At the end of “Gone with the Wind,” Rhett Butler didn’t give a damn about Scarlett O’Hara, but millions of American women did, and they paid close attention to her multiple disguises.
The mid-19th century fashion depicted in the film, with its corsets and hoop skirts, was not particularly practical for 1939, when the film was released. But the details of Scarlett’s many dresses and other costumes from 1930s movies — the patterns, trims, fabrics and fastenings — entered the zeitgeist of fashion, even in Nebraska, according to research by the scholar and Husker alumna Anna Kuhlman.
Kuhlman, who grew up in Andover, Kansas, and came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an undergraduate majoring in fashion design and merchandising, has long been fascinated with historical fashion and popular culture. As a child, she volunteered at a living history museum near her hometown, where she dressed in period clothing and was remembered as one of the “coolest things ever”. She also gravitated toward the American Girl line of dolls and books, which followed the stories of fictional girls living through very real American history, along with the clothes they wore.
As a master’s student in material culture and textile studies, she continued her studies on historical fashion practices, trends, fabrics, and trim.
“Personally, I’ve always been interested in early 20th century fashion,” Kuhlman said. The Great Depression and the World War II later, it really changed the way fashion was interacted with, bought and seen. There was already a lot of existing research on the World War. II fashion, but less so in the Depression. I focused on Nebraska because of our collection here and other resources, but also because less is known about the Midwest. I had never really seen what fashion was like for women here at the time.”
In her thesis research, she found that although 1930s fashion magazines often featured industry trends first, the popularity of the movies propelled those styles into department stores around the world.
“A common pattern seen through the research was evidence of a trend at least several months before a movie release, then exaggeration by costume designers for specific movies, which was then modified by manufacturers/retailers. to sell to consumers who matched their tastes. , needs, and price points,” she wrote in the thesis, “The Making of Everyday Hollywood: 1930s Influence on Everyday Women’s Fashion in Nebraska.”
Watching movies in theaters has long been a popular pastime for Americans, even during the Great Depression, when 46-68% of Americans U.S The population attended the movies weekly, and the majority of audience members were women, according to a 2001 research article by R. Butsch. Additionally, the middle class had adopted more ready-to-wear clothing by the turn of the century.
To understand how film fashion translated to middle-class women in the state, Kuhlman delved into the archives of Vogue magazine; five films from the 1930s and their accompanying promotional materials in film magazines; the clothing collection in the Department of Textile, Merchandising and Fashion Design; and over 500 photos from History Nebraska.
The films Kuhlman chose were based on their popularity, Nebraska theatrical showings, year of release, and the fame of the actors and actresses in the lead roles: “Letty Lynton” (1932), “It Happened One Night” (1934 ), “Mannequin” (1937), “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife” (1938) and “Gone with the Wind” (1939).
“Joan Crawford, and her film ‘Letty Lynton,’ were known to scholars very specifically as the ones that started the fad for fashion copy films, especially the dress,” Kuhlman said. “A lot of previous research has pointed to that movie as a starting point. Similarly, for ‘Gone with the Wind,’ the barbecue dress from that film, with green flowers, is also cited as one of the most copied looks.”
Kuhlman found that to be true in Nebraska as well. He noted that 25 photos taken after the release of “Letty Lynton” showed clothing similar to the film’s fashions, including the famous dress, with its voluminous sleeves and slim fit. Gone with the Wind, meanwhile, produced similar styles in 20 photographs.
“(The) big picture is that the fashions that got the most promotion and the most screen time were the ones that tended to be the most copied,” Kuhlman said. “There could have been a really cool dress in a movie, but if it only had two minutes of screen time, then none of the magazines or any other promotional material would really have pictures of it.”
For example, Kuhlman noted that “It Happened One Night,” in which the title character, played by Claudette Colbert, spends most of the film in a striped blouse and black skirt, likely played a role in her adoption of stripes and a black skirt. more comfortable style. business clothes made of knitted fabrics.
“Knitwear was definitely gaining popularity, but I think Hollywood and that movie made it more popular,” Kuhlman said. “With the success of the movie, this look, specifically with the stripes, became more copied and I think it perpetuated the idea of knitwear. It became more socially acceptable to wear slightly more comfortable clothing, and it was probably a precursor to sportswear.”
Few fads were copied exactly, Kuhlman said, but they can be traced back to movies of the time.
“They became practical for what those women did in their lives,” she said. “They were moms, teachers, nurses. They made those film models suitable for what they were doing.”
Kuhlman, who graduated with her master’s degree in May, continues to work with the Historic Textile and Costume Collections in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design. She is also using her knowledge of historical textiles and clothing at the Stuhr Museum on Grand Island, where she is reproducing period costumes for the living history museum.
Source: news.unl.edu