On Mar 23, 2012, at 5:20 PM, Maggie Halberg wrote: > I think sometimes we try to apply too much "they did this because" to > fashion. Can't something be worn because its thought to be becoming and > fashionable in its time? Just look at how necklines go up and down. Why is > it OK to have an open neckline in 1500 but not in 1600? Why do skirts go > from being OK to show ankles in the 1830's to dresses being floor length > again in the 1860's? Why wear tall cone shaped hats in the 1400's? Why the > tall hairstyles in the 1700's? Why the large drum shape skirts in the 1600's > and a bustle shape in the late 19th century. Its simply all because the > fashions changed. People tweeked what was being worn until it got to the > point where it looked like something else. Perhaps something was being done > and the daring new fashion was to do it the opposite way.
I agree. The human is a storytelling animal -- we have an instinctive drive to find patterns -- so it's easy to understand why such "explanations" are so popular. But human behavior does not always have logical reasons behind it. Sometimes something is fashionable just because everyone thinks it's fashionable. That said, it's also true that there are periods when you rarely see a woman's ears exposed. Some time periods seem to count covering a woman's ears as part of the "cover your head" imperative, other time periods seem to think a woman's head is respectably covered as long as all her hair is under wraps. I was particularly interested to find a painting of a veiled Virgin Mary where her veil is transparent enough that you can see her ears: http://paternosters.blogspot.com/2007/12/blessed-christmas.html (Sometimes it's amusing when I have made friends with someone at historical events, and then when I first see them in blue jeans and a T-shirt they look quite different because they have HAIR!! ;) ____________________________________________________________ O Chris Laning <clan...@igc.org> - Davis, California + http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com ____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
