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The lost art of dress : the women who once made America stylish / Linda Przybyszewski.

by Przybyszewski, Linda.

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Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2014]

Fashion -- United States -- History -- 20th century.

Women fashion designers -- United States.

Fashion design -- History -- 20th century.

United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.

9780465036714 (hc.)

0465036716 (hc.)

347 pages ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"American women have forgotten how to dress. We chase fads, choose inappropriate materials and unattractive cuts, and waste energy tottering in heels when we could be moving gracefully. Quite simply, we lack the fashion know-how we need to dress professionally and flatteringly. As historian and expert dressmaker Linda Przybyszewski reveals, it wasn't always like this. In the first half of the twentieth century, a remarkable group of women -- the so-called Dress Doctors -- taught American women how to stretch each yard of fabric and dress well on a budget. Knowledge not money, they insisted, is the key to timeless fashion. Based in Home Economics departments across the country, the Dress Doctors offered advice on radio shows, at women's clubs, and in magazines. The Dress Doctors' concerns weren't purely superficial: they prized practicality, and empowered women to design and make clothing for both the workplace and the home. They championed skirts that would allow women to move about freely and campaigned against impractical and painful shoes. The simple design principles -- harmony, proportion, balance, rhythm, emphasis -- American women from all classes could learn to dress for all occasions in a way that made them confident, engaged members of society. This book introduces a new audience to their timeless rules of fashion and beauty-rules which, with a little help, we can certainly learn again."--Provided by publisher.

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