The Years of Fashion - The Reflection-

Well this is a long overdue post a reflection of fashion and the different eras. This is a post about the past. 

Starting with the 1900s a phase of large dresses intertwined in lace and frills. During this period the western world continued the elegant fashion. This consisted of stiff collars, the trailing skirts and broad brimmed hats. I personally love this era of fashion however lets be honest this isn't just what meets the eye, the body image was built by rip crushing corsets. During the period of 1900-1910 the Columnar Silhouette was introduced this was the signal that the corset was slowly heading into the road of abandonment. 

Prior to the 1900s in the period of 1830s the corset became the norm and the need for the silhouette look, the figure of an hourglass shape became popular once again. During this time and into the 1900s the 'Pigeon breast' was popular often seen in the blouses and dresses. 

 As you can seen in the images above the look is reocurring theme, the hair updo and hair fascinators or large hats. The lace dress to the left is so classy, the large flared sleeved aswell as the pigeon breast. The middle image is a more subtle dress still with lace, yet a smaller pigeon breast. Moving onto the final right image this image contains more frills than lace but again a pigeon breast.

Moving onto the 1920s, in the 1920s was a time for change the big dresses and corsets were not so much in and fashion entered a more modern era. The old not so comfortable clothes has been swapped for a more comfortable fashion.

During the 1920s the development of new fabrics and means of fastening, created a new mode for creation. Natural fabrics such as wool and cotton were the abundant of fabrics. In terms of the luxury fabric desired... Silk was in. However the limited supply of silk meant that the price was far more than most fabrics.Many newer products were now made with metal hooks and eyes over the buttons previous.

In the 1920s the vast improvement in the product development meant that some clothing became more affordable, this meant the working class families began to have more fashion sense and became more sophisticated.

The most memorable fashion trend of the “Roaring '20s” was undoubtedly “the flapper” look. The flapper dress was functional and flattened the bust line rather than accentuating it.

The look in the 1920s was said to be more boyish and less body hugging, meaning that the clothes were deemed less appealing such as in the 1900s where the hourglass silhouette showed the hips and enhanced the chest. The hips as known is deeped something males subconsciously notices due to the child bearing assets to them. This appeal was less noticeable by the 1920s.

One of the more obvious fashion changes was the short hair and 'bob' cuts specifically done to fit into the hats.

Moving onto the 1930s the fashion had evolved once again and skirts became longer with the waist-line returned up to its normal position in an attempt to bring back the traditional "womanly" look. In around 1931 the look of broader shoulders was in and the puffed sleeves were in. The designer Adrian Adolph Greenberg created the puff gown for Joan Crawford, in which was copied by Macy's the ended up selling over 500,000 copies! 

"Schiaparelli who is credited with "changing the outline of fashion from soft to hard, from vague to definite." She introduced the zipper, synthetic fabrics, simple suits with bold color accents, tailored evening gowns with matching jackets, wide shoulders, and the color shocking pink to the fashion world. By 1933, the trend toward wide shoulders and narrow waists had eclipsed the emphasis on the hips of the later 1920s.Wide shoulders would remain a staple of fashion until after the war." (Source Wikipedia) 

As many may know during this period came the 'Wall street Crash' meaning women began to grow and evolve taking the fashion to a more glam and sophisticated look. However the above fashion of the 1930s mainly featured in America which contrast with the british fashion also known as 'feminine flutter', designers such as Britain's Norman Hartnell made soft, pretty dresses with fluttering or puffed sleeves and loose calf-length skirts suited to a feminine figure. 

One of the key accessories of the 1930s was gloves they were important to most and varied in length, often seen the long length (elbow length) gloves paired up with evening gowns.Whereas short length leather gloves featured in women's daytime outfits.

Next came the 1940s a big change came in America when the skirts slowly faded and the modern clothes came in, many women ditched the whole feminine look for military uniform.

Many iconic looks came in the 40s with several significant people embracing the fashion world. In 1947 Christian Dior's groundbreaking new silhouette redefined women's post-war style and revived the fashion in France's industry after a difficult few years. The collection – featuring gorgeous full skirts and waist-cinching jackets.
Another significant look from the 1940s was in 1944 Ava Gardner whom looked both glam yet comfortable seen in the belted waist and the chic neckchief.

Other looks such as the draped blazer seen in the film 'Romance on the high seas' 1948 worn by Doris Day.

The look seen below of ginger rogers, is such a classy look, the wide-brimmed hat and elegant skirt matched with the leather driving gloves created the effortless look.

Doris Day

Ava Gardner

oris Day shows us how to work the nautical trend during the filming of Romance On The High Seas in 1948. Remind us to drape our blazer over our shoulders on our next boat trip
Read more at http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/544203/1940s-fashion-the-decade-captured-in-40-incredible-pictures.html#Dl4kPdE77wB9rzjZ.99

Christian Dior Look

Ginger rogers

Then came the 1950s , In 50s fashion there were two main silhouettes in  – the wasp waist with full skirt and the slim fitting pencil skirt. Both are iconic to the 50s looks that prevailed until 1956. Even though we look back at the fifties as a colourful vibrant era – it was really a time of hard work for the country to get back to stability. From a fashion point of view, this was the rise of the ‘ready to wear’ phenomenon. 

In terms of fashion pieces in came the wide circular or pleated skirts were worn with layers of petticoats to give lift and were prominent in both day and eveningwear. This skirts was always to the length of mid calf - never shorter  but sometimes longer for eveningwear. 

In contrast came the pencil skirt also known as a 'hobbie' skirt these were narrow, close fitting straight skirts which restricted women’s walking creating the wiggle look. They fell from natural waist with little excess fabric with a small black split at the back. These have since been in and out of the fashion world even to this day. 

One piece that stayed from the 40s was the sweater.

The tight sweater remained popular throughout the 50s. Ironically, The aim of the sweater girl look was to emphasise a thrusting conical shaped bust and was invariably worn with a bullet bra. 

The fashion of the Fifties helped to define a woman's place in society, especially for wives. There was deemed to be five different types of outfits that began to emerge during this decade, each with a definite and rigid purpose. Women's clothing could for the first time be easily sorted into categories such as housework or lounging around the home, business, maternity wear, as well as evening wear also the emerging middle class, work uniforms developed in the 1950s. 

The 1960s had a large variety of fashion and new trends each to there own. In came go-go boots, boxed shape PVC dresses and other pvc clothing pieces.

Clothing such as the mini skirt were in and so was dressing in psychedelic prints, highlighter colors, and mismatched patterns.

The trend of bell bottom jeans and tie die clothes also emerged in the 1960s more towards the back end.

During the early 60s the women wore very short skirts, tall, brightly colored boots, and tight fitted, sleeveless tunics.

Mid 60s around 1964 when the Modernists were truly recognized by the public that women really were accepted in the group. Girls had short, clean haircuts and often dressed in similar styles to the male Mods. Alternatively came the Rockers they liked 1950s rock-and roll, wore black leather jackets, greased, pompadour hairstyles, and rode motorbikes. The Mods were deemed more classy and mimicked the high fashion of designers in france and italy.

By the end of the 1960s in came the hippie and peace phase this continued into the 1970s. Into the 1970s the continuation of the mini skirts, bell bottom jeans and hippie look. 

As with many fashion phases not everyone adapts to them and the Hippie look was no different, many women were still thriving on the glamourous looks the movie star image from the 1940s.

for me there is less to talk about in the 1970s simply because they adopted many fashion traits from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The biggest trend as already stated was the hippie look.

Other fashions adopted in the 70s was the high waisted shorts and

in 1975, women's semi-formal wear became more tailored and sharp. This included a lot of layering, with women wearing two blouses at once, multiple sweaters, pants underneath tunic dresses, and jumpers worn over long, fitted dresses.

As the 1970s moved over in came the 1980s were fashion can be commended for its creativity. Some fashion designers abandoned history, some borrowed from it, while others tried to design the future.

During the early 80s dressing like a tennis player was the cool thing to do. 

Personally I would say that the 80s sometimes it was subdued in color, where we see a lot browns and tans and oranges. Blocky shapes were everywhere and Velour and velvet was hot.

Bright colored accessories like sunglasses, bangles and hoop earrings were a necessity. Teased hair, loud makeup and neon were an important part of this style. This style was obviously more popular with the younger crowd.

Finally moving onto the 1990s-2000s

As you know we are in the 2000s and have developed massively since the 1920s however during the 90s and 2000s we have also adopted past fashions and built on them

Women and girls fashion in the 1990s was very distinct. But not quite as loud as the eighties, the nineties took that attitude and tried to be a little smarter and a little classier. 

Some common items of clothing from the 1990s: black leggings with oversized sweater, low heel shoes, flannel shirts, denim everything, t-shirts, sweatpants, skirts, silk shirts, turtlenecks (under cardigans or sweaters), plain white Keds.

As shown in the above images clothes became more revealing and less figure hugging. Less material in some cases was better. In other cases the hip hop look came in such as seen in the 'fresh prince of bel air'.

The hair, makeup, and fashion of the 80s became a bad thing and people no longer wanted to be tied in with those looks anymore. 

A lot of the styles from the 90s was influenced by tv and the crazy MTV looks, bright colours and pop music.

Some of the key figures in the 1990s are people such as Madonna who took us back to the 50s with her cone bra. The 90s was a big mash of colours and crazy patterns. The looks developed a more hip hop fashion and more street look over that of the past where formal and classy was the way of women whereas the 90s became more chilled and less formal, clothes became more unisex and looks were less divided.

The 2000s and Now have developed massively the past 15 years have been an array of fashion and mashup of the eras, many fashions have come back in such as 'boyfriend jeans' , 'the little black dress' influenced by Audrey Hepburn. The Denim look from the 60s and 80s. The corsets are for the means of evening attire and some waist trainers are inspired by the whole corset look. 

Above is the images of some of the fashion of the 2000s prices are varied depending on label, fashion is all the now and its crazy how many different brands and attire you can get  your hands on. Many different looks can be wore be and individual no questions asked. the collective statement piece have come from each era and wore in similar and different ways. Many old fashion pieces are now accessorised in different ways to create different looks such as the rockabella dresses can be made and portrayed by a corset or heart shaped leotard and large skirts. 

There are so many different things that could be added to this post but I believe this is long enough, the Fashion over the years has come so far can we develop anymore or are we just recycling old styles? What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading,

Much love,

xo

Lead Writer of BlankCanvasMag
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