Historical Events in Fashion

Madame Pompadour - Rococo perfection

Marie Antoinette at her most regal.

Holy cracker! Marie Antoinette wearing what came to be known as the 'chemise a la reine' - getting all antiquity and Rousseau-like on us. (With a dash of creole maiden). And did she get in dutch for this one! What kind of queen poses for her portrait in her nightie and one made of foreign fabrics, to boot? Poor woman really couldn't catch a break.

By the Empire period, the waistlines could not get any higher. The feathers and turbans were part of a craze for all things eastern. The fur was a nod towards a famous Russian battle.

I'm back! Were you worried I'd run out of things to write about? (OK, me too, a little). But the fact is I had friends in town and then for the last two days have been experiencing laptop woes. I didn't forget about you, I just had no technology.

I haven't thought this one out too much, I just know I don't want another day to go by without posting. So here goes...

I'm thinking about the role the past can have on design, specifically in fashion. Even as a kid I loved fashion and loved drawing people in cool clothes. (OK, girls in Go-Go boots). I remember very clearly a grey jersey knit outfit displayed at a downtown department store - it had a small red cherry patch sewn on to the bodice. I thought then how nice red looked on a soft grey - so smart! I also clearly recall deciding that navy blue and green did not look well together and even ran this past my Dad. (He agreed). In retrospect, I hadn't considered how smart a nice pine green looks paired with navy in a tartan, but then I was probably only about seven years old at the time.

What's my point? Oh yes, the point is I've always loved clothes, but I didn't really love fashion per se until I discovered fashion history. I couldn't really care less about fashion trends (unless they're drawing on something from decades or centuries past) or how to 'get the look for less.' Unfortunately, the vast majority of fashion coverage these days is concerned with how to wear a trend, who's wearing the trends, who can afford the stuff and where you should rush out to buy it. But the minute I come across information that puts fashion into some kind of context - what else was happening at the time these fashions became popular? Who was wearing them, what kind of statement were they making and why? That's when my ears prick up.

In terms of the 20th century, I think the late '50s through the '60s is fascinating - between Britain and the United States the sub-cultures and looks are ever-changing. But if I had to go further back in history, I'll take 18th century France and England. By the 1730s, the 'go to' dress for court was the silk robe a la Francaise - mile-wide panniers, pleats hanging from the shoulders, heavy trimmings of ribbon, lace and net - best worn with a towering hairstyle. Add a fan and a beauty mark and you're good to go! (Or not, I mean how could you move?)

The English were associated with a slightly less cumbersome style - the robe a l'Anglaise. No crazy panniers or pleats, but a sizeable rump that when worn with the corset of the day, gave a much-desired pouter pigeon silhouette. As the century progressed, the fashions became easier and lighter - many have referred to it as a democratization of fashion. So what happened? A bunch of things, that's what. The discovery of the ruins of Pompeii awakened a fascination with antiquity - the simple symmetrical beauty of ancient Greece and Rome. Suddenly every smart English garden required a temple. Women of taste began to eschew Lyon silks for layers of precious, light-as-air English muslins and by the turn of the century, they were mimicking Greek statuary by wearing white, Empire-waisted gowns. (Yes, that Napoleon Bonaparte was all about the Roman Empire and so were the fashions. They just didn't know those statues had originally been painted brilliant colours). Then there was the Anglomania - a craze for all things associated with the English outdoorsy way of life and a political system considered more democratic than the one across the channel. The writings of Rousseau, extolling nature and reason, as well as Diderot's Encyclopedia, which brought knowledge to the common man (or at least a commoner man than just the elite) - all these things led to an easiness in fashion. Oh, and last but certainly not least is the French Revolution, during which a a colour or an accessory could speak volumes. Consider yourself a citoyenne? Then cotton is your fabric, as silk would suggest an allegiance to the Ancien Regime.

S'all crazy, but so, so interesting, methinks...