History 30 Days

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” (Fashion Quotes 1) The words once spoken by Henry David Thoreau are politically correct. People often look at Elizabethan‘s choice of fashion and ridicule everything about it from the hair, down to the stockings. As it appears, fashion has always been a broad topic of discussion in the world. Whether it is NY Fashion Week or a Macy’s fashion show, fashion is something that has always been an eye catcher. Fashion has been around for many years, and whether we know it or not, Elizabethan fashion has influenced the way modern fashion is today.

Have you ever wondered what people in the Elizabethan Era wore? Fashion was just as important in those days as it is to some people today. What people were wearing mattered to others, and even the government. During the Elizabethan Era clothing, accessories, and cosmetics were all a part of daily life.

The Victorian Era is well known for puffy skirts and restricting formal garments while the Progressive Era was known for its more flamboyant attire and the World War II Era for its more conservative style to ration for the war. The history of clothing and fashion calls to question its importance in distinguishing identities of different groups of people as well as marking the different stages of the country’s cultural, political, and economic history. How are the different clothing styles reflective of the values and lifestyle of the multicultural United States and more importantly, how did it contribute to the creation of the American identity? 17th century inhabitants of the North American continent exhibited vastly different wardrobe choices

Chibnall, Steve. "Whistle and Zoot: The Changing Meaning of a Suit of Clothes." History Workshop, Oxford University Press. 20 (Autumn 1985): 56-81.

The museums in Lowell will transport one back to the time when the city gave birth to America’s Industrial Age. From witnessing the lives of the Lowell Mill Girls who tirelessly worked in the famous Lowell mills to tracing history using quilts as a guide, Lowell’s art galleries and museums are packed with history. In addition, Lowell annual events celebrate the city’s rich cultural diversity.

The Rebecca Bryan Art Gallery located in Edwards presents Syd meads “Progressions” art exhibit. The Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Syd mead will have

Partnering with the Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre, the Cathedral Village Arts Festival, and FadaDance the Art Gallery of Regina presented a full day of free programming for our 2017 Open House. The AGR partnered with the CVAF, plus also successfully applied for Canada 150 funds in support of an contemporary dance piece performed in the gallery in response our exhibition Landforms. Additionally, our Canada 150 grant extended to funding a painting demo by exhibiting artist Mike Keepness in the NBCAC courtyard space. Some of the visitors sat watching and speaking with Mike over the full duration of Mike’s demo. Plus, our gallery full of visitors watching the FadaDance performance, people enjoyed connection to the paintings and the history of the landscape presented through dance.

This unique and contemporary event provides patrons with live entertainment, food and drink as they revel in the wonders the museum has to offer. Carrie Martin’s aim is to attract at least 3,500 visitors for the grand opening and maximize profits. Corporate capabilities, competitors, and consumers will be examined to develop an effective marketing plan.

Their sweaters, knickers, slacks, blue flannel jackets with brass buttons were fancy dress. The fat lady in the yachting cap was going shopping, not boating; the man in the Norfolk jacket and Tyrolean hat was returning, not from a mountain, but an insurance office; and the girl in slacks and sneaks with a bandanna around her head had just left a switchboard, not a tennis court,” (Chapter 1).

Clothing took on tremendous importance during this time, and it showed through what social class wore what, and had a way of shaping one’s identity (Covington 27). The clothes that were worn in this time period distinguished who one spoke to, what one wore, where one sat, and who one associated with (Collins).

Ever since their invention many centuries ago, clothes have been used as a way of communicating. The message communicated relies on a number of factors including the social background of both the communicator and the receiver, and the context in which the message is communicated. Although at times the exact message or symbolism one is trying to portray may not be clear, it is evident that clothing has long been embraced as one of the best ways to project one’s desired personal image to those around them.

Clothing has been heavily criticized by many, and in particular, philosophers. In Karen Hanson’s piece “Dressing Down Dressing Up--The Philosophers Fear of Fashion”, the author notes that there has been a long standing tradition of what she refers to as a philosophic hostility toward fashionable dress (1990, p. 107). Socrates was critical of how clothing resulted in a desire for things in the physical realm (Hanson 1990, p. 114). As told by Plato, Socrates believed that concern for clothes and other bodily ornaments filled people with nonsense and distracted them from the activity of thinking (Hanson 1990, p. 114; Seery 1996, p. 53). On the topic of fashionable dress, Immanuel Kant wrote that it was “not properly a matter of taste, but a matter of mere vanity in order to appear distinguished, and a matter of competition in order to surpass others in it” (Kant 2006, p. 143). He defined fashionable dress under the title of vanity because he believed there was no inner worth in its intentions and thought that the people who “slavishly” followed fashion were foolish (Kant 2006, pp. 142-143). Thorstein Veblen was critical of the pointlessness of fashionable clothing (Wilson 2011, p. 330). In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen wrote that clothing was a way to identify differences between social class, advertise a person’s wealth and position in society, and to reinforce the prestige of the upper-class (English 2013, p. 212). He felt that trying to

One common theme in dress across time is how it is used to designate status in a society. History has shown that the way someone is dressed is often times an indication of who they are. Status is the relative social, professional, or class ranking of someone in a society. What this means is that the clothes someone wears are more than just a matter of style, but rather a statement of their class, status or purpose in a specific place. We know this to be true because today it can be seen all around us. We know who celebrities are because of the designer labels they wear. We understand that when someone walks into a room and is dressed in the most expensive brands and jewelry that they are someone with not just money, but power. It is easy for any common person to notice the garments of a homeless man or women and recognize their state of living. It is even easier to tell where someone works, or if they are single based on what they are wearing. Every day, we make judgements about who someone is based on their clothes almost subconsciously. This is nothing new, for years’ people have used dress to distinguish between status. Overtime, dress has become the single most important aspect of someone’s first impression. This idea that dress designates status has even changed the way we think about meeting a significant others parents for the first time, or going into an interview, or even deciding what to wear on the first day of school. Dress is simply that big of a statement of who you are, and that is very important. As we learn more about how dress designates status, it has become clear to me that the most common examples of this are dress designating occupation, marital status, or social class. These are three of the topics I will expand on for the purposes of this paper.

Certain types of institutions have an impact on certain kinds of representations. Small scale, artist-run centres foster exposure, growth, and offer support to contemporary artists as opposed to large institutions and commercial galleries. Gallery 44, Centre for Contemporary Photography located at 401 Richmond Street West in Toronto is one such artist-run centre that contributes to the growth of contemporary photography and artists.

　　During the mid-eighteenth century, whilst it is believed that the aristocrat fashions (i.e. breeches, pantaloons, stockings) had become the mainstream dress norms, however, surprisingly, the basis of men’s wardrobes became the suit although the jackets were still very full with coat skirts, and the rousers were knee-length breeches; moreover, the suits became plainer but still elaborate (Craik, 1994). To some extent, this was perhaps due to the previous aristocratic style had lost its appeals in the process of popularization, therefore people turned to adopt a newer style. Steele (1985, 98-99) described this trend as a trickle-up phenomenon, since the plainness was based on the clothing of working-class men but gradually became the standard dress for men of all classes. After that, Steele (1985) argued there was a battle between men’s fashions that accompanied the growth of civil society and the gradual erosion of aristocratic power and prestige in Europe. The aristocrats tried to reinforce the social hierarchies and to differentiate themselves from the bourgeoisies by wearing their Macaronis’ shoes with buckles or bows, light silk stockings, accessories, nosegays, neck chiefs tied in a bow,