Over the weekend I had the pleasure
of seeing the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum’s exhibit Fashioning the New Woman, 1890-1925. It was an excellent exhibit which both
showcased their amazing collection of clothing and talked about the changing
role of women in the opening years of the 20th Century. If you have a spare weekend to visit
Washington DC between now and the end of August, I highly recommend checking it
out. Even if you can’t make it, you can
still enjoy my send-up of the essential piece of early 20th Century
fashion: the shirtwaist.
Although
the name sounds weird today, at the start of the 20th Century,
everyone and their mother knew what one was and probably owned more than quite
a few. The shirtwaist is simply a woman’s
blouse cut like a man’s that is to say with a collar and buttons down the
front. The shirtwaists came in all
colors and patterns and the more expensive kinds often had embellishments like
ruffles or embroidery. Worn with skirts,
they were an indispensable part of every woman’s wardrobe.
Because
of its simplicity and its resemblance to men’s shirts, the shirtwaist and plain
skirt combination became the uniform of female workers throughout the
country. Increasingly throughout the
1890s and into the early 20th Century women were entering the
workforce as never before. Poorer
immigrant women were wearing shirtwaists even as they sat sewing them in New
York City sweatshops. Locally, women
wore them to work at the Elmira telephone exchange, to the stores where they
worked as shop clerks and to classes at Elmira College. Because of their association with working
women, shirtwaists were often heralded as the uniform of the New Women, an
active woman of independent means.
Elmira Telephone exchange, 1896 |
Sheehan, Dean & Co. employees, ca. 1900 |
Could the shirtwaist have helped the "new woman" win the right to vote in 1920?
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