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    Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments
    Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments
    Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments
    Ebook187 pages1 hour

    Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments

    By Ann Shen

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    About this ebook

    From the creator of the bestselling Bad Girls Throughout History!

    Celebrated illustrator and author Ann Shen shares her striking study of history's most iconic styles, and the women who changed the world while wearing them.

    From the revolutionary bikini to the presidential pantsuit, this book explores 50 fashions through bold paintings and insightful anecdotes that empower readers to make their own fashion statements.

    • Demonstrates the power of fashion as a political and cultural tool for making change
    • Brilliantly illustrated with Ann's signature art style
    • Filled with radical clothing choices that defined their time

    Looks include the Flapper Dress, the unofficial outfit of women's independence in the 1920s; the Afro, worn as a symbol of black beauty, power, and pride; the Cone Bra, donned by Madonna in her 1989 power anthem "Express Yourself"; and the Dissent Collar, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's famous signifier for when she disagrees with the majority.

    With stunning and vibrant illustrations, this is a treasure for anyone who wants to defy style norms and rewrite the rules.

    • An insightful look at the intersection of fashion statements and historical female power
    • Perfect for fans of Ann Shen, as well as anyone who loves fashion, feminism, and political consciousness
    • You'll love this book if you love books like Women In Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed The World by Rachel Ignotofsky; Strong Is the New Pretty: A Celebration Of Girls Being Themselves by Kate T. Parker; and Women Who Dared: 52 Stories Of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, And Rebels by Linda Skeers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChronicle Books Digital
    Release dateSep 1, 2020
    ISBN9781452184012
    Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments
    Author

    Ann Shen

    Ann Shen is an illustrator and graphic designer whose bright, colorful style has been put to work all over the world. She lives in Los Angeles.

    Read more from Ann Shen

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      Book preview

      Nevertheless, She Wore It - Ann Shen

      For everyone who finds power through fashion; my dad, Tien; and my Aunt Pao, who always let me permanently borrow whatever I liked from her closet.

      Text and illustrations copyright © 2020 by Ann Shen.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

      ISBN 9781452184012 (epub, mobi)

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Shen, Ann, author, illustrator.

      Title: Nevertheless, she wore it : 50 feminist fashion moments / [text and illustrations by] Ann Shen.

      Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019046853 | ISBN 9781452183282 (hardcover)

      Subjects: LCSH: Fashion—History—Juvenile literature. | Women’s clothing—History—Juvenile literature.

      Classification: LCC TT515 .S5375 2020 | DDC 746.9/209—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046853

      Design by AJ Hansen.

      Chronicle books and gifts are available at special quantity discounts to corporations, professional associations, literacy programs, and other organizations. For details and discount information, please contact our premiums department at corporatesales@chroniclebooks.com or at 1-800-759-0190.

      Chronicle Books LLC

      680 Second Street

      San Francisco, CA 94107

      www.chroniclebooks.com

      Introduction page 8

      The Syles that Made a Statement page 11

      The Afro page 12

      The Annie Hall page 15

      The Banana Skirt page 16

      The Bikini page 19

      The Black Beret page 20

      The Bloomers page 23

      The Bob page 24

      The Breast Pump page 27

      The Cape page 28

      The Capris page 31

      The Cheongsam page 32

      The Cone Bra page 34

      The Crop Top page 36

      The Daisy Dukes page 39

      The Dissent Collar page 41

      The Durag page 43

      The Fire Coat page 47

      The Flapper Dress page 48

      The Flower Crown page 51

      The Gaulle page 54

      The Hot Pants page 57

      The Jeans page 58

      The Jumpsuit page 61

      The Lobster Dress page 62

      The Marathoner page 65

      The Meat Dress page 66

      The Miniskirt page 68

      The Naked Dress page 70

      The Olympic Hijab page 73

      The Pachuca page 75

      The Pants page 78

      The Pasty page 80

      The Pink Pussyhat page 82

      The Pixie Cut page 84

      The Plunge Dress page 87

      The Presidential Pantsuit page 88

      The Rebozo page 91

      The Red Lipstick page 92

      The Revenge Dress page 95

      The Rolled Stocking page 96

      The Safety Pin Dress page 99

      The Sleeveless Shift page 100

      The Slip Dress page 102

      The Swan Dress page 105

      The Tennis Catsuit page 106

      The Tricolor Stripe page 108

      The Tuxedo page 111

      The Tweed Suit page 112

      The Unibrow page 115

      The Wrap Dress page 116

      References page 118

      Acknowledgments page 128

      About the Author page 129

      Introduction

      Clothes can speak louder than words. This book details many fashion moments that became feminist statements. Since the Industrial Revolution and the democratization of fashion, people have been using personal style to express themselves—their identities, gender, and politics.

      The clothes we wear are a glamour we cast into the world, showing how we want to present ourselves and be seen. It’s the magic of creating our own image and communicating who we are at a glance. Dismissing fashion as feminine vanity or narcissism is inherently sexist. Women have historically co-opted personal style as a means of dissent and power. Each move has meant a new freedom. Bras meant no more disfiguring corsets, miniskirts liberated knees everywhere, and bikinis are for every body. The more women wear what they want to wear instead of what they’re expected to wear, the more freedom and independence they gain—even if it’s controversial at first. Often it takes rebels to change the status quo.

      Whether we choose to stand out or stand together, caring about fashion is a way of reclaiming our power. Sometimes it’s a movement, like the Suffragette tricolor stripe that supporters wore, and sometimes it’s an individual style, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent collars. We have the choice of how we want to dress, and that allows us to reclaim our personal freedoms. Fashion helps us push the envelope and reframe what it means to be a woman. Even as styles change through the decades, these changes are led by especially bold and revolutionary fashion statements that may seem wildly avant-garde at first but then become downright iconic (see The Swan Dress, page 105; The Flapper Dress, page 48; The Bloomers, page 23). Wearing something bold takes courage, and that act of bravery helps give other people a new way to express themselves too. When Princess Diana wore her Revenge Dress, she gave women a new way to see themselves after a divorce: confident and liberated instead of shamed. When Marlene Dietrich slipped on a man’s tuxedo, she showed the world that the masculine and feminine are in every person, that one doesn’t have to be binary. These are some of the stories fashion can tell for us.

      Expressing yourself as a woman is a political act. Our clothing and bodies have too often been subject to scrutiny by a patriarchal structure that works to hold us down. As long as women’s bodies are governed by others, the personal will always be political. This book is an homage to those who claimed their own power through personal expression, a tool that’s available to all of us as we get dressed every day. Through the stories that follow, I share the history of pants, the power of a lipstick, and the beauty of all the natural hair that has gotten us so far today. The genealogy of a style can help embolden you with a message and maybe, just maybe, help you find the courage and visual language to show up as the person you want to be. Fashion is freedom; personal style is currency. And you have an endless supply of it, baby.

      Wear your heart on your sleeve,

      Aunthe Syles that made a statementThe Afro

      In the 1960s, the Black Power movement was underway in the United States, and at the heart of it was a hairstyle that would come to epitomize the political and personal power struggles at play. The Afro hairstyle is worn by people with kinky, curly hair texture (also called natural hair in African-American communities). It features natural hair structure and volume, extending outward as it grows. The rise in popularity of the Afro was a form of reclaiming Blackness by the Black Western community, where white Eurocentric views of beauty dominated. Black men and women had been spending endless dollars and hours using creams, gels, and hot combs to straighten their hair—and gaining scorched scalps and burned ears in the process. It went beyond pursuing beauty standards; men and women weren’t hired for jobs if they wore their hair natural because it was seen as unprofessional. Focusing on the appearance of hair served as a shackle, holding down people deemed other by a white-centered idea of

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