Recordings of What Women Wore to the Revolution: 1850s-1920s
In this pre-recorded, four-part class, fashion historian Cassidy Zachary will take you on a journey through the evolution and revolution of Euro-American women’s fashion from the 1850s to 1920s, a period marked by seismic transformations both in the clothing women wore and the lives they led. This class will use clothing as a lens to learn more about the many remarkable people who quite literally changed the shape and face of fashion by pushing the boundaries of what came before. We will meet both well and lesser-known fashion innovators, mavericks, and makers who forever changed the way women dress into the modern day.
You are purchasing recordings of a previously live, online, lecture class. Upon purchase, you will receive a downloadable pdf with individual links to four class sessions. Each class is 60-90 minutes long and will include occasional audience interaction throughout, as well as a Q and A at the lecture’s conclusion. The downloadable pdf will also include a “Further Learning” reading and resource list.
The cost is $75 for all four classes. Classes cannot be purchased individually
By purchasing this class, I accept the terms and conditions as outlined below.
*Once purchased, this class is non-refundable.
*I agree the information provided on the purchase page is correct and I will not hold The Art of Dress LLC, the class teacher, or any other party affiliated with the class responsible for any loss due to incorrect registration.
*The cost of the class includes all applicable fees.
You are purchasing recordings of a previously live, online, lecture class. Upon purchase, you will receive a downloadable PDF with individual links to four class sessions. Each class is 60-90 minutes long and will include occasional audience interaction throughout, as well as a Q and A at the lecture’s conclusion. The downloadable pdf will also include a “Further Learning” reading and resource list.
The cost is $75 for all four classes. Classes cannot be purchased individually.
Class Details
Bustles, Bloomers, and Bad Ass Ladies: 1850s-1890s
Charles Frederick Worth might be the founding father of the Parisian haute couture, but his American contemporaries, Elizabeth Keckly and Amelia Bloomer, both born in 1818, made equally seismic impacts on women’s dress throughout the 19th century. Elizabeth was an enslaved dressmaker who bought her and her son’s freedom and went on to become the premiere fashion designer of the American elite during the Civil War era, simultaneously laying the foundation for generations of Black fashion designers who followed. To this day, women’s rights advocate and dress reformer Amelia Bloomer’s name remains synonymous with the bifurcated garment she wore at a time when it was illegal for women to wear pants. This class will bring the lives and lasting impact of Elizabeth, Amelia and Charles into focus against the backdrop of the transformation of women’s fashion from crinolines to bustles to bicycle garments.
Class 1:
Chanel Who? Shattering Myths and Freeing the Body in the Pre WW1-Era
Gabrielle Chanel is often credited with modernizing women’s fashion in the 1920s but in truth, fashion was modernized in the era just before and during World War I, a time when visionary designers redefined the shape of fashion and women redefined themselves. In this class, we will look at the radical transformations taking place in women’s fashion at the dawn of the 20th century when designers started offering their clients radical new designs without its 400 plus year foundation: the corset. Some of these designers were men, but many more were women, including Madeleine Vionnet, Jeanne Lanvin and Jeanne Paquin.
Class 2:
At War with Fashion: Women Who Worked and Wore during WW1
While fashion designers of the pre-WW1 era suggested a revolution in women’s fashion, it was the women who went to work during the war in the millions who secured it. With many women occupying jobs once exclusively the domain of men for the first time, they needed clothing that adapted to their new work as pilots, ambulance drivers, and munition workers. It was these women who really pushed the clothes they wore into modernity, wearing comfortable, utilitarian clothing that met the demands of their active lifestyles. In this class, we examine the lives of many of these brave women from nurses and seamstresses to pilots and munition workers through the lens of the clothes they wore.
Class 3:
Arresting Dress: Renaissance and Resistance in 1920s Fashion
After the war, society expected women to go back to the home, previously prescribed gender roles but women had other ideas. Redefined femininity. Women's continued fight for autonomy and equality in the wake of WW1 was reflected in clothing that challenged and defied restrictive societal gender codes—it also revealed more skin than had ever been seen in the history of fashion! From Parisian ateliers to the dance floors of the Harlem Renaissance to the jail cells of New York City, we meet the women who dared to bare while simultaneously defining one of the most iconic eras in fashion history.
Class 4:
You are purchasing recordings of a previously live, online, lecture class. Upon purchase, you will receive a downloadable pdf with individual links to four class sessions. Each class is 60-90 minutes long and will include occasional audience interaction throughout, as well as a Q and A at the lecture’s conclusion. The downloadable pdf will also include a “Further Learning” reading and resource list.
The cost is $75 for all four classes. Classes cannot be purchased individually
By purchasing this class, I accept the terms and conditions as outlined below.
*Once purchased, this class is non-refundable.
*I agree the information provided on the purchase page is correct and I will not hold The Art of Dress LLC, the class teacher, or any other party affiliated with the class responsible for any loss due to incorrect registration.
*The cost of the class includes all applicable fees.