This article touches on sensitive topics including Fascism, the Holocaust, and commentary on specific political groups. Please read at your own discretion.
Could trends in women’s fashion be a sign of our changing political beliefs? From traditional dress in Nazi Germany to the trad wife aesthetic in 21st-century America, the clothing women wear says more about the political landscape than you’d think.
It might sound like a stretch on the surface, but let’s take a close look at a coincidentally similar chain of events taking place nearly 100 years ago.
Historical Fashion and Politics
The 1920s were a revolutionary time for women’s fashion. With the shortest skirt lengths seen in centuries and the rejection of traditional corsetry, these new, freeing clothing trends reflected increasingly progressive views and the prosperity of the era.
The economic crash of the 1930s and the threat of war overseas, however, put a stop to many of these societal advancements. As fascist leaders like Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy rose to power, the way women dressed changed with them. Suddenly floor-length hemlines and expectations of femininity reappeared as quickly as they had left.
Considering fashion researchers have long debated a similar concept called the “hemline theory” or “hemline index,” linking women’s skirt lengths with the rise and fall of the stock market, it’s easy to wonder if our clothing could represent political changes too.
Now in the 2020s, we’re witnessing an uncanny resemblance to our ancestors back in the 1930s. After decades of societal advancement, some believe we might be progressing backwards. The 2024 U.S. election results and rising fears of fascism around the world are among the more obvious signs, but some smaller cultural changes could be an omen to the oncoming political landscape.
Let’s explore how recent fashion and culture trends have been warning us that something is up.
The Rise of the Trad Wife
There has been a recent surge in the popularity of the “trad wife” or “cottage-core” content creator, for example, Nara Smith, on TikTok and Instagram alike. These women influencers typically adorn vintage-inspired dresses and aprons, are frequently found baking or knitting, and centre their lives around caring for their husbands and children.
While an aesthetic trend may seem harmless on the surface, the beliefs that these creators perpetuate about women have an eerie similarity to those of the early 20th century. Whether it be satire or not, could the traditional values of this kind of content be diminishing the way we view women’s rights?
This style has not only become popular online but has found its way into everyday life. If you walk on campus, you will undoubtedly see at least a few people sporting cottage-core style maxi skirts or dresses. (I’ll admit, I’m unashamedly one of those people!)
As the popular hemline changes, so does our tolerance of women’s bodies. When a society is used to treating women as something to be preserved or maintained, they quickly lose their autonomy. In fascist regimes, for example, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the bodies of women are among the first things to be restricted and controlled. You never know what innocent trend could be the first step toward something unimaginable.
You can chalk trad wives up to “just an aesthetic,” but there’s a historical precedent for why these styles are associated with the oppression of women. The rise of the trad wife could very quickly become the rise of fascism.
Fashion is Unity
Fashion has forever been used as a way to categorize (and exclude) people. It can be as simple as school uniforms and subcultures, but it can also be deeply rooted in racism.
There is no better modern example of this than political campaign merch. If you see someone on the street wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, you can immediately categorize that individual based on their political beliefs. The same goes for any party, but Donald Trump specifically has managed to make an entire ideology recognizable with only one accessory.
Unbeknownst to many, Hitler’s fascist regime employed similar dress tactics to identify those who agreed with their party. One example is the easily recognizable Nazi uniform. For women, however, there was an additional style that demonstrated their political beliefs.
The traditional German Tracht dress, or dirndl, was worn as a symbol of ethnic purity in the 1930s and ’40s. This women’s style consisted of a “dress with a tight bodice, puffed sleeves, a full skirt that reached either to the ankles or the floor, a headpiece, and either a shawl, scarf, jacket, collar, or apron wrapped around the bodice.”
The traditional and conservative values associated with this style are shockingly similar to the moral messaging pushed by the trad wife community. To learn more about how traditional dress was used strategically in Nazi Germany, you can read this research paper by Ayrika Johnson.
Even if you don’t intend it, the clothing you wear acts as a political statement. Pay attention to the trends you buy into and consider what subconscious ideologies might have encouraged them into mainstream media. While we can’t predict anything for certain, styles today might connect our political landscape to a time in history we don’t want to repeat.
Don’t worry, you can still follow Nara Smith… just be careful what political ideas you might accidentally perpetuate.