It is also important to factor in the new, non-print medium of motion pictures, which made access to up-to-date fashions widespread. The clothing worn by stars in films could, and often did, have an impact on the style-conscious even in small towns, but the newsreels and short features shown in that era before every feature film also carried fashion information. A 1923 ad for the house of Milgrim promoted designer Sally Milgrim as fashion editor of "Selznick's Weekly Movie News."(21) In 1924, a New York Times article reported that Keith Theatres, a chain of movie houses, would "cooperate with retailers in showing new styles."(22)

On occasion, live fashion shows sponsored by textile and apparel manufacturers or trade organizations were held in movie theaters. A "Velvet Revue" of garments made by several ready-to-wear manufacturers from fabrics by Shelton Looms was advertised in late 1929 as a coming attraction in Loew, Stanley, and Paramount theaters throughout the country. Hotels were also common sites for live fashion shows. The Hotel Astor in New York was home to the January 1915 cooperative "fashion exposition," sponsored by the United Fashion Company of New York, and to a 1937 Velvet Guild Review featuring fashions by Helen Cookman, Walter Plunkett, and Irene, among others.(23) The Providence Sunday Journal of September 24, 1939, ran an ad by Fredleys, a Providence specialty shop, which invited readers to "attend a Fashion Luncheon in the Garden Restaurant of the Providence Biltmore Wednesday, September twenty seventh at twelve thirty o'clock. Mannequins will present a most brilliant collection of clothes for autumn wear." The fixed-price luncheon cost $1.25, and reservations were required.(24)

Once a woman had educated herself about current fashions, how did she go about clothing herself in them? Just as today, the options then available were made-to-order, ready-to-wear, or home-sewn clothing. Within this framework, however, women had a much broader range of choices than would be expected nowadays. In addition to purchasing French models or authorized copies of French designs, custom-made clothes could also be had from the better known dressmakers and fashion creators who worked in New York or other large cities. Women could also purchase, according to their means, fabrics and trims from retail shops and department stores and take them home or to their local dressmaker to make up. By the mid-1910s, acceptable ready-to-wear women's garments were no longer confined to pieces such as blouses, skirts, cloaks, and undergarments, which were either loose-fitting or easily altered. By the late 1920s, ready-to-wear clothing purchases, through mail order or from retail shops, far outnumbered those from other sources. Then, as now, second-hand clothing could also be purchased. It is likely that the wardrobes of all but the very wealthy and the very poor contained elements from at least a few of these categories.

Sewing presented women who had to work with a way to do so within the bounds of traditional feminine roles. Mary Brooks Picken, author of many books on sewing and dressmaking and director of the fashion and sewing program of the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences, advised women on how to earn a living with a needle. One could "conduct a dressmaking and tailoring establishment or simply a dressmaking shop...or specialize in sewing in some other way, as, for instance, sewing by the day..." She explained how to conduct a business of either plain sewing at home for others or going to clients' homes by the day or week. The importance of taste, cleanliness, and a good selection of current fashion magazines were all stressed.(25)