A Study on Housewives:

Focusing on Domestic Attire in the 1960s

Abstract

  This paper examines the domestic attire of housewives during the 1960s.

  Around that time, the phenomenon of dual-income housewives emerged as a significant point of discussion, leading to notable shifts in the traditional housewife lifestyle. We examined the domestic attire that was required of housewives during that period. The primary research sources include instructional articles on domestic dressmaking published in the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun newspapers from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the women's magazine Shufu to Seikatsu. Household clothes are classified into clothes for domestic work, clothes for lounging, and clothes for maintaining face-to-face interactions with others. They also played a role in making the home bright and cheerful, or creating a calm and relaxing atmosphere. Housewives' portrayed themselves through their attire as intimate presences dedicated solely to their families, with the aim of making family members feel more at home than the housewives themselves.