Women Fashion in 1900s and 1990s

Fashion is the indispensable part of women nowadays as well as the previous periods. Clothing is not only the stuff to cover or keep warm women’s bodies, but also the tool to display their characteristics. Choosing women’s outfits is based on their wearing purposes and personalities. So, there were many innovations in women fashion during the twentieth century. Even though they made a lot of diversities especially between the 1900s and 1990s, there were some related points in fashion to the first and last periods of the century.
The biggest difference in women fashion between two decades is appearance. Although, there were some revolutions in fashion industry in 1900s, women fashion was still influenced by the Victorianism. Thus, women clothes kept on containing a lot of complex details and accessories. According to the article “The 1900s: Fashion: Overview”, “The S-shaped silhouette formed by a corset, petticoats, and a small, heavy bustle, remained the dominant look for women.” On the other hand, the 1990s is a period of soften and less constructed garments. Knit tops, cotton khaki pants, T-shirt and bell-bottom jeans are the most common suits of women in this decade (“Overview”).
The next point is fashion trend. The reason of the discrepancy between two decades is the style in 1900s based on the Gibson Girl’s images. The Gibson Girl is a drawing of illustrator Charles Gibson which is a symbol of fragile and voluptuous lady with a tiny waist and hair piled high upon the head (“The Gibson Girl”). This image had a strong effect on the 1900s outlook. While, there were wide variety of trends in 1990s such as casual, retro, rock, and mixed style. Women in this decade focused on simple, elegant, active and romantic dressing purposes (“Overview”). In spite of several dissimilarities mentioned above, both followed the basic principle of fashion style. In fact, it is the circle in which the latest one is developed from the past foundation.
Third, there were a lot of changes in dressing rules between 1900 and 1990 decade; but some common formalities were long-lasting. Due to globalization, people in 1990s had the freedom rights to dress more comfortable than in 1900s. For instance, the offices adopted casual-dress at work and people can wear relaxed suit in public (“Overview”). In contrast, the women had to change their dress for dinner. They also weren’t allowed to go out of the house without girdles and petticoats (“The 1900s: Fashion: Overview”). In addition, dressing in office was also more formal in 1900s. According to “The 1900s: Fashion: Overview”, the shirtwaist was just acceptable for women who didn’t work outside the house, whereas women in 1990 decade wore it to go to the office commonly. Besides these differences, some formalities are similar until now. All people know that dressing in public and office is always stricter than at home because nobody want to be rude on the other people’s eyes.
The last compare and contrast aspect of two American decades is shopping ways. It’s parallel for women to shop their clothes during the twentieth century. They could buy dresses through the stores or mail. However, stores in 1900s weren’t distributed nearly as widely as shops in 1990s, especially in rural town (“The 1900s: Fashion: Overview”). Moreover, the ready-made clothes became popular from the beginning of the century. Therefore, women could buy ready-made clothes instead of going to the tailor shops (“The 1900s: Fashion: Overview”).
To sum up, some similar points especially in how women bought their attires still lasted throughout the century. However, the women looks, fashion trends and dressing rules in the 1900s and 1990s had wide variances. As the result, it’s easy to realize two historical periods through the women dressing. Fashionable differences combined with similarities between two decades have created a colorful painting of culture by which some people can recall their memories.

Works Cited
“The 1900s: Fashion: Overview.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2001. N.pag. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
“Overview”. American Decades. Ed. Judith S Baughman, et al. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2001. N.pag. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 Nov. 2013
“The Gibson Girl.” Eyewitness to History. 2001. Ibis Communications. N.d. Web. 14 Nov 2013.