BELL JARS AND BELL BOTTOMS: HOW SYLVIA PLATH’S NOVEL “FASHIONED” FEMALE YOUTH CULTURE

Reading Plath’s novel through the lens of fashion not only offers new insight into Esther’s identity crisis, breakdown, and “recovery,” but also invites readers to turn a critical eye toward contemporary fashion practices. Although Esther’s clothing-related anxieties are born of mid-twentieth-century American misgivings and mores, the concerns that the novel raises about fashion, femininity, and identity are still relevant to modern readers, particularly young women.