NEWS from one hundred years ago: ANDROGYNY: THE NEW WAIST

The gendering of clothing has begun to change during these postwar years. One striking aspect of the change is a new androgynous look. Young men are shaving off all facial hair so they seem smooth and ‘girlish.’ At the same time, their trousers are getting so baggy that they are starting to look a lot like women’s prewar divided skirts. Young women are beginning to cut their hair short while flattening their breasts, waists and hips. One big step towards the new ‘boyish’ look for women is the very latest fashion in dresses and skirts: the ‘drop’ waist. The drop waist helps to turn the natural shape of a woman’s body into a tube. The Observer, portraying the new waist today, does so with a warning: ‘It is graceful and becoming to slim figures, but should not be worn by people inclined to stoutness.’
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Observer, 23 October 1920