Malcolm Barnard says in his book Fashion as Communication, “Fashion and clothing have
always been explained as forms of communication” (39). American teenagers use fashion
to communicate their feelings and beliefs. Through out most decades teen fashion has
proven to be a way of rebelling out how they feel and think about certain situations. They
used fashion as a way of social contact with reference to scrutiny for all sorts of people.
Fashion is a communication to use to convey with the world what their personality really
says.
Fashion and history go hand in hand, believe it or not. Historical events in a time period
reflects the way people living in the time dress, especially with teenagers, but it would not
have started with out the Womans Rights Movement. If it were not for the movements,
would it still be a male-dominated society? It is scary to think about, what might not have
happened if it were not for those who fought for privileges? In the first part of the
twentieth century, fashion was beginning to make a radical change. Because of the first
wave of working women making their way into American society, Victorian styles were
suddenly unfashionable and the skirt and blouse combination became more accepted. The
advancing feminine cause influenced many trends. Women, and their desire to conform
with and show that they could do the same job as men, brought about such as the Gibson
Girl, with her hourglass figure, her expertly upswept hair, and her unquestionable
upper-class air, was everything American women in 1900 wanted to be.
Although women fought for the rights, in the 1950s teenagers started to take advantage of
the fact they could express their feelings. Rock N Roll music made teenagers come out
with their own since of style. They were more open with developing their own since of
style, showing that they no longer wanted to dress like their parents. The girls now started
to wear poodle skirts in every color you could imagine with tight sweaters that matched.
They wore their hair in a pony tail and started having a social life. The guys on the other
hand went along with what movie stars made popular. Author James Laver stated
“Hollywood film stars James Dean and Marlon Brando popularized jeans and the
motorbike jacket and also transformed the T-shirt into a fashionable item of
clothing”(260). American teenage boys also wanted to show their rebellious side by having
