Clothing designed for social distancing. Wearing it made physical contact nearly impossible.
On many occasions in the past, fashion has created clothing that facilitated social distancing. Crinolines, bustles, polysoms, enormous hats were not merely the whims of eccentric designers: they served to protect the women who wore them, and were related to etiquette and social class.
By: Einav Rabinovitch-Fox – Historian and professor at Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Source: theconversation.com website
As the world grapples with the coronavirus outbreak, “social distancing” is becoming a buzzword in these strange times. Instead of hoarding food or rushing to the hospital, authorities are saying that social distancing – understood as deliberately increasing the physical space between people – is the best way ordinary people can help “flatten the curve” and stop the spread of the virus.
A satirical caricature of the fashion for enormous skirts, supported by a frame called a crinoline.
Fashion may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think about isolation strategies. But, as a historian who writes about the political and cultural meanings of clothing, I know that fashion can play an important role in the design of social distancing, regardless of whether the space created serves to resolve a health crisis or to ward off annoying suitors.
When the bubonic plague ravaged Europe, doctors protected themselves from contagion by using masks like the one in this illustration.
Stay away
Clothing has long served as a useful way to mitigate close contact and unnecessary exposure. In this current crisis, masks have become a fashion accessory that signals “stay away.” In the past, fashion also proved useful during past epidemics, such as the bubonic plague, when doctors wore pointed, bird-like masks as a way to keep their distance from sick patients. Some lepers were forced to wear a heart on their clothing and wear bells or carry clappers to warn others of their presence.
Dresses with enormous bustles, worn in European courts in the 19th century, also served the purpose of keeping unwanted suitors at bay.
Most of the time, it's not a global pandemic that makes people want to keep others at a distance. In the past, maintaining distance – especially between genders, classes, and races – was an important aspect of social gatherings and public life. Social distancing had nothing to do with isolation or health; it was about etiquette and class. And fashion was the perfect tool.
Barrier between the sexes
Take a look at the Victorian-era "crinoline." This frame for large, voluminous skirts, which became fashionable in the mid-19th century, was used to create a barrier between the sexes in social settings.
Although the origins of this trend can be traced back to the 15th-century Spanish court, these voluminous skirts became a marker of social class in the 18th century. Only those privileged enough to avoid domestic chores could wear them; you needed a house with enough space to move comfortably from room to room, and a servant was required to help the ladies dress. In those years, the larger the skirt, the higher the woman's social status.
After crinolines came bustles, which greatly increased the size of women's buttocks.
In the 1850s and 1860s, many middle-class women began wearing crinolines when "cage-shaped" skirts began to be mass-produced. Soon, a veritable "crinoline mania" swept the fashion world. Despite criticism from fashion reformers, who considered it another tool to oppress women's mobility and freedom, the wide, exaggeratedly full skirt was a sophisticated way to maintain women's social security. The crinoline ensured that a potential suitor – or, worse still, a stranger – would keep a safe distance from a woman's body and décolletage.
In China, during the Middle Ages, an emperor ordered mandarins to wear hats with long, protruding sides: this was to prevent whispers and gossip whispered in their ears.
Fashion as a weapon
Although these skirts likely inadvertently helped mitigate the dangers of smallpox and cholera outbreaks of the time, crinolines could be a health hazard: many women died from burns after their skirts caught fire. In the 1870s, the crinoline gave way to... naughty (bustle(in English), which emphasized only the fullness of the skirt at the back. Women, however, continued to use fashion as a weapon against unwanted male attention. As skirts narrowed in the 1890s and early 1900s, large hats – and, more importantly, safety pins, which were sharp metal needles used to fasten hats – offered women the protection against harassers that crinolines used to provide.
Regarding health maintenance, germ theory and a better understanding of hygiene led to the popularization of face masks – very similar to those we use today – during the Spanish flu. And, although the need for women to keep their distance from annoying suitors remained, hats were used more to keep masks intact than to ward off strangers. Today, it is unclear whether the coronavirus will lead to new styles and accessories. Perhaps we will see the emergence of new forms of protective clothing, such as the “wearable shield” that a Chinese company has developed. Fashion changes and adapts to the times and needs of the moment. In the world fashion Everything is uncertain. The only thing we can bet on is that, at least on cold days, we'll continue to wear pajamas when it's time to go to bed.
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