Welcome to week three. Silhouettes.
So this week we're going to be looking at, as Steph just said, silhouettes.
And if we're thinking about what a silhouette means in its very basic sense
it's something
that is outlined against a lighter background.
So you see its shape, you see what it looks like at its very parameters.
But if that's the dictionary definition, Steph, what are we thinking about in terms of fashion?
What does a silhouette mean for us there?
I mean, at its core, the same thing, but it's really sort of the shape that the outline
of the clothes are creating on your body.
Which, of course, brings up very interesting conversations, because most of the time, the
shape that the clothes are creating around our bodies is not the shape that our body
actually is.
Right.
And so we take on silhouettes for any number of reasons.
For our power, to sort of make ourselves maybe bigger than we are, or to think about trying
to change our bodies into some, perhaps, more desirable shape.
Either more desirable for us or for social reasons.
Or to hide our bodies...
Right.
...in some cases.
Absolutely.
So lots of different reasons for changing our bodies through clothings and the silhouettes
that we take on.
And this week we're going to be looking at different themes and areas in terms of silhouettes
through the last century or so.
Right?
Yep.
So to start off the week, we're going to talk about basic ideas around clothes and shape,
and we're going to look at a few examples of the little black dress.
The little black dress is not necessarily something that might first come to mind when
we think about conversations around silhouette and shape, but actually, it lends itself very
well to the evolution of shape throughout the 20th century.
The little black dress is a concept, it's not a thing.
It was a concept that emerged in the 1920s.
What's fascinating about the little black dress is that what remains consistent about
it is its color.
What changes about it constantly is its shape.
So it offers a really nice lens into looking at different silhouettes throughout the times
and throughout the evolution of the little black dress itself.
Michelle: And pretty constant also is just a conversation about silhouettes in fashion.
And so we have here the really wonderful "Are Clothes Modern?"
book that Rudofsky created, actually shortly after his show.
This is 1947.
The show itself was 1944 at MoMA.
But you can see, and there's really a better picture that will come up during the module
itself, the silhouettes he commissioned.
Four of these sculptures, they were meant to show people who came to his exhibition
that silhouettes have really constricted our bodies and changed them.
And when we say "they" and "our," mostly women, actually, he was talking about.
So here you have four different styles of dress, and the bodies that would've had to
have been biologically beneath them to support them.
And even, actually, thinking about silhouettes, he was also thinking about footwear, too.
So not just about the kind of garments that you might use, but accessories too that shape
our body.
So we're going to talk about shape, certainly, but also about conforming, right?
Yeah.
So think about how many times you might have, you know, metaphorically poured yourself into
a garment, right?
You're buttoning, sucking in, etc., and in a lot of examples of fashion items, this is
precisely what we are doing.
A key example of making one's body conform to a fashionable silhouette is the pencil
skirt.
The pencil skirt is essentially a very straight, narrow skirt, often below the knees.
It had a particular moment in the 1960s as a key component of professional workwear.
And we're going to be looking at an example of the pencil skirt that was worn by the character
of Joan on "Mad Men," somebody who very much so had to negotiate her position in the office
place.
And her wearing of a pencil skirt, at once, lent her this sort of degree of power because
of the way it made her body look.
But on the other hand, in a very literal way, it kind of detracted from her agency because
it was something that was sort of difficult to walk in.
So these are sort of the things we think about when we're conforming our body to different
pieces of clothing.
What does it allow us to do, but also, what does it hinder us from doing?
One of the things that we'll look at after conforming is about augmenting the body, and
silhouettes allowing us to be bigger than we perhaps are.
And one of my favorite items, I think, in the course is the Wonderbra.
The Wonderbra was around from the 1960s.
And it sold pretty steadily throughout its lifetime until, in the early 1990s.
Lots of different cultural things came together ] especially in the West, to suggest that
an enhanced cleavage was something that was inherently fashionable at a particular moment.
And their advertising campaign really enshrined this bra as the cleavage-enhancing bra of
the decade and perhaps of all time.
And so to augment a silhouette is also an important conversation we'll have.
We'll finish up by looking at freeing.
So thinking about the ways in which the body has been freed through the silhouette.
Whether it's through capri pants, the idea of women being able to take on a bifurcated
pant, and in the mid-century what that meant to move out of something more constricting
into a garment or a silhouette that allowed them to move more.
We'll look at the caftan for some of the same reasons.
And then also the zoot suit, a really important suit moment in the '30s and '40s in particular,
that gave not only a freedom of movement, but also freedom of expression to the people
that wore it.
And then to conclude, we're going to have a conversation that brings us into the contemporary
moment….
Alexandra Waldman, who is the founder of a brand called Universal Standard, which essentially
looks at sizing through a more realistic perspective.
Lauren Downing Peters, who is a scholar in the area of plus-size fashion and its history,
particularly in the 20th century.
So we hope you enjoy this week's offerings, and that you participate in the discussion
forums.
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