Blog » Category: Fashion and Clothing

  • 19th-Century Corsets

    November 12th, 2020
    In Part II of our series on corsets, we look at changes in 19th-century corsets and an example from the Geneva Historical Society collection.
  • The Early History of the Corset

    July 24th, 2020
    The early history of corsets is tied to morality and the ideal figure in fashion.
  • A Brief History of the T-Shirt

    February 14th, 2020
    A history of the "plain white t-shirt."
  • Modesty: Where Have You Gone?!

    September 16th, 2016
    When it comes to clothing and fashion, what does modesty mean.
  • The Perfect Purse

    July 29th, 2016
    A brief history of purses.
  • Anything Goes: 1960s Clothing

    December 10th, 2015
    The 1960s emphasized youth and openness. It was a time when many rebelled against established ways. This was expressed in clothing, and, since human culture is a melting pot, anti-fashion became fashionable. Here are a few of the trends of the decade.
  • 1960s – The Clothing We Wore

    November 20th, 2015
    There were more changes in 1960’s styles than I can begin to talk about here. I was a relatively conservative dresser, in part because my folks exercised control over my choices and my friends were also pretty conservative so there was not much peer pressure with which to deal. Still I remember it as a time of change in styles, rebellion demonstrated through clothing….or sometimes More »
  • Innocent and Blithe: 1960s Fashion

    October 30th, 2015
    Recently, a friend mentioned that he had asked a group of young people what came to their minds when they thought of the 1960s. “Hippies,” is what I thought, since I enjoy clothing, and hippies certainly had their own style. In this post, though, I want to talk about mainstream fashion.
  • Briefly Out of Fashion’s Bondage

    July 31st, 2015
    Since the dress reform movement of the 19th century has been studied and discussed at length. I will not re-tell that whole story. Instead, I will talk a little about the Bloomer costume and the Geneva area. A Bloomer dress (so named because Amelia Bloomer promoted the style in her magazine The Lily) was a dress much like the fashionable dress of the day, but More »
  • Women’s Fashions in the 1940s

    February 24th, 2015
    Fashion changes all the time, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. In the 1940s, women’s clothing did both at the same time. In some ways the evolution of women’s fashion stalled for a while because of World War II.
  • The Zoot Suit

    January 9th, 2015
    In keeping with our current emphasis on the 1940s, I looked in the local newspapers for zoot suits. Although zoot suits were known in some form from the early 1930s, the first Geneva reference I found was in 1942.
  • Everything is Coming up Bloomers!

    March 7th, 2014
    Elizabeth Smith Miller and the evolution of the bloomer outfit.
  • What was a flapper, anyway?

    December 31st, 2013
    Evolution of the term flapper as documented in the local newspaper
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