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" . & "&. &+ # )* "899 +#&+9%: ; 8&88 8 %) 7<=*===)*> 7<=*===)*== # $ % # STOUTWEAR AND THE DISCOURSES OF DISORDER Lauren Downing Peters Stoutwear and the Discourses of Disorder Constructing the Fat, Female Body in American Fashion in the Age of Standardization, 1915–1930 Lauren Downing Peters ©Lauren Downing Peters, Stockholm University 2018 ISBN print 978-91-7797-286-0 ISBN PDF 978-91-7797-287-7 Printed in Sweden by Universitetsservice US-AB, Stockholm 2018 Distributor: Department of Media Studies, Stockholm University Cover Artwork: Rachel Kinnard Source Image Attribution: Women's Wear Daily (January 8, 1918),11; Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 23, 1924), 14 Author Photograph: Jerome Corpuz To my brother, Lance (1972–2002) Editor’s Introduction Lauren Downing Peters’ doctoral thesis, “Stoutwear and the Discourses of Disorder: Constructing the Fat, Female Body in American Fashion in the Age of Standardization, 1915-1930,” is the eighth thesis published by the Centre for Fashion Studies in its Stockholm Fashion Studies series. The Centre for Fashion Studies was founded in 2006 with a generous donation from the Familjen Erling-Persson Foundation, launching fashion studies as an academic field in Scandinavia. The Centre, from the very start a research institute at the Humanities Faculty of Stockholm University, has a Ph.D. programme and an international MA programme. The MA programme was launched in 2006, and the first Ph.D. students were admitted in 2008. The sheer demand for undergraduate courses in fashion studies prompted the Centre to offer an introductory course in 2006 and 2007, which in 2008 was expanded into a one-year introductory programme with a BA dissertation module. Each year some 160 students are admitted to the undergraduate level as well as the BA and MA programmes, following a highly competitive process. The Centre for Fashion Studies has established fashion studies as an interdisciplinary field in Scandinavia, recruiting faculty members, teaching staff, and visiting researchers from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including economic history, film studies, literature, art history and business and economics. The Centre has equally sought to develop a distinct intellectual profile by combining theoretical perspectives with object based studies pursuing a close interest in critical textual analysis, fabrics and visual representations of garments. In this regard, the Centre is almost unique in being university based with a broad range of academic expertise. Since its inception, the Centre for Fashion Studies has been home to many different fields of research and teaching in both the humanities and the social sciences, attracting scholars and students from across the world. Its community outreach is also exemplary, while besides its agreements with universities and fashion schools abroad, the Centre has participated in several collaborative projects with museums both in Sweden and abroad. Professor Klas Nyberg The Centre for Fashion Studies, Stockholm University Acknowledgments Over the course of my PhD work, more than one colleague told me that writing a dissertation is akin to running a marathon. I’m not a runner (thanks for the crappy knees, dad!), so I can’t speak to the truth of that analogy, but I can confirm that over the course of five years, I have experienced the proverbial “writer’s high” on occasion, but also moments of confusion, desperation, literal pain, exhaustion and heartbreak, and I suppose that this is what running 26.2 miles must feel like, too. When I was feeling my most inspired, I was propelled by my own inertia, but when I was at my worst, I was grateful to have the support of cherished friends, family and colleagues, without whom I could have never crossed the finish line. In fact, I might maybe argue that writing a dissertation is harder than running a marathon, but I digress… First and foremost, I want to thank my exceptional team of supervisors for guiding me through this process. My main supervisor, Klas Nyberg, was a paragon of kindness and patience who never hesitated to go to bat for me when the going got tough. (He also filled out innumerable forms, year after year, that permitted me to stay in the country legally, which was cool!) I am also thankful for the wisdom and support of my international team of co- supervisors, Caroline Evans, Hazel Clark and Andrea Kollnitz. My meetings with Caroline were always inspiring and endlessly helpful. Even if I wasn't entirely sure of what I was doing or where I was going, I could always rely on Caroline for a fascinating text to read or to help me “just get on with it,” as she would say. I think that I am a more self-assured scholar because of her. I am also immensely thankful to Hazel for coming along with me to Stockholm after dutifully serving as my main supervisor during my MA at Parsons. She was always there to offer context and perspective beyond the narrow historical remit of my current research, and provided me innumerable opportunities to grow as a person and as a scholar. I greatly look forward to the next phase of our relationship. And finally, I am immensely thankful to Andrea. As the only local co-supervisor, Andrea was there for me in a capacity that the others simply couldn’t be. Occupying an office only two doors down from my own, I always knew that I could go and rattle on Andrea’s door—tearful or not—and she would be there to console and counsel. It has been wonderful getting to know you, Andrea, and I am so grateful for your advice as well as for your friendship in a country that, at times, felt quite lonely and cold. Last but not least, I have to give my thanks to my very first supervision team: Louise Wallenberg and Paula von Wachenfeldt. Without their gentle guidance in those early days, I might never have discovered stoutwear. In addition to my supervisors, I am thankful to a wonderful roster of seminar opponents who over the years have challenged me and pushed my research forward. Thank you to Lisa Ehlin, Philip Warkander, Marco Pecorari and Patrik Steorn for slogging through chapters, partial chapters and less-than partial chapters and for seeing the potential in my work when it was still in a nascent form. Beyond the Centre, I owe a thank you to Beverly Skeggs who gave me helpful feedback at a research seminar at Helsinki University, Joanne Entwistle who reviewed a chapter draft via Skype at a graduate conference in Kolding, Denmark and Ellen Sampson, Alexis Romano and Nathaniel Dafydd Beard of the Fashion Research Network who hosted a reading group around my research. I am also immensely grateful to my final seminar opponent, Christopher Breward, for his kindness, support and for thinking beyond the dissertation, and to my final seminar committee, Anja Hirdman and Kristina Widestedt for their constructive, no- nonsense feedback, which was tough to stomach, but which made my writing so much stronger. I also owe my thanks to a small handful of institutions for opening up their doors to me for what little archival research I could manage, not least of which being the Museum of the City of New York and the Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection at Drexel University. Within the Centre for Fashion Studies, I want to thank my all of my PhD colleagues and the support staff who over the years provided me a welcome respite from my writing (and, at times, from myself). Specifically, I want to thank Hanne Eide for all of the “ett öls,” laughs, seminars and for always supporting my research. Some of my most cherished moments at the Centre involved sitting in the lunch room with Hanne and our friend and colleague Johann Deurell as we interpreted the symbolism of the magnificent Quetzal bird. I am also grateful for the support and friendship of Nina Wennberg who moved on to bigger and better things far too soon. Finally, although Marco Pecorari was only present for the first couple of years of my PhD, in him I found one of my best friends as well as one of my most cherished scholarly collaborators. We’re both stubborn as mules, but without Marco’s compassion and unwavering belief in me and in the value of my research, this dissertation might never have happened. Thank you, Marco, for your friendship and for always pushing me to think boldly. Since I did such a terrible job assimilating into Swedish society, I am forever grateful for my expat community of one and best friend: Predrag “Pookie” Stefanovic. I will always remember our trashiest moments, such as the party cruise on which we were the oldest, coolest and most notorious passengers, as well as our classiest moments, such as when we spent a month’s rent at Fäviken and had the