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Back
to Do History
History
Through Beauty and Style
Today’s
supermodels wouldn’t always have been considered beautiful.
Standards of beauty have shifted radically over time. During the
1830s, a popular ideal of feminine beauty was the demure woman,
with wasp-waist, rosebud mouth, wispy fingers, and tiny feet.
After the
Civil War, a popular ideal was of a woman who was curvaceous,
big-hipped, and buxom.
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In
the 1890s and early twentieth century, the aristocratic
and sporty Gibson Girl was a popular ideal. he Gibson Girl
was known as the century's first pin up.
First
sketched by Charles Dana Gibson in 1902, this imaginary
woman was to represent the ideal woman. She became known
as the liberated young woman with the characteristic upswept
hairdo. Created using a combination of the Marcel wave and
postiche, the Gibson Girl look was to last a quarter of
a century. The hair style consisted of a soft pompadour,
puffed for a cloud effect, rolled from temple to temple
over a horsehair rat to give it the width that went well
with a tiny waist.
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In the 1920s,
a new ideal was the boyish, buoyant Flapper.
Key
Questions:
How
would you explain changes in ideals of beauty changed over time?
At
particular moments in American history, dress and appearance
have become the subjects of contention. One might examine the
debate that surrounded bloomers, beauty pageants, swimsuits
and pants for women, and jeans and sandals.
How
has social class and age been reflected in clothing?
How
have the young used style as a form of protest?
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Courtesy:
Historic American Sheet Music, "The Bloomer's Complaint;
A Very Pathetic Song,"
Music A-7230, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special
Collections Library |
Online Resources:
Lesson
Plan:
How
Did Diverse Activists Shape the Nineteenth-Century Dress Reform
Movement?
This
project focuses on three different strands of dress reform activity:
the water curists, the Oneida community, and woman's rights
reformers. Each of these groups attempted to reform women's
dress for a variety of reasons. An examination of the three
currents in the dress reform movement allows for a complex picture
of the varied reasons why women attempted to break free of the
restraints of nineteenth-century women's fashionable clothing.
http://womhist.binghamton.edu./dress/intro.htm
Fashion:
Hairstyles:
Footware:
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