GENDER REVOLUTION

Introduction

Gimnazjum im. Mikołaja Siemiona w Krzczonowie

We decided to choose fashion as the subject of our research. We wanted to compare how male and female fashion preferences have changed over last hundred years. All the changes were deliberately adjusted to provide more and more comfort, better functionality as well as esthetic needs and tastes.

For example, a woman wearing trousers would arouse surprise and shock in the nineteenth century streets. Those days, pants were reserved strictly for men. However, today there is nothing shocking if you see a lady in trousers. When trousers were introduced to women’s wardrobes by Coco Channel in 1915, nobody liked the idea. But very soon women decided to adopt male fashion because it is more convenient and practical than female dresses and skirts. The war times (the first world war) introduced many changes in male and female fashion. People began to wear simple, modest and practical clothes. For the first time, women’s legs were exposed to mid-calf. Even in the war times, women took care of themselves and their appearance (fresh and clean skirts, fashionable scarves with fancy hats) and they painted their lips red – to emphasize that every day could be their last. At the same time, men cared to have clean and tidy shirts, woolen suits, often coats and hats – the capital of male fashion was still conservative London. Inter-war and after-war periods brought new change s in female style. Women’s skirts and dresses were becoming shorter and shorter. In the 1920s it was possible to observe first women exposing their knees The 1920s was the era of jazz and charleston – having fun meant having short hair

Gimnazjum im. Mikołaja Siemiona w Krzczonowie and short dresses. The changes in skirts’ length and other “revolutionary” (for that period) ideas were possible thanks to the fact that women were gaining more and more civil rights in the society and were able to free themselves from bodice ruling till the twentieth century. During the war a lot of women were supposed to replace men (soldiers) in factories and it was not possible for them to work, for example, in an ironworks in a dress or a skirt. Their “work uniform” soon became part of their everyday style. Again, for men, the interwar and war period brought changes in “conservative” suits, coats and hats – their clothing became more and more practical: lose and easy to “deal with”. In case of men, the changes seem to be less revolutionary. They ended with conservative “British gentleman” style soon after the war. One of the factors was the development of transportation (automobile and plane) industry – the clothes had to be practical enough to make a journey comfortable. If you have a look at Hollywood images, you will see how Errol Flynn was replaced by Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy, then by Peter Falk or Telly Savalas, and then they had to leave the stage for Clint Eastwood. Their clothes changed due to the pace of life they had lived. The 1960s and the following years, inspired by hippie revolution, started to blur the differences between male and female fashion. Casual clothes – t- shirts, shorts, shoes, etc. – were worn by both sexes. Formal clothes – suits, jackets – could be found in male and female wardrobes. A woman wearing trousers, a jacket, a shirt with a tie? There was nothing strange about it now - just a perfect businesswoman image. Today it is no wonder that women moved to the male fashion and vice versa. Everyone

Gimnazjum im. Mikołaja Siemiona w Krzczonowie experiments with their clothing and then create his/her own style. Of course, there are still people who get shocked with fashion ideas but sooner or later we all get used to them.

Gimnazjum im. Mikołaja Siemiona w Krzczonowie