Life, 1909-03-11 · page 12 of 36
Life — March 11, 1909 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes changing women's fashion and social roles in the early 20th century. The main article argues that women historically wore petticoats as symbols of "femininity and fluffiness," but fashion is shifting toward simpler, more practical clothing. The illustration shows a woman on a bicycle—a newly popular form of women's transportation that challenged Victorian dress conventions. The accompanying text references famous suffragettes like Mrs. Snowden and Edith Arnold, suggesting that practical clothing correlates with women's increasing independence and political activism. The "Fashion Notes" at bottom humorously depict hats and clothing items as standalone objects, mocking the era's extreme fashion accessories. Overall, the satire suggests anxiety about women abandoning restrictive Victorian dress alongside traditional gender roles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
FORMerty it was Pride and Petti- coats; now the conjunction is changed. Formerly Femininity and Fluffiness were synonymous; now Slen- derness and Slinkiness describe all that is to be desired in our sex The emancipation of woman has al- ¥ been connected with shortened skirts and hair. Another fallacy ex- posed! With the quickening of the in- terest in Woman's Suffrage, with the visits of our famous English sisters, Mrs. Snowden and Miss Edith Arnold, both ardent leaders in that cause, still fresh in our memories and with their speeches still ringing in our ears, we see all femi- nine New York (even at the suffrage lec- tures at Berkeley Lyceum) swathed in long and clinging gowns, nothing short- ened, everything elongated, even to masses of puffs and curls of hair. Is it in order that, as the “clinging vine ideal of woman is evaporating, the mas- culine world may be appeased by yards of clinging draperies as substitutes? eset! pr A DIRECTOIRE WASH DAY FASHION NOTES MAME Gad IAe. 10) Although the lack of petticoats is a perilous provocation of pneumonia, still hygienically it has compensations, It necessitates dieting, and by spring we doubtless will see the result of this plain living in the proverbial high thinking. Last winter, sitting in the Waldorf, watching the stream of women ambling out of the dining room after their large repasts, well-dressed, well-fed, but speechless from lack of thought and superabundance of lunch, Tennyson's lines invariably came to me with painful reiteration : “ But such a tide as moving seems asleep. Too full for sound and foam When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.”* This year all is changed. Directoire gowns make Fletcherism a stern neces sity, and when spring arrives and grip and pneumonia have ceased to gather in their harvest, the survival of the well- fitted will bow in grateful acknowledg- ment to the designers of fashions who have thus dictated their mental and moral improveme: Helen Thorntox Higbie. HEN a man at the top falls from grace, there is naturally a mighty big splash. comicbooks.com KN