100 Years ago....
Concern as skirts rise and morals decline
May 15, 1921
There is mounting alarm over the latest fashions in women's dress, which critics claim are immodest and immoral. Skirts, have been steadily rising since the war and now thousands of women are revealing the calves of their lower legs in America, where there has been widespread condemnation of the trend towards "minimum clothes and maximum cosmetics". Utah is considering imprisoning inappropriately dressed women,
The fashionable young woman of today tries to emulate men. She has a flat chest, straight clothes and short hair. Almost everywhere the corset is in decline. Women, many of whom did men's jobs in the war, say they want styles that reflect their new freedom. Designers have been quick to catch on to the economic advantage in making shorter, simpler dresses which need less material.
Guardians of traditional values, however, are worried that the styles encourage loose behaviour, especially when combined with other disturbing new trends among women; smoking, drinking, wearing make-up and dancing the latest wild dances. New York State, shocked by such dances, has just passed a law giving the State Commissioner the power to censor them,
Article from "Chronicle of the 20th Century" ISBN 1 872031 80 3