FASHION THROUGH THE AGES

1. FASHION THROUGH THE AGES

2. p r o j e c t b y : Ewa Zielińska Katarzyna Rębacz

3. f a s h i o n Fashion is a term that usually applies to a prevailing mode of expression, but quite often applies to a personal mode of expression that may or may not apply to all. Inherent in the term is the idea that the mode will change more quickly than the culture as a whole. The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are employed to describe whether someone or something fits in with the current popular mode of expression. The term "fashion" is frequently used in a positive sense, asa synonym for glamour and style. In this sense, fashions are a sort of communal art, through which a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. The term "fashion" is also sometimes used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads, trends, and materialism.

4. c h a n g e s Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. The changes may proceed more rapidly than in most other fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). For some, modern fast-paced changes in fashion embody many of the negative aspects of capitalism: it results in waste and encourages people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. Other people, especially young people, enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience "new" and "interesting" things. Note too that fashion can change to enforce uniformity, as in the case where so-called Mao suits became the national uniform of mainland China. Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time, for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything, etc. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, for example, might favor things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese at a third. A modern version of exotic clothing includes club wear. Globalization has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times, and has seen the introduction of non-Western wear into the Western world. Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.

5. fashion through the agesglobally Fashion is popular all over the world. Fashion around the world is all different.Hereare some examples of some of the countries and what they wore: 500 B.C.- Persian people were wearing long robes with patterns or designs on them. They wore not shoes, but socks with patterns and stripes. They wore many other clothing materials and other clothes. 550 B.C.- The Grecian women wore long robes often like the Persians. The men from Greece wore long robes with part of the robe draped over a shoulder. 50 B.C.- The children from Rome usually wore long robes with part of the robe draped over their shoulder, while on the other shoulder they wore a sleeve. They wore their hair up in a net with a clip right in the middle of their head. The men of Rome usually wore long robes (usually colored) with socks, and pieces of rope hanging around their head.

6. Late Medieval fashion The fourteenth century has been aptly named the 'Decorated' period. Men's dress showed the influence of heraldry, ladies' garments were ornate, and tight-fitting surcoats served to accentuate the figure. In such a colourful age there was a higher esteem for the dyer-at one time little better than a slave-who had come to be regarded, in the words of Chaucer, as bearing "the livery of great and serious brotherhood." In the fifteenth century England feudalism was almost a thing of the past, but the fashions of chivalry persisted. It was a period of transition. Men's minds were keyed up by the Renaissance. In Venice the first book on dyeing had just been published, and a few years later, in 1472, a Dyers' Company was formed in London. fashion through the agese n g l a n d

7. The Tudors Tudor swagger aptly describes fashionable wear in the reign of Henry VIII. Dandies spent fortunes on the French cloth of gold and Genoese velvets demanded by a lavish court. Together with this extravagance in taste went a new vogue in colourings. Dyewoods were introduced from the East Indies, and the Conquistadores returned from Mexico with cochineal insects which were to provide crimson and scarlet shades for over 300 years. Cochineal and many of the other naturally occurring colouring matters have now been entirely replaced by a range of synthetic dyestuffs and pigments.

8. The seventeenth century Cromwellian England was a land of violent contrasts. The Protector ruled with sword in one hand, Bible in the other. The sumptuous fashions of the Cavaliers clashed with the simple dress of the Puritans, and this sectarianism also found expression in colour. The Cavaliers flaunted the gayest hues attainable, while the Puritans adopted dark and sombre shades. These were all laboriously produced from naturally occurring dyestuffs, most of which now have little more than museum interest. With the Restoration the wheel of fashion turned full circle. Released from the repressions of the Protectorship, people indulged in the wildest extravaganzas of dress. Every frippery and flummery found a place. At the same time dyeing achieved a new status through the publication, in 1662, of the first English book on the subject, sponsored by the newly created Royal Society. This recognition of a struggling craft was the first stage in a process of evolution out of which emerged the great dyeing industry.

9. The eighteenth century By 1720 Restoration foppishness had given place to the dignity of the first Georgian period. The people's dress reflected their growing power as a maritime nation. Silks and cotton from the East and brocades from the silk looms of Lyons were the fashionable fabrics, and the importation of these luxuries caused severe heartburning among native weavers. But the dyers welcomed the new fabrics because they afforded greater opportunities for the display of ingenuity and skill. With commerce expanding England waxed fat, and for the first time her population reached eight millions. From all classes of this greater community came a big demand for textiles, which in turn focused attention on dyeing, and a new dynasty of 'dye-chemists' came into being. In 1760 the Frenchman Hellot all but forestalled Perkin by stumbling on aniline, but the full significance of his discovery escaped him. Another century was to pass before aniline's secrets were laid bare and the way made clear for the development of the modern range of synthetic dyestuffs.

10. The early nineteenth century The men who humbled Napoleon were men of action. Not for them the courtly capers of previous generations, but a good pack to ride to, or an afternoon on the cricket field. Current fashions reflected the mode of life. Jackets were cut away and breeches were lengthened so as to allow the wearer more freedom of movement. Although a few of the vegetable dyes then available were sufficiently fast to resist the effect of these outdoor activities, they were difficult to apply. No one yet knew how to produce the bright, fast shades that may be so easily achieved with the synthetic dyestuffs. With the profligate George IV on the throne one might well have expected fashion to return to the excesses of earlier years. But people were modest in their tastes, especially the women, with their maidenly sun-bonnets, chaste necklines, and low, sweeping dresses. More and improved fabrics rapidly became available, and the choice of colours grew with increasing knowledge of natural dyewoods. Yet dyers still had no real understanding of the materials with which they had to work. It was a difficult task to match any particular shade accurately, but today dyers find shade reproduction an easy matter.

11. Victorian and Edwardian England Nobly did fashion serve the cloth and steelmakers of Victorian days, for an incredible weight of metal caging, as well as fifteen yards of fine linen, went to make just one crinoline. Call it a mousetrap or what you will, but the crinoline could look very appealing, especially in the shades made possible by the discovery of the early synthetic dyestuffs such as Perkin's Mauve, Magenta, Nicholson's Blue and Hoffman's Violet. These sensational new dyestuffs received universal acclaim, and with their production the spotlight of the dyeing world fell upon England. It is a matter of history that our new-found fame was allowed to wane, for others were quicker to exploit Perkin's epoch-making achievement. It was a comfortable age... a comely, colourful age. Matters of compelling importance were developing in the dyeing world. Less than a generation before, synthetic indigo had been discovered, and madder was being ousted by alizarine. These were forerunners of the great modern range of synthetic dyestuffs which the dyer was soon to have at his command.

12. The early twentieth century Colourful bunting and fairy lights gleamed in the summer days of 1914 before war blurred everything to a khaki monotone. Women, as yet ignorant of film-standardised looks, were individually ornamental. Their escorts, in boaters and blazers, added their own colourful touch to the sportive scene. Life was full of sweet illusions, but its outward form - a prosperous dressiness - had none of the colour subtlety that is so characteristic of modern dress. This revolution in taste was not due simply to growing sophistication. The Great War caused swift developments within the British dyestuffs industry. The social scene underwent swift changes between the wars, and these brought a completely new range of fashions, from sunsuits to cocktail frocks, from Basque berets to Tyrolean hats. As war scares came round again, the last traces of the boyish figure and skimped skirt, relics of 1914-18, disappeared. Curves came back, with veils, flowers, muffs and curls. The young woman who wore trousers to pilot a speedboat would, on high days, appear in the full elegance of haute couture.