Schlafly visiting Washington D.C. in episode one
That exchange is far from the last time that the clothing of the characters is referenced, applauded, or derided by those around them. Set against the backdrop of the 1970s and centered on the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, Mrs. America wrestles with the question of what it meant to be an American woman at a time when, for certain segments of society, the answer was in flux. Costume designer Bina Daigeler, who has worked on projects ranging from Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver to the Netflix film Dumplin', was tasked with taking that question and its many answers and forming them into a pivotal piece of the visual story being told. “It’s very rare that [women don't] use the way we dress as a moment of expression," Daigeler stated during an interview. It's a simple truth but one that some are quick to overlook or toss aside. And it is through the costuming work of Daigeler that we begin to see this form of expression take shape.
Even now an unfair assumption persists that clothing is frivolous and unimportant especially as it concerns women, but movements on both ends of the political spectrum and composed of people of all genders have used fashion to promote their stances and broadcast solidarity for centuries. How does one dress when at the forefront of a revolution? How does one dress when fighting to maintain the seemingly comfortable status quo? These are not new questions but they are very much a piece of the history of second wave feminism.
In her suits, which Daigeler described as "mostly stiff" but also "very feminine," the audience can see Schlafly admitting to a fact that she is loathe to give voice to throughout the series, the precarious and often unsafe position in which women found themselves. In Daigeler's mind, Schlafly used those wools and tweeds as protection because "she knew about her vulnerability as a woman in a man’s world." The women on the other side, and even some within her own group of supporters, state it plainly. "Let me tell you something about 'those kind of women,' Phyllis. They could be me. They could be you. They're just trying to get a fair shake. They want to go to work, get paid, go home. They're not asking to be harassed, manhandled, degraded, assaulted," ERA supporter and fellow Republican Jill Ruckelshaus says after Schlafly suggests that certain women are asking for it. And one does not put the kind of suiting armor that Schlafly does unless there is something to fear and something to fight, but this is only one of the ways in which her clothing points to her hypocrisy.
Schlafly and Ruckelhaus' dueling suits in episode six
For the many supporters who surround the central, public figures of the series, Daigeler used the fashions of the 1970s in general, which at the beginning of the decade saw a stark divide between these two sides of the ERA debate, as a guide. “I think in the 70s at the beginning, the conservative women were wearing pastel colors and the little A-line skirts with the blouse with the little jacket. And the feminists, they have a little bit of the hippie vibe and flowers and prints. But then at the end of the 70s [and] beginning of the 80s, fashion changed. It wasn’t so separate. Our two worlds started to merge a lot.”
A group of feminists highlighting their concerns to the McGovern campaign in episode two
Schlafly and her supporters in episodes two and eight as well as in the finale
Schlafly wears that housewife uniform of A-line skirts and silk blouses, often adorned with a pussy bow at her neck, and a cardigan or little jacket draped on her shoulders when she's not in those suits. But by the end of the decade and the series as The Age of Reagan comes into view, Daigeler keeps her solidly in this uniform even as many of her closest followers move closer and closer to the general style mood for women of the era. It is obvious through her words and actions how little Schlafly changes but keeping her in that stylistic space gives the viewer an immediate understanding of where she stands even when she is silent.
Schlafly and her pussy bow haunting Alice's dreams in episode eight
Schlafly isn’t the only woman in the series who relies on a uniform of sorts. Nearly all of the main players have a stylistic root from which many aspects of their identities, both the internal and external, spring. Activist, lawyer, and congresswoman Bella Abzug has her many hats. "When I graduated from law school, my mother always said to me, 'Wear a hat and gloves. That way they won't mistake you for a secretary,'" Abzug says to fellow congresswoman Shirley Chisolm in one of the latter episodes. "Oh, and when did the gloves come off?", Chisolm shoots back. It's through her ever present topper, and the absence of that other half of the equation, that the audience can tell the type of woman Abzug strives to be, serious, determined, and constantly fighting against the stereotypes that block her way in a world that was, and still often is, dominated by men. And it's through the few times that we see her without it that a fuller picture of her comes into view.
Abzug in a variety of hats throughout the series
Chisolm relies on her statement jewelry and what Daigeler described as her “amazing elegant style" befitting a trailblazer whom the audience sees refuse to acquiesce to the many around her who view her historic run for President of the United States as merely symbolic. When dressing Steinem at the beginning of the story, Daigeler had her all miniskirts and legs. There are assumptions about what a woman in politics should look like, about what a woman who wants to do serious work should put on her body and through Steinem in those early years of the story Daigeler was able to show how some women were pushing against those boundaries, that this woman wasn't simply "a dilettante who wanted to play politics" as Abzug describes an early Steinem during a heated exchange between the two. But as she became more deeply engaged in politics, she too changed and adopted a uniform albeit one far more casual than that of Schlafly, Abzug, and Chisolm. Hers instead centered on jeans, which for Daigeler was not about rejecting the seeming frivolity of those earlier looks but about utility as she traveled frequently the deeper she got pulled into the political realm.
Chisolm in her statement jewelry at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in episode three
Steinem tap dancing away her restlessness in episode two
Steinem donning one of Abzug's hats in the finale
But even as The Age of Reagan came into view and the two sides of the ERA debate began to merge stylistically, Daigeler kept Schlafly solidly in her dual uniforms. In the static nature of Schlafly's housewife costume, and it is truly a costume, we can see the hypocrisy and falsehoods upon which she has built her platform. People adhere to a consistent style for any number of reasons that aren't full of deceit, an understanding of what feels most comfortable on their body for one, and in those foundations they can discover and revel in the truest parts of their selves. That, however, is not what is happening with this particular woman in this particular tale.
The Schlafly family Christmas portrait in episode seven
Schlafly meeting a pair of now infamous Republican operatives in the finale
Still Daigeler held off on putting Schlafly in aprons, the marker of the mid-20th century housewife that the audience might expect her to don, for most of the series. "She had people who did that [typical housewife work] for her," Daigeler noted, and we see them at that work, preparing dinner and putting their lives on hold when asked to pick up children from school. It isn't until the final moments of the series when wallowing in her personal defeat that Schlafly puts on that last piece of the costume. She hadn't failed at what her supporters and her foes were led to believe was her primary objective. The clock ran out on the ERA even with the extension on ratification granted to it by Congress. It wasn't until 2019, three years after Schlafly's death, that Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment. And there is no certainty that the legislation needed to enshrine it in the Constitution will come to pass.
Schlafly baking a pie in the finale
But in those final moments in her kitchen, stripped of the power that the audience could see had always been her actual goal, the type of power that she claimed throughout was the real intention of the ERA, there was nothing left for her to do but fully commit to the part that she, with her A-line skirts, pussy bow-adorned, silk blouses and cardigans draped delicately on her shoulders, had created for herself.
