Lauren Greis and Angie Borrell
Kelly Borrell
Senior Project
November 20, 2001
The Evolution of Style
"Fashion is the mirror of history", Lours the XIV correctly observed. Why do people wear what they wear? Why have human beings chosen to change their appearance in such amazing ways? Have they changed it for themselves or for the eyes of others? There is no adequate response. In this report the evolution of fashion will be examined.
930's
Starting with the 1930's, skirts were somewhat short in length. Popular dress styles include the Saylor "middy", tennis stripes, the large bow, cap sleeves, the cumberbund sash and deep revers. The "ankle strap" shoe was popular and could be worn with the clothing mentioned. Escapism settled on the head in the form of a mad array of hats-freezes, beret stocking caps, tiny hats and enormous hats. Moreover, hat brims were now folded back to display the forehead.
Powers' models in the early 1930's wore brimmed hats, longer skirts and wastes at "normal" level. Seperates now became more important and the white skirts a summer necessity. Such an outfit would be perfect for observing the increasingly popular "spectator sports". This popular look led to sport's clothes never before. Women wore backless bathing suits and bared their legs on the tennis court as well as at the beach. (This was unheard of before). Going ahead and enjoying fashion was the new philosophy for the 30's.
960's
The sixties style ranged anywhere from long patchwork skirts to tie-dye undershirts. Fashion was a visual Candy store. Not just red with orange or blue with green but red and orange and blue and green all together. Everything was bought to its wildest possible extension. It was a braless, girdleless, pantyhoseless life.
The hippie look started out as a political statement and then became the fashion itself. The look fell into two categories: Real Hippie and Rich Hippie. The core of the hippie look was jeans. It didn't matter if you were rich or real ...
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960's
The sixties style ranged anywhere from long patchwork skirts to tie-dye undershirts. Fashion was a visual Candy store. Not just red with orange or blue with green but red and orange and blue and green all together. Everything was bought to its wildest possible extension. It was a braless, girdleless, pantyhoseless life.
The hippie look started out as a political statement and then became the fashion itself. The look fell into two categories: Real Hippie and Rich Hippie. The core of the hippie look was jeans. It didn't matter if you were rich or real you still wore jeans. Faded jeans were unpretentious and common. The ultimate anti-fashion in their natural state of qualities is what the original flower children wanted to project. The studding, painting, embroidering, stitching, and patching came later. The perfect tops for faded jeans were blue work shirts, sleeveless undershirts, and Wallace Berry shirts. Plain shirts and plain jeans weren't enough, and they were tossed in the washing machine with a box of rit dye.
Jax pants were the California Capri look. The height of Jax-ness was a pair of gingham capris worn with flat Capezio thong sandals. Both the capris and the capezios came in scads of bright, brilliant colors. Jax capris were lined. The classic jax Capri had no waistband, just finishing band turned back on the hip. It was impractical to wear a belt with them, or keep a blouse tucked inside. They turned to crop tops as the best answer. Like all fashionable pants then, they ended above the anklebone. It wasn't until the late sixties that they adopted a longer pants leg.
Knits were no longer strictly for jerseys and Italian striped tops. The new knits are made for fitting easy. They quickly took over the pants industry. Stretch pants often came in nylon called Helanca, with a stirrup strap under the in step were in the stores in 1961. The stirrup kept the pants from creeping up the leg. The pants were meant to be skintight. Most people attempted to hide the strap. People wore the pants with flats. After a few years, they coordinated the pants with ankle-high boots giving a much smoother line. The boots were really the first fashion boots to come along.
Waist less dresses was big in the summer of 1963. These dresses were called shifts. The best were plain body skimmers with no gather. Instead of wearing them to the office with pumps and pearls, they wore them to the beach, the market, and summer school. They found it easy to hang around in a shift. They were cool as pedal pushers, almost as cool as shorts. If you knew how to sew, you could make a shift out of a yard of fabric. Plain white sneakers took over from saddle shoes. The sneakers had to be plain, with no fancy stitching, soles or colors. People wore them with socks for a long-legged, all-in-one, majorette look, but some people wore the sneakers with stockings. Stockings were never high in fashion. They never made Vogue or Woman's were Daily. Mostly everyone still wore them. Especially with shirtwaists, skirts and Garland sweaters. Polo coats were still in style as well as a shawl-collared cashmere for dressy occasions. Fur collars were wonderful. Car coats were in. Toppers were out.
1990's
Super models were the biggest news in the 1990's. An icon of the 90's was one that was contemporary and classically elegant. Claudia Schiffer, Christly Turlington and Cindy Crawford were some of the supermodels of the decade.
By early 1991 "Blonde is glamour", started Italian Vogue (Jan. 1991) it was the ultimate feminine color.' Pale and skinny were out, red lips and stilettos were in. Another fashion of the 90's was the grunge look. Grunge began as a cheap vernacular style, associated with band like nirvana and Pearl Jam. The grunge look was characterized flannel shirts, long loose dresses and heavy boots. Grunge looked as though hippies and punks had merged their wardrobes.
"Comfy is out! Glamour is in!" In a short time the "dressed to kill" look would disappear. "Fashion returns to the classics", said Time (April 1995). "After years of driving women away with gimmicks and excess, the latest turn in fashion is back to elegant, wearable clothes." Verace made what time called "pretty, practical clothes" like pink suits. A few weeks' later retailers were complaining that modern women did not want to wear pink. Among young people there was still a great interest in clothing and an expression of identity.
What will the fashion trend be in twenty years? Does anyone really know? Clothing is very difficult for many to understand. Maybe it will come to the point where a simple floor length t-shirt can be all the clothes a body needs.
Bibliography
Batterberry Michael and Ariane. Mirror, Mirror A Social history Of Fashion. Milan, Italy, 1977.
Steele, Valerie. Fifty Years Of Fashion Yale University, 1997
What We Wore an offbeat social history of women's clothing, 1950 to 1980. Copyright 1984 Ellen Melinkoff
Key Moments in Fashion
Online Resources
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/every/fashion.htm
http://www.bbhq.com/fashion.htm
Film Strip
American Women Two Hundred Years Of Authentic Fashion; Butterick Publishing N.Y., 1974
Greis / Borrell
