For the first task I looked at a fashion book I had at home, ‘Fashion, The Ultimate Book Of Costume And Style’ by Katheryn Hennessy. The book gave an in-depth look to each era of fashion and styles and how they evolved. I chose to look at the 1930’s. In the book is a picture of 19 year old jean Harlow wearing a tight cut silk dress, in which accentuates her body. I found the 1930’s era interesting as the glamour evening gowns where something I really liked, the chapter gave me more of an incite to how garments where changing and being worn, the fabrics used where not only showing off the female body but adding a glamour and sexy appeal.
Photograph of Jean Harlow in the 1930’s aged 19, ‘Fashion, The Ultimate Book Of Costume and Style’, chapter ‘1930-1939 Shimmering gowns’ page 275
I then searched online for another source; I searched the V&A for 1930’s garments. I found a 1938, red wedding dress. The dress worn by Monica Maurice in 1938, was made out of red silk gauze, the light and elegant dress is midi length and has a back belt around the waist. The use of the silk gauze and small slip under the dress creates a sexy twist on a white wedding dress showing off the shoulders. I found this piece was interesting as in this era women where starting to dress with more sexy and using elegant materials, allowing the female body to be accentuated and on show.
I then went on to research further, I looked into what was going on around the 1930s and how this could of effected or benefited fashion at this time. I found many websites which discussed the great depression. The website I looked at explains the struggles with in the years after and how they got America back on its feet. I found this source helped me understand what was going on in and around the fashion industry at that time.
Bibliography Hennessy K. (2012) Fashion, The Ultimate Book Of Costume And Style. London, Great Britain, Dorling Kindersley Limited.
Cordner S. V&A (2014) The One About The Red Wedding Dress. Avalible from: http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/here-come-brides/the-one-about-the-red-wedding-dress
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The Great Depression. Avalible from: http://www.history.com/topics/1930s
6th December 2017