Escape from the Corset
1900’s Paul Poiret
The corset posed a threat to women’s health. Poiret helped to liberate women from corsets by shifting point of gravity from waists to shoulders and replacing corsets with brassieres. Natural beauty was what the dresses were meant to emphasize. As a result, women became more active and commenced following footsteps of the men.
Quest for new Fashion
1910’s Mariano Fortuny
Orientalism was the big trend during this time thanks to the debut Ballet Russes. Eastern culture was a huge influence on the Western society. They are more connected than ever before. Fortuny’s created the famous Delphos commonly worn by women during the early twentieth century. It embodied comfort and a fresh form of emphasizing the natural body by its beauty. The Delpho changed color as the body moved displaying the fabric as the decoration in itself. This changed the whole perspective of fashion with a long history of traditional handmade ornate creations.
The New Woman
1920’s Coco Chanel
The outbreak of WWI caused women to demand more functional attires. Coco Chanel introduced the famous “garçonne”, boy in French, style for workingwomen. Women replaced mens' workforce as the men are off to war. Hemlines shot up from the ankles to the knees. Women experienced the chance to be active and enjoy sports and hanging at resorts.
Art and Fashion
1930’s Elsa Schiaparelli
During the Great Depression, the eager to creative unique innovative designs became an obsession for Elsa Schiaparelli. Fashion seemed to revert back to long dresses and long print dresses became a new trend. Artworks were made as prints and used as fabrics which made the dress appear elegant and brilliant in idea. Responding to this trend, Elsa created print dresses using practical everyday objects such as matches and advertisements of her perfume. She introduced artificial materials which would later be worn by both upper and lower class.
Fashion of WWII
1940’s Jacques Fath
America and Europe set regulations for the fashion house, ordering haute couture designers to ration fabric. As a result, women were forced to dress in a simple and austere manner conforming to the regulations. Jacques Fath created youthful, energetic designs, while maintaining to the code enforced. Women began to wear hats to complement their simple attires. Women turn their attention towards elegance of fashion rather than functionality.
The Revival of Haute Couture
1950’s Christian Dior
During the Occupation, women were forced to dress in a simple and austere manner. Then Dior introduced the “New Look”, an old-fashioned nineteenth century undergarments with elegant dresses, as a confirmation that the war is in fact done. People ironically longed for elegance rather than the simple style and favored the elegance of the nineteenth century than dresses designed for functionality. Dior and many other talented designers of the fifties helped to revive haute couture. His clothes were ideal for classes who valued refinement above all.
Inorganic materials
1960’s Pierre Cardin
When Pierre Cardin introduced the Space Age Collection, he also introduced to the fashion world the idea of using inorganic, manmade materials for clothing. As a result, materials such as plastic were used and people liked the idea of paying less for good quality clothing. Most clothing had the simple A-line silhouettes due to the application of art designs, the introduction of minis, etc. As a mass consumer society, people were more prone to throwing away cheap materials, especially clothes. Features of the synthetic materials had its own unique characteristic that appeared dazzling when worn.
Rise of Ready-to-Wear Clothing
1970’s Kenzo Takada
Takada became the advocate of Ready-to-Wear. He introduced natural, relaxed attires that influenced hippies to dress along that line. In response to the Vietnam War, hippies wore natural materials showing their affection for peace at war and love of environment. Takada had crushed everyday wear of haute couture in the early twentieth century. As hippies were gaining followers, the fashion sense of jeans transitioned to a more violent movement called the punk movement. The punk style encouraged disorder and more followers to dress provocatively in response to the class-divided society. It was common that young generation of teens made their clothes.
Power Dressing
1980’s Jean-Paul Gaultier
Body consciousness was the new trend of the eighties. Women were interested in maintaining a well-toned body by dressing in active wear made out of elastic materials as they are stepping into the world of professional business. As a result of this demand for a workout outfit, the famous Jean-Paul Gaultier took what have been traditionally undergarments and transformed them into modern outerwear emphasizing the beauty of a fit, healthy body.
Staying Eco
1990’s Martin Margiela
Japanese designers introduced shabbiness to the world of fashion, which influenced designers to create a “worn-out” effect on clothing. As a result, “worn-out” attires were a statement for society to preserve their clothing rather than dispose them within a short span. Japanese’s worn out style influence Margiela to protest against disposing old materials. He repeatedly recycled his previous works and presented the same items in his shows. The deterioration of the environment changed the mindset of the people to focus on used, recycled, or remade clothing.
Repeating What’s Done
2000’s Every designers
Today, fashion repeats certain styles of the decade because the shape of the human body limits options. The reemergence of past styles are expressed in a present standpoint as it rises from an entirely new social context. Collections range from all sorts of clothing types. For example, a collection will include a shirt, coat, bathing suit, sunglasses, dresses, etc. Designers also responded the global warming, as the mass consumer continued to waste this Earth land, by introducing water-resistant clothing. New ideas are continuously developing as fashion introduces newer designers.
