1. The “fashion” of Native Americans
From the time of Native Americans, frequently changing fashions and aesthetic play have characterized the history of clothing, enabling people of different races, classes, and sexual persuasions to express their individual and collective identities and escape the constraints of tradition. To Europeans at first contact, the draped furs, tattoos, and ornaments of shell, stone, feather, and hemp worn by Native Americans indicated their uncivilized state, contrasting with the processed cloth and leather from which European garments were machine‐ and hand‐sewn. While a few Europeans may have adopted native garb—skins, furs, and moccasins—settlers more typically conformed to Old World rather than New World styles of dress. Native Americans wore European garb only selectively and purposefully, usually to communicate friendliness to traders and missionaries or to help them pass unnoticed through hostile territory during wars.
2. 17th century
Closets do not exist in the seventeenth century, so American colonists store their wardrobes in chests of all sizes that are kept in the parlor of the house.
3. 18th century
In eighteenth century portraits, it is often difficult for modern viewers to distinguish between children's genders, because the boys appear to be wearing the same dresses as the girls, according to fashion. In fact, there were subtle but important distinctions: boys wore button-decorated cuffs that curved over the elbows, like men's coats, with a complete front opening to the hem, and a full skirt. The child at the left in this painting is a boy, the one on the right is probably a girl. Portrait of Two Children, attributed to Joseph Badger, probably Boston, Massachusetts, 1755-1760, oil on canvas.
Women had no such utilitarian and comfortable attire. Though, women’s skirts became increasingly full and decorated with floral trimmings and bows. By the 1850s, this style had developed into the full crinoline, whose wide, bell-like skirts were pushed out by hoops of steel and whalebone. Hair was worn pulled back from the face or curled into tight ringlets. A lady might carry a parasol.
Dress reformers and women's rights advocates in the 1850s advocated simpler dress, but outfits such as Amelia Bloomer's loose‐fitting Turkish‐style trousers and short dress failed to gain currency.
Amelia Bloomer's Turkish‐style trousers
Out west, broad-brimmed hats provided shelter from the sun and wind, but in the cities, men wore hats with narrower brims and higher crowns. In the midcentury, the top hat, a tall black cylinder with a narrow brim was standard city wear. Rounded felt hats with a low crown were often worn by men from the 1860s onward. By the late 1880s, smart round hats with a narrow upturned brim, known as derbies, were popular with all classes.
Here you see an American riding habit (left), circa 1830, and a bicycling jacket (right) from the 1890s.
8. The 20th century.
During the war, women adopted more sober, military styles. Many helped the war effort by taking over jobs in factories and farms. Shorter, fuller skirt styles allowed greater movement, and some women even adopted trousers in the form of jodphurs or boilersuits. Almost as shockingly, they cut their hair into short styles that were easier to care for and less likely to get caught up in machinery.
Flappers
“Flapper” was the name given to fun-loving young women in the twenties. Flappers wore shockingly short skirts—some just below the knee—and hid any womanly curves. Tight underwear kept the chest flat, and drop waists hid the hips. Dresses, often in sheer fabrics, complemented dance moves: pleats gave freedom of movement, while fringing, beads, and tassels swayed with the beat. During the daytime, the most fashionable young women wore comfortable twinsets (knitted tops and cardigans), like those designed by French couturier Coco Chanel. Chanel’s clothes often had a nautical theme, and she popularized yachting.
A Passion for the Past
One of the most amazing archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century occurred in 1922, when Howard Carter opened Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. This event influenced design of all kinds, including fashion. Egyptian-inspired textiles featured stylized lotus flowers or eye motifs. Popular colors included lapis lazuli (bright blue), sandy yellow, and papyrus green. Makeup, too, was heavy and black, like the dark kohl worn by ancient pharaohs and their queens.
Beachwear became a whole new area of fashion. For sunbathing and swimming, women wore all-in-one costumes. Shaped like a tunic over long drawers, twenties’ swimsuits seem modest today but at the time were daringly skimpy. Men, too, wore all-in-ones until the midtwenties, when they adopted swimming trunks, which they wore with a tank top to cover the upper body. Costumes were made from cotton, wool, or silk jersey—and often shrank or stretched in the water! When they were not swimming, women covered up in comfortable, wide-legged “beach pajamas.” At the time, trousers were still not generally worn by women.
Short capes in plain fabrics suited daytime outfits. Gloves were important:
Masculine Style
Not all women chose feminine dresses and skirts. Swedish actress Greta Garbo wore masculine tailored trousers with a belted trenchcoat and a beret. She also popularized the “slouch hat,” after wearing it in A Woman of Affairs (1928). Created by the Hollywood dresser Adrian, this outsize cloche was pulled down over the forehead. It influenced hat design throughout the thirties.
Film star Greta Garbo was an inspiration to many women. Her slouch hat was widely copied.
Gangsters wore thick woolen overcoats with wide, contrasting lapels. Actor Edward G. Robinson played the typical Chicago gangster in Little Caesar (1931).
8.4 The forties
The first half of the forties was dominated by World War II.
During World War II, fashion took a back seat as all resources were needed for the war effort. Most women wore mass-produced, factory-made clothes in styles that used as little fabric as possible. As in World War I, women’s fashions became more practical and took on a military look. Many more women began to wear trousers, which gave greater freedom of movement and eliminated the need to w ear stockings, which were in short supply.
Here you can see Swing music, or “big band” jazz, which was popular from around 1935 to 1945. “King of Swing” Benny Goodman and his smartly dressed band entertained troops and civilians alike.
World War II was fought in a variety of environments—from the chilly forests of northern Europe to the deserts of the Middle East. Each fighting nation produced a range of uniforms to suit the different forces—army, navy, air force, and so on—as well as different climates. Cool, light-colored cotton suits were worn by forces in the tropics, for example. Knitted cotton T-shirts were issued as undershirts to all American servicemen in the army and navy.
Women in Uniform
Women’s uniforms were similar to men’s, except they had skirts instead of trousers. Stitched-on badges indicated the wearer’s rank. Most uniforms were in colors that offered good camouflage, such as khaki, olive green, or field gray. Some were the work of well-known designers. Mainbocher, the Chicago-born designer famous for his thirties evening gowns, was responsible for part of the Women’s Red Cross uniform.
More sober fashions for both sexes prevailed during the World War II.
In 1943, servicemen in Los Angeles attacked MexicanAmerican youths for wearing “zoot suits”: exaggerated drape shaped jackets with outrageously padded shoulders and fiercely tapered trousers, illustrating how fashion may constitute a form of cultural resistance.
Fifties Fabrics
Although the fifties saw a revival of natural fabrics, such as cotton jersey and denim, nylon and polyester were everywhere! The new textiles took dye well, did not crease, and did not even get eaten by clothes moths. As well as continuing to develop new fabrics, chemists found a way to permanently press material, resulting in lots of easy-care pleated skirts and dresses.
Young Rebels
Work clothes became the uniform of the new generation of young, rebellious bikers, who adopted leather jackets, jeans, and T-shirts. The look was captured on the silver screen by Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953) and James Dean in Rebel without a Cause (1955). Jeans were invented by a Bavarian immigrant called Levi Strauss in the 1870s, and had originally been intended as workwear for Californian gold miners. They were made from strong cotton cloth called denim (originall from the French town of Nîmes) and were reinforced with metal rivets.
8.6 Sixties
Neat Suits
Many older women adopted elegant Chanel suits—or copies of these. Featuring a collarless cardigan jacket with a contrasting border and aknee-length skirt, the Chanel suit was comfortable and easy to wear. It was popularized by American first lady Jackie Kennedy, who wore herswith a small, oval hat, known as the pillbox.
Birth of the Mini
The youth fashion scene centered on London, where new designer boutiques stocked affordable clothes. Mary Quant was one of the first to produce miniskirts, but the mini also appeared in couture collections, for example by André Courrèges. Displaying more leg than ever before, the mini was an outward sign of women’s new sexual freedom. Many of the older generation found it extremely shocking. Minis were often worn with knee-high boots, sometimes in PVC or Corfam (synthetic suede).
During the sixties, clothing for divers and surfers was revolutionized when Neoprene, a type of synthetic rubber, was adopted for wetsuits. Originally invented in the thirties, the material contained millions of air-filled bubbles, which meant that it did not become too heavy when wet, kept the wearer warm, and dried off very quickly.
Hippie Chicks
The late sixties were dominated by a new youth movement, which originated around the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco. Hippies were young people who did not want to conform to establishment values. The name originally came from the term “hipster,” meaning white people who were involved in “hip,” black culture. Hippies believed in free love and world peace. Many of them took recreational drugs. They refused to follow their parents into “straight” jobs and they dressed to reflect their beliefs. Rather than giving money to big business, some preferred to make their own clothes. They knitted ponchos and sweaters in brightly colored wools and tie-dyed their own T-shirts. They gave clothes they had bought an individual touch by sewing on patches. They avoided synthetics, which were the products of big chemical companies, and favored natural fabrics instead, such as cotton, wool, and velvet.
Many hippies adopted spiritual aspects of other cultures, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, or Native American religious beliefs.They also bought ethnic clothing, such as Indian peasant shirts, batik skirts, beaded vests, or the unisex kaftan. Kaftans were long, loose robes worn by desert nomads in North Africa and Asia. All hippies wanted to look different Hippie men often just wore T-shirts and jeans, but in bright rainbow colors. Some wore suits, but these were nothing like the suits their fathers wore for work. They had outrageous patterns in loud checks or paisley swirls.
The Music Scene
Pop stars had an enormous influence on the world of fashion. Young people dressed to look like the big names of the day, following the styles worn by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix. The Beatles even had clothing named after them. Beatle boots were close-fitting with a cuban heel and pointed toe. They were worn with the Beatle suit, which had a collarless jacket and tight, drainpipe trousers.
All Sorts of Hairstyles
The most famous hairdresser of the decade was Vidal Sassoon, whose clients included designer Mary Quant, model Jean Shrimpton, and film star Mia Farrow. Sassoon’s first innovation was to reinvent the bob. Short, sleek, and dark, this made a big contrast to the backcombed fifties’ beehives which were still being worn by older women. Boyish hairstyles such as the bob and crop harked back to the twenties, and hats from that era also saw a revival, with the reappearance of the cloche. As the sixties progressed, hairstyles for both sexes grew longer and some young men grew beards. Women wore their long hair loose, or else in Native American-style braids. The Afro became a symbol of pride for black men and women and was also widely copied by nonblacks who had tight, frizzy perms that could be teased out with an Afro comb. Hippies wore a variety of headgear from floppy sunhats to bearskins and tall, pointed wizard hats. Berets and peaked caps were also popular for a while.
8.7. The seventies
Hippie Hangovers
Flares were just one of the hippie fashions of the late sixties that began to influence the mainstream. Men wore their hair long and many grew beards or moustaches.Women, too, kept their hair around shoulderlength, styled with gentle waves or flips.
On the Dancefloor
Keep-fit clothing was designed with freedom of movement in mind, so it made sense to adopt similar styles for the disco. Discothèques became popular in the United States toward the end of the seventies, and the craze soon spread. Under flashing lights and mirror balls, young people danced and posed in lurex and satin. Clingy body stockings, tiny hotpants, and sequinned “boob tubes” showed off their exercised bodies.Top designers produced their own disco outfits.American Roy Halston, for example, was famous for his jumpsuits and halter-top dresses.
Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 to fight for black equality. Members rejected the peaceful politics of people like Martin Luther King Jr., who had wanted blacks and whites to live side by side. Instead they wanted the right to determine their own communities, and dispense their own justice. In the early seventies the Panthers fell apart, but splinter groups emerged. To show they meant business, black activists adopted a kind of uniform. They wore military-style berets with black leather jackets, turtleneck sweaters, and black jeans.
Punk was another style that was seen on-stage, but also spread to the streets. It emerged in London and New York around the late seventies. Punks were rebelling against middle-class values. They wore ripped T-shirts, tight leather trousers, combat boots, and bondage jewelry. They distressed their clothing themselves, and painted slogans onto their leather jackets. Body piercings were also part of the look, with rows of studs, rings, or even safety pins through the ears, nose, or eyebrows.
8.8. The Eighties
The eighties saw the end of labor union influence in politics, and the rise of a riskier, more individualistic, free market culture. Fashion changed to reflect the “greed is good,” ambitious attitude. Some clothes expressed this desire to seem successful, while others were a deliberate rejection of those values.
Power Dressing
As in the twenties and thirties, men’s suits stiffened to create a triangular frame, with wide shoulders and a fitted, narrow waist. This powerful look was emphasized with very dark grey flannel materials and expensive details, such as silk linings. Names like Armani, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein became global fashion brands. Women’s suits also widened at the shoulders, which were built up with shoulder pads, while skirts shortened. Hair was worn fluffed out, as “big hair.” Makeup became bolder and used a wider palette of colors. The result was more powerful and predatory.This look was popularized in television soap operas.
New Man
For men who were critical of macho culture, power dressing was a turnoff. The “New Man” preferred soft fabrics, romantic or floppy tailoring, and pastel colors. Even in a suit, New Man wanted to look as though he might have just stepped off the beach, wearing his shirt open at the neck, and shoes without socks.
Pop Styles
MTV, the music television channel launched in 1981, connected young music consumers in many countries with the biggest pop idols. Short video films alongside a song made it easier for fans to copy the fashion styles of their favorite musicians. Stars such as Madonna changed global trends by appearing on MTV in unexpected clothing. Madonna’s outfits made their designer Jean-Paul Gaultier even more famous. Hip-hop artists also had a big influence, driving sales of athleticshoes around the world.
Sports Casual
Concern for health and fitness grew in the eighties, becoming a badge of self-respect and ambition. Casual clothing expressed this desire to look good and to seem fit and powerful. Tracksuits made people look like they might be about to go jogging. Leggings stretched taut from a loop under the heel suggested that the wearer could be on her way to a session at the gym. This clothing was not only fashionable, but also very comfortable—ideal for going shopping or watching television.
8.9. the Ninities
Fashion design expressed a mood of chaos and disintegration. Many young people adopted antifashion “grunge” styles, wearing clothes that deliberately looked dirty and scruffy. The grunge look was associated with the rock band Nirvana, and was expressed on the catwalk by designers such as Marc Jacobs and Martin Margiela. The traditional divide between highfashion and mass consumption blurred. Department stores employed cutting-edge designers to create cheap, “fashion-forward” items. Fashion-conscious teens, meanwhile, turned to secondhand stores to build their own retro styles.
Nineties’ Glamor
Some designers made womenswear that was more openly sexual. Bras, corsets, garters, and other underwear were now worn as outerwear. Clothes had revealing holes scissored through them. On some catwalks, flimsy dresses—sometimes held up only by dabs of glue on the skin— looked as if they were about to fall off and reveal a naked body!
Unisex
As eighties’ macho values went out of style, tough new tomboy ideas of femininity emerged. Young women adopted camouflaged combat pants and hefty workboots. The early nineties’ comic series Tank Girl, and the Tomb Raider game character Lara Croft (1996), were figureheads of this trend. Tattooing and body piercing became more widespread. Other androgynous fashions included shaved heads for women, and sarong skirts for men.
Dressing for War
The nineties was a decade of conflicts, from the invasion of Panama (1989–1990) to the civil wars in former Yugoslavia (1991–1995 and 1998–1999). Media images of soldiers in combat inevitably inspired some fashion items. New styles of aviator sunglasses and combat trousers with blue-pattern camouflage both took a turn as “hot” fashion items.The first Gulf War (1991) also inspired a Yellow Ribbon campaign. Some Americans and Britons wore yellow ribbons or tied them to trees, as a sign that they were awaiting the safe return of their troops.
American Fashion Today
Throughout the century, fashion has changed in almost everything except its name. What was then the turf of some privileged few has become an area in which all people enjoy regardless of status. The past art of hand craftsmanship which was then out of reach of the ordinary folks have gradually changed. But what has been influential in these changes can be attributed to outside forces such as the present political conditions or beliefs among societies in which women take part in. Today the present capital of women’s fashion is New York City. Paris was the center of fashion until America came out the leader of fashion. The majority of American fashion houses are based in New York, although there are also a significant number in Los Angeles, where a substantial percentage of clothing manufactured in the US is actually made. There are also burgeoning industries in Miami and Chicago, which were once centers of American fashion. American fashion design is dominated by a clean-cut, casual style, reflecting the athletic, health-conscious lifestyles of some American city-dwellers. Among today designers we can name
Donna Karan,
ChadoRalph Rucci
Carolina Herrera
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2. 17th century
Closets do not exist in the seventeenth century, so American colonists store their wardrobes in chests of all sizes that are kept in the parlor of the house.
Обо мне
- Красотки
- Челябинск, Челябинская область уральский ФО, Russia
- Любознательные студентки факультета лингвистики и перевода
