In Olden Days

“In olden days, a glimpse of stocking,
Was considered something quite shocking….”

Here’s evidence that sex was used to sell fashions back as early as 1915. In spending so much research time on the clothing of the Art Deco era, I did take notice of what was transpiring in the preceding decades. Voluminous garments were cut to suggest a very feminine shape. The Victorian and Edwardian fashion aesthetic favored the full figured, voluptuous woman, yet while her body was draped in layers of cloth, that innate eroticism was muted.
Yet ready to blaze forth at the right command of the canny couturier or dressmaker. The best study on the psychological aspect of women’s dress to date is still Valerie Steele’s Fashion and eroticism: ideals of feminine beauty from the Victorian era to the Jazz Age. To better understand the weight of historical repression that the modern woman had to shed, look in CATNYP under the subject heading Sex Symbolism.

Is it any wonder that today’s women prize their individual dress rights? After acquiring metal knees, I decided to make pants my preferred fashion choice. Thank heavens that the right to wear pants had ceased to be an issue long ago.