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my mid-20s, I was an active young woman who liked music, parties, good
movies, and hoped to get married to a man who would love me for the rest
of my days. But as years went by, I was increasingly unhappy with
my life. After trying work as a secretary and a waitress, and two
important relationships failed, I decided to go to college to study something
I might really like to do: design clothing. I had liked sewing outfits
for myself and others, and later earned good grades at the Fashion Institute
of Technology, where I learned about some of the beautiful fabrics and
garments of the past and present.
I
was excited about what I was studying; but it wasn't until I studied Aesthetic
Realism that I learned about the true, deep meaning of clothing.
Decades before he founded Aesthetic Realism, Eli Siegel, then a young man
of 23, wrote in an article for the Baltimore American newspaper about why
he liked the new direction in the fashions of 1925, placing them in relation
to cultural history:
Aesthetic Realism teaches that the criterion for being proud of anything we do--reading a book, eating a meal, kissing a man, or putting on a garment--is whether our purpose is to respect the world, or have contempt for it. Learning to distinguish between these two purposes is crucial for a woman to be proud of her effect on men. I've learned, too, that the existence of clothing as such is evidence that the world can be liked. In the Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry class, Ellen Reiss spoke some years ago on what poetry says about clothing, and asked:
And she described how the phrase "It fits like a glove" is about that garment and you, but also says something so large about how reality can fit you. It never occurred to me to be grateful that the world provided materials to make clothing--like the earliest made of grass fibers, and later made of fabrics woven from spun threads--or to respect the people who made them. I'll speak now of what I learned, and of a very good, very influential American designer of the early to mid 20th Century, Claire McCardell. And as I talk about how women can use clothes and fashion to be proud of our effect on men, I also have to say that it is horrible and unnecessary that millions of people in our rich nation can't afford to have decent, attractive, well-made clothing to wear! 1. What Interferes With Being Proud of Our Effect on Men?
My answer was, "Superior." And I came to see that that hurtful desire began early in my life. There were times, for instance, when after shopping for a new holiday dress and shoes, my mother would ask me to “model” them for my father, and to thank him. But what was more important to me was how he would say "Ohhhh, you look beautiful" than being grateful for his hard work which enabled me to have them. As
I grew older, I yearned for the day when I'd have a woman's figure, and
could use it to my full advantage--feeling "If you've got it, flaunt it."
Meanwhile, even as I sometimes worked hard to make a stunning appearance,
I felt somewhere uneasy, not proud. Then, I began to learn there is an
ethical basis for our choices as to clothes! In her commentary to
The
Right Of #1545, Ellen Reiss explains:
I feel so described by these sentences! There were times I had great pleasure in finding or making an outfit that had me feel “This is me!” And I once stayed up all night to make an outfit for my sister to wear for a special occasion, when she didn’t have money to buy one. But many times I used clothing to impress and fool men, without knowing how much it made me ashamed. Women the world over need to know what Miss Reiss writes further in her commentary: "And, of course, women have used clothes as weapons, to weaken men." When out on a date, I often dressed in a flirtatious manner in some of the daring clothes of the day: tight tops and hot pants, or a low-cut jumpsuit. One summer my boyfriend, John, and I drove to Canada to see the Montreal Expo. After visiting several exhibits, I was surprised when he said he thought my outfit was too revealing, and that he was uncomfortable with how other men were looking at me. I dismissed his feeling as being old-fashioned: I was a modern, liberated woman, and thought: “If men can’t keep up with evolution and accept woman’s new freedom of expression, it’s their problem." But I wasn't proud of this attitude because I was looking for a cheap victory as I arranged to turn men's heads toward me, and not at the exhibits of countries from around the world. And as I think of that outfit now, I see it did not have a beautiful relation of the opposites of tightness and looseness, hidden and shown, and didn't encourage people's respect for women. Today, many styles are even more revealing, such as skimpy tops showing bare torsos, and the low cut pants I see on girls in the high school where I work. Many of these states of undress are promoted by music videos and designers as the most avant garde fashions But with all the bold and surprised-how-they-stay-on kinds of garments women wear, it is simply a fact of reality that when we use anything—money, education, love, or clothing— to have contempt for the world and people, we have to be ashamed. Aesthetic Realism certainly doesn't tell people how to dress, or say women should look like prudes. But it does teach that we have an ethical unconscious, and we judge ourselves for how fair we are to the world, in everything we do. This knowledge is more precious than gold--what women and clothing designers are hoping for. 2. The Beautiful Practicality of Good Will For MenI
began to learn about this in a later consultation when I said I had felt
unsure of how to dress when going on a date--not wanting to wear a tight
sweater, or to wear a “sack”. For example, my consultants asked:
I was so surprised by this! It never occurred to me that a man could feel angry at what is brought out of him! Yes, men need to hear criticism about how they see the bodies of women. But women also need to respect the powerful, mysterious facts of reality which govern how men and women affect each other. With a purpose to have good will, a woman can look very beautiful and encourage a man's keenest interest in the world at the same time. One of the greatest compliments a woman can receive from a man is for him to feel that she represents the wide world he hopes to know and care for. But unknowingly, our contempt interferes with this hope, preferring to have a man in an exclusive, cozy state of adoration, away from the world. In the Preface to his great essay “The Ordinary Doom”, Mr. Siegel writes:
It means so much to me to that I had been learning to see a man as representing the universe when I first met Jeffrey Williams, who is now my husband. While working on this paper, he reminded me of how I told him then that I hoped to dress in a way that would have people feel the world looked good to them. He felt it important for me to relate what a good effect hearing this had on him--that he had never heard anything like it, and would never forget it. 3. An American Designer Met the Hopes of WomenI use a book about her life and work, Claire McCardell: Defining Modernism, written by Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Wolfe in conjunction with F.I.T. Born May 24, 1905 in Frederick, Maryland, Claire McCardell grew up in privileged surroundings, and was affected early by the fashions her mother had made by a personal dressmaker. After attending a local college in Maryland for two years, she finally convinced her parents to send her to New York City to study fashion design in the spring of 1925. This happens to be the same time that Eli Siegel’s article on the new styles appeared in The Baltimore American, and I wouldn't be surprised if she read it. The
1920s was an era of much change in America, including in how women dressed
And in his article, Mr. Siegel wrote: "The best style in clothes is that
which shows the beauty of [one's] body most with as little perceptive effort
as possible." Claire McCardell said she felt that--and here we see
the opposites of delicacy and sturdiness--
It is this philosophy that led Ms. McCardell’s designs to be loved by many thousands of women, and for her to be called "the designer for Mrs. America.” She was also among the first designers to popularize separate, coordinated pieces, now called “sportswear”, and was widely admired for creating practical, affordable, attractive styles--many of which are still popular today. But
some of her ideas were at first met with resistance--as being too radical.
Yohannan and Wolfe describe Ms. McCardell as caring for biking, skiing,
and swimming, and say that she felt, for instance, that the padded, matronly
swimwear then on the market, were "repressive", and unfit for the purpose
of swimming. In one discussion on the topic, she added coolly, “Swimsuits
are for swimming. If it’s a dress you want, I have that, too.”
In the final sentences of Mr. Siegel's article of 1925, he wrote:
Eli Siegel is the historian and sociologist who did use fashions to see how the world changes, and to understand the deepest hopes of people, of women and men--and I am so glad he did! |
