LOCK UP YOUR
A SALUTATION TO OUR FEMALE
FOREBEARS FOR HELPING TO RELEASE
US FROM THE SHACKLES OF SEXISM.
Development of technology
led to more time, more
time led to a better social
calendar for women and a
better social calendar led to
women drinking, smoking
and dancing in front of
men; ultimately, enjoying
themselves without the
restraint of husbands. The
lady’s liberation led to a
change in style in which
Coco Chanel emerged as
the star. Chanel was one
of the first women in the
eye of the media to bob her
hair; which was one small
step for a woman, one giant
leap for womankind. Paul
Poiret, a rival of Chanel’s,
called her revolutionary
designs ‘poverty deluxe’,
obviously unhappy with the
direction womenswear was
taking. The western world
disagreed. Removing corsets
and almost the waistline
altogether, Chanel dressed
the fashionable women of
the time in loose, swinging
dresses, allowing women to
dance and live more freely.
y Mother was
a radical punk
in the eighties,
marching for
equality across genders,
across ethnicities and animal
rights. Therefore, being born
and bred a liberal lady, the
emancipation of women is a
matter of importance that I
am reminded of through my
Mother and what she, and
so many other women and
men have achieved this past
century.
M
The 1920s was a time of
jazz, parties and new found
freedom for women. This
freedom was granted to us in
the form of three things: the
vote, the automobile and the
washing machine. No longer
did we have to sit by as our
husbands voted; no longer did
we have to walk to the market
or to dinner parties; no longer
did we have to hand wash the
laundry.
“Being born and
bred a liberal lady,
the emancipation of
women is a matter of
importance that I am
reminded of through
my Mother,”
Pictured above: my Mother at 24, who had a two
year old daughter while studying a Psychology
degree at Cardiff University; Mum att 18 in a play
at Cardiff University
49
The fashion house of Chanel
declined between 1930 and
1954 and women of the
mode followed the word of
Christian Dior, the man who
created the ‘New Look’ »
Daughters
in a time for excess.
This term was coined
by Harper’s Bazaar’s
then editor-in-chief
Carmel Snow (who
was originally to be
Vogue’s editor-in-chief
after Edna Woolman
Chase) naming the
style in an article on
the Spring/Summer
1947 collection.
This style presented
women with a new
silhouette, one that
emphasised all the
feminine curves
with corsetry and
padding around the
breasts and hips.
British Vogue wrote
at the time, ‘Thereare
moments when
fashion changes
fundamentally,
this is one of those
moments.’
This was probably
one of the first and
most significant
times of the 20th
century when women
were divided with
their fashions. Many
women protested
against Dior’s ‘New
Look’, tearing down
his mannequins and
rallying against the
boned corsets and
padded bras; fashion
seemed to be going
“Chanel was one
of th H