“A Change In Fashion” by Steven Millhauser once again made use of a collective third person narrator that describes things much like a documentary. The focus of this story was on fashion, and how it seems to change drastically over time. Fashion trends come and go throughout the decades, and often times certain trends come back in a slightly different way. Millhauser addresses this in the beginning of the story:
It was as if, after half a century of reckless exposure, a weariness had overcome women, a yearning for withdrawal, a disenchantment with the obligation to invite a bold male gaze.”
That being said, I found it interesting that it focused on women’s fashion in particular. Women’s fashion in more recent years has been somewhat revealing, not leaving much to the imagination, whereas the fashion change that takes place in this story suggests something else entirely. The fact that more of the body is covered makes it more interesting; it’s the not knowing that makes it more enticing. This idea becomes more vivid and tangible as more advancements are made to women’s dresses. Some are suspected to have miniature rooms underneath the skirts, and some dresses become so large that they cover whole houses and lawns, making the women seem to disappear altogether. The thrill of the dresses makes them a work of wearable art, and this fashion influences society for quite a while.
However, this too eventually fades, and the large, and overbearing dresses fade into barely a memory. Only a few seem to recall that the change had ever even happened. This is very similar to historical events. The people that lived during that time carried the memory, but over time the recounting of events warped and changed, or completely faded altogether.
