Dress and Identity in America

Dress and Identity in America is an examination of the conservatism and materialism that swept across the country in the late 1940s through the 1950s-a backlash to the wartime tumult, privations, and social upheavals of the Second World War. The study looks at how American men sought to recapture a masculine identity from a generation earlier, that of the stoic patriarch, breadwinner, and dutiful father, and in the process, became the men in the gray flannel suits who were complacently conventional and conformist. Parallel to that is a look at how American women, who had donned pants and went to work in wartime munitions factories or joined services like the WACS and WAVES, were now expected to stay at home as housewives and mothers, dressed in cinched, ultrafeminine New Look fashions. As the Space Age dawned, their baby boom children rejected the conventions of their elders and experimented with their own ideas of identity and dress in an emerging era of counterculture revolutions.

Daniel Delis Hill has worked as a retail fashion illustrator, catalog art director, and creative director of fashion photography. He also taught in the fashion departments of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio. He has written ten books on fashion and American popular culture, including Peacock Revolution: American Masculine Identity and Dress in the Sixties and Seventies, and Dress and Identity in America: The Baby Boom Years 1946-1964. In addition, he has written a number of essays for the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion and American National Biography (Oxford University).

Preface 1. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit: Growing Up Sociocultural legacies from his childhood American manhood during World War II Civilian dress and identity during the Second World War Conclusion 2. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit: The Postwar Years Masculine identity in transition The GI Bill of Rights Postwar marriage Masculine identity in suburbia Fatherhood in the baby boom era TV dads of the 1950s Conclusion 3. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit: Crisis in Masculinity The feminization of American manhood Conformity and Cold War masculine identity The stress of success Noncomformist Beats, beatniks and bikers Playboys "Lavender Lads" Conclusion 4. Men's Dress from Ivy League to Continental to Mod Ivy League style Continental suits Accessories Sportswear The dichotomy of desexualized dress and erotic masculine styles The British Invasion: from the London Line to mod Conclusion 5. Ethnic Men's Identity and Dress The zoot suit The social significance and cultural meaning of the zoot suit The zoot suit riots Soul style in the 1960s Conclusion 6. Women of the Baby Boom Era: Lessons of Youth Feminine role models and expectations American women during World War II Sociocultural changes for women during World War II Conclusion 7. Women's Identities in the Baby Boom Years Marriage reunions at the end of the war Postwar newlyweds Postwar marriage: not happily ever after Postwar suburban wives Motherhood in the baby boom era TV wives and mothers of the baby boom era Working women of the baby boom era Feminism in the baby boom era Conclusion 8. Women's Fashions of the Baby Boom Era The New Look Mod and the miniskirt Women's accessories of the baby boom years Decade of "miracle fabrics" Conclusion 9. Baby Boom Children An era of children Gender role socialization A new consumer demographic Children's dress Standardization of children's sizes and textile regulations Children's body modifications Conclusion End Notes Bibliography Index