Sino-Japanism In Western Women's Fashionable Dress In Harper's Bazar, 1890-1927

Abstract

Understanding change and its motivations in historic dress is complex because of fragmented information and the incomplete and possibly biased saving of objects of the past. In this study a media source contemporary to the period 1890-1927 was systematically analyzed for the extent and duration of Japanese and Chinese characteristics evident in forms of dress. Cultural authentication, including change in characterization and in unique forms of dress, was examined through verbal and visual references. Occurrences found within the 37 years covered by the study were quantified for analysis of patterns, and the Japanese and Chinese influences each formed a separate cycle. Dominant in the earlier periods were selection and characterization levels, often for occasions of intimate dressing. In the later periods more evidence of public presentation of self occurred with incorporation and transformation levels of cultural authentication. We found the most extensive assimilation in 1914 for the Japanese and in 1922 for the Chinese characteristics.