Fashion Design Commons^™

Transatlantic Connections: Reconsidering The Outcomes Of The Arts And Crafts Movement Through The Women's Experience, Britain And The United States, 1860-1920, Tiffany B. Beasley

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

The British Arts and Crafts movement (1860-1914) was a call for the return to artisan craftsmanship as a response to mass-production driven by the Industrial Revolution (1760-1830). Historically, the movement has been viewed as a socialist concept developed by men. However, in 1979, a feminist intervention in women's history challenged this masculinist perspective. As the movement spread to the United States (1870-1920), first to New England and then to the South in New Orleans, it also expanded into concepts that moved beyond craftsmanship and into women's issues, such as education, suffrage, and professional work opportunities. It is now evident that …

Peculiar And Proper Habits: The Use And Production Of Academic Dress In Colonial, Revolutionary, And Federal Philadelphia, Nicholas Heavens

Transactions of the Burgon Society

This is a study of the adoption and use of academic dress at the University of Pennsylvania and its predecessor institutions, the College of Philadelphia and University of the State of Pennsylvania from approximately 1750–1830. Despite early interest of the College’s founder, Benjamin Franklin, to use academic dress to monitor student activities outside college bounds, there was soon contentious debate between the institution’s founding senior academics about whether academic dress should be used at all. By sheer force of will of its leading proponent, academic dress came into use at public ceremonies. These public ceremonies became a model for public …

Taylor, Carrie (Burnam), 1855-1917 (Sc 3639), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3639. Postcard advertising the spring opening, 10 February 1915, of the Mrs. A. H. Taylor Company, Bowling Green, Kentucky, inviting patrons to inspect fabrics and designs and offering samples by mail.

Sewing And Dressmaking In Martha Mcmillan's Day (1891), Elizabeth G. Allen

Martha McMillan Research Papers

This paper describes the process of sewing and dressmaking in America from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s and provides historical context for Martha McMillan's discussion of sewing and dressmaking in her 1891 journal.

“Any Lady Can Now Learn To Cut Perfect Fitting Dresses”: The Role Of Pattern Drafting Systems In The Production Of Women’S Dress, 1880–1900, Alyssa Smith

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research conveys findings from my MA thesis research focused on pattern drafting systems for women’s garments developed between 1880 and 1900. The study builds on the seminal work of Claudia Kidwell, who divided these systems into three categories: proportional, hybrid, and direct measure. To date, the study of this textile technology and how it positioned women and sewing in both domestic and professional spheres has received little scholarly attention, but pattern drafting technology transformed the possibilities for pattern creation and proportionate measurements, especially for home sewers. It also aided in the paper pattern and ready-made clothing industries. This research, …

The Making Of Everyday Hollywood: 1930s Film Influence On Everyday Women’S Fashion In Nebraska, Anna Naomi Kuhlman

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research examines the influence of film fashions on middle-class, Nebraskan women’s dress during the Great Depression (1932-1940). The Great Depression challenged the middle class: while standards of living remained high, the economic means to achieve those standards diminished. Despite the crisis, women strove to keep up with current fashion trends. While previous literature has examined how Hollywood directly affected trends and styles of the 1930s in major American metropolitan contexts, the manifestation of trends in the dress of middle to lower socio-economic classes in Middle America remains under-examined. Against the backdrop of Depression-era hardships specific to Nebraska’s agricultural economy, …

Fashioning The Flapper: Clothing As A Catalyst For Social Change In 1920s America, Julia Wolffe

Honors Program Theses

Fashion has been a catalyst for social change throughout human history. Fashion in 1920s America in particular reflects society's rapidly evolving attitudes towards gender and race. Beginning with how corsetry heavily restricted women for nearly four hundred years up until the twentieth century, this thesis explores how clothing has acted as a tool for societal progression following World War I and Women's Suffrage and during the Jazz Age and The Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, this thesis examines how the influence of jazz music and dance that originated from Black American communities led to the creation of the flapper evening dress. The …

Sins Against Our Soles: The Morality And Hygiene Of Nineteenth-Century Women's Shoes, Nicole Rudolph

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Our understanding of the Victorian woman has long centered around the idea of the “Angel in the House,” made famous by Coventry Patmore’s 1854 poem. This mythical ideal to which a middle-class woman should endeavor can be found in endless numbers of nineteenth-century texts and has become an oft-referenced concept in modern historiography. Representations of the attributes of the ideal woman circulated widely in society, pictured in etiquette books, medical journals, and especially advertisements. They were an ever-present reminder to women of the social norms governing their roles and life trajectories. As consumers, women were responsible for the presentation of …

The Classical Versus The Grotesque Body In Edith Wharton's Fiction, Joshua T. Temples

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In her landmark works The House of Mirth (1905), The Custom of the Country (1913), and The Age of Innocence (1920), Edith Wharton responds to earlier depictions of the classical, pure Victorian and Edwardian woman. Wharton's "inconvenient" women overturn popular stereotypes. Subsequently, they are barred from their social groups, but they are independent, unlike the complicit and obedient women of the classical body, most of whom ascribe to the trope of the "Angel in the House." The grotesque seeks to undercut the unrealistic expectations enforced by the classical through its embodiment of progression and humanity, and Wharton is drawn to …

Garrison, Kathryn (Topmiller), 1917-2012 (Sc 3117), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3117. Two letters of Kathryn Garrison, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to her godchild “Betsy,” regarding hats made by Wilhelmina Howard, a Bowling Green milliner who was Betsy’s grandmother and Kathryn’s cousin.

Dress And Womanhood Of Ancient Rome, Eliza Burbano

Honors Theses

Fashion transcends its own role of imagery, as it becomes the medium through which individuals express their place in society. Fashion history would not consider the ancient world as part of the history of the discipline. Nevertheless, the function of dress in ancient cultures like that of Rome has definitely helped shape social hierarchies that are still present today. Clothing structured Roman society deeply, just as class, race, and sexuality did. Scholar Kelly Olson (2002) defines the function of clothing as part of a sign system. This study argues that dress in ancient Rome goes beyond this idea, in that …

Evolution Of Fashion: Clothing Of Upper Class American Women From 1865 To 1920, Lacey Johnson

Honors Theses

Changing economic, political and social pressures throughout history have impacted the way human beings live their daily lives. One of the many basic areas affected by these historical changes is the area of the wardrobe. The way a person dresses has traditionally shown his or her social status, occupation, and even political views. Political and social pressure particularly influence the clothing styles favored by women. In what way, however, does the average wardrobe reflect the cultural considerations of the time, and what can the prevailing fashions of bygone eras reveal about the pressures of those days? Specifically, what do the …

Mary Todd Lincoln Exhibition, Virginia Heaven

Virginia Heaven

Period dress consultant.

Mirror Of Culture: The Study Of A Nineteenth-Century Sewing Diary, Elizabeth M. Dellabadia

Senior Honors Projects

Hidden inside the library of the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts is wonderful resource for the study of late nineteenth-century America. When Ann Eliza Cunningham was middle aged, she compiled a sewing diary that included scraps of material from dresses she wore or China trade fabrics brought home by her father. Ann Eliza not only included assorted swatches; but she associated the fabrics with different events in her life. She includes swatches from dresses she wore on her wedding day in 1856, for Thanksgiving, and for various family celebrations like birthday parties. Similar to the work of a …

Ua37/21/2 Research Interview, William Jenkins, Suzanne Hansen

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Research interview with Suzanne Hansen owner-operator of Recycled Revolution. The tape has quite a lot of background noise which occasionally make it difficult to hear what is being said.

For more information regarding Recycled Revolution see:

• Apodaca, Rose. New-Age Junkies, Los Angeles Times, 4/23/1993.

• Kelly, John. Bowling Green Firm Turns Old Junk Into Fashion, Kentucky News Era, 11/1/1993

"So Monstrous Smart" : Maine Women And Fashion, 1790-1840, Kerry A. O'Brien

Maine History

This article is overview of women's fashions, in Maine and elsewhere in the United States, in the nineteenth century.

0023: Theeta Searcy Lyon Papers, 1923-1941, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Marshall College home economics professor. Papers consist of prints and original drawings of costumes and dress from Grecian times to 1941. Includes student drawings executed for classes in applied arts at Marshall and a typescript copy of 'History of American Dress as Affected by Politcial, Social, and Economic Conditions,' by Anna C. Wilson.

Ua68/10/1 Sociological Symposium No. 5 – Pre-Adulthood Life Cycle Series, Wku Sociology

WKU Archives Records

Table of Contents:

• Angrist, Shirley. Personality Maladjustment & Career Aspirations of College Women
• Belcher, John C. Living Arrangements of Youth
• Bregenzer, John M. Campus Dress Styles as Communication
• Longino, Charles F. Jr. Student Ecology: The Sociology of College Life
• Reed, John P. & Robin S. Reed. Profile of the Student Censor: A Research Note on Pornography
• Richard, Michel P. Encounter with Deserters
• Shostak, Arthur B. Young Adulthood in the Blue Collar Class
• Simmons, Robert H. & A. Didrick Castberg. The Political Context of Student Protest
• Stanfield, Robert E. A Typology of Student Role Orientations