Cyclical Fashion Movement: Women's Day Dresses: 1860-1980

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate cyclical fashion movement via women's day dresses from 1860 to 1980. A sample of 489 illustrations of garments was drawn from periodicals based upon a set of explicit criteria. The instrument utilized was designed to pinpoint long term changes in fashion cycles. Data were analyzed using cross-tabulations, time series analysis, and Spearman's rank order correlation. Results from cross-tabulation indicated that there were substantial cyclical changes in skirt length, waist emphasis, and silhouette of women's day dresses for the selected time period. This was further supported by the time series and correlation analyses. The data suggest a series of regularly recurring cyclical changes in women's day dresses. It was concluded that if such cycles continue in a similar pattern, then some degree of predictability for future cycles may be present.

The Simmel effect and babies’ names

“…1 vs Fig.2. This follows the difference between the length of skirts [15,16,17] and the babies names [14].…”

Velocity of the Fashion Process in Women's Formal Evening Dress, 1789-1980

“…Fashion in women's clothing is not necessarily in the latter throes of disintegration as Bell (1976) has suggested; the within-year variance remains far less than the maximum amount allowable by constraints on the dimensions. Besides the notion of the temporal lens, our finding of increased within-year variance of the various dress dimensions through time needs to be considered.…”

“…Theorists favoring the exogenous approach include such notables as Veblen (1899), Simmel (1904), Sapir (1937, Blumer (1969), Barthes (1983), Bell (1976), Davis (1985), and Sproles (1985). In addition some empirical work supports this approach.…”

Development of an Instrument for a Visual Analysis of Dress from Pictorial Evidence

“…Belleau (1987) utilized both nominal and ordinal measurement in her study of the changes in women's daytime dress from 1860 to 1980 as represented in fashion illustrations. Ordinal measures are useful in recording lengths and widths of garment features, such as sleeve length or collar width, without actual physical measurement of the pictured garment.…”