WW1 Week 1 Essay

between Britain and Germany over the seas (History.state.gov, 2017). The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne, convinced that Serbia was responsible for the assassination and thus the Austro-Hungarian government declared war on Serbia (Tortora and Marcketti, 2015). Germany declared war on Russia after Russia refused to stop mobilizing in defence of Serbia and then declared war on France, and consequently Britain had to enter the war as it was an ally of France and Russia (Tortora and Marcketti, 2015). This world war influenced literature and art, it changed cultures and while it brought economic depression to some it brought prosperity to others (Study.com, 2017). Equally, the Elizabethan

This meant that there was a dramatic increase of women wearing pants (Guenther, 2004) [Figures 1 & 2] because they needed more comfortable and practical clothing to be able to work the heavy labour jobs they had taken over while the men were away at war (Tortora and Marcketti, 2015). Conversely, during Elizabethan times, clothing was restrictive but it was male actors who were allowed to cross-dress, as women were not allowed to act in theatres. During this time, nearly the entire population, from the upper classes to lower classes wore a ruff which encircled the neck, this dis-joined the head from the body and furthered restricted movement (Entwistle and Wilson (Eds), 2001) [Figure 3]. During the war years the cut of women’s fashion became less structured (Tortora and Marcketti, 2015) and women began to wear practical uniforms and workwear, in particular trench-coats, jodhpurs for the land army, and there was a gradual revelation of the lower part of women’s legs with a new emphasis on shoes and stockings (Fischel, 2012). During the Elizabethan Era, however, there was an emphasis on structure, and clothing such as the sleeves were padded out. These tight or stiffened enormous sleeves made the arms appear separate from the body and also hindered