Sunlight Soap advertisements by Lever Brothers

 Sunlight soap advertisements.............  Sunlight soap was first produced by Lever Brothers in 1884. Prior to these cut and wrapped bars   clothes were washed with home made soap. Levers' soap was one of the first internationally marketed branded products, it was promoted as a godsend to women, which it probably was in those days!

Fashion for women 1806, 1929, 1942.......Plus ca change....?

At this time of important fashion shows throughout Europe and the US for Autumn /Winter 2011-2012  here are three fashion plates showing how womens'  fashion has changed radically , or has it?  since 1806.

1. A  French pale pink empire style dance dress, rear view, showing a demure and fragile girl holding a small fan and spray of flowers. her matching hat  adorned with pink draped  feathers , the  upper sleeves slashed and puffed on upper arm and the lower edge of her bodice cut in slightly medieval style. Very 'feminine'! 

2.The front cover  of the famous French store Printemps Summer 1929. Here  two women  wear straw cloche hats and elegant day dresses. One dress is made in crepe de chine, the other in crepe de laine, both  are well tailored with lowered waistlines that have  plenty of swing  in the skirts. The hemlines are spot on for this year's fashion 2011-12,  they both hold small box leather handbags. This period was between World War 1 and 2 so it was a comparatively carefree and wealthy period.

3. Two women in completely different mode. World War 2 is well under way,  and the two women look quite practical and  masculine in their 1942 Winter wear. Their blond hair is severely swept up and they both wear  high silk cravats at the neck. One wears a precariously perched astrakan hat that matches the collar etc on her slightly military styled suit with its broad shoulders. Hemlines are again de rigueur for season 2011-12, and even the rather heavy weight brogues and sturdy walking shoes worn with ankle socks wouldn't look out of place on the cat walk for  this Autumn - Winter 2011-2012!
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose - The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Corsets, the squeezed middle.

When politicians talk about the 'squeezed middle' they refer, inadvertantly , to the corset.   

Corsets  first became fashionable in the 16th century when they were called "payre of bodies".  Stays,  (the later word), were worn then with a farthingale that held the skirt out in a stiff cone so that with the help of the stays the  upper torso was turned into a matching  cone. 

By the mid 16th century stays  were commonly used, made of linen with wooden shafts inserted into a pocket at the front,  they remained more or less in the same format until the 1860s. 

In the 18th century stays predominantly took the form of an inverted conical shape, their primary purpose being to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the midriff, and support the back. 

During the early 19th century  stays became much less constricting with the advent of the high waisted Empire style in c1796. By the 1830s the corset reappeared serving the dual purpose of supporting the breasts and narrowing the waist, and for the first time the word corset was used.  The exaggerated shoulders and skirts of the 1830s made the waist look narrow , so when they disappeared in Victorian times the waist had to be cinched tighter, and the fashionable silhouette became the - hourglass figure. From then on the corset became exaggeratedly curvaceous. (See examples in the illustrations).  

The "corset controversy" or the "corset question"argued that  the wearing of corsets was harmful to health, and  prompted vanity and foolishness. This controversy raged over the decades, featuring in The Times, The Scotsman, etc,  and newspapers in America including   The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and The Washington Post etc. 

Women over the centuries seem to feel obliged to exaggerate or diminish their natural attributes,  supposedly to their advantage.  They are generally mistaken!  So much for the squeezed middle!

Women go full circle in their self obsession

Women worked hard and  long to gain the vote. Curiously it was the 1st world war that helped, when women proved they could be useful and  practical , and did not have to exist solely as  a decorative adjunct to  men. By the 1920s women had abandoned the grotesquely restrictive corset,  the huge hats  (sometimes decorated with whole birds), the voluminous clothes, the frills and furbelows.  Women espoused a more natural life, they cycled, skated and swam.  In the 1930s women added enormously to the war effort. They drove trucks, worked on the land and in factories, took part in dangerous missions etc etc. They proved they could work alongside, above, and in support of men. Where did it all go wrong? Now women are obsessed.  Does  my bum look big in this,  are my teeth white enough my nails long enough and the right colour,  am I thin enough, my hair blonde enough, my skin bronzed enough?  Is  my handbag cute or  large enough,  got  the right logo, and are my shoes high enough, my cleavage low enough, and very importantly are my lips full enough, my nose small enough,  my breasts big enough? And the irony is that the female quest for the alpha male is no more for the purposes of procreation, women now want   to postpone that for as long as possible, almost to the point of  no return.   When will women get their priorities right? Full circle, they have the vote,  but  are back to being as counterfeit and useless as they were in the 19th century.