Get This Look: Household Appliances

by Rebecca Jane Stokes

1. Washing Machine

As late as 1886, many women were hauling water into their homes between eight and 10 times a day. And yet, we look back on those bygone days in our moments of laziness being all “Why do I have to shower three times a week, people used to perpetually marinate in their own filth!” This was apparently not for lack of trying. Fervent was our desire to be 10 kinds of clean — exhibit the birth of the washing machine! They used to just be mechanized scrubbing boards! Some people had to use gasoline powered ones! Regardless, each machine remained a wonder. Gone were chapped hands, in their place a slowly evolving agitation system that for some reason we have not gone all the way with, instead inventing a separate dryer rather than making just one machine that does both.

Get This Look:

Washing Machine, featuring skinny fit jeans.

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2. Toaster

In the history of this household kitchen staple, there are two periods — before pop-up, and after pop-ups. In early designs, toasters were veritable dragons, filling homes with smoke, burning fingers, and taking many lives. “I have created something beautiful,” wailed Alan MacMasters, its inventor, “and yet it brings me no joy!” This is because nobody had really worked out how to wire the damn thing without setting everyone’s house on fire. Cue the invention and subsequent patenting of the alloy chromel! Advance, o noble history, and take the toaster with you! In 1925, Charles Strite invented a toaster with a timer, dual heating coils — THAT WOULD POP UP WHEN THE TOAST WAS READY. Three years later, sliced bread became commercialized. Making toasters as we know them today … THE GREATEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD.

Get This Look:

Toaster, featuring jumpsuits and rompers.

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3. Stand Mixer

As divisive a kitchen tool as ever there was. Some go their entire careers whipping up cakes and marshmallows without it, presenting their impressive biceps as proof that this is so. Others swear by it. “It washes my children’s hair,” they’ll say with a reverence usually reserved for discussing the appetizers at Outback Steakhouse. The stand mixer: It works really hard so you don’t have to. While some women spent their formative years assigning themselves avatars as dictated by the Sex and the City cast, others learned early on that they were Kitchenaids, not Cuisinarts — or vice versa.

Get This Look:

Stand mixer, featuring norma kamali bathing suits.

Previously: David Bowie

Rebecca Jane Stokes also Tumbls and Tweets. The looks are also tweeting at @lookalikelooks.