“A Change in Fashion” by Steven Millhauser features, as usual for Millhauser, a wild concept that is obsessed over. In this case, it is a new form of women’s fashion that creates the Age of Concealment. Women start to wear large clothes that erase their forms underneath, making it impossible to determine what they look like. Their heads are slowly covered more and more until they are truly just walking, shapeless blobs of fabric. The narrator discusses its sharp contrast to the more revealing and provocative clothing worn by teenage girls in the past. He also comments on the seductiveness of these women being covered up, a sort of forbidden fruit that contain knowledge you crave. I think this part of the story could be a commentary on a common occurrence in human history and human behavior. We want that which we can’t have or don’t know about. Women are already often treated as objects to be desired, and using their clothing to hide them was an interesting idea of Millhauser’s.
It was also interesting to consider how much control women really had in this situation. Yes, they are using their right to cover up to empower themselves, but it is still at a man– Hyperion’s– suggestion. I did enjoy that they were being so bold as to wear clothing the size of rooms and even buildings, but I wonder why Millhauser added in Hyperion’s character, and why Hyperion is a man. I feel that, for me, it detracted from what could have been a story purely about women being in control of how they are perceived by men. It is a fascinating idea, one that I’d love to see in real life, just to experience men’s reactions to it.
I think that was something the author captured accurately, by suggesting that men still saw women as sexualized beings even when they could only see their clothes. Just the idea of a woman is treated as inherently sexual in this story, and I don’t think it’s too far off from reality. I’m curious if this was Millhauser’s intention, or if his own worldviews are bleeding into his story.
I think the ending was an accurate depiction of what would really happen. Women’s dresses grow to enormous sizes and they use this to their advantage, to go hang out in their bathrobes at the neighbor’s house. And, of course, they are only discovered when men break boundaries and take a forceful bite of the fruit they have been forbidden from touching.
Your point about how much control women really have was very interesting. These women were persuaded to buy into this fashion line to empower themselves, but these suggestions were still influenced by a man. I think this is so important and so true in today’s world. Thank you for pointing this out.
I also noticed that while it is the women’s personal choice to dress that way, it was driven by men/a man. I don’t think this detracted from the what the story could have been, but was a purposeful observation about the way that women’s fashions often work. I agree with you that it was realistic that, even completely covered, women were sexualized, and I also wondered about Millhauser’s perspective.