Wardrobe Reading
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The Ageless Body Conscious A wardrobe inventory of mid-century style By Eva Bennett
Image: Charles James Ball Gowns for Vogue, by Cecil Beaton, 1948
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hoosing the wardrobe for close reading and inventory was to choose a closet that inspired one’s personal sense of style, or at least sparked my appreciation for clothing. I have chosen a wardrobe that I have known all my life: a closet that has been worn to countless birthdays every year, and one that has seen the world over, more than once. This closet is a reflection of its wearer; it is clean, hyper organized, and specific not in its sources, but in sentiments. The garments are intelligently arranged next to each other. Each piece is still here because it compliments the next. Brands do not matter, but class does - this is the wardrobe of my grandmother.
Her life as an intellectual woman -growing up and paying for her own university at a time when women were the minority in post-secondary studies- is a personal inspiration. She was one of three women in a geology class at the University of Manitoba in 1956. She married a fellow geologist, my grandfather, and together they started their relationship in New Jersey while my grandfather studied further at Princeton. Together they embarked on geological explorations and global conferences, from which one specific item still preserved caught my attention.
Introduction & Close Reading: Wardrobe Interview
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Wardrobe Reading
The International Geological Congress takes place every four years, to collaborate with fellow geological scientists in North America and Europe1. My grandmother has a scarf in her collection gifted from Hermès to her and all other “wives of the Geologists” from a Geological Congress meeting, held in Paris in 1980. The signature Hermès orange packaging that opens like a long rectangular envelope cradles the scarf between white tissue paper. The scarf measures 89cm by 89cm, with prints of brown, beige, blue, and grey shells and fossils, on a geometric orange, green, brown, and white background. A tag measuring 2.54cm folds in half with ends sewn to the hem of the scarf, declaring “100% soie” (100% silk). The hem is rolled and hand stitched. Also printed on opposite ends, in the center of the brown boarder in white lettering are “Hermès – Paris ©” and “Geologie”, authenticating the name of the scarf with its packaging and origin (see Figure 1). As per guidelines to conducting a close Figure 1 reading of an object, I follow select rules in an article from the late 90s, by fashion theorist Valerie Steele: identification, evaluation, and interpretation2. I observe that the scarf is soft; it feels like a thin leaf between the fingers. The weightlessness omits a sound of scratching wind over a flag when lifted and laid back down by one’s hand. When comparing the accessory to others of its kind, one can see that the scarf is typical of Hermès. A blue silk Hermès scarf “L’arbre de Vie”, from my own closet, conforms to the typical weight of the object, similar in fullness to the “Geologie” scarf when folded over. Both are smooth in texture. Overall, the scarf is a decent example typical of Hermès style, however not typical to the style of my grandmother. Another fashion theorist, Joanne Entwistle, said “The function of the clothes is to make the body acceptable in the different social situations in which we find ourselves”3.. The social performance of my grandmother 34 years ago was as the wife of a geology professor attending the Geological Congress. In this stage, she altered her role to conform to a more feminine attitude of the time, and identity as a wife, thus conforming to a woman who would be subject to a party favour, like a silk scarf accessory. Although my grandmother affirmed her femininity in the social role she played at this time, her wardrobe today reflects a style much more self-aware of her body image, which is why she never wore the scarf: it was not her “colour”. The International Geological Congress (A Brief History). iugs.org. Retrieved from http://iugs.org/uploads/images/PDF/A%20Brief%20History. pdf 2 Steele, V. “A Museum of Fashion Is More Than a Clothes-Bag.” The Journal of Dress, Body &Culture 2:4 (1998): 327 -335(9). Web. 22 Mar. 2014. 3 Entwistle, Joanne. 2000. The Fashioned Body: Fashion, Dress, and Modern Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press. 1
Introduction & Close Reading: Wardrobe Interview
Wardrobe Reading
A small study has found that an increase in age equals an increase in body satisfaction, especially of aging women4. However, The Journal of General Psychology acknowledged that more research on body image for the aged populations is needed; it is speculated that these issues do exist as strongly in the elderly as for the younger and middle age populations5. My grandmother has a wardrobe packed with shades, and few colours: red, pastel pink, soft blue, and yellow. Shirts do not contain organic patterns, but rather geometric floral designs. Articles of clothing are dashed with lines: small to large checks, vertical stripes, plaids, and a predominant number of A-line blouses, dresses, skirts and blazers. When I inquire about the number of black items and an obvious admiration for the vertical cut, my grandmother says she likes the way it fits her body. The fit and the “slimming effect of black” is a direct reflection of her personal body image. This first-hand knowledge of her body image awareness coincides with knowledge of optical illusion and dress: “An optically slimming effect is achieved by establishing vertical lines, avoiding horizontal lines, and by erasing contours.”6 My grandmother has an obvious understanding of how to manipulate what she wears to “work” with her shape. The only lacking accessory is the belt. I ask her about the three belts she has, speculating that she finds them too revealing of her shape. “I don’t wear belts very often because I haven’t got a waist anymore. […]They’re not comfortable.” According to her, physical comfort has to be present when she wears and purchases clothing. Optically dividing her body is a physical and psychological discomfort to her body image. The alteration over time of her once shapely torso is a disturbance of her positive body image, as her body proceeds through a natural aging process7. Öberg, P., & Tornstam, L. (1999). Body images among men and women of different ages. Ageing & Society, 19, 629–644. 5 Ferraro, F. Richard, et al. “Aging, Body Image, and Body Shape.” The Journal of general psychology 135.4 (2008): 379-92. Web. 25 Mar. 2014 6 Klepp, Ingun Grimstad. “Slimming Lines.” The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 15.4 (2011): 451-480. Web. 25 Mar. 2014 7 Ferraro, F. Richard, et al. “Aging, Body Image, and Body Shape.” The Journal of general psychology 135.4 (2008): 379-92. Web. 25 Mar. 2014 8 Barry, B. (2014, January). Values, Vulnerability and Disruption. Fashion Concepts and Theories. Lecture conducted from Ryerson University, Toronto, ON. 4
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My grandmother strives to achieve a positive body image in her current wardrobe by choosing pieces that compliment her shape. In order to emphasize desirable attributes of her shape, she favours pieces cut on the bias that drape over her hips and thus slim the appearance of her waist. Her favourite summer piece is a rayon over-the-head, ankle length dress, cut on the bias, diverting attention from her self-conscious perception of wide hips. Her body conscious dressing in this example is a result of her desire to “hide and distract” what she saw as “big”6. The most predominant quality of the wardrobe is the overwhelming number of clothes in shades, usually black. My grandmother proclaims she admired the shade- as she feels “dressed in black” ...I speculate that she also acquired numerous dark pieces to disguise herself and her body. Black sells because “consumers feel safer and blend in”8. The number of black articles in the wardrobe enables my grandmother to accentuate her other qualities, such as personality and beauty, rather than to be thought of for the colourful attire covering her body shape. The specificity of colour and shade in the wardrobe mature questions about the psychological choices behind light colour selection. Are the blues and pinks and lack of reds a personal choice, or a subconscious decision by my grandmother? The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture clarified that appearing slim could be easier achieved if one avoids bright colour6. Hence I conclude that my grandmother subconsciously gravitates to black first and foremost for the slimming effect, and the comfort - an important factor for her when purchasing clothing. Few other colours in her wardrobe include soft blues, pinks, and butter yellows, avoiding, and even despising, lime green. She has an understanding that bright colours draw too much attention to her figure. However, her confidence in the conscious understanding of her colour palette is also evident. She subscribes to the cool-soft palette and avoids bright colours, not just because of their attention-grabbing attributes but because she knew what “looked good” with her skin and hair, and what looks best on her figure, as she is also plagued with body consciousness. In further exploration of the wardrobe, my grandmother and I move beyond the closet and into Critical Analysis and Conclusion
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a chest of jewelry. Necklaces, bangles, rings, pins, and earrings scramble together in their own boxes. Her copious stacks of scarves are folded, one on top of the other, at which point we arrived to the object of close reading. The Hermès scarf is separated from the others by predominant tints of orange and green, colours previously sworn away from the wardrobe of my grandmother. She recalls how the Geological Congress was giving either orange or pink – she regrets not choosing pink, a mistake she learned from as her wardrobe was flushed with mauve when I visit. The era of the scarf, the start of the working woman with working men, falls at a time when the décolletage of female dress is almost equal with the modesty of today. Décolletage, or the neckline exposed by the cut of a dress, was at the lowest point in 1965, especially compared to that of 19819. I concurred the length of the décolletage is equivalent with modesty (a longer décolletage infers a lower garment waist, in response infers less emphasis on the waist, and more on the chest and neck area). A lower waistline implies less focus on the entire torso. Judging from this speculation, I concluded that the lower décolletage is a response to the previous decades and their interest in body shaping, thus swinging the pendulum of body consciousness far away from the previously desired feminine shape as possible, to equalize the woman with the man. Thus, a scarf gifted in 1980 was a must-have accessory, to wear around the neck -- to hide the décollage. When one area is exposed, another is covered -- a concept of The Shifting Erogenous Zones10. I am proud to study the wardrobe of my grandmother. Not only is she a large influence in my life, but also lens me her traits of style awareness. Although the Hermès scarf is not closely related to the wardrobe of my grandmother because of the colours, it does correlate with the topic of body consciousness. The subtlety of her black wardrobe and the sparseness of hue subscribes to the characteristic of a body conscious individual. The scarf was an object to accessorize and cover up the body. The orange, beige, and brown tones do not bode well with my grandmother, as she preferred to flatter her colouring with subtle pink and blues. However the orange, beige, and brown tones also do not dress her the way Critical Analysis and Conclusion
Wardrobe Reading
she likes, because the colour draws attention to the body, thus discomforting the psychology behind her perception of body image. As the biggest rule of dress for my grandmother is comfort, an object that does not compliment her colouring and therefore tampers with her body image has to be discarded. Now, the scarf hangs in my wardrobe, as a sort of flag of generational style. 9 Mulcahy, F. D., Sherman, H., & Liang, J. x. (2009). Underneath the glittering maze: Decorum and décolletage in high fashion, 1937–2004. Technology in Society, 31(4), 350-355. 10 Laver, James. Modesty in Dress: An Inquiry into the Fundamentals of Fashion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969