Femininity and Costume in 1930s Horror
Film, Fashion and Consumption
Vol 3, Number 1
In much of 1930s horror, the female figure is little more than a plot furthering device upon which the deepest and most evil fantasies of the monstrous male protagonist can be projected. But whilst the men in these films – even the monsters themselves – tend to wear contemporary 1930s garments, the costume worn by women is a peculiar mesh of styles. In films where female characters are more integral, their dress thematically reflects this. Yet where women play the helpless victim, their clothing tends to occupy a no-man’s-land of styles that pitches up somewhere between an exaggerated and romanticized historicism, referencing mythology, Paganism and the Aesthetic dress movement, which, narrowly preceding dress reform, was in itself a romanticized historicism promoting comfort over the rigidity of mainstream fashion.
Read more...
Film, Fashion and Consumption
Vol 3, Number 1
In much of 1930s horror, the female figure is little more than a plot furthering device upon which the deepest and most evil fantasies of the monstrous male protagonist can be projected. But whilst the men in these films – even the monsters themselves – tend to wear contemporary 1930s garments, the costume worn by women is a peculiar mesh of styles. In films where female characters are more integral, their dress thematically reflects this. Yet where women play the helpless victim, their clothing tends to occupy a no-man’s-land of styles that pitches up somewhere between an exaggerated and romanticized historicism, referencing mythology, Paganism and the Aesthetic dress movement, which, narrowly preceding dress reform, was in itself a romanticized historicism promoting comfort over the rigidity of mainstream fashion.
Read more...
