Evolution of the Female Body
Published 24 September 2019The 20th and 21st centuries have witnessed a widespread shift in the evolution of the female body and fashion. The female body we see today is completely different from the silhouette of the female body from thousands of years ago. The mainstream idea everyone has about the perfect female body is a thin, well proportioned, athletic body. Just as the idea of the female body is shifting, the evolution of the female fashion continues.
The difference between the perfect female body over the decades is a factor of public attitude at that time. The evolution of the woman body sets to continue for a long period of time because the beauty standard depends on what people think is okay. If the attitude of the public speaks in support of curves, every female then strives to get some curve in order to be seen as perfect. If a thin body is considered okay, then everyone wants to have a thin look. It just keeps drifting.
This century is the time when manufacturers of pills and diets record great success because women are constantly trying to fit into whatever is deemed perfect. The rule book for the perfect female body is constantly changing, so all the time, women pay attention to their shapes and forms, which has led to a shifting frame in the evolution of the female body.
As the female body keeps changing, the female fashion also keeps moving. This is because fashion evolves to suit the body deemed perfect at a particular time.
What is the female body like in the past era?
The primitive
symbol of a female body in the prehistoric time is the Venus figurines, and
they do not look like the female bodies we see around in this century. The
Venus of Willendorf found at Willendorf, Austria in 1908 portrays a female with
a round, pear-shaped body and large breasts. This is way beyond curvy. To be
deemed perfect and ideal as a woman 23,000 to 25,000 years ago, you may need to
have the body of the Venus of Willendorf.
Looking
back to ancient Greece, the women seem to be on the heavy side too. Hesiod, the
7th -8th-century author described the women to literally to have large hips,
not-so-flat stomach, and full breasts.
Meanwhile, the Greeks defined the female body to be more than beauty; they
nailed what female attractiveness is. Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, was
portrayed as a woman with curves.
Artists through the 17th and 18th centuries portray the female body to be
curvy and voluptuous. Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th-century Flemish painter,
depicted women as curvy in these paintings.
To achieve this, the corset became a major undergarments trend for
women. The corset in these centuries was designed in such a way to accentuate a
woman’s curve by snapping the waist and supporting her breast.
As the
societal view of what the body should be like changes, the structure of corset
also changes. The 18th-century corset was a cone-shaped silhouette. In the
1790s, there were shorter corsets looking like proto-brassieres. The shorter
corsets were just perfect for the female fashion at that time. It complimented
the fashion trend of high waist dresses. In the 1890s, another depiction of the
female body came from the America artist Charles Dana Gibson who drew images of tall,
voluptuous women with slim waists. The images went mainstream on magazines,
which made the ideal female body to be referred to as the “Gibson
Girl.”
The 20th
century took a dive into considering the ideal female body as a plump,
athletic, and slender body. The 1980s being the supermodel era celebrated the tall,
athletic, svelte but curvy and toned arms female. During this period, every
female had to do one exercise or the other with loads of workout videos all
over the place.
In the
1990s, extremely thin, translucent skin, androgynous body type was celebrated.
This period witnessed a rise in anorexia. Every female craved for a thin,
homeless look. Women with frail, thin, and neglected look were
celebrated.
Currently, the standard female body is waving back to the 18th-century female body. A flat stomach, large breasts, and butt, thigh gap, healthy skin. In short, you need to be a sum of the earlier times to be called an ideal woman of present. It’s not surprising that women are investing a lot in plastic surgery seeking to achieve what the ideal female body evolved into.
How female fashion has evolved
Fashion is
important, and it has been the major way in which the female folks present
themselves to the world. However, it
continues to change and develop due to the evolution of the female body.
Garments are designed to suit and accentuate the ideal female body in detail.
Now that the female body has evolved into the curvy body type, flat tummy, wide hips, and thin midriff, a
lot of people want to wear more of body con dresses to show that they are an
ideal female.
Fashion evolved into wearing skirts and dresses in the 1980s. The skirt and dresses in these times were often long, but this was lost in the latter years. The evolution of fashion can be said to be a subject to cultural change. Most times, fashion is said to have a cyclic effect because trends and style return to be popular after some time. All trends and styles of the past times are subject to modification, so some styles may be out of trend for now, but there are designers who could get inspiration on how to make it better in order for their designs to suit the female body of today.
However, as
fashion evolves, it is possible that you create your own personal style that
suits your body, which is the most important thing about fashion. You can only
keep up with fashion by feeling comfortable and confident in yourself. Style
yourself in both modern and vintage fashion clothing, just how it suits your body.