Cartoons of the Moment – The Evolution of the Skirt

Curator’s clip description

This animated clip begins with a white outline, gradually drawn in by the hand of the artist to show a woman dressed in 19th-century costume. A caption says ‘since the Colonial days, skirts have gradually shrunk’. The cartoon is then blackened to shorten the woman’s dress until it shows the then current 1916 hemline between the knee and ankle. It continues to shorten as the next caption reads: ‘what will next year bring forth?’.

Curator’s notes

Unlike many of Harry Julius’s political sketches for Cartoons of the Moment, ‘The evolution of the skirt’ comments on the changing lengths of women’s hemlines since the 19th century. It uses Julius’s recognisable style to make a discreetly dressed woman’s skirt rise above her knees to reveal her thighs. Commenting on social customs and fashions of the time was not the staple for Julius’s Australasian Gazette sketches, but it does show his ability to satirise social as well as political subject matter. This cartoon is also interesting to consider in the light of women’s fashion in the 21st century – where hemlines have risen above the heights predicated here.

Lauren Williams, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

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This black-and-white animated clip with captions comments on the changing length of women’s hemlines since the 19th century. The title ‘THE EVOLTION [sic] OF THE SKIRT’ appears before a white outline of a woman in full 19th-century costume. The cartoonist’s hand fills in details on the sketch before the white outline of a woman’s dress is blacked in to illustrate the steadily rising hemline over time. The hemline continues to ascend and a caption speculates on how far it will rise in the future.

Educational value points

• The cartoon is a light-hearted comment on the way women’s fashion changed in response to the war and to the changing roles of women. The cartoon was made during the First World War when women’s clothing changed to suit their new, more active lives. More lavishly decorated and voluminous costumes gave way to simpler tunic styles with shorter skirts as women entered the workforce or undertook voluntary philanthropic work.

• The distinctive skill of Australian cartoonist Harry Julius (1885–1938) is demonstrated in the clip although his usual subject matter for the animated cartoons featured in his series Cartoons of the Moment was political not the social commentary presented here. Yet his use of simple white outline on black paper, the appearance on film of his hand sketching in and altering the outline of the sketch and the simplicity of his message are all typical features of his art.

• The cartoon uses cut-out animation, a style that has maintained its popularity despite the more sophisticated effects made possible by computer animation. This technique uses cut outs to represent a character with limited movement created through stop-motion photography of the cut out, one frame at a time. Popular contemporary cartoons mimic the simple style of cut-out animation using computer technology.

• Hemlines have often provided the subject of discussion and speculation, as indicated in the cartoon. In 1916 hemlines rose from those typically worn in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The cartoonist suggests that they will rise higher. Hemlines rose again in the 1920s with flapper fashions and then in the 1960s when the miniskirt became fashionable. Whenever hemlines rose there were those who disapproved, associating rising hemlines with declining morality.

• The animated cartoon is an example of a primary source, an original document from an Australasian Gazette newsreel of 1916 commenting on the changing length of the hemline of women’s skirts. The Australasian Gazette employed the cartoonist Harry Julius to produce a weekly segment of animated cartoons commenting on political or social issues. Secondary sources comment on and analyse primary sources.