Welcome to the 5th edition of "the flappers fashion: a secret magazine for modern woman", an innovative journal that liberates the voice of women, my name is Caroline Emington, for my new readers and I aim to make fashion fair and equal, regardless of gender.
Fashion has only reinforced our oppression, indeed long nights alone waiting for my husband led me to read archives and books of all kinds.
This one was developed in the perfect ideal of the woman through the male gaze, beauty is evolving for sure but this one remains dictated by male expectations.
I wish that fashion is our power, our weapon, that it accompanies us in our challenges and our wildest achievements.
Fashion, which until now has been a factor of social dissociation, can free us, it can make us evolve.
Dear readers, what do you think the figure of the 'androgynous' or simply modern woman could be, because she is so far ahead of her time in history?
Is it relevant to associate the writer George Sand with this term?
What we can say is that she is a fighting and triumphant public woman in this still so rigid century.
Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin de Francueil, by marriage Baroness Dudevant, after separating from her husband, chose a male pseudonym - George Sand - because she knew that the writings of female authors were often denigrated in advance.
This French novelist, playwright, letter-writer, literary critic and journalist committed to politics and social progress was born in Paris on 1 July 1804 and died at the Château de Nohant-Vicle on 8 June 1876.
Dear favourite readers, my imagination takes me to extreme thoughts and I imagine the continuation of the incredible period we are living in... And this leads me to ask the question: will women's and men's fashions always be differentiated, or will there one day be what you might call a unisex fashion? I begin to believe, for example, in a slightly rough garment, a pair of working man's trousers made of such a solid material, for example from the conquest of the West of the United States by our migrants (cowboys) and which, little by little, by its resistance, its capacity to become more beautiful as it wears, patinates, will become like a standard of youth, of freedom - girls and boys - wearing the same garment without asking the question of their gender...!
She is one of the most prolific writers, with more than 70 novels to her credit and 50 volumes of various works including short stories, tales, plays and political texts. Like her great-grandmother, Louise Dupin, whom she admired, George Sand defended women, advocated passion, criticised marriage and fought against the prejudices of a conservative society.
This progressive woman caused a scandal with her turbulent love life and also with her clearly masculine dress, for which she set the fashion, as well as with the male pseudonym she adopted in 1829, for which she also set the fashion.
Was it not the thirst for intellectual and mental freedom that led her to reach out to the male world, whose freedom of life was obvious?
She is courageous because she dares to assert herself in this century where only the position of the man is law. For this, her intelligence and cunning will help her to free herself from the marital yoke.
Let us remember that at the beginning of our 20th century, women who wore bifurcated clothing outside the gym risked public censure. They are brave and fighting to defend a new way of women's fashion. We know that women have been wearing baggy trousers, almost skirts, for sports activities since the late 19th century. What is curiously called 'bifurcated' clothing therefore escapes condemnation only because it is functional, practical and not because it is a new and assumed fashion.
I'm probably dreaming, but it will happen. And then finally, perhaps one day, our descendants will experience the definitive abolition of gender, where men will wear dresses and togas, as in ancient Greece, where total eclecticism will be the order of the day, where everyone will dress in whatever they want, without any diktat or censorship, where fashion will be so unbridled that there will be no more gender... and then, my God, no more fashion! Do you think this will happen?
Loose-fitting trousers of this type are often referred to as 'bloomers', after Amelia Bloomer, the leader of a controversial attempt to popularise bifurcated clothing as everyday clothing for women in the early 1850s.
I'm going to tell you about a woman who I think is a hero of our society because she tackled conservatism and taboos. Amelia Bloomer was born on 27 May 1818 in Homer, New York, and died on 30 December 1894 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. A women's rights activist, she was a so-called suffragette, i.e. an activist for the acceptance of women's right to vote. At the same time, she is also known for her work in the temperance movement, whose mission is to oppose the excessive consumption of alcohol, which is often the cause of domestic violence and which absorbs a substantial part of the income of low-income families. However, it was because of her fight for dress reform that Amelia Bloomer became famous for advocating a 'short skirt and Turkish trousers ensemble', which was intended to allow an ease of movement that the long dresses of the time did not. Worn for activities such as cycling, cricket, light gymnastics and swimming, the baggy trousers allowed great freedom of movement, while concealing the contours of the leg and lower body. And yet, how much this initiative is mocked and vilified in the newspapers when it is presented! It is not easy to change mentalities...
Weary of her husband, who is not very mean, liberal, but heavy-handed and a bit venal, she methodically organizes their separation: first, by moving to Paris for six months a year; then, when Casimir, her husband, becomes unbearable, by resorting to a lawsuit to obtain a legal separation: "free at last!
But how can you be free to move around in 19th-century Paris if you're a woman? George Sand wears trousers and a jacket and smokes a cigar, taking on the appearance of a man, which is the sine qua non for entering theatres freely or frequenting the fine minds of her Berrichon circle... It was not to shock the bourgeoisie that she fashioned an androgynous image, but to impose herself in the "desert of men". As for her name, it is a matter of circumstance. Her first work of fiction was a four-handed book, "Rose et Blanche", written with her lover Jules Sandeau under the pseudonym J. Sand. For her real first novel, "Indiana", published in 1832, the publisher wanted to build on the duo's small success. It was therefore decided to keep Sand's name, but to change her first name to George, without the "s".
We evoked in a preceding article the "bifurcated" skirt which is the mark of a clothing which changes of kind. Let us remember that it is often the uses and the necessities which create mutations and radical and quite necessary evolutions!
However, apart from the question of practicality, functionality and comfort, for women trousers are at the same time a form of forbidden symbol, a reserved totem which must be overturned!
Let us remember, dear reader friends, Elsa Schiaparelli! She was born on 10 September 1890 in Rome. This fashion designer, who came from the Italian aristocracy, created the Schiaparelli company, which she currently runs. Deliberately provocative and considered avant-garde, she is famous for the use of surrealism in her work, bold colours such as her "shocking pink", and the unconventional and eccentric use of clothing. She was responsible for the beginnings of what some are beginning to call "sportswear".
In the 1920s, sports activities were booming among the wealthy. Elsa Schiaparelli therefore realised that fashion had to adapt and admirably reconciled chic and sport, which earned her real recognition in the profession. It is worth noting that she just created the culotte skirt! I wear one myself and believe me, dear readers, it is very elegant and so practical! The great Elsa Schiaparelli cultivates opposites and knows how to play with extremes, because she possesses the art of provocation that also characterises the great designers.
Bifurcated skirt:
https://genealogylady.net/2015/10/18/fashion-moments-bifurcated-skirt/
Jodhpurs:
https://www.martelnyc.com/vintage-style/jodhpurs-a-history.html
George Sand:
https://www.pays-george-sand.com/decouvrir/terre-dinspiration/george-sand/
Paul Poiret:
https://blog.bibliotheque.inha.fr/fr/posts/paul-poiret.html
Elsa Schiaparelli:
Coco Chanel:
https://www.lesechos.fr/1999/10/coco-chanel-une-liberatrice-de-la-femme-1049398
This leads us to recall that another type of 'bifurcated' garment entered the fashion vocabulary by being accepted primarily as riding apparel, namely Jodhpurs, whose origin is the town of the same name. This garment, which is intended to give comfort to riders, naturally interested women and became popular among female riders in the early 20th century.
But you will agree that it is not only women who have tried to shake up received ideas in fashion, to "move the lines"! Let's remember Paul Poiret, for example, who is a great French couturier and perfumer born in Paris on 20 April 1879. Known for his audacity, he is considered a precursor of the Art Deco style. He founded the fashion house that bears his name in 1903. If his fashion house did not survive, which I regret because this man was an innovator, we can say that he initiated the liberation of women's bodies in their clothes. He proposed an alternative to the corset, which is probably one of the cruelest garments that ever existed. This accessory was imposed on women (who unfortunately accepted it) in the 18th century to accentuate the figure - in force -. Let us remember that it caused some women of the time to faint, unable to breathe normally! It is incredible to see in some photos how the waist is reduced... This is a clear example of how society, with its control, can create an alienation of the woman's body and also affect her mind in its inability to rebel. Paul Poiret's models inspired by the Orient and the "Directoire" style of the French period corresponding to the first republic (1795-1799) drew the image of the so-called "Art Deco" period but did not survive the post-war period.
Indeed, it was Gabrielle Chanel, known as "Coco Chanel", a fashion designer, milliner and great French couturier, born on August 19, 1883 in Saumur, who surpassed Paul Poiret and knew how to bring together with subtlety and modernity the standards of masculine style with feminine fashion. The use of certain fabrics usually reserved for men's clothing, the simplicity and functionality of the cuts, the shortening of dresses and skirts, are all artistic and practical gestures that she has the talent to install in the current of the "Roaring Twenties" that we are currently experiencing. In addition to progress in the use of more comfortable fabrics adapted to new social needs, she created, for example, the "little black dress" which became a new world standard like the Ford T! Her skirt suit with two pockets is a model of efficiency and simplicity directly borrowed from men's suits. If her collections were a revolution, they were aimed at a wealthy clientele. I imagine that, if this talented and revolutionary former milliner continues in this way, she will forever mark the fashion of the beginning of this century, liberating women while preserving and celebrating their immortal femininity...
Most female riders rode in the saddle 'en amazone' and wore riding clothes consisting of a voluminous skirt and a male-inspired jacket. Jodhpurs allow women to ride astride the horse and have virtually eliminated visual differences between male and female riders. Unisex clothing thus began for sporting or practical reasons but, beyond this excuse, it was also the starting point for women to escape censorship and repression.