Presentation Schedule
Transportation Technology and Women’s Fashion in 1920s Japan (107990)
Saturday, 9 May 2026 15:45
Session: Poster Session
Room: Hall B5 Foyer
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
It is a familiar story that women’s clothing in Japan changed over time, influenced by the changes in aesthetics, by social upheavals, and by designers and the fashion industry. Against this backdrop, my paper argues that it was transportation technology, such as buses and elevators, that changed the way working women dressed. The purpose of this paper is to show how the uniforms of working women were like in 1920s. The 1920s saw the birth of new careers for women: bus girls and elevator girls. In the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake, buses became the main form of ground transportation. They wore uniforms that included collared shirts, jackets, and skirts. They wore hats on their heads and purses at their waists, which became an icon of highly paid bus girls. Elevator girls in department stores wore uniforms that included not only black pumps but also pleated skirts and sweaters, which allowed easy movement as they had to operate the handle. Photographs from the period show that they did not wear jackets, unlike bus girls. Still, their relatively casual uniforms were regarded as modern. Based on archival materials such as drawings, photographs, and songs, this paper examines the complex relationship between transportation technology and women’s fashion and shows how uniforms for working women informed the way modern women’s fashion was created in 1920s Japan. In 1920s, women and children began to wear western clothes. This paper shows working women’s uniforms also helped the change for women to wear western clothes.
Authors:
Kyoko Yamashita, University of Tsukuba, Japan
About the Presenter(s)
Kyoko Yamashita studies in the Tsukuba University, now in the master degree.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule
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