Those who follow my Twitter feed (@Fashionhistoria) will know that I’ve been spending a good deal of time in the newspapers and manuscripts division of the UC Berkeley Library looking through historical volumes of Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). I’ve been slowly making my way through 10 volumes covering the first six months of 1927, and the first six months of 1929 (don’t ask me why, but that’s all Harvard and Northwestern sent from my Interlibrary Loan Request). It is my intention to go through all the volumes from 1927-1933.
Turning the pages of these large leather-bound books is a long, but interesting process. WWD was and is, as the name implies, a daily publication. Looking through a single month can take me many days (each day has between 40-60 pages of very small print). That said, some of the things I’ve found are rather enthralling. I’ve been posting some of what I’ve found via Twitpic (click for examples), but here are some goodies I’ve been saving for WT, perhaps they’ll inspire one of you to research and write a paper on one of these topics.
(A coat by Bechoff, with Pahmi Fur trim, WWD, February 28, 1929).
WWD delves into an amazing number of details and facets associated with the fashion business. It also looks for and analyzes trends in many of the same places that fashion journalists and writers look for them today – on the street, at the theatre (both on stage, and in the audience), in films, at the beach (especially during winter months), and in museum fashion exhibits. In these articles, now primary source material for researchers, writers looked well beyond New York and Paris, reporting on doings and trends (from marketing strategies to popular sale items) in virtually every region of the US. Until this project, I had no idea Portland, Oregon was such an important center for fashion in 1929.
(WWD May 21, 1929, “Plus Fours Adopted for British Film Depicting Life in 1950″)
Illustrations are, of course, a key element of the historic importance of these volumes – especially the ads. The publication is entirely black and white, but both photographs and illustrations are used to depict everything from stage costumes, to sportswear to millinery, shoes, cottons, silks and rayons.
(Ad for Ted Kraisler Dresses, WWD, March 5, 1929)
A brief survey of these volumes illuminates just how connected the theater was to fashion trends and aesthetics: I did not know that so many couturier’s designed for the theater (both in New York, and in Paris). Martial et Armand, Lanvin, Patou, Poiret, Hattie Carnegie and many others regularly designed theatrical costumes (though they were generally not constructed by their own workshops). This brief, but obvious note makes me all the more curious about the recent publication, When Broadway Was the Runway: Theater, Fashion, and American Culture.
Some pretty outlandish things were worn for benefits, including this example by The Brooks Costume Co. for a benefit held at Madison Square Garden on May 3, 1929. (clicking on the photo to enlarge it is well worth it). The surrealism just blows me away. (For more on surrealism in theater of this era, take a look at Peter Nicholls’s article “Anti-Oedipus? Dada and Surrealist Theatre, 1916–35″ published in New Theatre Quarterly (1991), 7:331-347 Cambridge University Press.)
Ethel Barrymore’s prominence in the theatrical world was also nothing short of a sensation in the mid to late 20s. Article after article tracks her performances, her new productions and even her costumes. In 1949, Aline Bernstein included an earlier example of a Barrymore costume in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Behind American Footlights“(via The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 7 (Mar., 1949), pp. 199-204).
(Front Page, WWD, April 16, 1929, for a production of The Love Thief)
and aviation, it seems, was becoming more and more popular with women. Both ads and news pieces featured important style developments for a new garment type, the aviator suit. Many of the trend reports included pictures of Amelia Earhart and other lesser-known ‘flyers’, as well as photos or illustrations of the fashionable attire seen at popular air shows. (For more on this phenomenon see the essay by Karla Jay “No Bumps, No Excrescences: Amelia Earhart’s Failed Flight into Fashions” published in On Fashion, eds Benstock and Ferriss, 1994).
(Front page, WWD, “Paris Develops an Alluring Chic in Costumes for the Aviatrix” April 30, 1929)
All that is to say – if you looking for a topic to research Women’s Wear Daily will lead you in more directions than you can possibly need. Those in New York can find copies at the NYPL, and many other libraries in the country have different sections of its print run available for study.
Kelly, Katie. The Wonderful World of Women’s Wear Daily. New York: Saturday Review Publications, 1972.
Lessing, Alice and Ermina Stimson. Sixty Years of Fashion: 1900-1960, The Evolution of Women’s Styles in America. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1963.
Women’s Wear Daily. WWD Century : One Hundred Years of Fashion. New York: Fairchild Books & Visuals, 1998.
Women’s Wear Daily. The Changing American Woman : 200 Years of American Fashion. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1976.
*Directorie and Empire Fashions to Appear This Evening at Annual Beaux Arts Ball” WWD, January 25, 1929.
Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Holly Golightly in Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Orlando in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
Scarlett O’Harain Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind
Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Dorian Gray in Gustave Flaubert’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Rupert Psmith in the novels of P.G. Wodehouse
Lady Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises
Darling Daintyfoot in Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers
A wonderful property of literature and other art forms is that textiles — fragile under the best of circumstances — may be preserved in alternate mediums. Greek, Roman, and Ancient Egyptian statues may be studied for information on what people wore in eras almost impossible to find fragmented remains of clothes, much less full ensembles, as can paintings and literature. Though literature removes the visual aspect of fashion, it can supplement readers with information not gleaned from sculptures and pictures: how fabric moved; how heavy and cumbersome (or light and airy) it was; what necessary undergarments created the ultimate silhouettes. Most valuable, perhaps, is that literature is able to synthesize the mise en scène of a particular country, era, class, time of day, and personal circumstance, explicitly emphasizing the relationship of fashion with these other variables. Though not impossible, conveying this complex set of relationships is more challenging in fine arts, where the visual language may be forced to reduce information to simplified symbols, to be absorbed and interpreted by a viewer in a moment.
Within a written narrative, an author has space to develop characters and settings: personality, gender roles (how constrictive / seductive women’s gowns were communicates volumes), class (fabrics vary according to a person’s wealth), aspirations (class deception is commonly exploited with the use of clothes), sexual preference (homosexuals are often marked as such by a flamboyance of appearance that’s slightly out of step with current fashion)…. Though fashion historians often concentrate on the nitty-gritty details of garment descriptions — which is absolutely valuable — this information should contribute to the overall character development and plot structure of a novel as well. In the hands of a competent writer, dress details will not distract a non-fashion reader, but only add depth to what is already taking place.
The course of events in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, for example — war, displacement, poverty, the helpless role of women — lead directly and naturally to the memorable scene where Scarlett converts her destroyed mansion’s drapes into a fashionable dress and hat with which to impress and seduce Rhett Butler (thereby securing new wealth). (The dress from the original film, by the way, is in dire need of restoring.)
Scarlett O'Hara in drape dress, Gone with the Wind
This dress has become so iconic that costume designer Bob Mackie specifically spoofed it, within Carol Burnett’s 1976 general farce “Went with the Wind” (which I strongly encourage you to watch in its entirety):
Carol Burnett Show, Went with the Wind
As I hope you can see, Mackie left the curtain rod in, used drape ties with tassels for a belt, and left the contrasting fringe exactly where it would’ve been on the curtain, drawing attention to Scarlett’s desperation and deception sooner rather than later — taking Margaret Mitchell’s initial use of fashion one step further.
Presenters will be dissecting the relationship between fashion and literature in an upcoming Drexel University conference (at which I will be presenting): Fashion in Fiction: The Dark Side of Fashion. If you will be in Philadelphia October 8-10, please drop me a line (see my Profile for email address)!
Feel free to add your own best-dressed characters in fiction in the Comments….
As a young woman who has atypically looked forward to turning shocking silver (I’ve even promised myself to grow my pixie haircut at that time to accentuate it), I’ve read with some curiosity but ultimate skepticism, the rash of articles and blog posts about the supposed trend of women embracing grey hair. The most recent that I read, in UK Telegraph, was one of the more thoughtful ones; it concentrated on 46-year-old ’90s supermodel Kristin McMenamy’s latest photo shoot for Dazed and Confused magazine. Having always been a rather startling-looking woman with Tilda Swinton-like pallor and a broad sneer of a mouth, the shock of flowing, natural grey tresses doesn’t seem so out of place on McMenamy. “You can get older and still be rock’n'roll,” she told the magazine. “I thought all that grey hair would make a beautiful picture.” Below are two photos (neither from the D&C shoot) that exemplify how grey can be romantic…
in Vogue, August 2010
sleek…
in Calvin Klein RTW F2010
or totally fucking fierce:
on the Givenchy runway, S2008
This is not the first time grey hair has been in style; compared to the 18th century, this current fad is a drop in the pan. Men and women alike oiled and powdered their hair shades of grey and white starting in the mid-1700s. Oil was necessary to make the powder stick, and yes, oil and powder was unavoidably shed with movement; you can see Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, below, is leaking powder on his shoulder, like dandruff, where his ponytail rubs:
detail of Charles-Alexandre de Calonne by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1784
Below Madame Grand (later Madame Talleyrand-Périgord, Princesse de Bénévent) models the bouffant du jour in the late 18th century:
Madame Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, later Princesse de Bénévent, by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1783
Mature as her dusty locks make her to our 21st century eyes, this is only a 22 year-old woman; you can see her cheeks are still youthfully plump and rosy (though blush undoubtedly assisted). Here is the same woman — approximately 25 years later:
detail of Madame Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, later Princesse de Bénévent by François Gérard, c. 1808
In addition to the change of hair color and style, it is obvious by this comparison that there was a radical change of silhouette in the costume of the mid-late-18th century and that of the early 19th century. As with the turn of the 20th century, a great deal of bulk and fussiness was discarded in favor of a sleeker and ultimately more youthful, modern look in hair and costume. I don’t think it’s the powdered grey hair alone that ages our subject, but rather the compilation of big, fussy, surreal hair with busy bows and lace and volume in the dress and accessories. In my humble opinion, the neo-Classical look of the early 19th century just feels more modern. But I digress.
Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793) was both early champion and ultimate victim of powered coiffures. The Flour War of 1775, caused by the de-regulation of wheat prices by the government, lead to hoarding, gauging, and the inability of lower classes to afford simple bread, and was the ominous precursor to the crescendo of the French Revolution. Wig powder, a product of finely ground starch (a.k.a. flour), was used liberally by the naive queen in her legendary towering bouffants, casting her and her fashion statements in a distinctly unflattering, frivolous light. French historian Caroline Weber observed, “…although historians have established that Marie Antoinette never uttered the legendary remark “Let them eat cake,” it is not implausible that the lasting association between her callousness and baked edibles in fact originated with her habit of parading her powdered, wedding-cake hairstyles before a bread-starved nation.”
Here is Marie Antoinette in the very year of the Flour War, seemingly flaunting her willful ignorance of the economic struggles of her country, and all to achieve that trendy grey hair:
Marie Antoinette by Jacques-Fabien Gautier D'Agoty, 1775
With no small irony, according to legend Marie Antoinette’s hair turned grey with stress and fear the night before her execution; grey hair as fashion statement had clearly run its course as it became associated with the demonized, decapitated monarch. Two years later the English government levied a tax on hair powder, the last coffin nail of that grey-haired trend… until today?
Granite hair was on the 2010 runways shows of playful Giles Deacon and goth Gareth Pugh, and the Telegraph article quoted high end hairdressers claiming to have more young clients who want grey, like Peaches Geldof, Kelly Osbourne, Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham. This kind of minimal evidence has prompted sites like trendhunter.com to prematurely declare “For decades men and women have been trying to mask signs of aging, but a new wave fashionable gray hair is reflecting a shifting attitude regarding the physical effects of getting older.” A more tempered NYTimes article quoted colorist Sharon Dorram, “who said that among her downtown New York patrons, it is mostly younger women, renegade types, who request gray. Not lost on Ms. Dorram is the irony that their older, more conventional counterparts spent $1.3 billion to cover their grays last year, according to Nielsen.”
I don’t think gunmetal tresses were a sign of the fetishization, or even simple respect, of mature women in the 18th century, and I don’t think that’s the case in 2010 either. It’s an unusual, edgy color precisely because so many women with natural grey hair color over it, so it really pops when a woman such as Kristin McMenamy rocks it. I think that even if more grey hair dye is being sold, it is unfortunately not a sign that older women — specifically, naturally mature women — are all of a sudden welcomed back into the fold for the general, fashionable, youth-obsessed public. Pixie Geldof, for example, I don’t think could be said to be furthering the cause of women aging gracefully, though her hair is certainly grey:
Pixie Geldof
Along a similar line, premature articles claiming the emergence of older models on runways and magazine spreads as being indicative of older women being accepted as beautiful and sexual are, I think, overlooking that those older models might be over-the-hill 30+, but they are recognizable and have proven themselves exceptionally good at selling products — hence their previous successes. In economically strapped times I think we all return to the familiar, tried-and-true methods of existence, and I believe designers are returning to supermodels of yesteryear because they have the most experience and accomplishments, and fame/notoriety that can only come with age — also, they are still smokin’ hot. Kate Moss is still landing covers at age 36 (which is, by the way, close to the height of a woman’s biological peak of personal sexuality), and 37 year-old Heidi Klum is even modeling in Victoria Secret lingerie shows (after having popped out 4 children). This is evidence that magazines and designers don’t want to take as many risks these days, when merchandise is harder to move off shelves. They know Moss and Klum, they know their scopes, their talent, and the sales they still consistently generate. After all, you don’t hear about a surge of random, unknown older women taking up the runways — that would demonstrate real progress in my eyes. May I suggest Gloria Steinem for that next stage?
For details on the position below, contact Frankie Ng at tcngf@inet.polyu.edu.hk
Position:
A 3-year full-time PhD studentship for a project titled “A Study on Structural Optimization and Colour Mixing System of Digital Jacquard Textiles Based on Full-colour Compound Structure” is available at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).
The research student is expected to have a master’s degree (or BA (Hons) of 1st Class Honours), a good understanding/knowledge on weaving technology and/or colour/optical science.
If you have anyone in mind with similar background/knowledge who would like to pursue PhD study in Hong Kong, s/he can contact the Frankie Ng (for more information, etc.). The PolyU offers a stipend of around HK$13,500/month for PhD student to undertake research. The starting date is immediate and/or the earliest possible of the research student.
Sometimes we all just need a good history lesson to brighten our day. Here, Kristina Haugland, Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, discusses the subject of undergarment history for your edification (with marvelous slides). It’s about an hour and a half long. I found it engaging and very well done – do let me know what you think of it.
It’s been a while since we’ve updated you on what we’re up to behind the scenes here at Worn Through.
You read our columns, event postings, and random musings, and perhaps you’ve even checked out our bios (which hopefully aren’t too out of date.) But I thought with WT‘s 3rd birthday quickly approaching it is a good time to check in with the ladies that contribute to this blog so you can get a richer perspective on what makes us tick and who we are when we’re not in front of this screen.
You can hit up our bios to find out our occupations, get a list of publications, see pictures, etc, but below is a list of some of our most recent happenings within the field of apparel & scholarship:
Founder and Editor Monica
Monica has been wrapping up this (more or less) final semester of her schooling by closing out her graduate assistantship at the Goldstein Museum of Design, completing a full draft of her dissertation, finishing her role on two university committees, and then walking in commencement (see photo above). She was thrilled to win the award of College of Design Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year for the University of Minnesota, and she also was pleased to receive an Adele Filene Student Award for her upcoming CSA presentation. Monica’s goal is to finish turning her dissertation draft into a final (or close to final) version prior to her first baby being born this July. She’ll then hopefully defend it in the fall, and officially be Doctor Fashion!
Senior Contributor Heather
Heather has been gearing up to be the new Program Chair/President-Elect for the Western Region of the Costume Society of America (starts July 1 and lasts through June 20, 2012). She is also knee-deep in research for her book project.
Contributor Lauren
Lauren successfully completed another academic year of teaching fashion design. She is looking forward to her first summer off in several years and preparing to volunteer at the Northern California Renaissance Faire in the fall.
Contributor Lucy
Lucy has recently begun writing for Fashion Facts Folio, a New York based accessories forecasting company. But she is especially looking forward to teaching classes in art, film, philosophy and fashion at LIM college, a fashion merchandising college in New York, this summer and fall. She’s also continuing to work towards finishing her PhD.
Contributor Tove
Tove has been contributing to the Huffington Post (Style section), is collaborating on a cultural book about fashion in 1930s films, and is a research assistant for a book on 19th century NYC socialite Eliza Jumel’s life as read from her wardrobe. She was a recent guest lecturer on cross dressing for a Sociology Gender class at FIT and is participating in archiving at the Coney Island Museum. She has also joined an interdisciplinary fashion studies group through CUNY.
Intern Kat
Kat has been working on two papers: One comparing collarless suit designs of Pierre Cardin and Douglas A. Millings, tailor for The Beatles and another concerning Folk Dress Under Communist Czechoslovakia. She also recently gave a presentation to the CUNY Graduate Center Fashion Studies Group and will be presenting some of her research at the CSA conference, for which she received an Adele Filene Student Award.
We’d love to hear what our readers are up to in the field. Please feel free to leave comments with your exciting happenings.
Last week I attended a lecture at FIT, a conversation with Rodarte — or rather, the designing duo of sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy – in which they discussed their design process and inspirations. They are an extraordinarily down-to-earth pair who seem to use their intuitions about beauty, rather than a focus on making money, to earn almost every accolade in the industry. In addition, they are adored by all manner of celebrity starlet and engage in collaborations ranging from their hugely popular Target line to most recently designing ballet costumes for the upcoming film “Black Swan.”
But rather than write extensively about Rodarte (as I’ve actually done such elsewhere on WT), I wanted to touch a little on one theme that really struck me while listening to Kate and Laura’s conversation with Valerie Steele.
It seemed that over and over again the Mulleavy sisters referenced instances of decay and death as inspiration for their garments. Sitting in the audience, I really began to question my own conceptions of fashion as I tried to square the physical objects which identify Rodarte — garments which I deem exceptionally beautiful — with the reality that the creators of these garments are often inspired and intrigued by some of the darkest, most macabre moments of life.
It really got me pondering: is fashion perhaps most basically about death? Or some kind of dance with, or mockery or, the inevitability of decay?
The unbridled recent surge of plastic surgery (see Heidi Montag) paired with the enormous focus on the question of retouching reveals that somewhere in the human being is the desire to mold the self into something unabashedly artificial. Even the shift in actual fashion design towards the metallic, the futuristic, and the shape-shifting illustrates an interest in creating almost artificial bodies, molding nature into something entirely “other.” But why then, as we move towards a version of our selves that isn’t even bound by physical limitations, are we still so fascinated by death in fashion?
In Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project he draws special attention to fashion and death. Because of the inherent materialism of fashion (from a Marxist reading), fashion is always in a sense condemned to death, just as the body upon which it is worn will die. The fashioned version of humanity, which is then so anti-nature, explicitly evokes ideas of death. Just as the memento mori still life paintings complete with skulls sought to remind the viewers of their own mortality, maybe beneath the glitz and glamour of fashionable clothing is a lurking skeleton. Layers and layers of false youth will not hide the inevitable aging underneath.
Fashion is especially interesting because it represents the precise meeting point between the natural — the body — and the artificial. As such, it will always demonstrate the intimate play between the two. Surely we use overt artifice to cover over our fear of death. But we also use fabric and material to announce our own flesh. As the Rodarte designers use the effects of tie-dye and marbling to give fabrics the hauntingly beautiful appearance of rotting or decaying flesh, likewise every garment we use to dress actually highlights our unavoidable embodiment.
As a person who has embraced the internet as an invaluable resource for research as well as entertainment (and you, reading this blog, presumably feel similarly), I thought I’d share some of my favorite websites for fashion related queries.
THE COSTUME PAGE
This is one woman’s personal directory of thousands of costume and costuming-related links, for the benefit of those who make and/or study costumes. There are over 1,000 unique links listed on these pages.
This online collections database features over 100 selections from the extensive clothing collection at Historic Richmond Town, including women’s dresses and wedding gowns, men’s and women’s military uniforms, infant’s and toddler’s dresses, and women’s petticoats and other undergarments. Periods from Colonial American through the 21st century. Stories of individual wearers accompanies the artifacts.
VINTAGE TEXTILE
This site has a tremendous wealth of information both textile and general fashion-related, concentrating on Victorian through 1940s. Though it is technically an online store, there are articles, galleries with pictures, and more.
Though it’s a little tedious to browse, this site has great links to topics like Accessories, Armor, Dye & Paint, Ethnic Dress, Fashion Theory, Hats, How-To, Military Uniforms, and more.
THE COSTUMER’S GUIDE TO MOVIE COSTUMES
This site is for research on movie costumes. Many costumes just have reference images, some of them have “”how to’s”" or suggestions for different fabrics, trims, patterns, or other accessories. There are also links to existing online costume study groups.
BISSONNETTE ON COSTUME
Kent State University Museum’s visual dictionary of fashion. Search options include geography, time, and subject.
FASHION PLATE COLLECTION
University of Washington Libraries digital collection, with pictures and accompanying summaries of clothes.
L’OFFICIEL DE LA MODE ONLINE
Jalou Gallery has the entire L’Officiel de la Mode available online for researchers. Though it’s in French, it’s still helpful and you can print out the articles in their original layout (complete with images). You can view the issues, as if scanning them on a microfiche by clicking the “Plein Ecran” link. You can also zoom in by clicking on the “Freme” link and read the text, look for references and much more.
OTTOMAN FASHION ONLINE
Run by the Smithsonian Freer and Sackler Galleries, this online site provides the history of Ottoman dress.
Searchable costume collection, including 3D panorama views.
THE HISTORY OF COSTUME
This site is an online version of the classic costume work The History of Costume by Braun & Schneider, published between 1861 and 1880. The illustrated plates consist of historical dress from antiquity to the end of the 19th century.
THE COSTUME GALLERY
This site serves as a clearinghouse for websites and images on clothing and hairstyles. Scroll down the homepage for featured articles. To search for specific information, click on ‘Study’ to research in the Online Costume Library.
CLOTHESLINE JOURNAL
This site promote the study of costume and textiles and their relation to history and society, meant to be an academic journal. Articles can cover a wide array of topics and are fully sourced.
F.I.T. E-MUSEUM
This searchable database includes beautiful images, descriptive essays, and a number of designer biographies on 350 objects from the Museum at FIT’s holdings.
V&A / BERG ONLINE FASHION LIBRARY
1600 images from the V&A fashion collection. Users can search and browse for specific items of dress and to move between text and related images. Thumbnail images will be displayed within the Berg Fashion Library, and users will be able to click through to the V&A website for the full-sized image and further information. Launching in June
Happy researching (and please contribute your own favorite fashion image and fashion text links)!
When I started my Ph.D. program I was told upon one of my entrance meetings with a student services person to kiss my husband goodbye as I’d see him in 4 years. To that I said “forget it!” That’s ridiculous. Getting a graduate degree is like having a busy job with weird hours, and not everyone with a busy job forgoes their entire personal life. Some do, certainly some of my lawyer and doctor friends who also have nuts hours have struggled with time management. But that’s what it is, time management, and it’s worth trying to manage. Plus, for a lot of people with families, second jobs, and other commitments it simply isn’t an option to not balance.
Throughout my Masters and PhD (at different schools in different states) I’ve seen every end of the spectrum:
First, students who are so busy doing personal things they never get involved in school stuff. They do the bare minimum in the school/professional context, maybe show up for class, turn in a bland and short paper, and fly out the door making no impression. They never join societies, clubs, committees, apply for awards/grants, have assistantships, etc. Sure, I’ve then watched some of them get jobs they want, but mostly they are the ones I have witnessed sort of flounder post-grad. And the profs, other mentors, and peers aren’t singing their praises behind closed doors, even if they are perfectly lovely people. But, I totally understand that there are personal commitments that do overshadow schoolwork…
Second, there are students who spend every waking second with nothing else going on except grad school. It’s all they talk about. It’s often the only place they ever go. They eat all their meals there (urgh). They live next door. Consequently, they often do some the most boring research of anyone I know. Their work is consistently uninspired and frequently unrealistic as they’re not connected to the “real” (outside) world, and it often lacks objectivity as they never step away from academic perspectives. I totally get the notion of wanting to make the most of your money, wanting to be competitive, and trying to throw yourself into your profession, but if the result is that you’re a big lonely yawn and so is your work, then what was the point? Again, I’ve seen some of these people get jobs they wanted (admittedly more so than the first group), but it appears to me many of them maintain that same style once they get those jobs, and consequently things never get much better.
Third is a group I’d like to say I fit within. Or at least I really strive to. It’s the students who work very hard to balance both personal and professional lives. I was once told by a peer that from her point-of-view her classmates that were handling the pressures of our rigorous Ph.D. program best were those who also had lots going on in their personal lives. Her argument was that busy people become accustom to multi-tasking, prioritizing, etc., be it with time, energy, and passion.
Well I think I really agree with her. I’ve seen through my own and my peers’ experiences that in addition to the sometimes head-spinning multi-tasking, a 3-dimensional life gives insight into different facets of society. This wide-eyed view then seems to inform one’s research and makes for more ideas for topics, increased ability to see multiple sides of a story, and flexibility when working with others.
And seriously, having a life outside of school let’s you blow off steam! Steam that builds up from being very involved managing assistantships or other jobs, personal life, homework, class time, committees, etc. Trust me, I understand.
I’ve had graduate assistantships and often also part-tome jobs throughout my Master’s and Ph.D. programs. Two of those graduate assistantships were basically five days a week, on campus, meaning everything else was relegated to nights and weekends. This pushing of homework right into my otherwise personal time was a drag. I sometimes more so enjoyed the assistantships where the time table was more fluid and I could be on campus sometimes, and do prep work from home whenever. But the on-campus 9-5 world led to homework on the weekends and concerts/movies/nice dinners in the evening, after growing exhausted from basically a 7 day work week (5 at my GA, 2 on homework & related).
Last semester I worked a 5 day week at 8:30am while struggling thru 1st trimester morning sickness and hadn’t told anyone at school i was pregnant yet. Now that’s balancing the personal and professional! So this semester I opted to only work a 1/2 time assistantship for the 1st time since my Masters. I was offered full time, and the benefits are very tempting..tuition, health care, more time on campus mingling with faculty, etc. But when weighing it against being pregnant, trying to finish my dissertation, a recent move that took me from living 5 to 20 minutes away, WT, and the desire to live it up a little pre-baby….I turned down the (sort of) lucrative full time offer and went for the half-time. Balance, balance, balance. Although of course now it’s tougher to balance that check book, but, my diss is almost done and my mind isn’t really spinning too often. I’ll take that as a win!
Giving yourself a social life helps force you to end projects, not just drag them on forever; and generally you won’t procrastinate getting things started either as you want to finish to be able to get somewhere else. If you only have until 5pm to complete reading all those journal articles because you have a romantic dinner date, you’ll get it done! You’ll learn to skim and scan and search for the main points. Call a social life “motivation.” One peer said he rewarded himself with a special social activity for each school benchmark. Whatever works for you.
It is sometimes very tough to find middle ground. It’s hard when you move to a new town for school and then school is all you know since you haven’t met anyone yet or gotten familiar with your surroundings. But there is something to be said for enjoying the fruits of a new environment beyond the classroom walls. New food, new people, new sites can be stimulating, and get you to think clearer about that research project you’re stumbling with. It’s also hard when school is in your hometown and everything around you at times seems more pressing and and interesting than school. I’ve done both equations and found while both are a challenge, a few minutes away at a street fair can free up your mind to feel reinvigorated when you sit back down at the computer again.
That’s what happened with my dissertation. It’s been rough this semester as I’ve been pushing to finish and with my busy personal/work calendar I had to briefly institute a policy to work on it weekends afternoons only. When a deadline came up it took over weekdays as well. But not evenings. From dinner on I’m not doing schoolwork. That’s where I draw the line. However, earlier in the semester when it was relegated to weekends, I actually enjoyed doing it tremendously, because all week I hadn’t labored over it. I was refreshed each time I sat to work on it, and thus would get more flow with each visit to the file.
So the basic message here if you haven’t gotten it already is definitely be a workhorse when it comes to school and all the things you can to be involved in the related professional activities. But, don’t turn your back on a life separate from all of that. Sure for a surgeon maybe it’s easier to be at the movies and not have it overlap with her profession. For someone studying dress, we’re constantly analyzing the world around us, scoping for ideas etc. But sometimes you can just rock out at a good show for fun and nothing more. Don’t skip your yoga class, your favorite comedian, or your guilty pleasure TV show. That stack of books will still be there tomorrow.
Now of course I need to follow this advice and get back to working on my oral presentation for CSA since I don’t want to be working on it tonight when Lost is on! (this was written on Tuesday)
There are a number of venues for scholars of fashion, costume and dress to publish their work (besides those devoted to the field, such as Dress, Fashion Theory, and others). The study of clothing history is inherently interdisciplinary, often branching into cultural and physical anthropology, the social sciences, business and technology as well as local, regional and global history. So too are articles published by scholars in other fields that cross over into the study of dress.
I did a brief survey of articles recently published as a sort of litmus test, to see who and where clothing is being studied. It offers an interesting insight into what is happening in the field right now. Some are available as PDFs, others require access via subscription.
I’d love to hear what articles readers might have seen in non-traditional or surprising places, or if your work has recently been published in such a publication. Feel free to leave comments below.
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