Friday 7 November 2014

1920's Fashion

I've recently found myself becoming completely absorbed in 1920's American fashion, which I can thank mostly to the current project I'm working night and day (literally..) on for my course at uni.
When you first think of the 1920's you could be forgiven for instantly thinking of the romanticism intertwined with feminism and a new found voice for 'flapper' women; however let me take you a bit further into the state of the American economy during this period and then out of the towns and into the countryside where many families were struggling to keep their heads above the poverty line that was part of their everyday life during the economic depression.
Flour Companies at this time were selling their goods in cloth feed sacks and during a time when mass consumerism had yet to appear on the horizon and fabric was too expensive for the households of the poor, this cloth was used to make garments to clothe the backs of children, husbands and wives.
As newspapers published articles for the handy housewife on fashionable patterns for their feed sack dresses, the flour companies manufacturing these sacks saw an opportunity to compete with each other for their customers with hundreds of different patterns and colours and even used ink that washed away their logo so that nowadays it can be hard to even begin to identify if a dress was infact made from a flour sack.
Matching dresses in the 1920's
When I first began researching into this period of American 'fashion' I loved how novel it was and how it felt dressed up to be something 'fashionable'; unfortunately nowadays we live in a society that thinks  nothing of throwing out 'recyclable' fashion season after season and always being able to afford the latest catwalk driven trends thanks to the corporate companies of the high street.
There was a time when women not only had to sew their own clothes but had to use anything to make them; feed sack fashion was not only a sign of desperation and poverty but also of the beauty of a community joined together in learning how to live and to be happy in the hardest of times and I think thats something worth remembering?


Check out this cape! Vintage fashion recycles beautiful garments for generations to wear and enjoy!






No comments:

Post a Comment