The debates about female fashion in the new Republic of Lithuania in the 1920s and 1930s saw papal representatives, bishops, leading public intellectuals, and members of Catholic youth movements argue about deep décolletés and short skirts. In this predominantly Catholic country, objections made against modern fashion may initially look like a conservative stand against modern developments. Studying more closely the debate around women's fashion as it developed in a particular subset of the Catholic population in Lithuania—educated youth in the Ateitis Catholic student association, this article examines the interconnected arguments that were woven together to evaluate what women should wear in interwar Lithuania and shows that Catholics in this northeastern European country aimed to create a modern national and rational woman. At issue were not just Catholic moral norms but also national identity and the challenges posed by mass consumer culture. The new ideal being proposed was a modern Catholic female intelligentsia, a gender ideal that embraced the opportunities offered in the first decades of the twentieth century, such as suffrage, education, urban living, more active participation in civic life, while retaining more conservative moral norms, questioning consumer culture, and debating woman's nature and mission.

中文翻译：

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民族服饰与理性服饰：1920-1930 年代立陶宛天主教徒辩论女性时尚

在 1920 年代和 1930 年代关于立陶宛新共和国女性时尚的辩论中，教皇代表、主教、主要公共知识分子和天主教青年运动成员就深肩和短裙展开辩论。在这个以天主教为主的国家，对现代时尚的反对最初可能看起来像是反对现代发展的保守立场。本文更深入地研究了围绕女性时尚的辩论在立陶宛天主教人口的特定子集（Ateitis 天主教学生协会中受过教育的青年）中的发展，探讨了相互关联的论点，这些论点被编织在一起以评估女性在两次世界大战期间应该穿什么立陶宛并表明这个欧洲东北部国家的天主教徒旨在​​创造一个现代的民族和理性的女性。争论的不仅仅是天主教的道德规范，还有民族认同和大众消费文化带来的挑战。提出的新理想是现代天主教女性知识分子，这种性别理想包含了 20 世纪头几十年提供的机会，例如选举权、教育、城市生活、更积极地参与公民生活，同时保持更保守的道德规范，质疑消费文化，争论女性的天性和使命。