For a very long time, and through the entire New Woman’s historical arc, trousers remained controversial clothing for women #WomenFashion
The suffrage movement began their agitations for women’s rights in the first half of the 1800s, but it was after 1900 that the fight became more fierce. From this movement soon arose a broader understanding of women’s equality: Feminism.
The New Woman successfully turned her respectability into a weapon in the fight for change and equality.
Queer women’s relationships were long considered non-existent. But in the 1920s, things started to change.
The New Woman tried never to take a political stance in order to make her change acceptable. But politics and activism went after her.
The Oriental Style became extremely popular in the first decades of the 1900s and inspired everything that could be designed, including fashion
The New Negro Woman participated in the New Woman’s revolution, but with added challenges linked to prevailing racial stereotypes
The New Woman was always about mobility. She was about getting out of the house and creating a new life for herself. She was about to become visible and active. She was about change and new ways.
The debate over women’s proper dress became quite heated in Victorian times. Women’s ‘rational dresses’ caused much anxiety and concern.
Before the 1920s, women didn’t use much makeup because of respectability and safety. But in the 1920s, makeup became acceptable and glamorous, and every young woman used it.
Jazz and the New Woman of the 1920s kind of go together. They were in great part about the same things: freedom of expression, discovery and exploration. No surprise that many flappers were also ‘jazz babies’.
Industrial production and the consumer culture unexpectedly advanced the concept of the New Woman and allowed many women to get in touch with it.