One hundred years ago this week, Parliament granted the right to vote to (some) women, enfranchising homeowners over age 30. Marches, bombings and hunger strikes all played a role in the decades-long campaign for the vote -- but one of the subtler and most effective tactics in the fight was fashion.

Suffragettes fathomed the power of presentation from the nascent days of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). In the 19th century, early suffragists were caricatured as unattractive, frumpy and matronly, perpetuating the idea that women who wanted the vote were marginal figures, not to be taken seriously. Most press coverage depicted Suffragettes screaming and being carried off by the police.

The WSPU, founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903, “wanted to absolutely refute that,” says Rosie Broadley, curator of the new Votes for Women display at London’s National Portrait Gallery. “Looking at Votes for Women [also the name of the WSPU newspaper], women are encouraged to look very feminine, very elegant…. They wanted to show that it wasn’t just a certain type of of woman who wanted the vote -- it was the best type of woman.”