#historicalpost

PROHIBITION 

In the aftermath of World War I, social customs and morals were relaxed by the giddy optimism brought on by the end of the war and the booming of the Stock Market. 

While Prohibition was meant to eradicate the temptation of liquor, it had the unintended effect of turning many law-abiding citizens into criminals. By barring liquor from the masses, the government unwittingly made it more desirable, more fashionable, and something eager consumers had to get their hands on.

The rise of mass disobedience to prohibition laws took the amendment’s advocates by surprise. People who could afford the high price of smuggled liquor flocked to speakeasies and gin joints. 

These establishments could be quite glamorous. Whereas Pre-Prohibition saloons had seldom welcomed women, the new world of nightclubs invited both the bob-haired “flapper” and her “sheik” to drink cocktails, smoke, and dance to jazz. 

ART DECO

Art Deco is a form of Modernism that flourished in the United States and Europe in the 1920′s and 30′s. The origins of Art Deco began two decades earlier in Paris founded by the “La Societe des artistes decorators”.

Few people who have any knowledge of or interest in fashion or the decorative arts, are unaware of the term – ART DECO; a retrospective term coined by the English art historian Bevis Hillier in 1968, which prior to this was called Style Moderne. 

Throughout history and across cultures, women and girls have faced innumerable challenges and injustices. In honour of the International women day, lets take a moment to look at women who overcame adversity, broke through barriers and in doing so, changed the world.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

The first inspirational woman is Susan B. Anthony who was an advocate for women’s suffrage, women’s property rights and the eradication of slavery. In 1872, to challenge suffrage, Anthony tried to vote in the 1872 Presidential election but was rejected.

A woman born ahead of her time, Anthony was never able to legally vote but in 1920, the fight for the right to vote was won and named the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment.”

Because of her actions, women of her time and future generations where influenced to be more independent and to do things that they probably couldn’t have done years ago which lead to a broader range of clothing and designs that had to meet their new found freedom.