Nothing says ‘feminity’ like a bow, and suddenly they’re back with a vengeance, writes Jane Macdougall.The Globe and Mail
It’s just a bow.
A sweet, simple reef knot of ribbon encircling a ponytail or perched at the crown of the head. Satin, grosgrain or velvet, nothing says “femininity” like a bow.
And they’re back. Not since the days of Hayley Mills have bows so dominated the fashion landscape. And not just bows – “pretty” is back.
It’s back without apology.
Without irony.
And it’s been weaponized.
The question is why? And how? And who? And … huh?!
Before we untie the bow question, consider for a moment the basque waist, another ultrafeminine feature from the archive of the female wardrobe.
What, you ask, is a basque waist?
A basque waist is when the bodice of a dress dips over the abdomen in a V, thereby accentuating the torso while enhancing the hips. The design feature hails from Basque Country in northern Spain, but it most certainly has its apogee in the land known as Disney in Southern California. If you’ve ever had a fairy godmother or animated birds and mice whip up a dress for you, that dress will most likely have had a basque waist. From Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty, princesses-in-the-making all rock a frock with a basque waistline.
So, the question expands: Why now for bows and basque waists? What’s driving this princess-ification of fashion? Perhaps the answer lies with the “dress that broke the internet.” Not the striped dress of 2015, but the “raw milkmaid” dress recently offered by Evie, the magazine The New York Times calls the “Conservative Cosmo.” (The “raw” part is a nod to the politicization of unpasteurized dairy.)
Imagine Kim Kardashian as a Wisconsin dairy farmer’s daughter. The dress features a tavern wench’s plunging neckline with breast-amplifying shirred fabric along with wayward puff sleeves. The skirt boasts an up-to-there slit intended for straddling … a milking stool? The basque waist highlights the hip-to-waist ratio, which is further enhanced by a lace-up back for a torso-defining fit. At the bosom, a delicate bow beckons. Of the dress, the publisher of Evie warns, “Side effects may include unplanned pregnancy.” (The publishers of Evie also market a fertility-tracking app that eschews contraceptives.)
Across the fashion spectrum, a sea change seems to be taking place. Reports from recent runway shows remarked on Victorian flourishes. Perhaps sensing the change, the Cannes Film Festival put the kibosh on excess nudity on its red carpet this year. Even the local mall is suddenly festooned with basque waists and raw milkmaid and eyelet lace dresses. Girlishness rules. Where’s it all coming from?
Carlyn Shapiro is qualified to comment. She lives in Dallas and is a director at Alvarez and Marsal Consumer and Retail Group. She specializes in turnaround management and performance improvement for major retailers – essentially, putting out corporate fires or igniting corporate fires. She’s all about the next big thing in retail.
The biggest arbiter in fashion right now, she tells me, is TikTok. And right now TikTok is taking its cue from the new conservatism defined by the American Republican party. The Secret Lives of Mormon Housewives, Ballerina Farm, Nara Smith making bubble gum from scratch while wearing a couture gown – these are the current superstars of the internet. So-called “tradlife,” which catapults well beyond the virtues of homemaking and matrimony, offers up a performance of domesticity lashed to ultratraditional gender roles. And let’s not forget the push-up bras.
It’s sort of Tricia Nixon meets-Pamela Anderson (Baywatch years)-meets Oliva Walton, mother of seven children on the 1970s’ The Waltons. Better yet, think of tradlife as a track meet for Stepford Wives wherein impossibly beautiful women compete to deliver impeccable wifely and motherly service.
Shapiro says that, as the conservative values from influencers gain traction on TikTok, “those values get translated into likes and views on outfits with bows and lace and longer hemlines. Fashion buyers take note of these trends and start buying and marketing more feminine clothing. For the consumer, no matter your political leanings, it’s now hitting you from every angle: social media, merchandising, marketing, TV.”
The slurry from whence this ethos emerged can be traced to Project 2025, the encyclopedic wish list produced by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington right-wing think tank founded in 1973 but most influential of late. It aims to expand presidential power and instate an ultraconservative, Bible-based social program for the United States. Central to its mandate is a nostalgic vision of the family as the centrepiece of American life, wherein reproductive rights are eliminated and gender equality is a non-starter.
It’s not enough for a woman to milk cows: She has to do it in a come-hither dress and acknowledge submission to God, country and her man. The Conservateur magazine – referred to as the “Conservative Vogue magazine” – piles onto this aim, with the added objective to “Make America Hot Again.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just so ugh!
Both it and Evie are enraptured by images such as the one of Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, in a chiffon evening gown astride a horse that’s wearing a diamond … let’s call it a tiara. This performative fashion sometimes goes by the name “coquette aesthetic,” but you can cover off the trend’s top notes by labelling it “authoritarian Christian nationalist aesthetic.”
Trump’s insistence that he’s going to “protect the women of our country … whether the women like it or not” gave many American women the shivers, but a surprisingly large percentage of them have embraced his vision. One needs only to look at Trump’s appointees to find evidence of his narrow view of American womanhood – the crucifixes, the girlishness, as well as a general flag-ification of fashion.
Love it or hate it, fashion is nothing if not organic. It speaks to us of ourselves. What we wear, or covet, evolves based on what’s happening in our current moment. And what’s happening right now is adherence to a rigid interpretation of traditional values demonstrated online as religious catechism.
From the treacly postings of idealized rural life at Ballerina Farm, to the anthropomorphism of Old Glory explicit in the Republican dress code, conservative values are laying siege to the marketplace. Tradlife, which hinges on a woman being deeply submissive to an authority far greater than herself, is fed by a political manifesto intent on reshaping society along hypertraditional gender roles.
Magazines for young Conservative women may offer beauty tips for all, but the sex tips are for married women only.
All of this can be summed up in a baby-blue eyelet halter dress accessorized with Mason Cash mixing bowls and a crucifix. Yes, data mining is thriving and coming to a closet near you.
Maybe it’s not just a bow after all.
Jane Macdougall is a writer based in Vancouver.
