French Fashion, Women, and the First World War

This exhibit, which features the US debut of garments by Coco Chanel and Jeanne Lanvin and other French women designers who headed fashion houses during World War I, explores the relationship between fashion, war, and gender politics in France during World War I. Additional items on view include postcards, posters, caricatures, fashion magazines and photographs that show the transition of women's fashion that occurred during World War I and French society's reaction to the changes.  The exhibit further explores the lasting legacy of the transition and the Great War and the role both played in the time it took French women to earn the vote vs. American women. [endif]