Fig. 1. Evening Dress. (From Claire Wilcox.

The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London, 1947-57 (London: Victoria & Albert, 2008).)

New Look or Old Look: Fashion and Women in Western Culture Betsy Dragoo

Europe from the Cold War to the European Union Dr. Katharine Kennedy April 27, 2012

Dragoo 2 The hourglass shape highlighted in Christian Diors New Look design of 1947 came to define fashion for women in the early 1950s. Although the look appeared to be new to some, the wasp-waisted look recalls an earlier era. Diors New Look defined womens place as a piece of ornamentation, rather than as a working individual. The design forced women to alter their bodies to a mold, literally constraining them to the home. Thus, Diors design was not a New Look, but rather a very familiar one. The New Look returned women to a New role, both of which were old looks that were simply repackaged. Western fashion has often placed emphasis on accentuating the small waist. The most obvious way women shaped their bodies was through the use of corsets. Although the corset began as a medical device to support the spine, it quickly became associated with the elite. With the industrial revolution and the invention of the front-busk corset, women could dress themselves in their corsets without assistance. Western fashion has incorporated corsetry on a massive scale since the 1800s.1 The corset fell out of fashion with the sexual liberation of the 1920s. According to Steele, For centuries, the ideal had been the fat woman, who symbolized the family. Corset-less dress conveyed a different conception of love.2 The different conception of love Steele refers to hints at the 1920s flapper movement and sexual liberation. The obsession with the corset reflected ideals conveyed by Queen Victoria. Increasingly fat, she also symbolized the family. It is not surprising that the corseted woman is associated with times of sexual and female repression.

Valerie Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History (London, England: Yale University Press, 2001), 4. Ibid., 148.

Dragoo 3 The breathable silhouette of the 1920s transformed into the Utility Look. The Utility Look, popularized in the 1940s, reflects freedom for women in clothing and work. The sharp lines and thick fabrics mirrored what women demanded. Art reflected life and with the Utility Look came increased freedoms for women. Women in the 1940s rushed to the factories to assist with the war effort and to work in place of their husbands. However, when World War Two ended, women returned
Fig. 2. The Utility Look. (From Nigel Cawthorne, The New Look: The Dior Revolution (London, England: Reed International Books Limited, 1996), 43.)

to the home. In this way, the corseted and full shape of the New Look reflected restrictions

for women in society. If women had no need to be physically active, their bodies were free for corsets to shape. After decades of fashion without the corset, women began corseting again in the 1950s. Christian Dior drew inspiration from Belle poque and Edwardian styles both eras demanded corsetry.3 Unlike his contemporary, Coco Chanel, Diors designs were uncomfortable. Chanel criticized Dior for this flaw.4 Despite the need for underwire, Diors shape persisted. Corseted or not, Diors New Look birthed the iconic shirtwaist dress of the 1950s.

Nigel Cawthorne, The New Look: The Dior Revolution (London, England: Reed International Books Limited, 1996), 19. 4 Ibid., 162.

Dragoo 4 Christian Dior was born in 1905 in France. From an early age, he was involved in the arts. His wealthy parents originally encouraged him to become a politician, but, in 1928, Dior opened an art gallery with his partner instead.5 Diors family fell on hard financial times in the 1930s, and Dior was forced to sell his gallery and take a new job as a fashion sketch artist.6 Dior worked for Robert Piguet until he was called to serve in the French army in 1940.7 After his return from service in 1942, Dior joined Lucien Lelongs couture house as a full time designer. Lucien Lelong was incredibly important to the French fashion world during World War Two and immediately after. He is credited with maintaining thousands of jobs during the War because he provided the funds and face behind the politics of Haute Couture. Lelong managed to convince the Nazis that the presence of couture workers was necessary to produce the garments, which the Nazis wives required. When Dior joined Lelongs house in 1942, he learned, from Lelong, how difficult the fashion industry had become. Dior was forced to dress the wives of Nazi officers as the French fashion industry nearly evaporated during the war.

Alexandra Palmer, Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise (London, England: Victoria and Albert Publishing, 2009), 10. 6 Ibid., 12. 7 Ibid., 13, 15.

Dragoo 5 Wartime restrictions were so severe that miniature dolls, rather than models, were dressed in the latest Paris fashions in order to comply with the fabric rations. The Chambre Syndicale

Fig. 3. Theatre de la Mode. (From Claire Wilcox, The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London (London, England: Victoria and Albert Publishing, 2008), 37.)

organized a show, called Theatre de la Mode; with the intention of raising money for, and increasing awareness of, the French fashion industry. 8 Although the dolls sported some angular pantsuits, many exhibited Diors New Look. Through examining these dolls, we may note that Dior was not the creator of this hourglass line. Exaggerated hips and bust were used in eras before Dior as well as by many of Diors contemporaries. Dior was designing at a time when French fashion was looking to reassert its dominance. Simply because the designer created the New Look does not mean he actually conceptualized the lines before any other person. Although Christian Dior used his New Look lines when he worked at Lucien Lelongs couture house, it was not until Dior operated independently that the shape reached notoriety. Diors hourglass design was one of the best-sellers in Lelongs collection. Other designers, such as Schiaparelli, Molyneux, and Mainbocher, used the design well before Diors New Look in
8

Palmer, Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise, 18

Dragoo 6 1939. 9 In high fashion post-World War Two, hemlines were lowered and gowns made full again. The emergence of Diors New Look was indeed a return to the early 1900s corseted hourglass shape. In hindsight, it does not seem so unlikely that the hourglass shape would re-emerge as the New Look. After a period of the straight-lined Utility look, fashion searched for new inspiration. The hourglass line pleased their appetites. Although the shape of the New Look existed well before 1947, it was in this year that Carmel Snow of Harpers Bazaar officially declared the look.10 Diors New Look won over western fashion not because it was comfortable or revolutionary, but because it was a return to a recognizable shape. The look is particularly reminiscent of a 1900s shape, during which the womans role was relegated (mostly) to the home.11 It was also incredibly convenient for the revival of the textile industry. The New Look required more fabric and artisanship than two wartime outfits combined, resulting in the employment of countless embroiderers, tailors, designers, textile manufactures, and dozens of other beneficiaries. In this way, the New Look is self-defeating in name. Touted at its best as a revelation, at its worst anti-woman, the creation was attributed to a man who did not create a New Look- he simply repackaged it. The look was anything but revolutionary. Some scholars have argued that a desire for luxury goods post-World War Two was inevitable.12 For fashion-starved post-war women, his image of femininity, which reigned supreme during the 1950s, did not make them blush. It was a revelation of beauty and luxury, with long, full, fluid skirts, cinched-in waists and soft shoulders the antithesis of militaristic

Cawthorne, The New Look: The Dior Revolution, 33. Palmer, Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise, 26. 11 Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History. 12 Palmer, Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise, 25.
10

Dragoo 7 wartime fashions. 13 The look did not embarrass women because it was a return to the fully covered body. Citizens were tired of rations, and the lengthy, fabric-laden New Look gave women what so many could not have during the war. Lush accessories like feathers, rhinestones, ribbon, and beads were restricted during the war. The New Look called for all of these accessories and even gave women back the nylon they so desired. It was also instrumental in reviving the French fashion industry, and eventually, assisted companies in the United States by giving them fashion direction.
Fig. 4. Ball gown detail. (From Claire Wilcox. The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London, 1947-57 (London: Victoria & Albert, 2008), 137.)

For Dior, and others who survived World War Two, his gowns were reminiscent of the Belle poque era.14 Here are the roots from which the New Looks hyper-feminized lines emerged. As in Belle poques styling, Dior emphasized the hips and bust of a woman. In his later designs, he incorporated a bustle. Dior used extravagant embroidery, lush fabrics, and jewel tones to give an ethereal, impressionistic feel to his styling. Renior and Degas supposedly inspired Dior.15 Although Dior was inspired by artwork, the artists who he admired inevitably featured fashions of the time in their work. The fashions featured by Degas were particularly restrictive and elaborate (e.g. ballerina scenes). Dior was inspired to create a virtual copy of a

13 14

Ibid., 26-27 Ibid., 32. 15 Ibid., 32.

Dragoo 8 shape that already existed. He simply recreated that which had already run its course women spoke out against the corset before and they would again. Diors house flourished because of its luck, not originality. Dior emerged at a wonderful time in French fashion, when couture houses buzzed with the excitement of new investors and a fresh start after the war. What follows is a description by a reporter on Christian Diors February 12, 1949 fashion show, which exhibited his New Look: The first girl came out, stepping fast, switching with a provocative swinging movement, whirling in the close-packed room, knocking over ashtrays with the strong flare of her pleated skirt, and bringing everyone to the edges of their seats in a desire not to miss a thread of this momentous occasion We were given a polished theatrical performance such as we had never seen in a couture house before. We were witness to a revolution in fashion and to a revolution in showing fashion as well.16 This description touches on the size alone of the New Look the massive gowns knocked over ashtrays. Diors design has come to symbolize the 1950s. This era is associated with conservatism in politics but also in fashion. Although many (like Snow) called the look a revolution, Dior created a sense of drama and excitement to add to an already stagnant community. His New Look simply incorporated more fabric and cinched the waist, a virtual return to what had already existed in fashion. The look was now new; rather, it was a genius move commercially because it utilized gender stereotypes and the supposed desires of women to

16

Marie France Pochna, Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New (New York, NY: Arcade Publishing, 1996), 25.

Dragoo 9 sell gowns. Hence, the irony in the New look- it packaged women in both an old look and an old role in the home. Immediately after Harpers Bazaar declared the New Look in 1947, women reacted negatively to it. Britain, in particular, was still under postwar rationing. Some fashionistas believed the heavy fabric and length in the New Look were excessive. The look forced women to attach multiple recycled fabrics together to create the necessary volume. For instance, one 1942 piece was created from three dresses. Diors demand for many yards of fabric in one piece does not seem so unlikely if we consider the serious fabric restrictions enforced during (and after) World War Two. Fashion designers were resigned to dressing dolls, and it seems reasonable that they would incorporate increased fabric to compensate for their wartime lack of material. The New Look was controversial because it was uncomfortable and, arguably, excessive. Furthermore, most women could neither afford nor acquire French couture gowns.17 The gowns themselves were accessible only if one had an invitation to a Couture show and the funds to purchase a gown. Dior increased in popularity because of its corner on the American market and its exclusivity. Although the fabulous ball gowns that Dior designed were not accessible to most women initially, the look itself was adopted (stolen, according to French law) by the Americans on a massive scale in the late forties. Women in the United States had funds for high fashion and demanded the gowns produced in Paris. With the aid of the Marshall plan, the persistence of Lucien Lelong, and Diors creation, Haute Couture survived the war and emerged a champion in the 1950s.18

17 18

Cawthorne, The New Look: The Dior Revolution, 44. Palmer, Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise, 22.

Dragoo 10 The French fashion industrys success after the War was related to the power of the New Look and Coutures prestige in the minds of wealthy Americans. Theatre de la Mode and the persistence of French opinion on fashion asserted to Americans that France still dictated the direction of fashion.19 Theatre de la Mode, in particular, self-defined the French as an unstoppable fashion force. This is especially important because it displayed French dominance in a particular field even after negative post-war sentiments towards the Vichy government. Furthermore, it dominated an area in which Americans, with their increased purchasing power, had particular interest. In this way, the New Look and its impetus renewed French strength in the fashion industry internationally. Although the Americans could copy the design of Dior, the workmanship of French couture, juxtaposed to American mass-production, confirmed that handmade fashion was superior to that made in a factory. Women in the United States and Britain eventually added additional fabric onto their dresses, adopting the New Look into their wardrobe. Sometimes they would incorporate several dresses into one to adapt to the changing fashion. While the (re)emergence of the hourglass shape in the form of the New Look seems plausible in the timeline of the history of fashion, it is also reasonable that there was so much backlash against the look. First, the design was, at a basic level, uncomfortable. Second, the New Look required an extravagant amount of fabric that most women could not afford. Finally, some feminists believed that the New Look restricted their bodies and thus, their freedom. World War Two incorporated women into the workforce, giving them a new sense of importance. Out of functionality, womens clothes were made sturdier and more comfortable. Dior reintroduced the restriction of women (literally) through his New Look.

19

Cawthorne, The New Look: The Dior Revolution, 102.

Dragoo 11 Diors first design as an independent house was the Corolla.20 The Corolla emphasized the flowering look as if the woman was foliage. As Vaughan points out: In The Second Sex (1949) Simone de Beauvoir could have been describing Diors commodified femininity when she wrote: woman dressed and adorned, nature is present but under restraint rendered more desirable to the extent that nature is more highly developed in her and more rigorously confined: it is the sophisticated woman who has always been the erotic object.21 It is no coincidence that The Second Sex was published at the height of the New Look. Simone de Beauvoir mentions nature here, which reflects the Corolla line that Dior conceptualized. In molding and shaping the body, women reflect nature to a lesser extent. Women would be closer to nature in Chanels loose fitting designs. However, the addition of molding technologies, such as corsets, renders women closer to nature in the view of Dior. It is clear that Diors conception of nature for women reflects an artificial hourglass shape. In highlighting the breasts and hips, Diors New Look recalls Victorian notions of the corseted woman as an object to mold.
Fig. 5. Women React to the New Look. (From Alexandra Palmer, Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise (London, England: Victoria and Albert Publishing, 2009), 10.)

20 21

Cawthorne, The New Look: The Dior Revolution, 109. Heather A. Vaughan, Icon: Tracing the Path of the 1950s Shirtwaist Dress (Journal of American Culture, 32, no. 1 (2009): 4.

Dragoo 12 Simone de Beauvoir was not alone in questioning the New Look style. Many women dubbed the look anti-Woman.22 French, American, and Canadian women protested against the look, saying it was anti-Feminist and a way to force women to buy completely new wardrobes at the whim of Mr. Dior.23 Men demonstrated against the look, forming the League of Broke Husbands to combat the ridiculous prices.24 Although the New Look came to mark a fashion era, it was neither accessible nor comfortable to most women. The gowns were so unrealistic that one retail buyer (an intermediary between designers and stores) said the New Look was: Wonderful for a queen or a movie star who wants to stand at the head of the stairs and be photographed, but quite useless to any woman who wants to do anything, since the beruffled evening dresses were boned, wired, lined and otherwise stiffened to flare out as much as two feet in all directions, preventing their wearers from sitting down, dancing within arms reach of a partner, or standing at a bar.25 It is notable that a buyer said these gowns were extravagant. Buyers and designers usually are the first to rationalize new looks due to profit. However, in this case, these gowns were too excessive even for the fashionistas. This buyer also makes note of the lack of availability for most women due to cost and extreme physical constraints on the wearer. In this account, it appears that the gown has enveloped the woman. The woman ceases to have importance as an individual; she is simply the mannequin, which holds the fabric.

22 23

Marie France Pochna, Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New, 27. Ibid., 44. 24 Ibid., 44. 25 Ibid., 44.

Dragoo 13 The idea of woman as mannequin to display mans creation is not a new idea in feminist scholarship. For example, Laura Cereta says that some women wind strings of pearls around their throats, as though they were captives proud of being owned by free men another womans breasts become larger when she wears a tighter sash.26 Here, Cereta describes the fashion habits of fifteenth century women an ironically similar account to the New Look. It is disturbing because Cereta is describing the ownership men exhibit over women in the form of fashion, which seems to occur under the New Look. The cinched waist phenomenon is an archaic representation of women as defined solely by their sexual organs. One particularly disturbing account of how to wear the New Look was written in the April 1947 issue of Good Housekeeping: This fault spoils your posture, and makes your hip section look bigger than it is and causes a deep curve in the back. To correct it, learn to turn your

Fig. 6. Woman as Mannequin. (From Marie France Pochna, Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New, 34.)

pelvis down under you. When you stand and walk, consciously tuck your buttocks under as if you were flinching from a spank.27

26 27

Laura Cereta, Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 84. Heather A. Vaughan, Icon: Tracing the Path of the 1950s Shirtwaist Dress, 32.

Dragoo 14 It is not difficult to argue against a design that spoils the natural curvature of your body and literally forces one to bend to its will. Another gross aspect of this description is the flinching the writer describes. The woman in this description seems literally to cower at the physical force caused by the dress. In this way, the New Look could be viewed as violent towards women or at the very least unsafe to wear. The New Look certainly was not healthy for the body. Dior reintroduced a design so uncomfortable, it is a wonder the 1950s did not
Fig. 7. The New Look Flinch. (From Marie France Pochna, Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New, 41.)

require the need for fainting couches.

The New Look became associated with a return to the home and for good reason. The increase in machinery and automation in the home, particularly in the United States, paired excellently with the restrictive New Look. In this way, fashion reflected gender norms. For example, another magazine said this about the New Look: Were going to be ladies again. Were going to be feminine, with greater accent on a tiny waist, fuller hips, higher heels, hats that are very much hat28 It is difficult to imagine how a certain fashion makes a woman a lady or feminine. If being feminine only requires the trait of femaleness, all self-defined women fit this category. It is disturbing that a male, in this account, gives a woman her gender. Furthermore, the writer equates size with value. The individual is not a woman unless she has

28

Heather A. Vaughan, Icon: Tracing the Path of the 1950s Shirtwaist Dress, 32.

Dragoo 15 extremely exaggerated features. Her waist must be cinched, breasts and hips large. The writer does not give value to any type of comfort, instead focusing solely on the size of accessories. The notion that one should be restricted in order to make their body more feminine is selfconflicting. The New Look defines restriction to an hourglass shape as the definition of femaleness- a potentially harmful conception of gender. Diors successor, Yves Saint Laurent, took over Diors couture house after his sudden death in 1957. By then, fashion had already moved past the New Looks corsetry. Designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Claire McCardell came to represent the time immediately after the New Look, when comfortable Americanized clothes flourished. Consequently, Diors look was easily cast aside as women demanded wearable clothes. Diors New Look reintroduced uncomfortable corsetry into mainstream fashion. Diors greatest design is associated with an era of conservatism and stagnant rights for women. Furthermore, the design itself was unoriginal and self-defeating. Ironically, Impressionists, who were seen as revolutionaries in the art world, inspired Dior. Originally touted as revolutionary, there is nothing new about the New Look.

Dragoo 16 Bibliography Cawthorne, Nigel. The New Look: The Dior Revolution (London, England: Reed International Books Limited, 1996). De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Marxists Internet Archive. http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm (accessed April 27, 2012). Laura, Cereta. Collected Letters of A Renaissance Feminist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997). Palmer, Alexandra. Dior: A New Look, A New Enterprise (London: V & A Publishing, 2009). Pochna, Marie France. Christian Dior: The Man Who Made the World Look New (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1996). Steele, Valerie. The Corset: A Cultural History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 4. Steele, Valerie, and Solero Irving. Fifty Years of Fashion: From New Look To Now (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000). Valverde, Mariana. "The Love of Finery: Fashion and the Fallen Woman in Nineteenth Century Social Discourse." Victorian Studies 32, no. 2 (1991): 169-188. Vaughan, Heather A. "Icon: Tracing the Path of the 1950s Shirtwaist Dress." The Journal of American Culture 32 no. 01 (2009): 29-37.

Dragoo 17 Wilcox, Claire. The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London, 1947-57 (London: Victoria & Albert, 2008).

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