Downtown Abbey Research Paper

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Recommended: The women's liberation movement 1960s

I will try to use “Downtown Abbey” as a standing point to illustrate the women fashion included clothing and hair style in 1910-1920s. The essay will answer the question how the fashion style changed from restriction to liberation and practicality. I will try to combine the factual history and what I learnt in this course to see how the “downtown Abbey” related to the historical fact.

Fashion style is the most obvious thing to reflect the self-expression of the women. I believe the fashion of “Downtown Abbey” must be an important part of this television series as the characters keep switching into the different style. The first season is mainly wearing Edwardian-era style with buttoned-up lace shirts and long shirts. Granny Violet Crawley …show more content…

Before the war, all the girls in Downtown Abbey had long hair and tied at the back. After the war, Lady Mary and the cook Daisy cut a short hair. Based on historical, Coco Chanel cut her hair in 1916, is a big step of the revolution in hairstyles. Bobbed hair became popular between 1918 and 1925. In 1922, an influence novel written by Victor Margueritte talked about the “modern woman” cut her hair and dress like male and start a liberated life in Paris (Roberts, 1994). Similar view mentioned in the reading from the course, the book “The modern girl around the world” talked about one of the important features of the modern girl was being seen. That was related to the visual economy. The visual representation of modern girl became visible in media, for example, photography, cinema, and lithography (Weinbam, Thomas, Ramamurthy, Polger, Dong and Barlow, 2008). Short hair grew popularity but the men refused to accept. According to Mary Louise Roberts ‘s journal, she mentioned about how the short hair fashion style had overturned French women’s life in the 1920s. Feminist Henriette Sauret once described short hair as "a gesture of independence; a personal venture “(Roberts, 1994, P. 80). Men couldn't understand what was happening to their daughters and wives. They even tried to lock their daughter up until the hair grew back. The short hair was creating a dispute between families. While the situation in “Downtown Abbey” is …show more content…

When Lady Mary went to a fashion show in London, the design of clothes tended to be practical and professional. For instance, women suit was popular. Referring to the history, the most well-known luxury brand Coco Chanel was rise during WWI. She encouraged clothing along with comfort and greater freedom of movement. In order to create the professional image for women, she designed the first suit for women and became popular for women in the 1920s. Not just suit, Coco Chanel also adopted male fashions. For instance, ties, collars, long tailor-cut jackets, and pajamas to create a boyish look (Roberts, 1994). I believe Economy context is one of the reasons why British pursued the practicality of clothing. According to Haight (2014), in 1917, British restriction on paper limited catalog length and began producing budget-priced clothes because of the income decreased. The another reason related to the war, women took the job from men and engaged more in the working environment. They needed a new design of clothes that suitable for them to work. They volunteered for the nurse in the hospital just like Lady Sybil. According to Chadwick & Latimer (2003), the war gave a chance to women fight for the new freedom of movement and enjoyed the professional role. That was a new image of freedom and self-respect led women away from traditional gender roles. The change of fashion style revealed the

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