Wendy has sent this link from the New York Times, a pdf of an article from 1910 about dresses for summer. (The picture is the image from the article.)
My favorite part was this:
Women are obstinate and persistent. If they like a fashion they have a tenacious way of hanging on to it, despite the fact that dressmakers and the shops insist upon telling them that the style is out.
I also liked the treatment of the "aeroplane skirt," which the author says the "majority of women" rebel against. It's not this airplane skirt, of course (which I also believe the majority of women rebel against); it seems to be an earlier term for a hobble skirt. Another NYT article says (about the aeroplane skirt):
If women want to run for Governor they ought to be able to run for a car. If they want to step into a President's chair they ought to be able to step into a motor. If they want to be legally free they shouldn't be sartorially shackled … they have chosen a trammeled figure and shackled ankles when they need most to have them free in the strenuous race for equality with the trousered sex.
Wendy reminds me that since the NYT has loosed its archive from the pay wall that there are many, many interesting fashion articles to be found therein … if you start looking around and find some good ones, feel free to send them to me! It's only pure force of will that keeps me from spending the next four hours looking for articles about Lily Daché and Ceil Chapman.
A Dress A Day 
Thank you for posting this, Erin! The NYT archive really is a time-stealing delight.Also, I see that the lady on the right is fond of head-sized upholstery prints. She obviously has fantastic taste.
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I love the phrase “sartorially shackled.”
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Oh I could get lost in that archive… :O
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That’s great! The excerpt about the hobble skirts is equally applicable today to pointy-toed, high-heeled shoes. – Jenny
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I looked up more reporting from Anne Rittenhouse, who has a delightful style. I found a very practical article, especially for women with teenaged daughters:Dressing a Girl of Sixteen Not Such a Problem If You Go at It Wisely and with Understanding.Excerpt:In the days when a 16-year-old girl was sentimentally called sweet sixteen and was supposed to be the heroine of romances and quite able to judge of her love affairs and get married, it may have been easy to dress her. . . . Now we live in a healthier period of time. The girl of 16 who behaves like a grown-up person is promptly sent away to school and put on a basketball team; and if she talks too much about love, the boys of the neighborhood are no longer allowed to call on Sunday evening.
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Never mind that it was MEN designing almost all the fashions in 1910. They probably designed those stupid hobble skirts to keep women “in their place”. I’m a musician; I’m always struck by how many songs were written in the 1910’s and 1920’s about women trying to vote, run the world, running wild like men, etc. etc. Men were FREAKED OUT by liberated women. Oh, and I work in an historical archive. We all went CRAZY about the NYT abolishing its fees. I could spend all week in there.
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YES, I rebelled against the contemporary, ‘urban’ definition of an airplane skirt and voted thumbs down. Ewww. Another guy’s design/definition, I think.Did anyone else notice the quasi-Duro banding on the bodice on the right?The nice thing about sewing is that we can keep on making and wearing a style we like whether it is IN, OUT, or UPSIDE-DOWN, especially now.
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It’s odd, the “Hobble” skirt is universally destested by women, and adored by men. [ more to do with the fact it shows off the wearers figure I bet ]and the “pointy toes high heels”instead of complaining, take the measurements of your husband / boyfriend, and make a really, really feminine hobble skirt to fit him. [ the mermaid hem styling ] get a pair of 6” pointy toes stilletoes and make him war them for the day.For added torment, go for a corset to really help him have that “girlish” figure.. make him have a Barbie doll shape. I bet his opinion of ladies fashion would drastically change if every time he made a comment about that unrealistic figure, or those uncomfortable fashions you made him wear them.:D
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