The Working Girl and the Fashionable Libertine: Fashion and Film in the Progressive Era

The 1913 film Fashion’s Toy (Lubin) follows the travails of a young country girl named Nora Burton. Nora’s chaste beauty attracts a socialite named Mrs. Morison, who takes her back to the city to transform her from a country bumpkin into a fashionable urbanite. The experiment progresses well, until Mrs. Morison’s beau shows romantic interest in the newly stylish Nora, prompting Mrs. Morison to throw the girl out of her home. Nora’s country beau comes to her rescue and she soon sees the error of her ways, proving that she is, in the words of the contemporary movie reviewer, an honorable girl rather than a “fashionable libertine.” The “Cinderella” story is a common one in the Progressive era because it allowed for a contrast between the lives of the wealthy with those of the working classes. The double appeal is obvious: viewers from a lower socio-economic background could relate to the storyline, yet also lose themselves in an escapist world of wealth and extravagance. As evidenced by the title, the most important aspect of the plot, however, was the moral message.1