Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women

by Susan Faludi

  As Women’s Wear Daily remarked . . .: Christa Worthington, “Fantasy Fashion Rebounds in Paris,” Women’s Wear Daily, July 29, 1986, p. 1. 191 FASHION GOES MAD“Fashion Goes Mad,” Women’s Wear Daily, July 29, 1986, p. 1.

  Lacroix has “restored . . .”: Worthington, “Fantasy Fashion,” p. 1.

  He dressed his . . .: Videos of Lacroix’s Paris and New York shows; Bernadine Morris, “For Lacroix, a Triumph; For Couture, a Future,” New York Times, July 27, 1987, p. C14.

  Then he sent them down . . .: Martha Duffy, “Welcome to the Fresh Follies,” Time, Feb. 9, 1987, p. 76.

  John Fairchild, the magazine’s . . .: Baumgold, “Dancing on the Lip,” p. 49.

  The following July . . .: Morris, “For Lacroix a Triumph,” p. C14.

  The president of Martha’s . . .: Ibid.; “Lacroix Triumphant,” Women’s Wear Daily, July 27, 1987, p. 1.

  Hebe Dorsey of . . .: “Lacroix Triumphant,” p. 3.

  The next day, the New York Times . . .: Morris, “For Lacroix, a Triumph,” p. C14.

  Time and Newsweek . . .: Duffy, “Fantasy;” Conant, “Oh La La, Lacroix.”

  People celebrated . . .: “Paris’ Daring Darling Shakes Up High Fashion with High Jinks,” People, May 19, 1986, p. 138.

  Lacroix, who stocked . . .: Baumgold, “Dancing on the Lip,” p. 38.

  “Primitive people . . .”: Duffy, “Fantasy,” p. 46.

  He looks like Brando . . .”: Ibid., p. 46.

  His last effort . . .: Nina Hyde, “The Real Lacroix,” Washington Post, March 17, 1988, p. 1.

  In May 1988, big ads . . .: “Introducing Christian Lacroix’s Pret-a-porter first at Saks Fifth Avenue,” Washington Post, May 19, 1988, p. A4.

  It’s ridiculous . . .”: Personal interview with Mimi Gott, May 24, 1988. (The comments from Saks employees and shoppers are also from personal interviews the same day.)

  A month later . . .: “Lacroix Avoids Markdown Blues,” Houston Chronicle, Jan. 4, 1990, p. 5; Pete Born, “How the French Do in U.S. Stores,” Women’s Wear Daily, March 17, 1989, p. 1; “Stores Lament Designer Sales,” Women’s Wear Daily, June 12, 1990, p. 1; Bernadette Morra, “Mix Master Lacroix Designs with Gusto,” Toronto Star, Oct. 25, 1990, p. D2.

  To this end, Bullock’s . . .: Lisa Lapin, “Jeepers! Cool Is Hot, Ralph Kramden Is a Folk Hero and Business Discovers There’s Money To Be Made From Reviving the ’50s,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 4, 1987, IV, p. 1.

  “There has been a shift . . .”: Maureen Dowd, “The New Exec,” The New York Times Magazine, Aug. 24, 1986, p. 145.

  In 1987, for example, . . .: Statistics from Market Research Corp. of America.

  195 “This thing is not about designers . . .”: Genevieve Buck, “Hemline Lib,” Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1987, p. 7.

  “Older women want . . .”: Goodwin, “Fashion 88,” p. 1.

  “Gals like to show . . .”: Buck, “Hemline Lib,” p. 7.

  “Girls want to be girls . . .”: “La Gamine,” p. 86.

  “Women change not at all . . .”: Personal interview with John Weitz, Feb. 1988; Morris, “The Sexy Look.”

  As a publicist . . .: Personal interview with Sarah O’Donnell, Alcott & Andrews publicist, 1988.

  Bloomingdale’s, which dubbed . . .: Bloomingdale’s advertisement, New York Times, Aug. 24, 1988, p. A5.

  “Saks understands . . .”: Saks Fifth Avenue two-page ad, Vanity Fair, March 1988.

  The fashion press pitched in . . .: “Dressing Cute Enroute,” Mademoiselle, August 1985, p. 56; “The New Success Looks: Young and Easy,” Harper’s Bazaar, Oct. 1987, p. 76.

  Savvy told working women . . .: “Power Flower,” Savvy, March 1988, p. 78.

  Women could actually . . .: Goodwin, “Fashion 88,” p. 1.

  “A man shortage? . . .”: “Little Dating Looks,” Mademoiselle, Nov. 1987, p. 226.

  88 New York Times Men, however, were far more enthusiastic; 71 percent said they preferred skirts that didn’t drop below the knee. Trish Hall, “No Surprise Here: Men Prefer the Mini,” New York Times, March 31, 1988, p. C1. An earlier 1982 survey by Audits and Surveys for the Merit Report found 81 percent of women and men either didn’t want miniskirts to come back into style or just didn’t care. See “Opinion Roundup—Light Fare: Of Legs, Locks, Love and Lancelots,” Public Opinion, April-May 1982, p. 37.

  “I will wear . . .”: Kathleen Fury, “Why I’m Not Wearing Miniskirts, I Think,” WorkingWoman, Nov. 1987, p. 184.

  Nina Totenberg, legal affairs . . .: For printed version, see Nina Totenberg, “Miniskirt, Maxi Blunder,” New York Times, March 21, 1988, p. A19.

  The miniskirt has thrown . . .: Sanford L. Jacobs, “Claiborne Says Miniskirts May Mean Mini-Increase in Earnings for 1988,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 26, 1988.

  I think it’s really a trend . . .”: Personal interview with Yvette Crosby and observations at California Mart’s Market Week, April 9, 1988, p. 20.

  “Last year, the miniskirt was . . .”: Personal interview with Bob Mallard. (Following scenes from personal interviews and observations at Mallard’s showroom, April 9, 1988.) 198 Jean-Paul Gaultier . . .: Holly Brubach, “The Rites of Spring,” New Yorker, June 6, 1988, p. 80.

  Pierre Cardin produced . . .: Bernadine Morris, “In Paris Couture, Opulence Lights A Serious Mood,” New York Times, July 26, 1988. 198

  Romeo Gigli . . .: Brubach, “Rites of Spring,” p. 81.

  The Lacroix brand . . .: Gladys Perint Palmer, “Top to Toe at Paris Show,” San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 29, 1989, p. E3.

  By 1990, Valentino . . .: Marylou Luther, “Young and Restless: Haute Couture Sports a New Attitude for the ’90s,” Chicago Sun-Times, Aug. 1, 1990, II, p. 25.

  The woman who steps down . . .: Brubach, “Rites of Spring.”

  Some enchanted evening . . .”: Personal observation at Bob Mackie’s New York lingerie show, 1988.

  “I see it changing . . .”: Personal interview with Bob Mackie, 1988.

  Frustrated by slackening sales . . .: Personal interviews with staff and board members of the Intimate Apparel Council. See also Susan Faludi, “Artifice and Old Lace,” West Magazine, San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 10, 1989, p. 14.

  The committee immediately issued . . .: Press kit, “Intimate Apparel: How History Has Shaped Fashion,” Intimate Apparel Council, Summer 1989, p. 5.

  “It’s not that we aren’t . . .”: Personal interview with Karen Bromley, July 1989.

  In anticipation of the . . .: “Underwear and Nightwear,” Current Industrial Reports, 1987, U.S. Department of Commerce.

  Du Pont, the largest . . .: Personal interview with Du Pont spokeswoman Ellen Walsh, July 1989. See also “Dupont Says, ‘What A Body!’” Body Fashions/Intimate Apparel, Oct. 1987, p. 2.

  “Women have come a long way . . .”: “The Intimate Market: A Profile,” E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Intimate Apparel Marketing, 1987.

  “Bra sales are booming . . .”: Jane Ellis, “Bra at 101: Big Biz,” New York Daily News, June 15, 1989.

  Enlisting one fake . . .: Woody Hochswender, “Lounge Wear for Cocooning,” New York Times, Jan. 3, 1989, p. B4. 200 Life dedicated . . .: Claudia Dowling, “Hurrah for the Bra,” Life, June 1989, p. 88.

  In an interview later . . .: Personal interview with Claudia Dowling, July 1989.

  “The ‘Sexy’ Revolution . . .”: “The ‘Sexy’ Revolution Ignites Intimate Apparel,” BFIA, Oct. 1987, p. 1.

  “That Madonna look . . .”: Personal interview with Bob Mackie, 1988.

  Late Victorian apparel merchants . . .: Steele, Fashion and Eroticism, p. 192.

  “Whenever the romantic . . .”: Personal interview with Peter Velardi, July 1989.

  “I don’t want to sound arrogant . . .”: Personal interview with Howard Gross, July 1989. (Subsequent Gross quotes are from interview.)

  “You can put . . .”: Personal interview with George Townson, June 1989.

  A Stanford MBA . . .: Personal interview with Roy Raymond, June 1989. (Subs
equent Raymond quotes are from interview.)

  “Oh God, the panty table . . .”: Personal interview with Becky Johnson, July 1989. (Following scene and quotes are from personal interviews and observations, July 1989. See Faludi, “Artifice and Old Lace,” p. 18.) 203 203 That year, women’s annual . . .: Data from MRCA, Soft Goods Information Services.

  “Part of the professionalism . . .”: Personal interview with John Tugman, 1988.

  In 1982, Jockey’s . . .: Personal interviews with Jockey president Howard Cooley, and Don Ruland, vice president of merchandising, July 1989. (Subsequent quotes from Cooley are from personal interview.)

  Jockey’s researchers invited . . .: Personal interview with Gayle Huff,

  Jockey’s national advertising director, and Bill Herrmann, senior vice president of advertising, July 1989. The brand became . . .: Faludi, “Artifice and Old Lace,” p. 21.

  The women complained . . .”: Personal interview with Jay Taub, 1988.

  In the windows . . .: Stephanie Salter, “Short Skirts, Long Battles,” San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 20, 1989, p. A25; Jean Kilbourne, “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women,” 1987, Cambridge Documentary Films.

  In Vogue, “Hidden Delights,” Vogue, March 1987, p. 462.

  Other mainstream fashion magazines . . .: These images come from Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan. I am indebted to Ann Simonton, director of Media Watch, for sharing her collection of these images of women in advertising in the ’80s.

  By the late ’80s . . .: Linda Frye Burnham, “Rear Window,” LA Weekly, Nov. 5, 1987.

  “He lets me be . . .”: “Jordache Basics,” The New York Times Magazine, Aug. 21, 1988, p. 23.

  According to company lore . . .: “The Guess? Success,” Guess press kit, 1988.

  But soon Guess would make . . .: From Guess? promotion video.

  You should hear . . .”: Personal interview with Lisa Hickey, April 1988.

  “When I came here . . .”: Personal interview with Paul Marciano, April 1988. (Subsequent Marciano quotes are from interview.)

  In the American West . . .: The Panhandle (Los Angeles: Guess? Inc., undated).

  “So what do you think . . .”: Personal interview with Wayne Maser, May 1988. (Following scene and quotes are from personal interviews and observation at the Guess fashion shoot, May 1988.)

  “I had heard terrible . . .”: Personal interview with Rosemary McGrotha, May 1988.

  “A lot of the big models . . .”: Personal interview with Jeffrey Thurnher, May 1988.

  “The only way . . .”: Personal interview, May 1988.

  CHAPTER EIGHT. BEAUTY AND THE BACKLASH

  “There are no imperfections . . .”: Personal interview with Robert Filoso and personal observations, April 1988. (Subsequent Filoso quotes are from personal interview.) 211 This year, he is making . . .: At the same time, sculptors of male mannequins were producing more macho models. Pucci Manikins, for example, was elevating its male dummies’ height from six feet to six-two and inflating forty-inch chests to forty-two-inch pectorals. See Sam Allis, “What Do Men Really Want?” Time, Special issue, Fall 1990, p. 80.

  “It seems like . . .”: Personal interview with Laurie Rothey, April 1988.

  “Is your face paying . . .”: Ad for Nivea Visage, 1988.

  “The impact of work stress . . .”: Jeanne M. Toal, “Stress and the Single Girl,” Mademoiselle, Sept. 1987, p. 293.

  This message was barely . . .: Kinnard, Antifeminism, pp. 307, 20.

  In 1981, Revlon’s . . .: “Charlie’s Back,” Barron’s, May 13, 1985, p. 34.

  Beauty became medicalized . . .: A medically oriented and physically punishing beauty standard is another backlash hallmark. Late Victorian doctors conducted the first “face skinning” operations and breast enlargements—called “breast piercing” because they inserted a metal ring to irritate and swell the flesh. In the ’30s, face-lifts were popularized; in the “feminine mystique” era, silicone injections were introduced and intensively promoted. See Rosen, Popcorn Venus, p. 181; Maggie Angeloglou, A History of Makeup (London: The Macmillan Co., 1970) p. 103.

  (One doctor even. . .): Ann Louise Bardach, “The Dark Side of Cosmetic Surgery,” The Good Health Magazine, New York Times, April 17, 1988, p. 24.

  Hospitals facing . . .: By 1988, hospital weight-loss programs were generating $5.5 billion a year and diet clinics $10 billion—not bad for an industry with a 95 percent failure rate. See Molly O’Neill, “Dieters, Craving Balance, Are Battling Fears of Food,” New York Times, April 1, 1990, p. 1.

  Historically, the backlash . . .: See, for example, Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin de Siecle Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) pp. 25–29.

  During the late Victorian . . .: Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity, p. 29; Banner, American Beauty, p. 41. The wasting-away look . . .: Banner, American Beauty, p. 47; Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Fasting Girls: The Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988) pp. 101–140.

  In times of backlash . . .: This was an equation John Ruskin made explicit in his 1864 lecture on female beauty, “Of Queens’ Gardens”: “What the woman is to be within her gates, as the centre of order, the balm of distress, and the mirror of beauty; that she is also to be without her gates, where order is more difficult, distress more imminent, loveliness more rare.” See Banner, American Beauty, p. 12; Steele, Fashion and Eroticism, pp. 104–105.

  In the late 1910s and . . .: Banner, American Beauty, p. 277; Angeloglou, History of Makeup, pp. 109, 116–17, 119.

  Again, during World War II . . .: See, for example, “The Changing Face of the American Beauty,” McCall’s, April 1976, p. 174.

  Harper’s Bazaar described . . .: Tina Sutton and Louise Tutelian, “Play It Again, Roz,” Savvy, April 1985, p. 60.

  With the war over, however, . . .: Angeloglou, History of Makeup, p. 131; Weibel, Mirror Mirror, p. 161.

  Under the ’80s backlash, the pattern . . .: See, for example, “Action Beauty,” Mademoiselle, April 1979. The beauty magazines of the ’70s are filled with editorial and advertising tributes to athletic, tanned, and all-natural looks.

  In the winter of 1973 . . .: Personal interview with Revlon executive vice president Lawrence Wechsler, 1989.

  (It actually wasn’t. . .): Angeloglou, History of Makeup, p. 126.

  The Revlon team code-named . . .: Personal interview with Lawrence Wechsler, 1989.

  “Charlie symbolized . . .”: Ibid. (Subsequent Wechsler quotes are from interview.)

  Suddenly in 1982 . . .: Philip H. Dougherty, “Defining ‘A Charlie’ for Revlon,” New York Times, Nov. 28, 1986, p. D7.

  The new campaign, however, . . .: Ibid.

  In the past few years . . .”: “Light Scents with Strong Appeal,” Glamour, Sept. 1987, p. 386.

  A host of ’80s perfume makers . . .: Ronald Alsop, “Firms Push ‘Aroma Therapy’ to Treat Flat Fragrance Sales,” The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 1986, p. 31.

  In a new round . . .: At the same time, men’s colognes went macho, as fragrance makers issued such new offerings as “Boss” and “Hero,” the latter endorsed by baseball hero Hank Aaron. See Woody Hochswender, “Men’s Fragrance: The Scent of Money Has Attracted a Striking Number of New Products,” New York Times, Oct. 4, 1988.

  In the first half . . .: Lisa Belkin, “Cosmetics Go on Gold Standard,” New York Times, Oct. 11, 1986, p. 52; “Selling Scents Gets Tougher,” Retailing: A Special Report, The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 1987, p. 1.

  To promote Passion . . .: Kathleen A. Hughes, “Perfume Firms Go All Out in Effort to Lure Buyers,” The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 10, 1987, p. 29.

  You’re a wholesome . . .”: Jean Kilbourne, “Still Killing Us Softly,” 1987, Cambridge Documentary Films.

  The flood of . . .: Mark Honigsbaum, “Dollars and Scents,” This World, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 16, 1988, p. 9.

  At Avon . . .: Walecia Konrad, �
��The Problems at Avon Are More Than Skin Deep,” Business Week, June 20, 1988, p. 49; Denise M. Topolnicki, “Avon’s Corporate Makeover,” Working Woman, Feb. 1988, p. 57.

  By appealing to . . .: Topolnicki, “Corporate Makeover,” p. 59.

  As a feature headline . . .: Cynthia Robins, “The Makeup Message for Summer: Be Seen But Not Heard,” San Francisco Examiner, July 31, 1986, p. E5.

  Mademoiselle’s cosmetics . . .: “Now You’re Chic. . . Now You’re Cheap—Do Not Cross That Fine (Beauty) Line,” Mademoiselle, April 1988, p. 230. 219 Vogue placed . . .: “The Impact of a New Year. . . And a Difference in Makeup,”

  Vogue, Jan. 1987, p. 140. 219 The heaviest users . . .: Laura Sachar, “Forecast: Industry Analysis—Cosmetics,” Financial World, Jan. 5, 1988, p. 21; Joseph Weber, “Why Noxell Is Touching Up Its Latest Creation,” Business Week, July 11, 1988, p. 92.

  The makeup companies’ . . .: “Cosmetics Shows Its Age,” Financial World, May 29-June 11, 1985, p. 87.

  The labels of dozens . . .: Biotherm’s antiwrinkle cream claimed to use “human placental protein.” Barbara Kallen, “Facing Facts,” Forbes, May 19, 1986, p. 178.

  The ad agency that created Oil of . . .: Personal interview with Jane Eastman of Wells Rich Greene, 1988; Kathleen Deveny and Alecia Swasy, “In Cosmetics, Marketing Cultures Clash,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 30, 1989, p. B1.

  Chanel ads even . . .: Ronald Alsop, “Chanel Plans to Run Ads in Magazines with Less Cachet,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 27, 1988, p. 30.

  By 1985, a cosmetics trade . . .: Cynthia Robins, “The Quest for Flawless Skin,” San Francisco Examiner, July 27, 1986, p. A19.

  By 1986, skin-cream . . .: Ibid.

  The claims made on . . .: Melinda Beck, “Peddling Youth Over the Counter,” Newsweek, March 5, 1990, p. 50. 221 Skin-care companies cashed in . . .: Cynthia Robins, “Blocking the Sun’s Rays,”

  San Francisco Examiner, July 30, 1986, p. E4.

  A century earlier . . .: “The Pale Pursuit,” Ms., Sept. 1987, p. 52

  Retin-A, however . . .: Kathy Holub, “Does Retin-A Really Work?” West Magazine, San Jose Mercury News, May 15, 1988, p. 14; Marilyn Chase, “Looking for Miracles, Young and Old Flock to Purchase Retin-A,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12, 1988, p. 1; Beck, “Peddling Youth,” pp. 50-51.