My group is doing juxtapositions of the fashions of the students of JMU during the 1910s, the 1970s, and the 2010s. The artifact I will be using is the 2013 Bluestone yearbook and the photos within. My contributions will be using the pictures within to understand how the styles of the 2010s compare to those of the other decades and in what ways to these styles differ and why this is important or how it shows change or stagnation through the decades examined. The Bluestone, like all other yearbooks from 1910-2015, is digital and available to access through the JMU Scholarly Commons. The 2013 Bluestone is 342 pages long and is very picture oriented while also calling to attention sports teams, social organizations, achievements, and faculty and administration.
The pictures of the Bluestone are bright and colorful providing a good insight into what those in the pictures are doing and what they are wearing. They highlight specific organizations who may have uniforms or work clothes and provide details of what casual clothes were and how they affected those wearing them. The clothes worn also help to understand how society viewed people who dressed a certain way and what expectations were put on people by the clothes they wore.
Fashion provides a lens into the mindset of the one wearing it. One does not need to be an expert to know that fashion has escalated from an essential to keep one alive to a social cue. Fashion denotes the class one belongs to, what their interests, economic status, and tastes are. The pages of the Bluestone that are devoted to different clubs and sports provide evidence that people of similar interests tend to dress alike: athletes wear letterman jackets, Greek-life members sport their letters, protesters wear political images. Most of the time it is easy to gain the measure of a person by what they are wearing, but appearances can be deceiving, and one should not be stereotyped for what they are wearing.
In 2013, Barack Obama was the president, the Boston Marathon Bombing occurred, Edward Snowden released classified documents, Nelson Mandela died, Pope Francis was elected, and Prince George was born. All these events influenced how people perceived that year as well as the way they acted and dressed. How did these actions influence the society and the way students acted on campus in comparison to previous decades like the 1910s and the 1970s?
Our project will look at five different categories of juxtapositions: how politics of the era influences fashion, how the popular culture of the era influenced fashion, timeless styles, styles that have died out, and how hemlines have changed. Under each juxtaposition we will write detailed analyses of how each category influences or is influenced by style.
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