Women Were Big Consumers of Automobiles

 

Within the October 24, 1928 issue of The Madera Tribune there is an article titled “Fashion Wave has Hit Auto”.

This single article introduces way more than I should put into a single issue.  I plan to spread out my ideas through a short series, each issue covering several ideas and what I’ve found to back them up.  I’ll start with the article itself:

 FASHION WAVE HAS HIT AUTO

By FRANCES PAGET Copyright, 1928, by Women's Wear Magazine '

NEW YORK. Oct. 23. — (United Press) — Women's influence was marked and commented on freely by the International press when the Paris Automobile Exposition opened its doors. Indeed many of the cars were decorated by women artists, and all attested to the influence of women and fashion.

New baggage contrivances, such as hat boxes and coat hangers, were introduced, and such materials as tapestry and leopard skin were reported as effectively used for madame's sedan. What a change from the early days of the automobile, when practically everything about It. and certainly its linen dusters, and goggles and helmets and veils were unsightly.

A woman, be she driver or passenger, is no longer handicapped in her choice of effective motoring garb. She Is inclined to go to the length of preserving harmony in the coloring of her car and her costumes. The feminization of fashion, which for a while was swayed by masculine Influences Is commented on further in Paris reports whether women are becoming more feminine, whatever that may mean, or whether the upper classes are again leisure classes, the Haute Couture has paid increased attention to negligees for the last year or so, and one can find in Paris a great variety of type design with a slight leaning toward modernistic effects. The entire feeling in the mode today is for apparel appropriate to the occasion, and expressive of not only of one’s individuality, but of one’s endeavor.

I hope to answer who was Frances Paget? What was Women’s Wear Magazine? What was the Paris Automobile Exposition? Who were some of the women artists who decorated the displayed cars and how were they unusual?

What was a car’s hat box and a coat hanger? How have car interiors changed over the years? How did ladies dress in the early days of cars?

What’s the history of women dressing in shades that harmonize with their cars? Did women at an earlier time dress more to attract men than to look like a woman or to be comfortable? Did the Jazz Age—when the upper classes let loose and partied — wait until October 1928 to debut in  Paris? What special improvements to a woman’s nighties were made in 1927? Did dressing for your endeavor gain a certain flair in the late twenties?

Throughout this series, I’ll let you know roadblocks I encounter and hope to lend you an idea of what the readers of that article might have understood that it was trying to tell them and what, if anything, might have been influenced to change by the 1928 Paris Automobile Exposition.