Text Hist: 20th Century

retrofashion

throwbacks to clothing style of the past

Charles Fredrick Worth

Considered the father of haute couture, English designer established the first true fashion house in Paris in 1858, revolutionizing fashion by showing clothes on live models and introducing seasonal collections, He is also credited with creating the Princess Line, a popular silhouette in the late 19th century.

Christian Lacroix

French fashion designer

The Princess Line

A dress design line running from the bust through the waist to the skirt to flatter a woman’s natural figure, named after Empress Eugenie

Mariano Fortuny

Designer known for Delphos dresses made of pleated silk, inspired by Greek styles, intended to be worn without corsets.

Paul Poiret

Fashion designer in the 1910s who liberated women's clothing from corsets, introducing the hobble skirt and harem pants.

Coco Chanel

A 1920s designer known for her tweed suits, little black dress, and unlined tailored pieces.She revolutionized women's fashion by promoting comfort and practicality, emphasizing elegance without excessive ornamentation.

Else Schiaparelli

A 1930s designer known for her use of shocking pink and innovative use of zippers in dresses, surrealist art motifs

Madeline Vionnet

A 1920s designer known for cutting clothing on the bias for a better fit and stretch.

Gilbert Adrian

Costumer known for his work in the late 1930s on films like The Wizard of Oz, popularizing ready-to-wear pieces.

Christian Dior

Fashion designer known for his post-WWII designs featuring a tight bodice and a wide skirt, the New Look- came about in 1947

Edwardian Fashion (1901-1910)

• Art Nouveau influences  

• A combination- one piece undergarment step in with some fit throughout the body with darts

• Chemise- shirtish thing

• Petticoat- a skirt with ruffles along the bottom called dusters, padded out waist

• Corset- metal boning, pushes fleshy parts of hips towards your butt for rounder shape in back, monobosom shape for breasts pushed together

• The dresses:

  • Bodice- top of dress 

  • Skirt 

  • Silk which would reflect light

  • Embossed velvet

• Gibson girl style- Charles Dana Gibson American illustrator with fashionable women with big soft buns atop the head

• Taxidermied animals atop hats and clothing- some species were hunted till extinction (Audobon society stopped this) 

• The invention of motorcars led to the invention of the duster jacket, and watches on the wrist

• the S curve

Titanic Times Fashion (1910s)

• Looser silhouette

• Kimonoish silhouettes

• Hobble skirt

• Art Deco- scalloped shapes

• WWI- different access to materials, practical fashion, reuse of materials

1920s Fashion

Marked by tubular dresses, bobbed hairstyles, and the flapper style, Egyptian art deco motifs influenced by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the brasserie- new undergarment, didnt have much support, was meant to flatten to accentuate the breast

1930s Fashion

• Moving away from tubular towards with fullness in hips and sleeves

• The Great Depression- women playing tennis, going and doing activities

• More revealing beach apparel

• Shifts towards fitted style in dresses with cutting on the bias

• undergarment industry booms because, without corsets women wanted to shape their bodies for new styles

1940s Fashion

• Invention of the shoulder bag- derived from fieldbags that men carried in the war 

• Metal fasteners not available because of the war effort so buttons became popular

• 2-piece skirt suits 

• Turbans appear- from the Caribbean Latin music craze at the time

• retail fashion shopping gains popularity

•  when Paris falls to Germany, American fashion steps up

1950s Fashion

• Audrey Hepburn

• Post WWII feminine image in response to the masculinity of wartime fashion

• Glamour

• Lucille Ball- made maternity clothes fashionable while pregnant on I Love Lucy

• The Kennedys

  • Jackie O

    • Anne Low- created her wedding dress, private tailor for the rich, underrecognized due to her blackness during a time before and during the Civil Rights Movement

    • Went around campaigning for her husband’s presidential run to the country club women she was socializing with 

    • bouffant, sunglasses, pillbox hat

    • Her family was very wealthy and popular

    • Wearing an Oleg Cassini design that looks like Chanel during the assassination and worked closely with him

    • She only wore pastels because she had dark hair.

1960s Fashion

• The space race started to influence fashion

• India’s textiles were influenced by the new government there

• British fashion

  • Mary Quant- invented the concept of short dresses and fun tights, Mod fashion, British, hot pants

  • Kensington and Baranby

• Twiggy - models for Quant

• Black models enter the scene

  • The founder of Ebony magazine, John H. Johnson, was married to Eunice Walker Johnson, who was a co-founder and influential figure at Johnson Publishing Company

  • Mrs. Johnson created her own fashion shows on her own dime to photograph and print in Ebony magazine 

• Andy Warhol

• Paper dresses made that were meant to be worn and thrown away

• Yve St. Laurent

1960s: beatniks, hippies, mods

 beatniks-played coffee shops in london

hippies- ppl against the vietnam war, stressed love and freedom

mod- mini skirts, british/cali, twiggy

1970s Fashion

• Feathers and leathers- inspired by Native American culture

• Paisley- India movement

• Nightlife disco culture was born in England

• Urban cowboy style- corduroy, denim

• Brooke Shields- Calvin Kleins

1980s Fashion

• Princess Diana- cropped jackets over dresses- Spencer Jackets/Boleros, the revenge dress,

• Ralph Lauren- king of licenses lol

• Color season analysis became a thing, changing how people shopped

• MTV- quick access to music videos, inspiring fashion

  • Janet Jackson

  • Madonna

• Miami Vice- an extremely popular TV show, made pastels popular for men’s wear and huge impact on men’s fashion overall, black and white men in leading roles which was controversial at time

1990s Fashion

• Grunge culture- Kurt Cobain, Doc Martens

• Popularization of African prints

• Mainstreaming of Latin flavors in American food

• Martha Stewart- homemaking, cooking, decorating, hosting