempts to reform societal expectations of women's fashions. Earlier in the century, women such as Elizabeth Smith Miller and Amelia Jenks Bloomer had introduced and advocated for Turkish trousers, which became known as "bloomers." This type of garment was not readily accepted by the majority of society because trousers on women were viewed as immodest and certainly unfeminine. It was clear, however, that times had changed and that women's fashions had to undergo a transition to meet the needs of the better-educated and more economically independent women of the period.

Conclusion

While society grew out of the Victorian Era and gradually moved into the Edwardian Era, women's roles in society drastically changed. Social stigmas and influences that had been prevalent for centuries were challenged and eventually dismantled. The rigid moral code imposed by Victorian society directly dictated the way women dressed and behaved. The notion that women's roles were nothing more than ornamental was evident in the clothing worn by upper-echelon women: layers of uncomfortable and restrictive garments served as both a symbolic and a physical tool that kept women from being active participants in what was then very much a man's world. As society progressed, however, changes in dress and in the roles of women changed together.

The sewing machine and fashion magazines extended the availability of stylish clothing to a new arena of women — chiefly the middle classes and new immigrants — who had previously been unable to partake. As fashion grew in popularity, styles were simultaneously altered to better accommodate the changing role of women. Clothing was made for active women who participated in sports and worked in offices.

By the 1920s, women had established themselves as a competent and valuable gender, worthy of far more than their previous status as graceful ornaments. They demonstrated this outwardly by dressing more simply and boyishly — proving their ability to stand as men's equals. The changes in fashion between 1870 and 1920, however incremental they may appear in retrospect, represented a profound and enduring transformation in American social life.