Who Dares to Wear Trousers? Adoption of a New Fashion by Finnish Women 1920-1980

Bibliographic Data

ID3064165
AuthorsArja Turunen (0000-0002-3589-5380, University of Jyväskylä Department of History and Ethnology, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume51
Issue2
Publication date2021-12-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnologia Europaea (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0425-4597 • E-ISSN: 1604-3030
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.16995/ee.1788
OpenAlexW3115526099
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

Trousers have traditionally been men's clothing that women have not been allowed to wear. In this article, I study the history of women's wearing of trousers in the twentieth-century Finnish context by analysing women's own memories and experiences of the trouser trend. My research material consists of written reminiscences, which I use, first, to reconstruct the social and cultural factors that framed women's choices. Second, I approach their personal preferences and choices by analysing their narrative identities in the context of dress. My analysis shows that the cultural norms, conventions and expectations about a proper dress were crucial for adopting a new fashion trend. The most important factor in the choice of apparel was, however, the sensual, embodied experiences of wearing clothes

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Clothing · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · History · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Open DOIOpen Access