Female Dress Research Articles

Exploring Dress, Gender, and Bodily Capital through Pre- and Protohistoric Funerary Contexts: Case Studies from Southwestern Europe

While uneven in their scope and reach, studies of dress and dress complements (fibulae, belt buckles, buttons, etc.) have a significant tradition within the broader study of the pre- and protohistory of Mediterranean Europe. Many of these studies, however, have had a strong focus on the typology of the dress complements and ornaments themselves, either as chronological indicators, ethnic markers, or both. In more recent years, however, a shift in research agendas has ushered in the introduction of new perspectives and new ways of thinking about dress and bodily adornment. This contribution explores one such perspective in particular — namely, the concept of bodily capital and its application to the interpretation of gendered regimes of dress — through selected case studies. Said case studies hail from two areas with strong traditions of research on dress and dress complements — the Iberian and the Italic Peninsulas (Figs. 1 & 2). Regarding the former, examples from the Chalcolithic (see below, section 3.1.1) and the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Southern Portugal (section 3.1.2) illustrate the evolution of regional regimes for the accumulation of bodily capital over time and show how these can highlight the gendered dynamics behind the sociopolitical development of communities in this area between the 3rd and the 1st millennia BC. For the latter, the examples of protohistoric Campania, with a focus on Pontecagnano and its surrounding area (section 3.2.1), and the Archaic Period in the Picenum, with a focus on the site of Numana (section 3.2.2), illustrate the role of dress, and especially female dress, in displays of bodily capital. These have far-reaching implications which go beyond the local and regional scale and must be set against the backdrop of the increasing connectivity of Mediterranean communities throughout the 1st millennium BC. As will be seen, all these case studies offer insights and clues on how to approach dress and its relationship to both embodied identities and lived experiences of gender (but also status) from different and innovative angles. Before delving into them, however, it seems useful to start by briefly reviewing the development of theoretical and methodological approaches to dress in archaeological research, and to set out the conceptual framework of this study by briefly discussing the notion of bodily capital, its origin and potential applications for the topic at hand.

The Queen and the Sultana: Early Modern Female Circuits of Diplomacy and the Consumption of Gendered Luxury Items Between East and West

Between 1593 and 1599, Queen Elizabeth I of England corresponded with the Ottoman Sultana Safiye (c. 1550-1606), favorite concubine of Sultan Murad III and mother of Sultan Mehmed III. Of this exchange, only the Sultana’s letters and mentions of the expensive and undeniably gendered gifts sent between London and Constantinople (such as English cosmetics, Ottoman female dresses and jewelry…) remain. And yet, these fragments give us a glimpse of how two royal women of the early modern period, at a crossing between East and West, established a transcultural female circuit of exchange, not only to promote efficient diplomatic relationships but also to enable the transit of specifically female objects of status and power between the English court and the Ottoman harem. A close study of Elizabeth and Safiye’s correspondence, as well as the role of the Jewish kira (the Ottoman equivalent of a lady in waiting) Esperanza Malchi in relaying the correspondence between the royal harem and the English embassy, will help shed light on the often-overlooked roles that female friendship and material culture played in foreign diplomacy, a subject that is only recently coming under attention in gender, global and material studies of the early modern period.

Fabricating modernity: female dress production, typology, and use in rural Cyprus (late 19th-early 20th century)

In modern Cyprological studies, the British Period (1878-1960) is widely acknowledged as crucially important for the advent of modernity. During this period, the radical transformation of Cypriot society was strongly expressed via the emergence and widespread adoption of novel cultural expressions and identities, largely adherent to Western/European lifestyle ideals. Processes of sociocultural change were initially and principally manifested in urban settings and among the middle and upper social classes. Nonetheless, by the dawn of the 20th century rural populations were set on their own path towards modernisation. Unfortunately, the introduction of new lifestyle elements among the wider social strata, the mechanisms involved, and the significance of changing behaviour patterns at the level of self-identification are yet to be fully examined, documented, and interpreted by scholarly research. The present analysis focuses on Greek-Cypriot female rural populations as an understudied segment of Cypriot society and aims to explore the potential of a dress study approach in the examination of British period modernisation processes. Dress comprises one of the strongest, non-verbal self-communicative mechanisms, and as such it is considered as a critical domain for the visual and tangible manifestation, but also the symbolic production and definition of sociocultural change. Drawing on evidence from the examination of extant dress items, oral testimonies, written accounts and visual materials, the current research endeavours to document the evolving female visual identity in late 19th‑early 20th century rural Cyprus; to trace new versus past and enduring elements in rural dress production, typology, and consumption/social use; and to discuss how basic modifications in the image of the clothed and adorned female body reflect identity transformations in rural society.

Gender Stereotypes in Female Contemporary Dress Aesthetics

People always follow trends that are preferred by the mass, and stereotypes are generated as the trends spread out. Stereotypical aesthetics is somehow dominating society, because of the so-called norms of clothing and requirements. There are some potential problems with stereotypical aesthetics in females dress codes. The paper discusses the stereotypes of females dress code in the workplace, in daily fashionable wearing, and for different ages. The stereotype can be revealed from the clothes design, the brand concepts, and the emphasis on design. It is found that the stereotypes of female dress codes in the workplace have some negative impacts on the females body and their work. Furthermore, the stereotype of popular fashionable dress codes has been affected by social media and popular brands as well, and the socially moral judgments on females dress codes have contradicted what is prevailing in the real world. Last, the stereotypical impression of females of different ages has limited the creativity and diversity of clothing styles and aesthetics.

Scarf Injury: a qualitative examination of the emergency response and acute care pathway from a unique mechanism of road traffic injury in Bangladesh

BackgroundRoad traffic injuries (RTI) are the leading cause of death worldwide in children over 5 and adults aged 18–29. Nonfatal RTIs result in 20–50 million annual injuries. In Bangladesh, a new mechanism of RTI has emerged over the past decade known as a ‘scarf injury.’ Scarf injuries occur when scarves, part of traditional female dress, are caught in the driveshaft of an autorickshaw. The mechanism of injury results in novel, strangulation-like cervical spine trauma. This study aimed to understand the immediate emergency response, acute care pathway, and subsequent functional and health outcomes for survivors of scarf injuries.MethodsKey informant interviews were conducted with female scarf injury survivors (n = 12), caregivers (n = 6), and health care workers (n = 15). Themes and subthemes were identified via inductive content analysis, then applied to the three-delay model to examine specific breakdowns in pre-hospital care and provide a basis for future interventions.FindingsOver half of the scarf injury patients were between the ages of 10 and 15. All but two were tetraplegic. Participants emphasized less than optimal patient outcomes were due to unawareness of scarf injuries and spinal cord injuries among the general public and health professionals; unsafe and inefficient bystander first aid and transportation; and high cost of acute health care. ConclusionsFemales in Bangladesh are at significant risk of sustaining serious and life-threatening trauma through scarf injuries in autorickshaws, further worsened through inadequate care along the trauma care pathway. Interventions designed to increase awareness and knowledge of basic SCI care at the community and provider level would likely improve health and functional outcomes.

Late Roman Law and the Quranic Punishments for Adultery

Late Roman Law and the Quranic Punishments for Adultery

‘We … galloped hard and straight over some big stone gaps’: Freedom of the Hunt for Elite Women in Ireland, 1860-1914

Hunting was an elite social pastime accessible to both men and women, of the correct social class, throughout the period 1860-1914. Female involvement in this sport preceded their widespread involvement in other sports and pastimes such as tennis and cycling. This article explores the contradictions inherent in women’s involvement in this masculine sport. The sport demanded that participants display contemporary masculine characteristics of bravery, strength, and independence, and yet it was open to both married and unmarried women of the gentry and ascendancy class in Ireland. The sport was a dangerous one, and considerable skill was demanded of all participants. However, daughters of hunting families were not persuaded against joining the hunt, and were instead encouraged to display the necessary skill and competitiveness to ride a horse side-saddle cross-country at speed; jumping stone walls and banks along the way. It was the norm for women to wear adapted dress modelled on masculine hunting attire, however this dress did not diminish their perceived femininity, and was perceived by some in hunting circles as the most alluring form of female dress. The article explores the numbers of women involved in the sport during the period utilising both contemporary fiction and directories. It also provides a case study of one woman’s experience as she partook of the hunt while also battling long term ill health; challenging the contemporary notion of women as inherently weak and unable for rigorous physical activity.

Barbarian brooches of the 1st–2nd centuries (group V after O. Almgren) and the formation of a regional model of the female dress in the South-East Baltic

Barbarian brooches of the 1st–2nd centuries (group V after O. Almgren) and the formation of a regional model of the female dress in the South-East Baltic

Effect of Dress Code of Sri Lankan Female School Teachers on their Job Performance

The study examined how clothing of Sri Lankan female school teachers affects their job performances. A representative sample was selected among school teachers from Western and Central provinces. A Sequential Explanatory design integrating quantitative survey (n=100) along with qualitative interviews (n=15) and secondary data were used. Results revealed that evolution and current practices of female dress were more into promote nationalism/culture. Though the current dresses of Sri Lankan school teachers are the Saree (for Sinhalese and Tamil teachers) and Abaya (for Muslim teachers), the majority of the respondents preferred to wear casual dresses (54%). Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed significant differences in terms of perceived comfort and performing given four tasks (washing, ironing, dressing and walking after dressed) in favour of casual dress over traditional dress. Thirty percent of respondents have faced accidents due to their current dress. Aforementioned suggested that, teaching and performing extra-curricular activities would be more productive if they wear casual dresses. Key words: Dress Code, Job performance, Females, School teachers Cite this paper: U.G.L.B. Jayasooriya, Saliya De Silva, W.A.D.P. Wanigasundera. (2021), Effect of Dress Code of Sri Lankan Female School Teachers on their Job Performance, Vidyodaya Journal of Management, 7(1), 105-132.

Women’s Dress and the Demise of the Tailoring Monopoly: Farthingale-Makers, Body-Makers and the Changing Textile Marketplace of Seventeenth-Century London

By 1700 tailors no longer dominated England’s garment marketplace, as stay-makers, mantua-makers and seamstresses now produced key items of female dress. The demise of the tailoring monopoly was a complex process involving many factors. This article examines an aspect of this transition that has been previously overlooked in histories of garment production: farthingale-makers and body-makers. These trades emerged at the start of the seventeenth century to make foundation garments that shaped the fashionable silhouettes of England’s women. This article presents a case study of the number, location, reputation and eventual demise of farthingale-makers and body-makers in the Drapers’ and Clothworkers’ Companies of London from 1600 to 1700. The story of these trades shows a growing diversification within garment-making during the seventeenth century, where both demand and opportunity allowed entrepreneurial tradesmen to break away from traditional systems of production, ultimately paving the way for the diverse textile marketplace of the eighteenth century.

Muslim Fashion: Challenging Transregional Connectivities between Malaysia and the Arabian Peninsula

AbstractIn Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country in Southeast Asia, a dynamic market for Muslim fashion has evolved over the past decade, especially concerning the abaya, a female Muslim dress. Malay Malaysian designers, producers and consumers focus on this garment because it represents a style of female Islamic clothing that is perceived as ‘authentic’. The abaya originates from the Arabian Peninsula and is generally worn by Arabic Muslim women with a syariah-compliant design that is commonly simple, loose and opaque. Embedded into the broader marketising processes of a halal industry in Malaysia, Malay women started to adopt this material object and transformed it into a distinct expression of Malaysian Muslim style. The original abaya that follows Islamic rules became a colourful and decorated dress. This transformative process is not only an expression of variation in fashion and style but profoundly transcends powerful social, placial and spatial orders within the Muslim world. The Malaysian fashion market for abayas is embedded in wider dynamics of sacred landscaping in which the Arabian Peninsula is considered to be the ‘centre of Islam’ while Malaysia is positioned and positions itself at the margins. However, Malay Malaysian social actors have shifted this constellation towards a Malaysia that has pushed itself to the forefront of a commercialising Islam through the development of the related Muslim fashion market, among other things. Thus, within a Muslim world order, transregional connections lead to an entangled web of meaning-making regarding power structures, Islamic principles and social practices.

Растительный орнамент ливских овальных фибул конца XII–XIII веков в контексте средневекового христианского искусства

Paired oval brooches were typical for the culture of ancient Livs. They were used to fasten female dress on the shoulders. The first brooches were made in the Lower Daugava at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. Before that the Livs had worn imported adornments in the Scandinavian Beast Style. The appearance of the brooches with floral design in the middle of the 12th century caused a new turn in the jewelry art of Livs. The floral design originated from the East. It was associated with the symbol of the garden of Eden. This idea was also adopted by Christian art. The interminable interweaving of the tree of life, flowers, laurel leaves and bunches of grapes symbolized the arrangement of the Kingdom of God, or the Paradise where the souls of righteous Christians would go after death. Article will consider not only the separate details, the so-called brooches with palmettes, it is intended to expose Christian themes in the local adornments (cross and virtues of Jesus) as well as to show the introduction of the new religious symbols in of the earlier Scandinavian decoration (the images of the four Evangelists, cross, heaven, and plots of Christian bestiary). The prototypes were identified among the Byzantine imperial regalia and in the iconography of the Theotokos. They help to shed light on the possible context of the appearance of the oval brooches in the Northern Europe and explain the duration of use of these adornments among Livs.

Interpreting the Image on the Konda Plaque

The research featured the authentic composition on a IX–XX century plaque found near the Konda River. The article focuses on some ambiguous details of the image. For instance, the decoration of the female figure’s clothing is made up of several zones. Its motifs include scales and dots, which are known to represent animal hair in metalwork and ceramics. In general, the image revealed a certain parallelism in the ornamentation of human clothing, animal hair, and bird plumage. The author established a clear correlation between the zoning and motifs of the female dress and the stylized plumage of ornithomorphic creatures in Oriental toreutics. Therefore, the clothes the male character is trying to take off the woman may symbolize avian plumage. The author interpreted the plot depicted on the Konda plaque as the motif of stealing the avian gown of the peri, a mythical creature of medieval Asian folklore. According to legends, the hero had to steal peri’s clothes to marry her. Thus, the image of peri, which was popular in verbal folklore, proved to be quite common in visual art as well, in particular, in early Islamic art.

Recasting a Viking warrior woman from Ribe: 3D digital image reconstruction compared

We use 3D digital image reconstruction to recreate a unique anthropomorphic pendant from a group of casting mould fragments found in a workshop at the Viking-age emporium Ribe, Denmark. The image showing a figure in female dress and carrying weapons links a production site to ‘valkyrie’ pendants found in England, Denmark and southern Sweden.We compare three different set-ups for 3D recording and their results in terms of model quality, amount of data and cost-effectiveness, based on methodologies now widely accessible for documenting cultural heritage: photogrammetry, structured light scanning and blue LED laser scanning. We identify parameters and procedures for a viable application to the digital reconstruction of casting mould fragments and demonstrate how digital image reconstruction of small artefacts provides essential tools for archaeological analysis of workshop relations, craft technologies, and iconographic innovation.

El vestido femenino de fallera: las Fallas de Valencia entre tradición y modernidad

El presente trabajo tiene por objeto el estudio el vestido femenino de fallera y su impacto en las festividades valencianas llamadas Fallas. Actualmente, el traje de fallera se encuentra entre la tradición y modernidad, ente lo sacro y lo profano, ya que se ha empleado como un elemento idiosincrático para engrandecer al pueblo valenciano, también, se sigue manteniendo como inspiración para creativos y diseñadores contemporáneos. Asimismo, debemos detenernos ante la manufactura sedera valenciana, puesto que Valencia se convirtió en el siglo XVIII el principal centro de producción de sedas en la península en detrimento a Toledo. La monarquía contribuyó a la realización de una política mercantilista de producción y al fomento de la fabricación textil nacional. La seda y su decoración constituyeron una de las más relevantes manufacturas modernas, que hasta hoy en día siguen estando presente en las festividades populares.

Human faces with pointed ears: exploring lycanthropy in Early Anglo-Saxon England

In Early Anglo-Saxon England, Style I anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs played a key role in shaping identity and communicating ideas in a non-literate society. While the zoomorphic designs are well discussed, the meaning of the human element of Style I remains underexplored. This paper addresses this imbalance by examining a rare and overlooked group of anthropomorphic images: human faces with small, pointed ears depicted on fifth- to sixth-century female dress fittings recovered from archaeological contexts in eastern England. This paper identifies quadrupedal creatures as a stylistic parallel within the menagerie of Style I, including equine, lupine and porcine creatures. Although it is difficult to identify the character/s depicted with ears, there are notable affinities between the anthropomorphic masculine face with pointed ears and the ancient Germanic practice of warriors donning wolf and bear pelts. The facial motif with pointed ears appears on feminine metalwork within East Anglia, the historic region of the sixth-century Wuffingas (Little Wolf) dynasty – Wuffa being Wolf and the -ingas suffix meaning ‘people/descendants of Wuffa’. This paper explores this rare design with contextual information from pictorial and historical texts of shapeshifting and considers the relationship between this motif, the object, and the wearer/user.

Himations and Fancy Hairdos: A Note on 1 Peter 3.3

At 1 Pet. 3.3, Peter describes and criticizes elaborate female hairstyles and adornment. His criticism has been interpreted as a call for women of the Christian faith to adopt modest, undecorated forms of dress. This short study contends that Peter’s criticism of the female hairdo, ἐμπλοκής τριχῶν, and associated costume, may not be limited to admonishing fashionable Roman female dress. Peter’s criticism may, in fact, relate to a rejection of Roman female attire connected with ritual. Examination of the similarities of the hairstyle that Peter mentions to the infulae and vittae, with which Roman women supposedly adorned themselves, supports this contention. Infulae and vittae are hitherto unstudied adornments within current available commentaries on 1 Peter and, as shown in this brief explanation, are certainly worthy of further consideration in relation to this portion of the text.

Beyond the Black and White: Female Domestic Servants, Dress and Identity in France and Britain, 1900-1939

ABSTRACTFar from being a trivial detail, clothes fundamentally define who we are and how we are perceived by others. Drawing on a large sample of French and British servants’ memoirs, this article explores how dress served a crucial but contrasting role in the way French and British servants articulated their identities within and outside the home between 1900 and 1939. It argues that servants’ dress was deeply linked to the nature of the occupation in each country and the structure of their respective female labour markets.

Mourning, Dress and Representation in the Widowhood of Two Seventeenth-Century Savoy Regents: Christine of France and Marie-Jeanne-Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours

Early modern courts considered self-representation in an instrumental fashion analogous to today’s obsessiveness with the representation of oneself across social media, aimed at gaining admiration and following. Dress was crucial, as it has remained, in constructing images with precise connotations. Mourning, and its accompanying attire, was an ordinary component of a rigidly orchestrated court culture, where protocol was not necessarily in accordance with courtiers’ emotions. In spite of extensive scholarly research on widowhood, the study of female regenthood and early modern mourning dress has received lesser attention. The seventeenth-century House of Savoy saw the reigns of two female regents: Christine of France and Marie-Jeanne-Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours. Their mourning iconographies, examined in this article, demonstrate the temporal advancement of mourning across various phases, besides displaying the intersection of monarchic power and spousal grief through the tangible nature of clothing.

(Un)Dress in Southworth & Hawes’ Daguerreotype Portraits: Clytie, Proserpine, and Antebellum Boston Women

Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes (2005) is a monumental exhibition catalogue showcasing the work of Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes. Together the partners established a renowned daguerreotype studio in mid-nineteenth-century Boston that catered to the city’s bourgeoisie. This paper seeks to unravel the mystery of dozens of daguerreotypes found in Young America, in which elite Boston women appear to be nearly nude. The unidentified women stand in stark contrast to the carefully concealed bodies of Southworth & Hawes’ other female subjects. Why would they expose themselves in such a manner before the camera’s lens? This paper attributes the women’s state of (un)dress to their deliberate emulation of two sculptures in the classical tradition: Clytie, a marble bust dating to antiquity, and Proserpine, a mid-nineteenth-century marble bust by American neoclassical sculptor Hiram Powers. This argument first reveals how a general “classical statue” aesthetic prevailed for women’s deportment in antebellum America, then demonstrates that the busts of Clytie and Proserpine had special significance as icons of white, elite female beauty in the period. Next, this paper makes the case that Southworth & Hawes devised a special style of photography deriving from their own daguerreotypes of the two statues, in which the women’s off-shoulder drapery was deliberately obscured allowing their female clientele to pose in the guise of these famous statues. The paper concludes by arguing that the women shown in these images could pose in this style without contravening societal norms, as these mythological figures were construed by women and men in the period to reflect the central precepts of the mid-nineteenth-century “Cult of True Womanhood.” Moreover, the busts offered sartorial models that reinforced standards of female dress as they related to class and privilege. By baring their flawless, white skin, however, the women positioned themselves at the crux of contentious beliefs about race in a deeply divided nation prior to the American Civil War.