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| For two articles and a conference presentation, I researched
the impact that the 1950s media had on women’s fashion
choices. Specifically, how the iconic shirtwaist dress developed
into the embodiment of 1950s motherhood and domesticity. |
| Period movies and television shows depict the housewife of
the 1950s in the uniform of her profession: a shirtwaist dress.
In the 1950s, magazines, television, books, and films all had
varying degrees of influence over women’s fashion choices.
Magazines, however, had a more significant role at the inception
of the 1950s shirtwaist style just after World War II. David
Halberstam explains that “women turned to magazines to
learn how to adapt to their new roles in the land of plenty.”
(The History Channel, David Halberstam's The Fifties
, 1997) |
| Good Housekeeping was a practical lifestyle magazine
that influenced the fashion decisions of women, and provides
information on how the 1950s shirtwaist was sold to them. Tracing
the path of the shirtwaist—from its established pre-war
form, to its 1947 revision by Haute Couture designer Christian
Dior, to its gradual appearance in this new form in Good
Housekeeping—shows how it began its development as
an icon. Exploring the representations of the dress will show
the solidification of its iconic status. |
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