Fashions and Accessories: 1840 through 1980 Book

Angela Latham looks at the role that performance played in woman's lives in the 1920s as different views on public morality, fashion and art were debated through personal choices. She looks at the 'flapper' fashion, female swimsuits, and stage productions like revues, chorus lines and burlesque shows. I found the first half of the book fascinating as she looked at female fashion, especially how women's personal choices of products, hairstyle and swimsuit style navigated a complicated public dialogue about how the public defined morality and how rules could be bent through the use of performance. However, I felt that the second half that focused only on the theater felt flat. While the book started off with a broad look at events and movements across the United States, the second half was restricted largely to New York and Chicago. While Latham's background is in theater, the narrowing focus left me feeling underwhelmed as a discussion about how many women was choosing to express herself was shifted to a discussion about a select few performers. Both parts were interesting, but it made me wish that she had made two books, rather than one.