A Brief History of Women’s Fashion
When it comes to clothing, no trend is permanent. As a matter of fact, the style of clothing that people wore has changed significantly in such a way that you can clearly distinguish the trends of one era from another. This especially holds true to women’s dresses.
Now, let us take a quick stroll through the history of women’s fashion in the 20th century.
1900 – 1920, The Haute Couture Era
During this period, dresses highlighted the mature, full-figured body; hence, low busts and curvy hips were highly emphasised. Consequently, you would normally see the ladies of this era wearing long skirts that has a small train—something you can usually see in today’s wedding gowns. However, as the decade drew to a close, skirts became shorter, revealing tantalising glimpses of the ankle, and their clothes’ silhouette slowly moved towards straighter lines.
Trivia: Paris became the centre of haute couture of the time and women of the upper classes were the ones who had easy access to customised wardrobes. In addition, horse races became an unofficial venue for them to debut their stylish attires.
1920 – 1940, The Modern Era
After over a century of wearing constricting clothes, women of this decade finally liberated themselves from such a style and slowly wore comfortable clothing choices like short skirts and pants. In addition, the girls during this time slowly filled their wardrobes with apparel that has low waistlines, or dresses that fit close to the body to display youthful elegance.
Trivia: It was during the 1930s when the distinction between clothes worn for daytime and night time became apparent.
1940 – 1960, Rationed Fashion
As the world got tied up to the war efforts of the period (World War II), fashion followed suit and took on a restrained and economic style. Not only can you see women wear skirts that were shorter than those worn during the previous decades, many also donned short and blocky jackets.
Trivia: While simplicity and uniformity in clothing were encouraged during the 1940s due to a scarcity of textile materials, it immediately took a 360-degree turn at the start of the 50s wherein expensive fabrics and ornate accessories became necessary fashion choices. This extravagant approach later on became dubbed as the “New Look”.
1960 – 1980, Fashion Revolution
Bell bottoms, mini skirts, pants, became fashionable in this time as the youth rebelled against traditional fashion trends. However, because of the diversity of the apparel that has been introduced at the turn of the 70s, it became nearly impossible to tell what was fashionable or not.
Trivia: At this juncture, the society finally embraced the notion that women can wear pants. As a matter of fact, clothing styles of the hip era became androgynous, which meant that ladies were normally seen wearing clothes worn by their male counterparts.
1980 – 2010, Present Time
While fashion sense in the previous period took an extreme shift from the typical dresses of earlier eras, it became overshadowed by the rise of designer styles in the succeeding generations. In fact, many affluent ladies slipped into expensive business suits during the day, and donned expensive gowns at sundown.
Trivia: Thanks to top designer brands, the women of today can still look stylish on a budget by wearing fancy ready-to-wear attires.