In the 1960s and 1970s, trousers were considered unacceptable by traditional housewives, not even culottes. At the same time, liberal women's clothing on both sides of the strait has shown unprecedented diversification and modernization.
"Mrs. America" is not just the story of the anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly, it describes and recreates the complexities of the entire women's affirmative movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s for 10 years The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) pushed and ultimately failed is the best proof of that.
Ironically, a large percentage of the amendment's opponents are women: housewives who are content with their traditional family status.
So to be precise, the real protagonist of "Mrs. America" is the Equal Rights Amendment, which shows the audience two different camps of women at the same time.
Even in the free camp, which claims equal rights for women and nonpartisanship, there are different stakeholders, and everyone has their own plans.
Gloria wants to promote the legalization of abortion, Shirley wants to set a positive example for black women, Betty stands firmly on the side of the female community, Bella chooses detour tactics, and hopes for the enlightenment and commitment of male politicians .
The internal interest differentiation of the female group was easily exploited by the male politicians who were the mainstream at the time, which became the biggest hidden danger to the women's equal rights front, and also led to the staged failure of the ERA.
Compared with the fragile alliance of the liberal camp, the American Housewives Conservative Alliance, initiated and organized by Schlafly, is much more stable. Even if there are some conflicts of interest, they are resolved under Schlafly's "smart" mediation.
This tit-for-tat and incompatibility between the liberal and conservative camps is a key tenet of Bina Daigeler, the show's lead costume designer, when customizing the character's costumes.
She and her clothing team pieced together a complete and divisive archive of American women's clothing in the 1970s by amassing images from fashion and news magazines of the time .
Conservatives led by Phyllis Schlafly
As an anti-ERA stalwart, a conservative female representative, and a defender of the interests of traditional housewives, Schlafly advocates traditional family values and defends women's status in the family.
Correspondingly, she and the female camp behind her (mostly housewives) are also (still) very traditionally feminine in their dressing style.
First, and most obvious, this group rarely wears trousers, because in their minds, trousers are the first step in blurring feminine characteristics, and A-line skirts are a very common style.
Alice, played by Miss Banana, has an Easter egg about this detail hidden on her body. When she was in the same room with Schlafly in episode 3, she tried on a pair of culottes privately, but she still felt that it didn't fit.
Even culottes, the biggest concession of skirts to trousers, were considered unacceptable by conservatives, which not only showed the resistance of conservative housewives to new trends at the time, but also implied that Alice, who was in the conservative camp but dared to try new styles, would be slow Slowly turn to liberals (there will be a feature on Alice later).
Second, the overall style follows the traditional women's elegance and softness, using a large number of low-saturation warm colors, such as pink, orange and camel, or softer cool colors, such as sky blue, mint green, etc.
Third, although the 1960s and 1970s in the United States was a period of great changes in women's rights and social status, the fashion industry at that time was far from being as colorful and popular as it is now, and there were no fast fashion companies such as H&M and ZARA, especially Suburban middle-class women are still trapped in the small world of "family".
Even though the trend of women's freedom was booming at that time, they still retained the traditional family-centered women's clothing style of the 50s and 60s, and they would buy fabrics together (note that it is fabric, not ready-to-wear), according to the fabric and familiarity The tailors communicated to order clothing (in a sense, women's clothing at that time was more individual and individual than modern women), and even home aprons were made to order.
Depending on the season, they have separate winter and summer wardrobes.
But of course, the conservative female power we're talking about here is largely composed of white women from middle-class suburban American families , who generally have relatively substantial family wealth (from husbands or fathers).
In the second episode of the voting scene in Illinois, compared with the opponents, the members of the women's liberation camp of the support side are more diverse in terms of race and income class, which is of course also reflected in the completely different dress of the two factions .
In episode 3, in the St. Louis stand of the national ban on the Equal Rights Amendment promoted by Shlafley, one of the speakers said that their narrow-minded white supremacy was nakedly expressed.
Although the costumes are all made in the Toronto studio, most of Cate Blanchett's costumes in the play, as the absolute protagonist, are loyal to history, and they are replicas of Phyllis Schlafley's wardrobe. "The Phil Donahue Show" accesses street protests that look like media images from a Google search.
These include (but are not limited to):
White polka-dot pink long-sleeve top and white waistcoat worn to the Missouri Republican Committee meeting in Kansas City in 1976.
The ivory long-belted coat worn during the ERA protests in front of the White House in 1977.
And the persimmon red mesh-knit maxi dress she wore to debates on TV many times.
Confidence and stability are the characteristics of Phyllis Schlafly, and this is also reflected in her dressing style and selection of items, brooches and (long or short) pearl necklaces, the typical wealthy white people Women's favorite accessories must be used.
The costumer even found a futuristic Oscar de la Renta dress from the Dominican fashion brand that Schlafly wore to a dinner party in 1982 on Etsy (an American e-commerce platform). that one) and adapted it to the famous "ERA Death Banquet" in 1979.
It was at this dinner that Schlafly claimed:
The ERA will meet its true moral and constitutional death tonight.
Another challenge for the costumers: What exactly does Phyllis Schlafly look like outside the public camera?
What does she wear at home, privately with friends, or even busy in the kitchen? These life details did not appear under the media exposure, and the plot and character of the root drama need to be re-customized.
The entire show spanned 9 years in the length of 9 episodes (preliminary estimate is 1971-1979), which requires that the costumes of each character in each episode need to be adjusted in time.
In the first half of the episode, some costume styles left over from the 1960s are still maintained, but as the plot develops and the characters age further, Shlafley's style will slowly shift to darker colors and some Relatively less snug clothing (updated with episodes).
liberal
Unlike the conservative Schlafly (and his supporters), women in the feminist, ERA-supporting camp look far more diverse and interesting.
Hippie style, bohemian style, eastern New York urban style, wearing jeans, T-shirts and clothes with various prints, more in line with our modern definition of fashionable women, so fashion designers mix and match many fashion brands, such as Diane von Furstenberg, Yves Saint Laurent, Missoni, etc.
Gloria Steiner
Among them, Gloria Steiner, the founder of Ms magazine, was used as a benchmark (the glasses were also the same as those that Steiner wore at that time).
The retro floral dress she (1st from right) wore in episode 2 was from fashion brand Yves Saint Lauren.
At first, she wore feminine miniskirts, over-the-knee boots, and fur coats, but as her political career slowly unfolded and the influence of her dominant magazines gradually increased, the once wild liberals had no choice but to. Paying attention to her public image, her dressing style gradually turned to minimalism, and jeans became her daily standard.
Shirley Chisholm
The first two episodes didn't have much time for Shirley Chisholm, and the third episode started to get more ink, which was better than the protagonist Gloria Steiner in the second episode.
As the first African-American woman in American history to run for president, Shirley Chisholm carries two symbolic meanings: the awakening of women's rights and a big step forward for racial equality.
In the 1970s, when women's rights were not fully recognized and black discrimination was still severe, a black woman running a political campaign could easily be torn apart by the interests of different groups imposed on her.
To resist such double pressure, you must have a very strong character to be able to handle it.
At the same time, she knows that if she wants to gain maximum public support, she must first create a strong, dependable and stable image in appearance (after all, people rely on clothes).
To match her radical political performance, she chose bright prints and gorgeous colors on her clothes, and even her accessories exuded a confident aura.
Alice Alice
Yes, I put Alice in the Liberal, because I believe she will be the epitome of conservative housewives turning to Liberal.
Compared to the many historical real characters on the show, Alice is a completely fictional character, designed to reflect a trend in the late 1970s when conservatives and liberals wanted to merge, and the friendship between her and Schlafly will be in turn against this history. Shifting trends add more dramatic effect.
The first two episodes were more of a supporting role as Shlafley's best friend, but the creator is already slowly paving the way for a change in her path to freedom. Although there are still not many scenes in episode 3, the ideas and trends of the liberals' transformation have already begun to emerge.
Being betrayed by a friend on the issue of racial equality not only allowed Alice to see the true face of Schlafly who would do anything to achieve political goals, but also allowed her to experience the cruelty of political struggle for the first time.
Of course, a small foreshadowing is also inserted into the clothing. As we said earlier in the conservative clothing style, trousers are regarded as a beast by middle-class housewives, but Alice, who has always been obedient, tries like a curious baby (although at this stage She still feels out of place), which is a very subtle foreshadowing of her future acceptance of freedom and emancipation of women's minds.
The design of the culottes here is very ingenious, completely in line with Alice's state of mind at that time, curious about the world of the free camp but dare not try to be too public, the full form of pants may be considered by her as a kind of too intense and unacceptable. the behavior of.
Looking forward to the appearance of an independent episode with her as the theme (we will analyze it in detail at that time).
In the future, the series will be updated to continue to analyze the clothing features of feminists including Betty Friedan (author of "Women's Mystery"), Jill Ruckelhaus (Jill Ruckelhaus) and others.
Others will be updated in succession.
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