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Amy T Peterson, Valerie Hewitt, Heather Vaughan, et al

Page 17

by The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through American History 1900 to the Present (pdf)


  appropriate. Still, many women rode their bikes while wearing even the

  ‘‘S-bend’’ corset.

  In 1895, bowling became standardized. Before that time, every com-

  munity developed different rules. When the rules became standardized,

  they also included rules for women’s play. Many women learned to enjoy

  the sport.

  The 1910s

  95

  Americans enjoyed other sports during this period. Tennis and golf

  achieved popularity and were played by both men and women. Each sport

  required a different kind of outfit. Few sports could be played by a woman

  wearing a corset or bustle.

  Although these sports did not emancipate women as the bicycle did,

  these activities had one thing in common: the women who engaged in

  these sports began to complain about their clothes, insisting that ‘ old-

  fashioned’ fashion was inhibiting their lifestyles. Not everyone would

  engage in travel or sports, but enough women did that fashion started to

  change. The great fashion houses could not afford to ignore the growing

  numbers of women who wanted clothes that fit their new lifestyles.

  Travel was another popular leisure activity. Young wealthy Americans fre-

  quently went on a European tour for their honeymoons or before they started

  working. Europe was seen as the center of culture despite the vast artistic tal-

  ent in the United States and the American museums filled with fine art.

  The age of westward expansion had come to a close, and rail lines

  linked the east coast and midwest to the western half of the United

  States. Train travel tended to be dirty, loud, and uncomfortable, but it was

  the fastest way to get around the United States.

  In the first decade of the century, only the wealthy could afford auto-

  mobiles. The general public saw them more as expensive toys and nuisan-

  ces than a mode of transportation. They would frequently break down,

  and the owner would need to acquire the skills to fix it or bring along a

  mechanic for the ride. The open cabin and lack of a windshield on the

  automobile resulted in dust-covered drivers and passengers. To protect

  themselves, motorists would wear a long coat called a duster, gloves, gog-

  gles, and a hat.

  Although alcohol was the drug of choice during the 1900s, the tem-

  perance movement sought to combat it. Reformers saw alcohol as a coun-

  teragent to family values. Opium was another drug under scrutiny during

  this period. It was associated with Chinese immigrants, some of whom

  imported the drug. Opium dens were dark, hazy rooms where opium

  users stayed while they were on the drug. The proliferation of opium use

  led to the outlaw of its importation in 1909.

  T H E

  1910S

  WWI had a tremendous impact on the daily life of many Americans. Many

  men joined the war effort in Europe. After the United States declared war

  96

  DAILY LIFE

  on Germany, most communities had several young men who enlisted in the

  war effort. As Europeans had discovered, someone had to keep the country

  going to support the troops and create the weapons and materials that the

  troops needed. For the first time, American women in large numbers

  became employed in a variety of jobs, most of which had been done

  by men.

  Women drove automobiles and worked in factories, and they joined

  military-like units that provided support to the military troops. They held

  jobs in large numbers and it was respectable. Their clothes, however, had

  to change. Nurses could not help the wounded and sick while wearing

  hobble skirts or bustles. Women who worked with machinery could not

  wear ornate dresses. Women wore work clothes that were strictly utilitar-

  ian. Corsets were still required for many clothes, but, instead of restricting

  motion, they were supposed to help support the body. Some women

  actually wore pants, because the job required them. Many wore a form of

  culottes because they made the work easier. Many wore dresses that

  resembled military uniforms. Skirts, which had slowly become shorter to

  accommodate bicycles and other sports, became even shorter. Women in

  the workforce needed and demanded clothes that were comfortable.

  Many of the superfluous fashions of past generations disappeared.

  Hats with lots of feathers and jewels, dresses of silk and velvet, and skirts

  with yards and yards of material were seen as unpatriotic. The material

  was needed for uniforms and bandages for the soldiers. People were

  encouraged to buy war bonds rather than expensive dresses and jewelry.

  Flaunting wealth by wearing expensive clothing was considered inappro-

  priate considering the many families who had family members die in

  the war.

  After the war, many women wanted to return to the simpler lives they

  had before the war. Many could not because their soldiers did not return

  or were so wounded that they could not get good jobs. Many women were

  thus forced to retain their jobs and become the support of their families.

  Many women found that they did not want to return to the restrictive

  lifestyles they had before the war. This caused much tension across the

  country as men saw women competing for the same jobs. It also blurred

  the lines between home life and work life.

  Women had achieved a level of independence; they had jobs to do and

  those jobs helped the Allies win the war. Many women, especially those

  in the middle classes, realized that they could survive on their own with-

  out a man to make decisions for them. Women did not want to follow

  the lives their mothers and grandmothers led, nor did they want their

  fashions.

  The 1910s

  97

  By the end of WWI, women had the right to vote, which brought

  social issues into the political limelight. Birth control became a volatile

  issue. Margaret Sanger tried to educate women about birth control, which

  spurred critical backlash from conservatives. Temperance groups gained

  momentum. Their work against alcohol would see fruition during Prohi-

  bition in the next decade.

  The isolation of rural life evaporated as new forms of communication

  linked rural residents to cities and the outside world. Their lives changed

  in other ways as well. They were able to purchase the same products as

  urbanites by ordering from the Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward

  catalogs. Motorized machinery reduced much of the backbreaking labor

  and need to hire additional workers or purchase draft animals. Prices for

  crops went up during the war, so farmers experienced profitable harvests.

  Cities continued to grow as immigrants settled there. Most ethnic

  groups settled in distinct ethnic neighborhoods. With their ethnic group,

  they built social structures, such as houses of worship, stores, aid societies,

  unions, theater groups, and native language newspapers. The immigrants’

  sons and daughters often broke away from their parents’ ethnic life and

  adopted a more homogenous American lifestyle.

  In addition to the war, new technologies influenced daily life in the

  1910s. The electric light bulb, a seemin
gly innocuous item, could be said

  to have changed the daily life of the world. The light bulb would allow

  people to extend their lives beyond the daylight hours. It was cleaner and

  safer than gas and candles. As more people wanted to have their houses

  wired for light, people began to consider other things that could be done

  with electricity. Once people had their homes wired for light, it was sim-

  ple to find other uses for the electricity.

  One such item was the phonograph. This invention allowed music

  and voice to be reproduced and played back repeatedly. People who could

  afford to have several phonograph disks would be able to entertain them-

  selves and their friends at home. A radio, although not in widespread use

  in the early twentieth century, was available in some large urban areas.

  People could turn on their radios and get a variety of news and entertain-

  ment items without leaving their homes.

  Large cities had subways and electric trolleys, which brought people to

  large areas such as parks to listen to bands and other forms of entertain-

  ment. Whereas some people would continue to go to the theater and see

  plays, others would visit vaudeville houses and be entertained by music such

  as Scott Joplin’s ragtime music. Various comedy and dramatic acts would

  also be seen on the vaudeville stage. Life and entertainment became more

  casual.

  98

  DAILY LIFE

  Irene and Vernon Castle. Irene and Ver-

  non Castle were a dynamic husband

  and wife ballroom dancing duo, who

  helped popularize modern dancing. The

  couple debuted in New York in 1912

  performing ragtime dances such as the

  ‘‘turkey trot’ and ‘‘grizzly bear.’’ Their

  popularity was immediate, and they

  were soon in demand in stage produc-

  tions, vaudeville, and motion pictures.

  They opened a dancing school, Cas-

  tle House, in New York and taught

  local socialites modern dancing. Their

  dance lessons were often secured by pri-

  vate clients, and they commanded high

  prices. They are attributed with refining

  and popularizing the fox trot. They

  appeared in the newsreel Social and The-

  atrical Dancing in 1914 and wrote the

  book Modern Dancing, which became a

  bestseller. Although they appeared in

  numerous movies, their best success was

  their performance in Irving Berlin’s first

  musical, Watch Your Step, in 1914.

  Irene and Vernon Castle demonstrating

  Irene became a fashion icon during

  dance. [Library of Congress]

  the 1910s. She bobbed her hair several

  years before it was common. She wore

  died during WWI training maneuvers in

  shorter skirts and wore dresses designed

  1918, but Irene continued to appear in

  by Lucille or herself. In magazines, she

  films. In 1939, their story was made into

  was held up as a model of the fashiona-

  the movie The Story of Vernon and Irene

  ble woman, with the grace to successfully

  Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger

  carry any style. Vernon, who was a pilot,

  Rogers.

  SOCIAL OCCASIONS

  Women continued to aspire to marriage, and society continued to expect

  them to remain devoted wives to their dominant husbands. The war had

  changed this dynamic, and many women began to spend time marching for

  The 1910s

  99

  the right to vote, participating in social organizations, and taking advantage

  of educational lectures. The Victorian ideals of womanhood that had

  reigned since the middle of the nineteenth century finally began to erode.

  Americans continued to enjoy society balls and introducing their

  daughters to society through debutante balls. The debutantes typically

  ‘ came out’ in groups of several girls. In this respect, upper-class society

  separated itself from middle- and lower-class societies, which did not have

  the means to participate or host these types of soirees.

  HEALTH AND LEISURE

  Life expectancy had dramatically increased since 1900, when Americans could

  expect to live an average of forty-seven years. By 1919, their life expectancy

  had increased to fifty-five years. The year 1918 was an exception to this trend,

  when life expectancy dropped to thirty-nine years (U.S. Census Bureau 2001).

  This was a result of a widespread flu pandemic known as the Spanish flu,

  which started in the United States and traveled around the globe. At least

  50 million people died of it because of its extremely high infection rate.

  The athletic trend that began in the first decade of the 1900s continued

  in the 1910s. What was remarkable about these sports is that women would

  play them, even while wearing some of the confining clothes that fashion

  dictated. In time, fashion followed need and clothes were developed that

  gave a woman more freedom of movement. Although these clothes might

  have been restrictive by today’s standards, they did indicate a subtle change

  in the apparel of women and men. A subtle change in one outfit was not

  necessarily a major trend, but, taken together, younger women and girls

  began to expect that their clothes would fit their lifestyles. As these young

  women grew to adulthood, they refused to be confined by their clothes as

  their mothers and grandmothers had been. Skirts became somewhat shorter

  around 1910, allowing a woman to show her ankles. Part of this trend was

  to allow a woman more freedom when she practiced her favorite sport.

  For the extremely rich and the growing middle class, travel was a pop-

  ular leisure activity. One of the favorite modes of travel was by ship.

  Travel across the oceans took time, which allowed the passengers to bring

  their personal items and live life onboard ship almost as they lived it on

  land. Everyone knew there was a chance that a ship would sink, but that

  did not seem to be a major concern for most people. To some degree, this

  would change on April 10, 1912.

  It was on this date that the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on

  her maiden voyage to New York. At that time, she was the largest and most

  luxurious ship ever built. At 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912, she struck an

  100

  DAILY LIFE

  iceberg about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada. Less than three hours

  later, the Titanic plunged to the bottom of the sea, taking more than 1,500

  people with her (Barczewski 2004, 71). Only a fraction of her passengers

  were saved. The world was stunned to learn of the fate of the unsinkable

  Titanic. It carried some of the richest, most powerful industrialists of her

  day. Together, their personal fortunes were worth $600 million in 1912

  money. In addition to wealthy and the middle-class passengers, she carried

  poor emigrants from Europe and the Middle East seeking economic and

  social freedom in the New World.

  The sinking of the Titanic was a shock to many people. Ships had

  sunk before, but the advancements in communication meant that much of

  the world knew about the tragedy wit
hin days after it happened. Many

  people delayed any nonessential ship travel out of concern that they might

  meet the same fate. Before ship travel could regain the prestige and popu-

  larity it had held before the Titanic, war in Europe was declared. When

  the German U-boat sank the passenger ship Lusitania, fewer people

  wanted to travel by ship. Many people chose to travel by rail, or they

  would take an adventurous ride in the increasingly popular automobile.

  The use of the assembly line meant that Henry Ford could produce

  automobiles more cheaply and quickly. In 1905, there were 77,000 regis-

  tered automobiles in the country. By 1920, there were more than 8 million

  (Lief 1951, 23). The automobile had gone from a plaything for the rich to

  an everyday mode of transportation for the American masses.

  Although Americans continued to attend the theater and symphony, a

  new art form, movies, had captured their imagination. Increasingly, mov-

  ies became a leisure activity of choice. Americans were also fond of going

  to clubs to dance and listening to popular music.

  Before 1910, marijuana had been used for medicinal purposes. In 1910,

  as many Mexicans immigrated to the United States after the Mexican revo-

  lution, they popularized the recreational use of marijuana. Beginning in

  1906, states began to regulate its use. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Act

  regulated and taxed opiates including opium and cocaine. After WWI, the

  temperance movement was able to leverage anti-German sentiment to pass

  the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which established Prohibition.

  T H E

  1920S

  The 1920s are often referred to as the ‘‘roaring twenties’’ in reference to

  the parties and socialization that occurred during the decade. Although

  The 1920s

  101

  the period was dominated by optimism, there were troubling trends. Pro-

  hibition and violent crime marred the rosy ideal of the carefree twenties.

  Prohibition went into effect in 1920. It outlawed the manufacturing

  and sale of alcoholic beverage. Temperance leaders had been fighting alco-

  hol since the nineteenth century, and the Eighteenth Amendment that cre-

  ated Prohibition was their victory. Prohibition divided the nation. Rural

  America saw drinking as an urban problem and generally complied with

  the new law. ‘ Wets,’’ those who wanted Prohibition to end, often lived in

 

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