Transcript FASHION THROUGH THE AGES

FASHION THROUGH THE AGES
project by:
Ewa Zielińska
Katarzyna Rębacz
fashion
Fashion is a term that usually applies to a prevailing mode of expression,
but quite often applies to a personal mode of expression that may or
may not apply to all. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will
change more quickly than the culture as a whole. The terms "fashionable"
and "unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or
something fits in with the current popular mode of expression. The term
"fashion" is frequently used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour
and style. In this sense, fashions are a sort of communal art, through which
a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. The term "fashion"
is also sometimes used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads, trends,
and materialism.
changes
Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. The changes may proceed more rapidly than in most
other fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). For some, modern fast-paced changes in
fashion embody many of the negative aspects of capitalism: it results in waste and encourages
people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. Other people, especially young people, enjoy
the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a
way to satisfy their desire to experience "new" and "interesting" things. Note too that fashion can
change to enforce uniformity, as in the case where so-called Mao suits became the national
uniform of mainland China.
Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time,
for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything, etc.
In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to
change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, for
example, might favor things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese
at a third. A modern version of exotic clothing includes club wear. Globalization has reduced the
options of exotic novelty in more recent times, and has seen the introduction of non-Western
wear into the Western world.
Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including
celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.
fashion through the ages
globally
Fashion is popular all over the world. Fashion around the world is all
different. Here are some examples of some of the countries and what
they wore:
500 B.C.- Persian people were wearing long robes with patterns or designs
on them. They wore not shoes, but socks with patterns and stripes. They
wore many other clothing materials and other clothes.
550 B.C.- The Grecian women wore long robes often like the Persians. The
men from Greece wore long robes with part of the robe draped over a
shoulder.
50 B.C.- The children from Rome usually wore long robes with part of the
robe draped over their shoulder, while on the other shoulder they wore a
sleeve. They wore their hair up in a net with a clip right in the middle of
their head. The men of Rome usually wore long robes (usually colored)
with socks, and pieces of rope hanging around their head.
fashion through the ages
england
Late Medieval fashion
The fourteenth century has been aptly
named the 'Decorated' period. Men's dress
showed the influence of heraldry, ladies'
garments were ornate, and tight-fitting
surcoats served to accentuate the figure. In
such a colourful age there was a higher
esteem for the dyer-at one time little better
than a slave-who had come to be
regarded, in the words of Chaucer, as
bearing "the livery of great and serious
brotherhood."
In the fifteenth century England feudalism
was almost a thing of the past, but the
fashions of chivalry persisted. It was a period
of transition. Men's minds were keyed up by
the Renaissance. In Venice the first book on
dyeing had just been published, and a few
years later, in 1472, a Dyers' Company was
formed in London.
The Tudors
Tudor swagger aptly describes fashionable
wear in the reign of Henry VIII. Dandies
spent fortunes on the French cloth of gold
and Genoese velvets demanded by a
lavish
court.
Together
with
this
extravagance in taste went a new vogue in
colourings. Dyewoods were introduced from
the East Indies, and the Conquistadores
returned from Mexico with cochineal insects
which were to provide crimson and scarlet
shades for over 300 years. Cochineal and
many of the other naturally occurring
colouring matters have now been entirely
replaced by a range of synthetic dyestuffs
and pigments.
The seventeenth century
Cromwellian England was a land of violent
contrasts. The Protector ruled with sword in
one hand, Bible in the other. The sumptuous
fashions of the Cavaliers clashed with the
simple dress of the Puritans, and this
sectarianism also found expression in colour.
The Cavaliers flaunted the gayest hues
attainable, while the Puritans adopted dark
and sombre shades. These were all
laboriously
produced
from
naturally
occurring dyestuffs, most of which now
have little more than museum interest.
With the Restoration the wheel of fashion
turned full circle. Released from the
repressions of the Protectorship, people
indulged in the wildest extravaganzas of
dress. Every frippery and flummery found a
place. At the same time dyeing achieved a
new status through the publication, in 1662,
of the first English book on the subject,
sponsored by the newly created Royal
Society. This recognition of a struggling craft
was the first stage in a process of evolution
out of which emerged the great dyeing
industry.
The eighteenth century
By 1720 Restoration foppishness had given
place to the dignity of the first Georgian
period. The people's dress reflected their
growing power as a maritime nation. Silks
and cotton from the East and brocades
from the silk looms of Lyons were the
fashionable fabrics, and the importation of
these luxuries caused severe heartburning
among native weavers. But the dyers
welcomed the new fabrics because they
afforded greater opportunities for the
display of ingenuity and skill.
With commerce expanding England waxed
fat, and for the first time her population
reached eight millions. From all classes of
this greater community came a big
demand for textiles, which in turn focused
attention on dyeing, and a new dynasty of
'dye-chemists' came into being. In 1760 the
Frenchman Hellot all but forestalled Perkin
by stumbling on aniline, but the full
significance of his discovery escaped him.
Another century was to pass before aniline's
secrets were laid bare and the way made
clear for the development of the modern
range of synthetic dyestuffs.
The early nineteenth century
The men who humbled Napoleon were men
of action. Not for them the courtly capers of
previous generations, but a good pack to
ride to, or an afternoon on the cricket field.
Current fashions reflected the mode of life.
Jackets were cut away and breeches were
lengthened so as to allow the wearer more
freedom of movement. Although a few of
the vegetable dyes then available were
sufficiently fast to resist the effect of these
outdoor activities, they were difficult to
apply. No one yet knew how to produce
the bright, fast shades that may be so easily With the profligate George IV on the throne
one might well have expected fashion to
achieved with the synthetic dyestuffs.
return to the excesses of earlier years. But
people were modest in their tastes,
especially the women, with their maidenly
sun-bonnets, chaste necklines, and low,
sweeping dresses. More and improved
fabrics rapidly became available, and the
choice of colours grew with increasing
knowledge of natural dyewoods. Yet dyers
still had no real understanding of the
materials with which they had to work.
It was a difficult task to match any particular
shade accurately, but today dyers find
shade reproduction an easy matter.
Victorian and Edwardian
England
Nobly did fashion serve the cloth and
steelmakers of Victorian days, for an
incredible weight of metal caging, as well
as fifteen yards of fine linen, went to make
just one crinoline. Call it a mousetrap or
what you will, but the crinoline could look
very appealing, especially in the shades
made possible by the discovery of the early
synthetic dyestuffs such as Perkin's Mauve,
Magenta, Nicholson's Blue and Hoffman's
Violet. These sensational new dyestuffs
received universal acclaim, and with their
production the spotlight of the dyeing world
fell upon England. It is a matter of history
that our new-found fame was allowed to
wane, for others were quicker to exploit
Perkin's epoch-making achievement.
It was a comfortable age... a comely,
colourful age. Matters of compelling
importance were developing in the
dyeing world. Less than a generation
before, synthetic indigo had been
discovered, and madder was being
ousted by alizarine.
These were forerunners of the great
modern range of synthetic dyestuffs
which the dyer was soon to have at
his command.
The early twentieth century
Colourful bunting and fairy lights gleamed in
the summer days of 1914 before war blurred
everything to a khaki monotone. Women,
as yet ignorant of film-standardised looks,
were individually ornamental. Their escorts,
in boaters and blazers, added their own
colourful touch to the sportive scene. Life
was full of sweet illusions, but its outward
form - a prosperous dressiness - had none of
the colour subtlety that is so characteristic
of modern dress. This revolution in taste was
not due simply to growing sophistication. The social scene underwent swift changes
The Great War caused swift developments between the wars, and these brought a
within the British dyestuffs industry.
completely new range of fashions, from
sunsuits to cocktail frocks, from Basque berets
to Tyrolean hats. As war scares came round
again, the last traces of the boyish figure and
skimped skirt, relics of 1914-18, disappeared.
Curves came back, with veils, flowers, muffs
and curls. The young woman who wore
trousers to pilot a speedboat would, on high
days, appear in the full elegance of haute
couture.