On Modesty and "Old Fashioned"

This recent post on Cos Couture got me thinking about modesty and how we often associate "old fashioned" with covered up and modest looks.  Which is a bit odd. It assumes that fashion runs in some sort of line straight from completely covered to showing it all off.  But fashion has always cycled.  

A fashion plate from 1919

Now, I will be the first to point out when skirts are too short in a film or show set in the 1920s but while the actual length of a 1920s dress may look long to modern eyes, in terms of what women were wearing just a decade earlier hemlines were shockingly higher.  But they didn't stay that way and by the 1930s they had fallen again to something closer to 1910s lengths. 

Rising hemlines in the twenties . . .

 . . .Falling ones in the thirties.

And then there's the sixties.  The mini skirt was mini.  So short many women opted for tights to avoid flashing people.  Last time I was in a store I didn't see any dresses or skirts that short.  And while the 20th century saw some of the biggest shifts, hemlines have always risen and fallen.

I admit this is evening wear, but clearly plunging necklines are nothing new.

It's the same for necklines and the tightness of how clothes are worn.  I guarantee there are plenty of older women and men who have uttered comments on how "dowdy" modern clothes are.   Yes, there are "Old fashioned" folks out there thinking the young people should wear tighter  and more revealing clothes.  And no, they are not all dirty old men.

This is the first image that popped up when I did a Google search for "appropriate work wear" Yawn.

While the casual and special occasion clothes of today can some times get pretty revealing the notion of accepted work wear  is pretty conservative.  Can you imagine an office allowing women to wear skirts as short as those shown in the SCDP offices in recent seasons of Mad Men?  When I was younger I was pulled aside for wearing clothes that showed  a little too much or were too brightly colored according to those who spoke to me.  I didn't think I was showing too much or being inappropriate but I did as told.   Then when I got into vintage dressing I had to think carefully about what I could get away with and what would lead to another "little chat".

In the Cos Couture article she writes about how the visibility of the human nipple through clothes was not considered to be obscene and in fact its appearance was sometimes enhanced with the sewing of buttons on the bra.  It brought to mind a time when I was bra shopping and asked the clerk if they had any bras that weren't lined with foam.  She responded to me in a despairing tone "But the nipples."  Apparently I had been unaware that such exposure was not only undesirable but downright tragic.  And yet the store was filled to the brim with push up and padded bras.  Clearly enhancing the actual size of one's assets was okay but let's not remind people that breasts have a functional as well as decorative purpose!  Where will fashion take us twenty, thirty, fifty years from now?  What are we enhancing and admiring right now that will become obscene?  What will we chose to show off and augment instead?
 

Just some old fashioned ladies.

So why is that most people equate "Old fashioned" with prim, proper, and (occasionally) prudish?   Is it because most people are ignorant of fashion history?  Is it the idea that fashion only runs in one direction?  Is it, perhaps, coming from the same place that the notion that old people are naive and unworldly?  That the mythical "Good Old Days" were a simpler and more innocent time? I hate to shatter anyone's illusions but the "Good Old Days" exist only in people's imaginations.  Life was never simple, it was just different.  Attitudes change over time, maybe sometimes for the better.  Of course what is "better" will depend on your perspective.

"Old fashioned" should simply mean that it's fashion from a time previous to now.  But that's not how it's used.  This certainly doesn't bother me on the level of a "wrong era" comment.  I think how it really bothers me is that it seems to be closely associated with a value judgement.  The person using the remark is often either praising or insulting what they deem to be "old fashioned."  Either being an "old fashioned" girl is good because you are prim, sweet, and proper or it's bad because you are prudish, repressed, and dowdy.  Take your pick.  I prefer neither.

What do you think of when you hear the term "old fashioned"?