Reviews for Classic Chic: Music, Fashion, and Modernism

The average rating for Classic Chic: Music, Fashion, and Modernism based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-08-15 00:00:00 Judson Spangler Enstad argued that the Shirtwaist strike of 1909-10 in NYC should be reexamined using a popular culture analysis to orient the understanding of the strike back to the mostly Jewish and Italian working class women who constituted the strikers. Enstad notes that the media at the time tried to discredit the strikers by focusing on their rowdiness, immoral behavior, and showy fashion, while middle class reformers saw the strikers pleading for charity, and finally the labor leaders and many historians since argue that the women were disciplined, rational actors in the strike. All these views take away agency from the women, who used consumer culture of accessing cheap ready to wear dresses, consumed dime novels, and formed fan cultures to see motion pictures. This helped formed political identities of workers whom were also women, proud and independent, and led to the mass strike that attracted nearly 40,000. It is important to note that their grievances were not just better hours and wages, but also against harassment by mostly male bosses and supervisors. Enstad also notes that things like owning stylish hats signified that the workers earned their own money and broke away from submissive norms of the Old World traditionalism. While anti-strike opponents painted them as immature and childish, these women actually helped broker new class awareness through consumer cultures, far from passive, which can be inferred by the mass participation in the strike. Key Themes and Concepts: -Cultural histories should be understood as not opposed to materialism, but using commodities and consumer culture to understand material wants and identity construction. For instance, working class women wore cheap French heals as a way of signifying independence, appropriation of class, and break from old world traditional modesty. -Enstad focuses on hat and dress fashion, consumption of dime novels, and motion pictures. -Popular culture is also material culture. Class analysis should also focus on what people do in their spare time and what representations they make in how they present themselves.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-13 00:00:00 Franck Troots This book offers an incredibly unique take on the lives of Italian and Jewish immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s as they struggled to define themselves as 'ladies' and 'workers' and 'political figures' all at the same time. It is completely different from some other historical portrayals of these ladies as prostitutes, poor, starving, illiterate and degenerate which is really, really refreshing. The only thing that I did not like about this book is the way in which it was written. It is repetitive and it is a bit disorganized. The writing itself only becomes moving and incredibly striking in the Conclusion when the author ties everything together and delivers some brilliant closing remarks. It makes you wish that she could have been that organized and that insightful the entire time. Overall, this is a great book if you can struggle through the disorganization.