The Fashionable Woman in the Film Bajo el cielo antioqueño (1925): Clothing as a Social Marker

Abstract

This article highlights women’s clothing in the 1920s in Medellin, Colombia, describing it in the Colombian movie Bajo el cielo antioqueño, directed by Arturo Acevedo in 1925, in which members of the city’s elite acted and participated. The aim is to study women’s fashion as a social marker through the film selected, which attempted to depict the privileged sectors as modern, capitalist, urban and cosmopolitan, while respectful of tradition. Fashion is depicted as an expression of wealth and power of the affluent, modern sectors that used clothing to reveal and legitimize their social position to others. They conveyed their class superiority through the quality of their outfits and the adoption of the canons of French fashion.