FASHION and LITERATURE 

on Fashion and Poetry of 1900s 

In 1900s, women were treated as flowers- highly decorated like an object. Long skirts and dresses with a train brushing the floor were the main clothing. Use of very long and narrow sleeves, extremely high stand-up collars, trains, hip-hugging skirts fanning out toward the ground; styled with well coiffed hair, rolls of pinned-ups, wavy hair could be given as a reference to the overall look. Moreover, I should note that dramatically draped hats made of chiffon, chine fabrics, silk alpaca, velvet and laces were the finishing touch. 

This kind of styling creates a silhouette of woman with a grotesque S-bend -breasts pushed outward into a curve while and exaggerated bottom curved in the opposite direction. The women were adjusted to the beauty standards regardless of the biological wellness of her body and were portrayed quite erotically. After having done some research on the fashion of the time, I remembered a poem describing exactly this kind of style, from my American Literature/Poetry class: “Patterns” by Amy Lowell. 

“I walk down the garden paths,

And all the daffodils

Are blowing, and the bright blue squills.

I walk down the patterned garden paths

In my stiff, brocaded gown.

With my powdered hair and jewelled fan,

I too am a rare

Pattern. As I wander down

The garden paths.

My dress is richly figured,

And the train

Makes a pink and silver stain

On the gravel, and the thrift

Of the borders.

Just a plate of current fashion,

Tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes.

Not a softness anywhere about me,

Only whale-bone and brocade.”

This poem is about a woman’s thoughts on some patterns in life -marriage, war, and one of them is fashion. Lowell describes the woman wandering in a garden of daffodils and squills. The woman wears ‘a stiff, brocaded gown with powdered hair and jewelled fan’ and high-heeled, ribboned shoes’. One could understand that she feels comfortable neither in the dress -as it restricts moving freely- nor in the characterization of the woman at that time.  She describes the dress as ‘richly figured’ and references the train which makes ‘a pink and silver stain’. At the end of the stanza she describes the woman as ‘just a plate of current fashion’ which shows us that women treated like objects, and what this made her feel: ‘Not a softness anywhere…’

Finally, we can say that this poem is an exact reflection of the time. How history of the time affects art – especially fashion and literature; and, how styling, a visual look, is woven into words are given clearly with this part of Amy Lowell’s poem ‘The Patterns’.