What Is the Best Way to Begin Learning About Fashion, Trends, and Fashion Designers?

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★ What is the best way to begin learning about fashion, trends, and fashion designers?

Edit I know a bit, but not much. What are some ways to educate myself when it comes to fashion? Edit Comment • Share (1) • Options Follow Question Promote Question

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References 1. ^ Fashion (2012, March 29). Wwd. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news. 2. ^ Undressing Cinema: Clothing and identity in the movies - Page 196, Stella Bruzzi - 2012 3. ^ For a discussion of the use of the terms "fashion", "dress", "clothing", and "costume" by professionals in various disciplines, see Valerie Cumming, Understanding Fashion History, "Introduction", Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-89676-253-X 4. ^ Braudel, 312–3 5. ^ Timothy Brook: "The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China" (University of California Press 1999); this has a whole section on fashion. 6. ^ al-Hassani, Woodcok and Saoud (2004), 'Muslim Heritage in Our World', FSTC publisinhg, pp. 38–9 7. ^ Terrasse, H. (1958) 'Islam d'Espagne' une rencontre de l'Orient et de l'Occident", Librairie Plon, Paris, pp.52–53. 8. ^ Josef W. Meri & Jere L. Bacharach (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: A–K. Taylor & Francis. p. 162. ISBN 0415966914. 9. ^ Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, p. 62 10. ^ Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," p317, William Collins & Sons, London 1981 11. ^ Braudel, 317–24 12. ^ Braudel, 313–15 13. ^ Braudel, 317–21 14. ^ Thornton, Peter. Baroque and Rococo Silks. 15. ^ James Laver and Fernand Braudel, op cit 16. ^ Claire B. Shaeffer (2001). Couture sewing techniques "Originating in mid- 19th-century Paris with the designs of an Englishman named Charles Frederick Worth, haute couture represents an archaic tradition of creating garments by hand with painstaking care and precision". Taunton Press, 2001 17. ^ Lemire, B., & Riello, G (2008). EAST & WEST: TEXTILES AND FASHION IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE. Journal of Social History, 41(4), 887-916. 18. ^ Fashion (2012, March 29). Wwd. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news 19. ^ Tax, Genevieve. (2010-02-24) Fashion's Own Sense of Season. The New Islander. Retrieved on 2011-06-29. 20. ^ Molnar, Andrea K (1998). Transformations in the Use of Traditional Textiles of Ngada (Western Flores, Eastern Indonesia): Commercialization, Fashion and Ethnicity. Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body: Berg. p. 42 Extra |pages= or |at= (help). 21. ^ Polhemus and Procter, Ted and Lynn (1978). Fashion and Anti- fashion: An Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment. Thames and Hudson. p. 12. 22. ^ Polhemus and Procter, Ted and Lynn (1978). Fashion and Anti- fashion: An Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment. Thames and Hudson. pp. 12–13. 23. ^ Skoggard, Ian (1998). Transnational Commodity Flows and the Global Phenomenon of the Brand. Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body: Berg. pp. 57–69. 24. ^ Molnar, Andrea K (1998). Transformations in the Use of Traditional Textiles of Ngada (Western Flores, Eastern Indonesia): Commercialization, Fashion and Ethnicity. Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body: Berg. pp. 39–55. 25. ^ Molnar, Andrea K (1998). Transformations in the Use of Traditional Textiles of Ngada (Western Flores, Eastern Indonesia): Commercialization, Fashion and Ethnicity. Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body: Berg. p. 41 and 45–48 Extra |pages= or |at= (help). 26. ^ Molnar, Andrea K (1998). Transformations in the Use of Traditional Textiles of Ngada (Western Flores, Eastern Indonesia): Commercialization, Fashion and Ethnicity. Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body: Berg. p. 51 Extra |pages= or |at= (help). 27. ^ IPFrontline.com: Intellectual Property in Fashion Industry, WIPO press release, December 2, 2005 28. ^ INSME announcement: WIPO-Italy International Symposium, 30 November – 2 December 2005 29. ^ "Fashion For A Cause". Times of India. 2/4/2013. Retrieved 2/15/2013. 30. ^ Woodman, Anne (1/26/2013). "Fashion for a cause". Clayton News Star. Retrieved 2/15/2013. 31. ^ "Fashion for a cause". Chatham Daily News. 2/7/2013. Retrieved 2/15/2013. 32. ^ luc, karie angell (1/16/2013). "‘Fashion for a Cause’ aids families and kids". Northbrook Star. Retrieved 2/15/2013. 33. ^ "Fashion for a cause". Capital Gazette. no date given. Retrieved 2/15/2013. 34. ^ "One man’s trash is another man’s fashion". NBC News/ AP. 7/2/2008. Retrieved 2/15/2013. 35. ^ Simon, Stephanie (1/13/2009). "'Trashion' Trend: Dumpster Couture Gets a Boost at Green Inaugural Ball". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2/15/2013.

Bibliography • Braudel, Fernand Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life," William Collins & Sons, London 1981 ISBN 0- 520-08114-5

Further reading • Breward, Christopher, The culture of fashion: a new history of fashionable dress, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-7190-4125- 9 • Cumming, Valerie: Understanding Fashion History, Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, ISBN 0-89676-253-X • Hollander, Anne, Seeing through clothes, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-520-08231-1 • Hollander, Anne, Sex and suits: the evolution of modern dress, New York: Knopf, 1994, ISBN 978-0-679-43096-4 • Hollander, Anne, Feeding the eye: essays, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999, ISBN 978-0-374-28201-1 • Hollander, Anne, Fabric of vision: dress and drapery in painting, London: National Gallery, 2002, ISBN 978-0-300-09419-0 • Kawamura, Yuniya, Fashion-ology: an introduction to Fashion Studies, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2005, ISBN 1-85973-814-1 • Lipovetsky, Gilles (translated by Catherine Porter), The empire of fashion: dressing modern democracy, Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-691-10262-7 • McDermott, Kathleen, Style for all: why fashion, invented by kings, now belongs to all of us (An illustrated history), 2010, ISBN 978-0-557-51917-0 — Many hand-drawn color illustrations, extensive annotated bibliography and reading guide • Perrot, Philippe (translated by Richard Bienvenu), Fashioning the bourgeoisie: a history of clothing in the nineteenth century, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-691-00081-7 • Steele, Valerie, Paris fashion: a cultural history, (2. ed., rev. and updated), Oxford: Berg, 1998, ISBN 978-1-85973-973-0 • Steele, Valerie, Fifty years of fashion: new look to now, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-300-08738-3 • Steele, Valerie, Encyclopedia of clothing and fashion, Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005

External links History of clothing and textiles

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Ladies making silk, early 12th century painting by Emperor Huizong of Song (a remake of an 8th century original by artist Zhang Xuan), illustrates silk fabric manufacture in China.

The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of most human societies. It is not known when humans began wearing clothes. Anthropologists believe that animal skins and vegetation were adapted into coverings as protection from cold, heat and rain, especially as humans migrated to new climates; alternatively, covering may have been invented first for other purposes, such as magic, decoration, cult, or prestige, and later found to be practical as well.

Clothing and textiles have been important in human history and reflects the materials available to a civilization as well as the technologies that it has mastered. The social significance of the finished product reflects their culture.

Textiles, defined as felt or spun fibers made into yarn and subsequently netted, looped, knit or woven to make fabrics, appeared in the Middle East during the late stone age.[1] From ancient times to the present day, methods of textile production have continually evolved, and the choices of textiles available have influenced how people carried their possessions, clothed themselves, and decorated their surroundings.[2]

Sources available for the study of the history of clothing and textiles include material remains discovered via archaeology; representation of textiles and their manufacture in art; and documents concerning the manufacture, acquisition, use, and trade of fabrics, tools, and finished garments. Scholarship of textile history, especially its earlier stages, is part of material culture studies. Contents • 1 Prehistoric development o 1.1 Early adoption of fibrous apparel o 1.2 Initial manufacture of clothes • 2 Ancient textiles and clothing o 2.1 Ancient Near East o 2.2 Ancient India o 2.3 Ancient Egypt o 2.4 Ancient China o 2.5 Ancient Japan o 2.6 The textile trade in the ancient world o 2.7 Classical antiquity o 2.8 Iron age Europe • 3 Medieval clothing and textiles o 3.1 Byzantium o 3.2 Early medieval Europe o 3.3 High middle ages and the rise of fashion • 4 Renaissance and early modern period o 4.1 Renaissance Europe o 4.2 Early Modern Europe • 5 Enlightenment and the Colonial period • 6 Industrial revolution • 7 Contemporary technology • 8 See also • 9 External links • 10 References • 11 Bibliography

• 12 Further reading

Prehistoric development

Modern humans are the only survivors of several species of naked apes who may have worn clothes, according to DNA studies of clothing lice.[3] This study suggests that clothing may possibly have been used 650 thousand years ago – much longer than previously thought. First fabric uses, likely to be felt, are thought to have been used about 100,000 years ago.

Early adoption of fibrous apparel

Another genetic analysis suggests that the human body louse, which lives in clothing, may only have diverged from the head louse some 107 thousand years ago, which supports evidence that humans began wearing clothing at around this time.[4] These estimates pre-date the first known human exodus from Africa, although species of Homo (other than Homo Sapiens) who may have worn clothes - and shared these louse infestations - appear to have migrated earlier.

Initial manufacture of clothes

The development of textile and clothing manufacture in prehistory has been the subject of a number of scholarly studies since the late 20th century.[5][6] These sources have helped to provide a coherent history of these prehistoric developments. Evidence suggests that human beings may have begun wearing clothing as far back as 100,000 to 500,000 years ago.[7]

Possible sewing needles have been dated to around 40,000 years ago.[8] The earliest definite examples of needles originate from the Solutrean culture, which existed in France from 19,000 BC to 15,000 BC. The earliest dyed flax fibers have been found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia and date back to 36,000 BP.[9][10]

The earliest evidence of weaving comes from impressions of textiles and basketry and nets on little pieces of hard clay, dating from 27,000 years ago and found in Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic.

At a slightly later date (25,000 years) the Venus figurines were depicted with clothing. [11] Those from western Europe were adorned with basket hats or caps, belts worn at the waist, and a strap of cloth that wrapped around the body right above the breast. Eastern European figurines wore belts, hung low on the hips and sometimes string skirts.[6]

Archaeologists have discovered artifacts from the same period that appear to have been used in the textile arts: (5000 BC) net gauges, spindle needles and weaving sticks.[12]

Ancient textiles and clothing

The first actual textile, as opposed to skins sewn together, was probably felt. Surviving examples of Nålebinding, another early textile method, date from 6500 BC. Our knowledge of ancient textiles and clothing has expanded in the recent past thanks to modern technological developments.[13] Our knowledge of cultures varies greatly with the climatic conditions to which archeological deposits are exposed; the Middle East and the arid fringes of China have provided many very early samples in good condition, but the early development of textiles in the Indian subcontinent, sub-Saharan Africa and other moist parts of the world remains unclear. In northern Eurasia peat bogs can also preserve textiles very well.

Early woven clothing was often made of full loom widths draped, tied, or pinned in place.

Ancient Near East

The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East may be fabrics used to wrap the dead, excavated at a Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, carbonized in a fire and radiocarbon dated to c. 6000 BC.[14] Evidence exists of flax cultivation from c. 8000 BC in the Near East, but the breeding of sheep with a wooly fleece rather than hair occurs much later, c. 3000 BC.[14]

Ancient India

The inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization used cotton for clothing as early as the 5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC.[15]

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition:[16]

"Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In the 1st cent. Arab traders brought fine Muslin and Calico to Italy and Spain. The Moors introduced the cultivation of cotton into Spain in the 9th cent. Fustians and dimities were woven there and in the 14th cent. in Venice and Milan, at first with a linen warp. Little cotton cloth was imported to England before the 15th cent., although small amounts were obtained chiefly for candlewicks. By the 17th cent. the East India Company was bringing rare fabrics from India. Native Americans skillfully spun and wove cotton into fine garments and dyed tapestries. Cotton fabrics found in Peruvian tombs are said to belong to a pre-Inca culture. In color and texture the ancient Peruvian and Mexican textiles resemble those found in Egyptian tombs."

Ancient Egypt

Main article: Clothing in the ancient world#Egyptian clothing

Queen Nefertari in a sheer, pleated linen garment, Egypt, c. 1298–1235 BC Woven silk textile from tombs at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, from the Western Han Dynasty, 2nd century BC

Evidence exists for production of linen cloth in Ancient Egypt in the Neolithic period, c. 5500 BC. Cultivation of domesticated wild flax, probably an import from the Levant, is documented as early as c. 6000 BC Other bast fibers including rush, reed, palm, and papyrus were used alone or with linen to make rope and other textiles. Evidence for wool production in Egypt is scanty at this period.[17]

Spinning techniques included the drop spindle, hand-to-hand spinning, and rolling on the thigh; yarn was also spliced.[17] A horizontal ground loom was used prior to the New Kingdom, when a vertical two-beam loom was introduced, probably from Asia.

Linen bandages were used in the burial custom of mummification, and art depicts Egyptian men wearing linen kilts and women in narrow dresses with various forms of shirts and jackets, often of sheer pleated fabric.[17]

Ancient China

Main articles: History of silk and Hanfu

The earliest evidence of silk production in China was found at the sites of Yangshao culture in Xia, Shanxi, where a cocoon of bombyx mori, the domesticated silkworm, cut in half by a sharp knife is dated to between 5000 and 3000 BC. Fragments of primitive looms are also seen from the sites of Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang, dated to about 4000 BC. Scraps of silk were found in a Liangzhu culture site at Qianshanyang in Huzhou, Zhejiang, dating back to 2700 BC.[18][19] Other fragments have been recovered from royal tombs in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC).[20]

Under the Shang Dynasty, Han Chinese clothing or Hanfu consisted of a yi, a narrow- cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called shang, worn with a bixi, a length of fabric that reached the knees. Clothing of the elite was made of silk in vivid primary colours.

Ancient Japan

The earliest evidence of weaving in Japan is associated with the Jōmon period. This culture is defined by pottery decorated with cord patterns. In a shell mound in the Miyagi Prefecture, dating back about 5,500, some cloth fragments were discovered made from bark fibers.[21] Hemp fibers were also discovered in the Torihama shell midden, Fukui Prefecture, dating back to the Jōmon period, suggesting that these plants could also have been used for clothing. Some pottery pattern imprints depict also fine mat designs, proving their weaving techniques. Since bone needles were also found, it is assumed that they wore dresses that were sewn together.[22]

The textile trade in the ancient world

Main article: Silk Road The exchange of luxury textiles was predominant on the Silk Road, a series of ancient trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting East and West by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time. The trade route was initiated around 114 BC by the Han Dynasty,[23] although earlier trade across the continents had already existed. Geographically, the Silk Road or Silk Route is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes between Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean extending over 8,000 km (5,000 mi) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.

Classical antiquity

Main articles: Clothing in the ancient world, Clothing in ancient Greece, and Clothing in ancient Rome

Greek chiton (left) and chiton worn under himation

Dress in classical antiquity favored wide, unsewn lengths of fabric, pinned and draped to the body in various ways.

Ancient Greek clothing consisted of lengths of wool or linen, generally rectangular and secured at the shoulders with ornamented pins called fibulae and belted with a sash. Typical garments were the peplos, a loose robe worn by women; the chlamys, a cloak worn by men; and the chiton, a tunic worn by both men and women. Men’s chitons hung to the knees, whereas women’s chitons fell to their ankles. A long cloak called a himation was worn over the peplos or chlamys.

The toga of ancient Rome was also an unsewn length of wool cloth, worn by male citizens draped around the body in various fashions, over a simple tunic. Early tunics were two simple rectangles joined at the shoulders and sides; later tunics had sewn sleeves. Women wore the draped stola or an ankle-length tunic, with a shawl-like palla as an outer garment. Wool was the preferred fabric, although linen, hemp, and small amounts of expensive imported silk and cotton were also worn.

Iron age Europe

The Iron Age is broadly identified as stretching from the end of the Bronze Age around 1200 BC to 500 AD and the beginning of the Medieval period. Bodies and clothing have been found from this period, preserved by the anaerobic and acidic conditions of peat bogs in northwestern Europe. A Danish recreation of clothing found with such bodies indicates woven wool dresses, tunics and skirts.[24] These were largely unshaped and held in place with leather belts and metal brooches or pins. Garments were not always plain, but incorporated decoration with contrasting colours, particularly at the ends and edges of the garment. Men wore breeches, possibly with lower legs wrapped for protection, although Boucher states that long trousers have also been found.[25] Warmth came from woollen shawls and capes of animal skin, probably worn with the fur facing inwards for added comfort. Caps were worn, also made from skins, and there was an emphasis on hair arrangements, from braids to elaborate Suebian knots.[26] Soft laced shoes made from leather protected the foot.

Medieval clothing and textiles

The history of Medieval European clothing and textiles has inspired a good deal of scholarly interest in the 21st century. Elisabeth Crowfoot, Frances Pritchard, and Kay Staniland authored Textiles and Clothing: Medieval Finds from Excavations in London, c.1150-c.1450 (Boydell Press, 2001). The topic is also the subject of an annual series Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Boydell Press) edited by Robin Netherton and Professor Gale R. Owen-Crocker of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester.

Byzantium

Main articles: Byzantine dress and Byzantine silk

The Byzantines made and exported very richly patterned cloth, woven and embroidered for the upper classes, and resist-dyed and printed for the lower.[27] By Justinian's time the Roman toga had been replaced by the tunica, or long chiton, for both sexes, over which the upper classes wore various other garments, like a dalmatica (dalmatic), a heavier and shorter type of tunica; short and long cloaks were fastened on the right shoulder.

Leggings and hose were often worn, but are not prominent in depictions of the wealthy; they were associated with barbarians, whether European or Persian.[28]

Early medieval Europe

Edgar I of England in short tunic, hose, and cloak, 966 Main articles: Early medieval European dress, Anglo-Saxon dress, and English Medieval fashion

European dress changed gradually in the years 400 to 1100. People in many countries dressed differently depending on whether they identified with the old Romanised population, or the new invading populations such as Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and Visigoths. Men of the invading peoples generally wore short tunics, with belts, and visible trousers, hose or leggings. The Romanised populations, and the Church, remained faithful to the longer tunics of Roman formal costume.[29]

The elite imported silk cloth from the Byzantine, and later Muslim worlds, and also probably cotton. They also could afford bleached linen and dyed and simply patterned wool woven in Europe itself. But embroidered decoration was probably very widespread, though not usually detectable in art. Lower classes wore local or homespun wool, often undyed, trimmed with bands of decoration, variously embroidery, tablet- woven bands, or colorful borders woven into the fabric in the loom.[30][31]

High middle ages and the rise of fashion

Main articles: 1100–1200 in fashion, 1200–1300 in fashion, and 1300–1400 in fashion

14th century Italian silk damasks

Clothing in 12th and 13th century Europe remained very simple for both men and women, and quite uniform across the subcontinent. The traditional combination of short tunic with hose for working-class men and long tunic with overgown for women and upper class men remained the norm. Most clothing, especially outside the wealthier classes, remained little changed from three or four centuries earlier.[32]

The 13th century saw great progress in the dyeing and working of wool, which was by far the most important material for outer wear. Linen was increasingly used for clothing that was directly in contact with the skin. Unlike wool, linen could be laundered and bleached in the sun. Cotton, imported raw from Egypt and elsewhere, was used for padding and quilting, and cloths such as buckram and fustian.

Crusaders returning from the Levant brought knowledge of its fine textiles, including light silks, to Western Europe. In Northern Europe, silk was an imported and very expensive luxury.[33] The well-off could afford woven brocades from Italy or even further afield. Fashionable Italian silks of this period featured repeating patterns of roundels and animals, deriving from Ottoman silk-weaving centres in Bursa, and ultimately from Yuan Dynasty China via the Silk Road.[34]

Cultural and costume historians agree that the mid-14th century marks the emergence of recognizable "fashion" in Europe.[35][36] From this century onwards Western fashion changes at a pace quite unknown to other civilizations, whether ancient or contemporary.[37] In most other cultures only major political changes, such as the Muslim conquest of India, produced radical changes in clothing, and in China, Japan, and the Ottoman Empire fashion changed only slightly over periods of several centuries. [38]

In this period the draped garments and straight seams of previous centuries were replaced by curved seams and the beginnings of tailoring, which allowed clothing to more closely fit the human form, as did the use of lacing and buttons.[39] A fashion for mi-parti or parti-coloured garments made of two contrasting fabrics, one on each side, arose for men in mid-century,[40] and was especially popular at the English court. Sometimes just the hose would be different colours on each leg.

Renaissance and early modern period

Renaissance Europe

Bold floral patterned silks, 15th century. Main article: 1400–1500 in fashion

Wool remained the most popular fabric for all classes, followed by linen and hemp.[34] Wool fabrics were available in a wide range of qualities, from rough undyed cloth to fine, dense broadcloth with a velvety nap; high-value broadcloth was a backbone of the English economy and was exported throughout Europe.[41] Wool fabrics were dyed in rich colours, notably reds, greens, golds, and blues.[34]

Silk-weaving was well established around the Mediterranean by the beginning of the 15th century, and figured silks, often silk velvets with silver-gilt wefts, are increasingly seen in Italian dress and in the dress of the wealthy throughout Europe. Stately floral designs featuring a pomegranate or artichoke motif had reached Europe from China in the previous century and became a dominant design in the Ottoman silk-producing cities of Istanbul and Bursa, and spread to silk weavers in Florence, Genoa, Venice, Valencia and Seville in this period.[34][42]

As prosperity grew in the 15th century, the urban middle classes, including skilled workers, began to wear more complex clothes that followed, at a distance, the fashions set by the elites. National variations in clothing increased over the century.[43]

Early Modern Europe

Main articles: 1500–1550 in fashion, 1550–1600 in fashion, 1600–1650 in fashion, and 1650–1700 in fashion

Slashing at its height: Henry IV, Duke of Saxony, c. 1514.

Spanish fashion with elaborate reticella ruff, 1609

By the first half of the 16th century, the clothing of the Low Countries, German states, and Scandinavia had developed in a different direction than that of England, France, and Italy, although all absorbed the sobering and formal influence of Spanish dress after the mid-1520s.[44] Elaborate slashing was popular, especially in Germany. Black was increasingly worn for the most formal occasions. Bobbin lace arose from passementerie in the mid-16th century, probably in Flanders.[45] This century also saw the rise of the ruff, which grew from a mere ruffle at the neckline of the shirt or chemise to immense cartwheel shapes. At their most extravagant, ruffs required wire supports and were made of fine Italian reticella, a cutwork linen lace.

By the turn of the 17th century, a sharp distinction could be seen between the sober fashions favored by Protestants in England and the Netherlands, which still showed heavy Spanish influence, and the light, revealing fashions of the French and Italian courts.

The great flowering of needlelace occurred in this period. Geometric reticella deriving from cutwork was elaborated into true needlelace or punto in aria (called in England "point lace"), which reflected the scrolling floral designs popular for embroidery. Lacemaking centers were established in France to reduce the outflow of cash to Italy.[45] [46][47]

According to Dr. Wolf D. Fuhrig, "By the second half of the 17th century, Silesia had become an important economic pillar of the Habsburg monarchy, largely on the strength of its textile industry."[48]

Enlightenment and the Colonial period Main articles: 1700–1750 in fashion and 1750–1795 in fashion

During the eighteenth century, distinction was made between full dress worn at Court and for formal occasions, and undress or everyday, daytime clothes. As the decades progressed, fewer and fewer occasions called for full dress which had all but disappeared by the end of the century. Full dress followed the styles of the French court, where rich silks and elaborate embroidery reigned. Men continued to wear the coat, waistcoat and breeches for both full dress and undress; these were now sometimes made of the same fabric and trim, signalling the birth of the three-piece suit.

Women's silhouettes featured small, domed hoops in the 1730s and early 1740s, which were displaced for formal court wear by side hoops or panniers which later widened to as much as three feet to either side at the court of Marie Antoinette. Fashion reached heights of fantasy and abundant ornamentation, before new enthusiasms for outdoor sports and country pursuits and a long-simmering movement toward simplicity and democratization of dress under the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the American Revolution led to an entirely new mode and the triumph of British woollen tailoring following the French Revolution.

For women's dresses, Indian cottons, especially printed chintzes, were imported to Europe in large numbers, and towards the end of the period simple white muslin gowns were in fashion.

Industrial revolution This section requires expansion. (December 2007) Main article: Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution During the industrial revolution, fabric production was mechanised with machines powered by waterwheels and steam-engines. Production shifted from small cottage based production to mass production based on assembly line organisation. Clothing production, on the other hand, continued to be made by hand.

Sewing machines emerged in the 19th century[49] streamlining clothing production.

In the early 20th century workers in the clothing and textile industries became unionised.[50] Later in the 20th century, the industry had expanded to such a degree that such educational institutions as UC Davis established a Division of Textiles and Clothing,[51] The University of Nebraska-Lincoln also created a Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design that offers a Masters of Arts in Textile History,[52] and Iowa State University established a Department of Textiles and Clothing that features a History of costume collection, 1865–1948.[53] Even high school libraries have collections on the history of clothing and textiles.[54]

Alongside these developments were changes in the types and style of clothing produced. During the 1960s, had a major influence on subsequent developments in the industry.[55]

Textiles were not only made in factories. Before this that they were made in local and national markets. Dramatic change in transportation throughout the nation is one source that encouraged the use of factories. New advances such as steamboats, canals, and railroads lowered shipping costs which caused people to buy cheap goods that were produced in other places instead of more expensive goods that were produced locally. Between 1810 and 1840 the development of a national market prompted manufacturing which tripled the output’s worth. This increase in production created a change in industrial methods, such as the use of factories instead of hand made woven materials that families usually made.[56]

The vast majority of the people who worked in the factories were women. Women went to work in textile factories for a number of reasons. Some women left home to live on their own because of crowding at home; or to save for future marriage portions. The work enabled them to see more of the world, to earn something in anticipation of marriage, and to ease the crowding within the home. They also did it to make money for family back home. The money they sent home was to help out with the trouble some of the farmers were having. They also worked in the millhouses because they could gain a sense of independence and growth as a personal goal.[57]

Contemporary technology

Synthetic fibers such as nylon were invented during the 20th century and synthetic fibers have been added to many natural fibers.

See also • Timeline of clothing and textiles technology • History of Western fashion • History of fashion design • History of silk • History of hide materials External links • Textile production in Europe, 1600–1800 , at the Metropolitan Museum of Art • Spindle, Loom, and Needle – History of the Textile Industry • Australian Museum of Clothing And Textiles Inc. – Why have a Museum of Clothing and Textiles? • Linking Anthropology and History in Textiles and Clothing Research: The Ethnohistorical Method by Rachel K. Pannabecker – from Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3, 14–18 (1990) • The drafting history of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing • American Women's History: A Research Guide Clothing and Fashion • Historical Clothing/Fabric • All Sewn Up: Millinery, Dressmaking, Clothing and Costume • Gallery of English Medieval Clothing from 1906 by Dion Clayton Calthrop • A Short History of Japanese Cotton Textiles

References 1. ^ Creativity In The Textile Industries: A Story From Pre-History To The 21st century. Textileinstitutebooks.com. Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 2. ^ Jenkins, pp. 1–6. 3. ^ Reed, David; Light, JE; Allen, JM; Kirchman, JJ (2007). "Pair of lice lost or parasites regained: The evolutionary history of Anthropoid primate lice". BMC biology 5: 7. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-5-7. PMC 1828715. PMID 17343749. 4. ^ Stoneking, Mark. "Erratum: Molecular Evolution of Pediculus humanus and the Origin of Clothing" . Retrieved 24 March 2008. 5. ^ Barber, Elizabeth Wayland (1992) Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean, Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-00224-X 6. ^ a b Barber, Elizabeth Wayland (1995) Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times, W. W. Norton & Company ISBN 0-393-31348-4 7. ^ The History of Clothing – How Did Specific Items of Clothing Develop? by Mary Bellis 8. ^ Travis, John. "The Naked Truth? Lice hint at a recent origin of clothing". Archived from the original on 4 March 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2007. 9. ^ Balter, M. (2009). "Clothes Make the (Hu) Man". Science 325 (5946): 1329. doi:10.1126/science.325_1329a. PMID 19745126. 10. ^ Kvavadze, E; Bar-Yosef, O; Belfer-Cohen, A; Boaretto, E; Jakeli, N; Matskevich, Z; Meshveliani, T (2009). "30,000-year-old wild flax fibers". Science 325 (5946): 1359. doi:10.1126/science.1175404. PMID 19745144. Supporting Material 11. ^ Early History of Textiles & Clothing. Hollings.mmu.ac.uk. Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 12. ^ Chang, Gloria. "Stone Age clothing more advanced than thought". Retrieved 15 April 2007. 13. ^ Forensic Photography Brings Color Back To Ancient Textiles. Researchnews.osu.edu. Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 14. ^ a b Jenkins, pp. 39–47 15. ^ Stein, p. 47 16. ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. cotton. 17. ^ a b c Jenkins, pp. 30–39 18. ^ Tang, Chi and Miao, Liangyun, "Zhongguo Sichoushi" ("History of Silks in China"). Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed. 19. ^ "Textile Exhibition: Introduction". Asian art. Retrieved 2 August 2007. 20. ^ (French) Charles Meyer, Des mûriers dans le jardin du mandarin, Historia, no. 648, December 2000. 21. ^ Liddell, Jill, The story of the Kimono, E. P. Dutton New Zork, 1989, ISBN 0-525-24574-X 22. ^ Zamanaka, Norio, The Book of Kimono, Kodansha International, 1986, ISBN 0-87011-785-8 23. ^ Elisseeff, Vadime, The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce, UNESCO Publishing / Berghahn Books, 2001, ISBN 978-92-3- 103652-1 24. ^ The Tollund Man – Clothes and Fashion. Tollundman.dk. Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 25. ^ Boucher, p. 28 26. ^ Archaeology Magazine – Bodies of the Bogs – Clothing and Hair Styles. Archaeology.org. Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 27. ^ Payne et al. (1992) 28. ^ Payne et al. (1992) p. 128. 29. ^ Piponnier & Mane, pp. 114–115 30. ^ Owen-Crocker, Gale R., Dress in Anglo-Saxon England, revised edition, Boydell Press, 2004, ISBN 1-84383-081-7 pp. 309–315 31. ^ Østergård, Else, Woven into the Earth: Textiles from Norse Greenland, Aarhus University Press, 2004, ISBN 87-7288-935-7 32. ^ Piponnier & Mane, p. 39 33. ^ Donald King in Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200–1400, p. 157, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1987 ISBN 0-297-79182-6 34. ^ a b c d Koslin, Désirée, "Value-Added Stuffs and Shifts in Meaning: An Overview and Case-Study of Medieval Textile Paradigms", in Koslin and Snyder, Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress, pp. 237–240 ISBN 0-312- 29377-1 35. ^ Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979, p. 62 ISBN 0-684-13522-1 36. ^ Braudel, p. 317 37. ^ "The birth of fashion", in Boucher, p. 192 38. ^ Braudel, pp. 312, 313, 323 39. ^ Singman, Jeffrey L. and Will McLean: Daily Life in Chaucer's England, p. 93. Greenwood Press, London, 2005 ISBN 0-313-29375-9 40. ^ Black, J. Anderson, and Madge Garland: A History of Fashion, Morrow, 1975, ISBN 0-688-02893-4, p. 122 41. ^ Crowfoot, Elizabeth, Frances Prichard and Kay Staniland, Textiles and Clothing c. 1150 -c. 1450, Museum of London, 1992, ISBN 0-11-290445-9 42. ^ Length of Velvet, Late 15th century. the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York 43. ^ Boucher 44. ^ Boucher, pp. 219, 244 45. ^ a b Montupet, Janine, and Ghislaine Schoeller: Lace: The Elegant Web, ISBN 0-8109-3553-8 46. ^ Berry, Robin L.: "Reticella: a walk through the beginnings of Lace" (2004) (PDF) 47. ^ Kliot, Jules and Kaethe: The Needle-Made Lace of Reticella, Lacis Publications, Berkeley, CA, 1994. ISBN 0-916896-57-9. 48. ^ Dr. Wolf D. Fuhrig, "German Silesia: Doomed to Extinction," Heritage: For German-Americans who want to be informed (May 2007): 1. 49. ^ Spindel, Loom, and Needle – History of the Textile Industry 50. ^ Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. Womenshistory.about.com (2010-06-19). Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 51. ^ UC Davis Department of Textiles and Clothing History 52. ^ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design M.A. in Textile History. (PDF) . Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 53. ^ Iowa State University College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Department of Textiles and Clothing History of costume collection, 1865–1948, n. d. 54. ^ Union-Endicott High School Library Clothing and Textiles – Fashion History 55. ^ History of 1960s Fashion and Textiles. Vam.ac.uk. Retrieved on 1 January 2012. 56. ^ W. J. Rorabaugh (17 September 1981). The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition. Oxford University Press. pp. 129–131. ISBN 978-0-19- 502990-1. Retrieved 1 January 2012. 57. ^ Thomas Dublin (August 1995). Transforming women's work: New England lives in the industrial revolution. Cornell University Press. pp. 82–. ISBN 978-0-8014-8090-4. Retrieved 1 January 2012.

Bibliography • Boucher, François. 20,000 years of fashion: The history of costume and personal adornment. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987 ISBN 0-8109-1693-2 • Jenkins, David, ed.: The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-34107-8 • Payne, Blanche; Winakor, Geitel; Farrell-Beck Jane (1992) The History of Costume, from the Ancient Mesopotamia to the Twentieth Century, 2nd Edn, HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-047141-7 • Piponnier, Françoise, and Perrine Mane; Dress in the Middle Ages; Yale UP; 1997; ISBN 0-300-06906-5

Further reading • Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Dress: Clothing and Society 1500–1914, Abrams, 1996. ISBN 0-8109-6317-5 • Arnold, Janet : Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560–1620, Macmillan 1985. Revised edition 1986. (ISBN 0- 89676-083-9) • Arnold, Janet: Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, W S Maney and Son Ltd, Leeds 1988. ISBN 0-901286-20-6 • Braudel, Fernand, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th centuries, Vol 1: The Structures of Everyday Life, William Collins & Sons, London 1981 • Darwin, George H. , "Development in Dress", Macmillan's magazine, vol. 26, May to Oct. 1872, pages 410–416 • Favier, Jean, Gold and Spices: The Rise of Commerce in the Middle Ages, London, Holmes and Meier, 1998, ISBN 0-8419-1232-7 • Gordenker, Emilie E.S.: Van Dyck and the Representation of Dress in Seventeenth-Century Portraiture, Brepols, 2001, ISBN 2-503-50880-4 • Kõhler, Carl: A History of Costume, Dover Publications reprint, 1963, from 1928 Harrap translation from the German, ISBN 0-486-21030-8 • Lefébure, Ernest: Embroidery and Lace: Their Manufacture and History from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Day, London, H. Grevel and Co., 1888, ed. by Alan S. Cole, at Online Books , retrieved 14 October 2007 • Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volume 1, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, and Rochester, NY, the Boydell Press, 2005, ISBN 1-84383-123-6 • Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volume 2, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, and Rochester, NY, the Boydell Press, 2006, ISBN 1-84383-203-8 • Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volume 3, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, and Rochester, NY, the Boydell Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-84383-291-1 • Payne, Blanche: History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century, Harper & Row, 1965. No ISBN for this edition; ASIN B0006BMNFS • Shopping the Sales: Friend or Foe? • What Does Your Taste in Music Say About Your Style? • Suit and Tie: The Cost of Dressing Up • The Psychology of Brand Loyalty • The Peplum: Two Years and Trending

Older Posts May 08th Walking Tall: The Psychology of the Stiletto

0 “There is an element of seduction in shoes that doesn’t exist for men… The language starts with the shoe and radiates over the whole body… You feel yourself, empower yourself, know yourself. You are aware of your body. This little act of discomfort pays off in lots of other ways.”

- Christian Louboutin, as quoted in Vogue.

It’s no secret that the fashion industry is fixated on the high heel shoe – a garment that has transcended class, price, and trend cycles. A source of ambiguity, the high heel shoe has been seen as a symbol of power, oppression, discomfort, confidence, and sex appeal all at once. Long known to cause painful podiatric conditions like bunions, arthritis, and sprains, high heel shoes have been lauded as symbols of femininity and libeled as symbols of confinement and objectivism.

And yet the high heel shoe remains a vital part of our fashion repertoire, with wearings of this accessory taking off since the beginning of February. One of the products most likely to be purchased by compulsive shoppers and the most highly coveted garment among fetishists (#shoeporn), the sentiment that accompanies high heel shoes is deeply- rooted in our psychology. In fact, Stylitics members were willing to shell out over $170 a pair, despite the fact that some stilettos are only worn once or twice each year.

So even with the discomfort and potential for painful side effects that accompany stilettos, why do we continue to hold them in such high regard?

Studies have shown that we actually find women most attractive when their legs are slightly longer than their torso. On a person of average height, this optimal leg length was found to be about 5% longer than a woman’s average leg length naturally, so it’s no surprise that we attempt to rectify this 5% with an extra inch or two.

Other studies have demonstrated that high heels physically alter a woman’s gait in a way that makes her appear both more attractive and more feminine than if she were wearing flats. In fact, Marilyn Monroe would famously remove half an inch from only one of her heels, adding an imbalance that gave her gait an extra wiggle. Would you like some fries with that shake?

This psychology particularly comes into play in the workplace. While it’s no surprise that heels are staples for formals and nights out, women tend to do most of their stiletto wearing to work, according to outfits worn by women on Stylitics.

“Physically, it is impossible for a woman to cower in high heels,” says Linda O’Keefe, author of Shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers and More. This physical change in a woman’s posture leads to a more powerful stance, whether she feels confident or not.

On wearing heels to work, business psychologist Zoe Mayson explains “there are a lot of people who think women do themselves a disservice by wearing heels, but I’m not in that camp. Heels give me gravitas that I would not have in lower shoes. Heels get you noticed and give you physical stature, which in turn, gives you power, without compromising your femininity. So often, women have to take on male attributes to be successful in the workplace, and this is a great way of digging our heels in and saying no.” We think Sheryl Sandberg would be proud.

So whether you’re a proponent of heels or happy in flats, there’s no question the stiletto is here to stay. Will you rise to the occasion this Spring?

Written by Jessica Novak, Senior Marketing Manager for real-time trend insights company Stylitics. Jessica is a blogger, runner, coffee addict, avid alliterator, and chambray enthusiast. Why Are High Heels So Enticing?

Sex and High Heels Published on February 3, 2009 by Gad Saad, Ph.D. in Homo Consumericus

The recent British movie titled Kinky Boots (2005) depicts the story of a fourth- generation shoe factory owner seeking to save his family business by developing a niche market of high-heeled shoes for transvestites. His first prototype is a flat-heeled maximally comfortable and functional boot, void of any inkling of sexuality. His business partner, a performing transvestite singer from London, disapprovingly explains to him: "Look to the heel, young man. The sex is in the heel." An old shoemaker then adds: "Stilettos require constant balance from the upper leg causing the muscles of the backside to tense and appear pert and ready for mating." It is perhaps not surprising then that one of the products that is most likely to be purchased by compulsive shoppers (of which 90% are women) are shoes in general and high-heeled shoes in particular.

Related Articles • Do the Clothes Make the Man? • Knowing When Someone's Not Right for You • The Psychology of Women - What is the Meaning of High Heels? • Fifty Shades of Camouflage: Broadwell and Kelley • Santa’s Sock Find a Therapist

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In chapter 3 of my book (The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption), I review several studies that have explored high heels from an evolutionary/biological perspective. It turns out that high heels raise the buttocks by around 20-30 degrees (depending on the size of the heel). In other words, it is an anti-gravity device meant to create a more youthful figure given that the effects of gravity are less than complimentary as we age. Hence, a Gestalt is created by the high heel, which caters to men's evolved visual preferences. As might be expected then, several consumption settings wherein sexuality is sold or promoted by women to men, will involve the wearing of high heels. Examples include the proclivity of pornographic actresses, strippers, and bikini models to wear high heels in film scenes, strip clubs, and beauty competitions respectively.

I should note that the wearing of high heels is the direct cause of severe podiatric injuries. That fact notwithstanding, this is not a manifestation of the evil patriarchy seeking to uncover new ways to harm women. Rather, both sexes go to great lengths to be impressive in the mating market, even if some of these attempts are self-harming (e.g., men engage in risky mating-relating behaviors that are exceptionally dangerous, as a means of impressing women).

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention a recent study by a woman urologist who apparently found that the wearing of high heels strengthens a woman's pelvic floor muscles, leading to improved sex.

Bottom line: the wearing of high heels is a win-win situation (sexy to men's eyes and better sex for women), unless you are a short man dwarfed by your high-heeled mate. I feel your pain Mr. Tom Cruise!

Manolo Blahnik: I'll be expecting my cut should there be a spike in the sales of high heels in the foreseeable future.

Source for Image: Fashion accessory From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This is one of today's articles for improvement, and you can help edit it! You can discuss how to improve it on its talk page and ask questions at the help desk or Teahouse. See the cheatsheet, tutorial, editing help and FAQ for additional information. Editors are encouraged to create a Wikipedia account and watchlist this article.

Burberry-brand handbag

A fashion accessory is an item which is used to contribute, in a secondary manner, to the wearer's outfit. The term came into use in the 19th century. Accessories are often used to complete an outfit and are chosen to specifically complement the wearer's look. [1]

One of the most favored forms of semiotic distinction is fashion, because fashionable clothes, accessories, and body adornment are easy for others to observe at glance. Incidental items, particularly branded specific handbags, footwear, jewelry, accessories, and new hairstyles act also as important status symbols. Certain items of clothing, such as hats, were particularly important, sending instant signals of ascribed or aspired social status. As communications improved, styles also spread to members of the elite classes in other parts of the world. Contents • 1 Types • 2 History • 3 Subcultural signifiers • 4 Live accessories • 5 See also • 6 References

• 7 External links

Types

Fashion accessories can be loosely categorized into two general areas: those that are carried and those that are worn. Traditional carried accessories include purses and handbags, hand fans, parasols and umbrellas, canes, and ceremonial swords. Accessories that are worn may include jackets, boots and shoes, cravats, ties, hats, bonnets, belts and suspenders, gloves, muffs, jewelry, watches, sashes, shawls, scarves, socks, and stockings.[1]

Sunglasses, colored or shaped contact lenses, and other eyewear are commonly used as fashion accessories, regardless of necessity for visual correction.

Headgear and hair ornaments include hairpins or the more commonly known bobby pins, hair sticks, barrettes, headbands, and flowers inserted into hairdos. Wigs, toupees, and hair extensions supplement natural manes due to hair loss or even completely replace hair that is close-cropped or completely shaven off in some subcultures, such as certain Hasidic religious sects.

Jewelry is a major subcategory, including rings, cufflinks, tie tacks, necklaces, bracelets, aigrettes, lapel pins, and other wearable adornments. Semi-permanent jewelry includes some earrings and nose rings, as well as lip plugs, earlobe plugs which can also be referred to as ear guages, and other items used with more exotic body modifications.

Handbags, "man bags", fanny packs, shopping bags, briefcases, courier bags, daypacks, camera bags, and even large backpacks have fashion implications beyond their use for carrying small items.

Smartphones, miniaturized portable music players, earphones and earplugs, and wearable computing devices may also be regarded as fashion accessories.

Some professions have developed special clothing features or accessories whose distinctive look has later been adopted by others as fashion statements, as well as for utilitarian reasons. Examples include "ten-gallon hats" (cowboys), aviator sunglasses (aircraft pilots), sailor caps (mariners), cargo pants (military and outdoorsmen), fishing vests (fly fishermen), hardhats (construction workers), and a variety of athletic shoes from different sports. History

In Victorian fashion accessories such as fans, parasols and gloves held significance for how women experienced gender, race and class. In this era, there was a trend for women to adopt, or aspire to, a more leisurely lifestyle. Consequently gloves were often used by women to cover their hands and mask any signs of labour.[2]

Also, in the early 16th century in Italy hat badges were worn by civilian men of a higher social status as decorative item, in imitation of the cap badges worn by the invading military. Hat badges were often worn in conjunction with a decorative sword and hilt. Hat badges were fashioned after plaquettes and often depicted a scene with personal relevance to the wearer.[3]

Subcultural signifiers

The Scottish sporran and Japanese netsuke are examples of fashion accessories that have become identified with particular nationalities and subcultures. Military subcultures, such as samurai, ninja, and special ops soldiers each have their own specialized equipment, some of which are recognized by the general public as signifiers of special knowledge, skills, and status. Physicians and nurses can be seen wearing stethoscopes and surgical scrub outfits on the street, marking them as members of the medical professions. Other groups, such as alumni of particular colleges or sports fans of particular teams, use fashion accessories such as class rings, patterned neckties and scarves, or baseball caps to recognize each other.

Hardware hackers may carry miniature flashlights and small handtools (such as the widely-recognized Swiss Army Knife), both for functional use and for in-group recognition. In the 20th century, slide rules and then pocket calculators and calculator watches became authentic "nerd fashion" accessories before smartphones rendered them obsolete, whereupon they were taken up as retro style. Pocket protectors are now available with special logos and in luxury materials such as leather or finely woven metals, taking their place beside money clips, wallets, passport carriers, and trucker's wallets.

Writers, poets, and artists use tools such as fountain pens, diaries, sketchbooks, and colored pencils for their work, and such tools of the trade have been taken up by would- be imitators, fans and admirers. Headwear, such as berets, has been adopted by people socially identified as "hipsters" to symbolize an artistic or creative orientation. Gay and LGBTQ subcultures have defiantly worn pink triangles, as well as rainbow flags and other insignia to mark their membership in sexual minorities.

Drug user subcultures have their own specialized portable paraphernalia, some of which were adopted by wider subcultures as fashion accessories. Alcoholic beverages became associated with hip flasks and other surreptitious containers, especially during the American Prohibition years. Tobacco use in various forms inspired decorated match boxes, cigarette lighters, cigarette holders, smoking pipes, snuff bottles and snuff boxes, portable water pipes (hookahs or bongs), and "electronic cigarettes". Coke spoons, roach clips, and various pill holders, as well as repurposed tobacco paraphernalia, have emerged as fashion items in some groups. Live accessories

Flowers, in the form of nosegays, boutonnières, corsages, wreaths, bouquets and other forms, have long been used as living fashion accessories. In addition, small pets, including toy dogs, birds, lizards, snakes, and chirping crickets have been worn or carried as fashion accessories. Talking parrots are widely recognized as part of a stereotypical pirate outfit. For a time, the eccentric surrealist artist Salvador Dali would carry a pet ocelot during his public appearances. In addition, beautiful women companions of rich and powerful men have often been characterized as "arm candy", and small children have been called the ultimate luxury fashion accessory.

See also • Sign (semiotics) • Status symbol

Portals Fashion portal Access related topics

References 1. ^ a b Valerie Cumming; C. W. Cunnington; P. E. Cunnington (15 November 2010). The Dictionary of Fashion History. Berg. p. 1. ISBN 978-1- 84788-533-3. Retrieved 9 January 2012. 2. ^ Ariel Beaujot (June 2012). Victorian Fashion Accessories. Berg. p. 1. ISBN 9781847886828. Retrieved 10 May 2013. 3. ^ Marika Leino (7 December 2012). Fashion, Devotion and Contemplation : The Status and Functions of Italian Renaissance Plaquettes . Peter Lang AG. p. 1. ISBN 9783039110681. Retrieved 10 May 2013.

External links Haute couture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) Pierre Balmain adjusting a dress on model Ruth Ford in 1947 (photographed by Carl Van Vechten)

Haute couture on the runway, by Christian Lacroix

Haute couture ( / ˌ o ʊ t k uː ˈ t ʊ ər /; French pronunciation: [ot ku'ty ʁ ] ; French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking" or "high fashion") refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time- consuming, hand-executed techniques. "Couture" means dressmaking, sewing, or needlework[1] and is also used as a common abbreviation of haute couture and refers to the same thing in spirit.[2] "Haute" means elegant or high. An haute couture garment is made specifically for the wearer’s measurements and body stance.[1] It originally referred to Englishman Charles Frederick Worth's work, produced in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century.[3] In modern France, haute couture is a "protected name" that can be used only by firms that meet certain well-defined standards. However, the term is also used loosely to describe all high-fashion custom-fitted clothing, whether it is produced in Paris or in other fashion capitals such as London, Milan, New York or Tokyo.

The term can refer to:

• the fashion houses or fashion designers that create exclusive and often trend- setting fashions • the fashions created

Contents • 1 Legal status o 1.1 Members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture • 2 History • 3 Decline • 4 See also • 5 References

• 6 External links

Legal status

In France, the term haute couture is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris based in Paris, France. The chambre syndicale de la haute couture is defined as "the regulating commission that determines which fashion houses are eligible to be true haute couture houses".[4] Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture. The chambre also deals with piracy of style, foreign relations and coordination of the fashion collection timetables, and do some international advertising for the French fashion industry.The chambre also runs a Paris couture school to teach upcoming designers and technicians the couture trade. The school helps bring new designers to help the couture houses that are still present today. The criteria for haute couture were established in 1945 and updated in 1992.

To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term haute couture in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture must follow these rules:

• Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings. • Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time. • Must have twenty full-time technical people in at least one atelier (workshop). • Each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five runs/exits with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear. However, the term haute couture may have been misused by ready-to-wear brands since the late 1980s, so that its true meaning may have become blurred with that of prêt-à- porter (the French term for ready-to-wear fashion) in the public perception. Every haute couture house also markets prêt-à-porter collections, which typically deliver a higher return on investment than their custom clothing.[citation needed] Falling revenues have forced a few couture houses to abandon their less profitable couture division and concentrate solely on the less prestigious prêt-à-porter. These houses are no longer considered haute couture.

Many top designer fashion houses, such as Chanel, use the word for some of their special collections. These collections are often not for sale or they are very difficult to purchase. Sometimes, "haute couture" is inappropriately used to label non-dressmaking activities, such as fine art, music and more.[5]

Members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture

For the Spring-Summer 2012 season the official list of members is:[6]

Official members

Adeline André—Gustavo Lins (fr)—Chanel—Christian Dior—Christophe Josse —Franck Sorbier—Givenchy—Jean Paul Gaultier—Maurizio Galante— Stéphane Rolland [7]

Correspondent members (foreign)

Elie Saab—Giorgio Armani— Giambattista Valli—Valentino—Versace [8]

Guest members

Alexandre Vauthier (fr)—Bouchra Jarrar (fr)—Iris Van Herpen—Julien Fournié —Maxime Simoens—Yiqing Yin (new in season SS2012) [8]

Jewelry

Boucheron—Chanel Joaillerie—Chaumet—Dior Joaillerie—Van Cleef & Arpels

Accessories

Loulou de la Falaise—Massaro—On aura tout vu

Recent Guest members have included the fashion houses of Boudicca, Cathy Pill (fr), Richard René and Udo Edling,[9] as well as Eymeric François, Gerald Watelet (fr), Nicolas Le Cauchois (fr)[10] and Wuyong.[11] In the 2008/2009 Fall/Winter Haute Couture week, Emanuel Ungaro showed as an Official Member. Former members

• Alexis Mabille • Anna May • Anne Valérie Hash • Balenciaga • Callot Soeurs • Carven (fr) • Christian Lacroix • Elsa Schiaparelli • Emilio Pucci • Erica Spitulski • Erik Tenorio • Escada • Fred Sathal • Gai Mattiolo • Grès • Guy Laroche • Hanae Mori • Jacques Fath • Jacques Griffe (fr) • Jacques Heim • Jean Patou • Jean-Louis Scherrer (fr) • Jeanne Lafaurie • Joseph • Junaid Jamshed • Lanvin • Lecoanet Hemant (fr) • Lefranc Ferrant [12] • Loris Azzaro • Louis Feraud • Lucien Lelong • Mad Carpentier • Madeleine Chéruit • Madeleine Vionnet • Madeleine Vramant • Maggy Rouff (fr) • Mainbocher • Mak Shoe • Marcel Rochas • Marcelle Chaumont • Nina Ricci • Paco Rabanne • Patrick Kelly • Paul Poiret • Pierre Balmain • Pierre Cardin • Rabih Kayrouz [8] • Ralph Rucci • Robert Piguet (fr) • Ted Lapidus • Sophie • Torrente • Yves Saint Laurent

History

Chanel Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2011-2012 Fashion Show by Karl Lagerfeld

Italian leadership in European fashion may date from the 18th century, however French fashion is also considerably influential in terms of Haute Couture - when the art, architecture, music, and fashions of the French court at Versailles were imitated across Europe[citation needed]. Visitors to Paris brought back clothing that was then copied by local dressmakers. Stylish women also ordered fashion dolls dressed in the latest Parisian fashion to serve as models.

As railroads and steamships made European travel easier, it was increasingly common for wealthy women to travel to Paris to shop for clothing and accessories. French fitters and dressmakers were commonly thought to be the best in Europe, and real Parisian garments were considered better than local imitations.

The couturier Charles Frederick Worth (October 13, 1826–March 10, 1895), is widely considered the father of haute couture as it is known today.[3][13] Although born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, Worth made his mark in the French fashion industry. Revolutionizing how dressmaking had been previously perceived, Worth made it so the dressmaker became the artist of garnishment: a fashion designer. While he created one- of-a-kind designs to please some of his titled or wealthy customers, he is best known for preparing a portfolio of designs that were shown on live models at the House of Worth. Clients selected one model, specified colors and fabrics, and had a duplicate garment tailor-made in Worth's workshop. Worth combined individual tailoring with a standardization more characteristic of the ready-to-wear clothing industry, which was also developing during this period.

Following in Worth's footsteps were Callot Soeurs, Patou, Poiret, Vionnet, Fortuny, Lanvin, Chanel, Mainbocher, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, and Dior. Some of these fashion houses still exist today, under the leadership of modern designers.

In the 1960s a group of young designers who had trained under men like Dior and Balenciaga left these established couture houses and opened their own establishments. The most successful of these young designers were Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, Ted Lapidus, and Emanuel Ungaro. Japanese native and Paris-based Hanae Mori was also successful in establishing her own line. Lacroix is one of the fashion houses to have been started in the late 20th century. Other new houses have included Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler. Due to the high expenses of producing haute couture collections, Lacroix and Mugler have since ceased their haute couture activities.

For all these fashion houses, custom clothing is no longer the main source of income, often costing much more than it earns through direct sales; it only adds the aura of fashion to their ventures in ready-to-wear clothing and related luxury products such as shoes and perfumes, and licensing ventures that earn greater returns for the company. Excessive commercialization and profit-making can be damaging, however. Cardin, for example, licensed with abandon in the 1980s and his name lost most of its fashionable cachet when anyone could buy Cardin luggage at a discount store. It is their ready-to- wear collections that are available to a wider audience, adding a splash of glamour and the feel of haute couture to more wardrobes.

The 1960s also featured a revolt against established fashion standards by mods, rockers, and hippies, as well as an increasing internationalization of the fashion scene. Jet travel had spawned a jet set that partied—and shopped—just as happily in New York as in Paris. Rich women no longer felt that a Paris dress was necessarily better than one sewn elsewhere. While Paris is still pre-eminent in the fashion world, it is no longer the sole arbiter of fashion.

Decline

The number of couture houses decreased considerably over the 20th century, from 106 in 1946[citation needed] to a mere 18 in 2000[citation needed]. By 2004 there were only 9 high- ranking couture houses: Chanel, Versace, Valentino, Dior, Givenchy, Gaultier, Lacroix, Mori, Sirop, Scherrer, and Torrente.[citation needed] The listing has been in considerable flux in recent years.[citation needed]

See also Fashion portal • Bespoke • Business cluster • Designer label • Fashion • Fashion designer • Fashion Week • Fédération française de la couture • List of fashion designers • List of grands couturiers • Luxury brand

References 1. ^ a b Haute Couture, Its Meaning and Role in Fashion Today - Fashion- Era 2. ^ "What is Haute Couture?". Retrieved 2011-02-19. 3. ^ a b Claire B. Shaeffer (2001). Couture sewing techniques "Originating in mid- 19th-century Paris with the designs of an Englishman named Charles Frederick Worth, haute couture represents an archaic tradition of creating garments by hand with painstaking care and precision". Taunton Press, 2001 4. ^ Chambre Syndicale History and Development - Fashion-Era 5. ^ Wuyong - Dancing In A Haute Couture Debut 6. ^ "Haute-Couture Spring Summer 2012 Definitive schedule". Retrieved 2012-01-19. 7. ^ "HAUTE COUTURE - 19 décembre 2011". Retrieved 2011-12-22. 8. ^ a b c "SS2012 Haute Couture Fashion week designers". Retrieved 2012- 01-19. 9. ^ "Haute-Couture Fall Winter 2009/2010 Definitive schedule". Retrieved 2009-07-05. 10. ^ "Haute-Couture Spring Summer 2008 Definitive schedule". Retrieved 2008-06-27. 11. ^ "Haute-Couture Fall Winter 2008/2009 Definitive schedule". Retrieved 2008-06-27. 12. ^ "Haute-Couture Spring Summer 2011 Definitive schedule". Retrieved 2011-02-19. 13. ^ Jacqueline C. Kent (2003). Business Builders in Fashion - Charles Frederick Worth - The Father of Haute Couture The Oliver Press, Inc., 2003

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Haute couture

Look up couturier in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. • Introduction in Haute Couture • "Haute Couture" from Label France, a magazine of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs • Haute Couture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History • "The Golden Age of Couture" . Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2007-09- 13. • "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies" . Victoria and Albert Museum. • Fédération française de la couture • Haute Couture News • Christian Dior , exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Luxury goods

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Luxury brand) Jump to: navigation, search "Luxuriant" redirects here. For the French wine grape also known as Luxuriant, see Jurançon (grape). This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2010) This article may contain original research. (October 2011)

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is a luxury sedan

Luxury goods are products and services that are not considered essential and are associated with affluence. The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization. Its role was just as important in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies.[1] With the clear differences between social classes in earlier civilizations, the consumption of luxury was originally limited to the elite classes.

Contents • 1 History • 2 Semantics • 3 Economics • 4 Socioeconomic significance • 5 Market characteristics • 6 Luxury brands • 7 Market size o 7.1 Luxury bans • 8 Market trends • 9 Luxury department stores • 10 Luxury shopping districts • 11 See also • 12 References

• 13 Further reading

History

With increasing "democratization",[2] several new product categories have been created within the luxury market, aptly called "accessible" or "mass luxury". These are meant specifically for the middle class (in this context, sometimes called the "aspiring class"). Because luxury has now diffused into the masses, defining the word has become difficult.[3]

Semantics

In contemporary marketing usage, Prof. Bernard Dubois defines "luxury" as a specific (i.e. higher-priced) tier of offering in almost any product or service category. However, despite the substantial body of knowledge accumulated during the past few decades, researchers still have not arrived on a common definition. Many other attempts have been made to define it using the price-quality dimension stating higher priced products in any category count as luxuries. Similarly, researchers have also compared goods in terms of their uniqueness. Prof. Jean-Noel Kapferer takes an experiential approach and defines luxury as items which provide extra pleasure by flattering all senses at once. Several other researchers focus exclusively on dimension and argue that luxury must evoke a sense of belonging to a certain elite group.[citation needed]

Economics

In economics, a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, and is a contrast to a "necessity good", for which demand increases proportionally less than income.[citation needed] Luxury goods are often synonymous with superior goods.

Luxury goods are said to have high income elasticity of demand: as people become wealthier, they will buy more and more of the luxury good. This also means, however, that should there be a decline in income its demand will drop. Income elasticity of demand is not constant with respect to income, and may change sign at different levels of income. That is to say, a luxury good may become a normal good or even an inferior good at different income levels, e.g. a wealthy person stops buying increasing numbers of luxury cars for his automobile collection to start collecting airplanes (at such an income level, the luxury car would become an inferior good).[citation needed]

Socioeconomic significance

Jewellery made of gold (or other precious metals) or containing precious gems is a textbook example of "luxury good", especially as the purity of the gold and the size of the gems increases.

Several manufactured products attain the status of "luxury goods" due to their design, quality, durability or performance that are remarkably superior to the comparable substitutes. Thus, virtually every category of goods available on the market today includes a subset of similar products whose "luxury" is marked by better-quality components and materials, solid construction, stylish appearance, increased durability, better performance, advanced features, and so on. As such, these luxury goods may retain or improve the basic functionality for which all items of a given category are originally designed. There are also goods that are perceived as luxurious by the public simply because they play a role of status symbols as such goods tend to signify the purchasing power of those who acquire them. These items, while not necessarily being better (in quality, performance, or appearance) than their less expensive substitutes, are purchased with the main purpose of displaying wealth or income of their owners. These kinds of goods are the objects of a socio-economic phenomenon called conspicuous consumption and commonly include luxury vehicles, watches, jewelry, designer clothing, yachts, as well as large residences, urban mansions, and country houses. Also see positional good.

Market characteristics

Some luxury products have been claimed to be examples of Veblen goods, with a negative price elasticity of demand: for example, making a perfume more expensive can increase its perceived value as a luxury good to such an extent that sales can go up, rather than down.

Although the technical term luxury good is independent of the goods' quality, they are generally considered to be goods at the highest end of the market in terms of quality and price. Classic luxury goods include haute couture clothing, accessories, and luggage. Many markets have a luxury segment including, for example, automobile, wine, bottled water, tea, watches, jewelry, high fidelity, and chocolate.

Luxuries may be services. The hiring of full-time or live-in domestic servants is a luxury reflecting disparities of income. Some financial services, especially in some brokerage houses, can be considered luxury services by default because persons in lower-income brackets generally do not use them.

Luxury brands

Armani is an example of a luxury brand for clothing.

A luxury brand or prestige brand is a brand for which a majority of its products are luxury goods. It may also include certain brands whose names are associated with luxury, high price, or high quality, though few, if any, of their goods are currently considered luxury goods.

For example, following a nearly crippling attempt to widely licence their brand in the 1970s and 1980s, the Gucci brand is now largely sold in directly-owned stores. The Burberry brand is generally considered to have diluted its brand image in the UK in the early 2000s by over-licensing its brand, thus reducing its cachet as a brand whose products were consumed only by the elite. LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) is the largest luxury good producer in the world with over fifty brands, including Louis Vuitton, the brand with the world's first designer label. The LVMH group made a profit of €2bn on sales of €12bn in 2003. Other market leaders include PPR (after it purchased the Gucci Group) and Richemont.

A rather small group in comparison, the wealthy tend to be extremely influential. Once a brand gets an "endorsement" from members of this group, then the brand can be defined as a true "luxury" brand. An example of different product lines in the same brand is found in the automotive industry, with "entry-level" cars marketed to younger, less wealthy consumers, and higher-cost models for older and more wealthy consumers.

The advertising expenditure for the average luxury brand is 5-15% of sales revenue. This rises to about 25% with the inclusion of other communication such as public relations, events and sponsorships.[4]

Market size

The luxury goods market has been on an upward climb for many years. Apart from the setback caused by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the industry has performed well, particularly in 2000. In that year, the world luxury goods market – which includes drinks, fashion, cosmetics, fragrances, watches, jewelry, luggage, handbags – was worth close to US$170 billion and grew 7.9 percent.[5] The largest sector in this category was luxury drinks, including premium whisky, Champagne, Cognac. This sector was the only one that suffered a decline in value (-0.9 percent). The watches and jewelry section showed the strongest performance, growing in value by 23.3 percent, while the clothing and accessories section grew 11.6 percent between 1996 and 2000, to US$32.8 billion. North America is the largest regional market for luxury goods: unlike the modest 2.9 percent growth experienced by the Western European market, the North American market achieved growth of just under 10 percent.[citation needed] The top ten markets for luxury goods account for 83 percent of the market, and include Japan, China, USA, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, UK, Brazil, Spain, and Switzerland.[citation needed]

In 2012, China surpassed Japan as the world's largest luxury market.[6]

Luxury bans

In July 2010, the United States Department of Energy banned the sale of luxury showers that use more than 9.5 liters of water per minute.[7]

In February 2013, China banned advertisements for luxury goods on its official state radio and television channels.[8]

Market trends

The three dominant trends in the global luxury goods market are globalization, consolidation, and diversification. Globalization is a result of the increased availability of these goods, additional luxury brands, and an increase in tourism. Consolidation involves the growth of big companies and ownership of brands across many segments of luxury products. Examples include LVMH, Richemont, and PPR, which dominate the market in areas ranging from luxury drinks to fashion and cosmetics. Leading global consumer companies, such as Procter & Gamble, are also attracted to the industry, due to the difficulty of making a profit in the mass consumer goods market.

Luxury department stores

Since the uprising of the 'luxury brand' in the 1800s, department stores dedicated to selling all major luxury brands have popped up in most major cities around the world. Le Bon Marche located in Paris, France is credited for being one of the first of its kind, but also Neiman Marcus, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue, David Jones, KaDeWe, Harrods and Holt Renfrew are seen as some of the most influential and historical. Most big fashion houses & jewelers from Chanel to Tiffany & Co. have boutiques located inside these massive stores.

Luxury shopping districts

Another phenomenon of the luxury market are "Luxury Shopping Avenues". Certain thoroughfares like Leeds' Victoria Quarter, Milan's Via Monte Napoleone, Rome's Via Condotti, Tokyo's Ginza, Moscow's Tverskaya Street, New York's Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, Chicago's Michigan Avenue, Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive, Paris' Champs- Élysées, Avenue Montaigne and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, London's Bond Street and Sloane Street, Mexico City's Avenida Presidente Masaryk, São Paulo's Rua Oscar Freire, Prague's Pařížská street, Toronto's Bloor St., Düsseldorf's Königsallee, Lisbon's Avenida da Liberdade, Melbourne's Collins Street, Singapore's Orchard Road and Frankfurt's Freßgass area are some places where most luxury brands tend to be concentrated.[citation needed] These retail districts concentrate luxury good stores that are managed by large corporations, while conventional and independent retailers are pushed out because of increasing rent and real estate prices.[citation needed]

See also • Commodity fetishism • Designer label • Luxury real estate • Positional good • Veblen goods • Wealth effect

References 1. ^ "Defining luxury: the conundrum of perspectives". Beta.luxurysociety.com. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 2. ^ Wong, N. Y., & Ahuvia, A. C. (1998). Personal taste and family face: Luxury consumption in Confucian and Western societies. Psychology & Marketing, 15(5), 423-441. 3. ^ "What is luxury?". Paurav Shukla. 2010-05-14. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 4. ^ Okonkwo, Uché. Luxury fashion branding: trends, tactics, techniques . Page 145. 5. ^ “The World Market for Luxury Goods.” Global Market for Luxury Goods. Nov 1, 2001, March 5, 2007. 6. ^ "China bans television ads for bling". Retrieved February 15, 2013. 7. ^ Power, S. Wall Street Journal "A Water Fight Over Luxury Showers" July 21, 2010 8. ^ Inocencio, Ramy (February 8, 2013). "China bans television ads for bling". CNN. Retrieved February 15, 2013.

Further reading • Chadha, Radha; Husband, Paul. (2006). The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair with Luxury. ISBN 1-904838-05-7. • Heine, Klaus: (2011) The Concept of Luxury Brands. Luxury Brand Management, No. 1, ISSN: 2193-1208 History of fashion design

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (April 2012) This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. (April 2012) This article may contain original research. (October 2010)

This article is about the history of fashion design since 1900. Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. The modern fashion industry, based around firms or fashion houses run by individual usually male designers, started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments that he created. For the fashion of earlier periods in the Western world, see History of European clothing. Contents • 1 Couture beginnings • 2 Early twentieth century o 2.1 1900s o 2.2 1910s • 3 Golden age of French Fashion o 3.1 1920s o 3.2 1930s • 4 Mid-twentieth century o 4.1 1940s o 4.2 1950s o 4.3 1960s o 4.4 1970s • 5 Late twentieth century o 5.1 1980s o 5.2 1990s • 6 Twenty First Century o 6.1 2000s • 7 See also • 8 References

• 9 Further reading

Couture beginnings

Dress designed by Charles Frederick Worth The first fashion designer who was not merely a dressmaker was Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895). Before the former draper set up his maison de couture (fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation was handled by largely anonymous tailors and seamstresses, and high fashion descended from styles worn at royal courts. Worth's success was such that he was able to dictate to his customers what they should wear.

Early twentieth century

Throughout the early 20th century, practically all high fashion originated in Paris and to a lesser extent London. Fashion magazines from other countries sent editors to the Paris fashion shows. Department stores sent buyers to the Paris shows, where they purchased garments to copy (and openly stole the style lines and trim details of others). Both made-to-measure salons and ready-to-wear departments featured the latest Paris trends, adapted to the stores' assumptions about the lifestyles and pocket books of their targeted customers.

At this time in fashion history the division between haute couture and ready-to-wear was not sharply defined. The two separate modes of production were still far from being competitors and they often co-existed in houses where the seamstresses moved freely between made-to-measure and ready-made.

Around the start of the 20th century fashion style magazines began to include photographs and became even more influential than in the future. In cities throughout the world these magazines were greatly sought-after and had a profound effect on public taste. Talented illustrators - among them Paul Iribe, Georges Lepape, Erté, and George Barbier - drew exquisite fashion plates for these publications, which covered the most recent developments in fashion and beauty. Perhaps the most famous of these magazines was La Gazette du Bon Ton which was founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel and regularly published until 1925.

1900s Fashionable lady of the era: portrait by Giovanni Boldini (1845–1931) showing Elizabeth Wharton Drexel in 1905.

The outfits worn by the fashionable women of the 'Belle Époque' (as this era was called by the French) were strikingly similar to those worn in the heyday of the fashion pioneer Charles Worth. By the end of the 19th-century, the horizons of the fashion industry had generally broadened, partly due to the more stable and independent lifestyle many well-off women were beginning to adopt and the practical clothes they demanded. However, the fashions of the La Belle Époque still retained the elaborate, upholstered, hourglass-shaped style of the 19th century. No fashionable lady could (or would) yet dress or undress herself without the assistance of a third party. The constant need for radical change, which is now essential for the survival of fashion within the present system, was still literally unthinkable. The use of different trimmings were all that distinguished one season from the other.

Conspicuous waste and conspicuous consumption defined the fashions of the decade and the outfits of the couturiers of the time were incredibly extravagant, elaborate, ornate, and painstakingly made. The curvaceous S-Bend silhouette dominated fashion up until around 1908. The S~Bend corset was very tightly laced at the waist which forced the hips back and the drooping mono bosom was thrust forward in a pouter pigeon effect creating an S shape. Toward the end of the decade the fashionable silhouette gradually became somewhat more straight and slim, partly due to Paul Poiret's high-waisted, shorter-skirted Directoire line of clothes.

The Maison Redfern was the first fashion house to offer women a tailored suit based directly on its male counterpart and the extremely practical and soberly elegant garment soon became an indispensable part of the wardrobe of any well-dressed woman. Another indispensable part of the outfit of the well-dressed woman was the designer hat. Fashionable hats at the time were either tiny little confections that perched on top of the head, or large and wide brimmed, trimmed with ribbons, flowers, and even feathers. Caroline Reboux, Legroux, and E. Lewis were the most sought-after names of the time. Parasols were still used as decorative accessories and in the summer they dripped with lace and added to the overall elaborate prettiness.

1910s

Dress designed by Paul Poiret

During the early years of the 1910s the fashionable silhouette became much more lithe, fluid and soft than in the 19th century. When the Ballets Russes performed Scheherazade in Paris in 1910, a craze for Orientalism ensued. The couturier Paul Poiret was one of the first designers to translate this vogue into the fashion world. Poiret's clients were at once transformed into harem girls in flowing pantaloons, turbans, and vivid colors and geishas in exotic kimono. Paul Poiret also devised the first outfit which women could put on without the help of a maid. The Art Deco movement began to emerge at this time and its influence was evident in the designs of many couturiers of the time. Simple felt hats, turbans, and clouds of tulle replaced the styles of headgear popular in the 20th century. It is also notable that the first real fashion shows were organized during this period in time, by Jeanne Paquin, one of the first female couturiers, who was also the first Parisian couturier to open foreign branches in London, Buenos Aires, and Madrid.

Two of the most influential fashion designers of the time were Jacques Doucet and Mariano Fortuny. The French designer Jacques Doucet excelled in superimposing pastel colors and his elaborate gossamery dresses suggested the Impressionist shimmers of reflected light. His distinguished customers never lost a taste for his fluid lines and flimsy, diaphanous materials. While obeying imperatives that left little to the imagination of the couturier, Doucet was nonetheless a designer of immense taste and discrimination, a role many have tried since, but rarely with Doucet's level of success. The Venice-based designer Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo was a curious figure, with very few parallels in any age. For his dress designs he conceived a special pleating process and new dyeing techniques. He gave the name Delphos to his long clinging sheath dresses that undulated with color. Each garment was made of a single piece of the finest silk, its unique color acquired by repeated immersions in dyes whose shades were suggestive of moonlight or of the watery reflections of the Venetian lagoon. Breton straw, Mexican cochineal, and indigo from the Far East were among the ingredients that Fortuny used. Among his many devotees were Eleonora Duse, Isadora Duncan, Cléo de Mérode, the Marchesa Casati, Emilienne d'Alençon, and Liane de Pougy.

Changes in dress during World War I were dictated more by necessity than fashion. As more and more women were forced to work, they demanded clothes that were better suited to their new activities. Social events had to be postponed in favor of more pressing engagements and the need to mourn the increasing numbers of dead, visits to the wounded, and the general gravity of the time meant that darker colors became the norm. A new monochrome look emerged that was unfamiliar to young women in comfortable circumstances. By 1915 fashionable skirts had risen above the ankle and then later to mid-calf.

Golden age of French Fashion

The period between the two World Wars, often considered to be the Golden Age of French fashion, was one of great change and reformation. Carriages were replaced by cars, princes and princesses lost their crowns, and haute couture found new clients in the ranks of film actresses, American heiresses, and the wives and daughters of wealthy industrialists.

1920s

Fashionable Hollywood actress Louise Brooks Soon after the First World War, a radical change came about in fashion. Bouffant coiffures gave way to short bobs, dresses with long trains gave way to above-the-knee pinafores. Corsets were abandoned and women borrowed their clothes from the male wardrobe and chose to dress like boys. Although, at first, many couturiers were reluctant to adopt the new androgynous style, they embraced them wholeheartedly from around 1925. A bustless, waistless silhouette emerged and aggressive dressing-down was mitigated by feather boas, embroidery, and showy accessories. The flapper style (known to the French as the 'garçonne' look) became very popular among young women. The cloche hat was widely worn and sportswear became popular with both men and women during the decade, with designers like Jean Patou and Coco Chanel popularizing the sporty and athletic look.

The great couturière Coco Chanel was a major figure in fashion at the time, as much for her magnetic personality as for her chic and progressive designs. Chanel helped popularize the bob hairstyle, the little black dress, and the use of jersey knit for women's clothing and also elevated the status of both costume jewelry and knitwear.

Two other prominent French designers of the 1920s were Jeanne Lanvin and Jean Patou. Jeanne Lanvin, who began her career in fashion as a milliner, made such beautiful outfits for her young daughter Marguerite that people started to ask for copies, and Lanvin was soon making dresses for their mothers. Lanvin's name appears in the fashion yearbook from about 1901 onwards. However, it was in the 1920s that she reached the peak of her popularity and success. The Lanvin style embraced the look of the time, with its skillful use of complex trimmings, dazzling embroideries, and beaded decorations in light, clear, floral colors that eventually became a Lanvin trademark. By 1925 Lanvin produced many different products, including sportswear, furs, lingerie, men's fashion, and interior designs. Her global approach to fashion foreshadowed the schemes that all the large contemporary fashion houses would later adopt in their efforts to diversify.(: The style of Jean Patou was never mainstream, but full of originality and characterized by a studied simplicity which was to win him fame, particularly in the American markets. Many of his garments, with their clean lines, geometric and Cubist motifs, and mixture of luxury and practicality, were designed to satisfy the new vogue for the outdoor life, and bore a remarkable similarity to modern sportswear. The most famous advocate of his style was Suzanne Lenglen, the legendary tennis champion.

In menswear there was a growing mood of informality, among the Americans especially, which was mirrored in fashions that emphasized youthfulness and relaxation. In the past, there was a special outfit for every event in the well-dressed gentleman's day, but young men in the 1920s, no longer afraid to show their youthfulness, began to wear the same soft wool suit all day long. Short suit jackets replaced the old long jackets of the past which were now only worn for formal occasions. Men had a variety of sport clothes available to them, including sweaters and short pants, commonly known as knickers. For evening wear a short tuxedo was more fashionable than the tail-coat, which was now seen as somewhat old-fashioned. The London cut, with its slim lines, loose-fitting sleeves, and padded shoulders, perfected by the English tailor Scholte, was very popular.

Fair Isle patterns became very popular for both sexes. Heels, at the time, were often over two inches high and helped popularize the two-tone shoe its one of her trademarks. Salvatore Ferragamo and André Perugia were two of the most influential and respected designers in footwear. Many stars of the [silent film]s had a significant impact on fashion during the 1920s, perhaps most notably Louise Brooks, Gloria Swanson, and Colleen Moore. The lighthearted, forward-looking fashions of the 1920s gradually came to halt after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and succumbed to a more conservative style. While the flapper look persisted into 1930, it quickly disappeared afterwards, although bell-shaped hats lasted through 1933.

1930s

In the 1930s, as the public began to feel the effects of the Great Depression, many designers found that crises are not the time for experimentation. Fashion became more compromising, aspiring to preserve feminism's victories while rediscovering a subtle and reassuring elegance and sophistication. Overall, 1930s clothing was somber and modest, reflecting the difficult social and economic situation of the decade. Women's fashions moved away from the brash, daring style of the 1920s towards a more romantic, feminine silhouette. The waistline was restored, hemlines dropped to nearly ankle-length, there was renewed appreciation of the bust, and backless evening gowns and soft, slim-fitting day dresses became popular. The female body was remodeled into a more neo-classical shape, and slim, toned, and athletic bodies came into vogue. The fashion for outdoor activities stimulated couturiers to manufacture what would today be referred to as "sportswear." The term "ready-to-wear" was not yet widely in use, but the boutiques already described such clothes as being "for sport". In place of the bobbed flapper haircut, the standard women's hairstyle of the 1930s was a modest, short perm.

Two of the most prominent and influential fashion designers of the 1930s were Elsa Schiaparelli and Madeleine Vionnet. Elsa Schiaparelli showed her first collection in 1929 and was immediately hailed by the press as 'one of the rare innovators' of the day. With her exciting and inventive designs, Schiaparelli did not so much revolutionize fashion as shatter its foundations. The first pullover she displayed in her windows created a sensation: it was knitted in black with a trompe-l'oeil white bow. She consistently turned out breathtaking collections thereafter. Schiaparelli was a close friend of Christian Berard, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dalí, who designed embroidery motifs for her and supplied inspiration for models like the desk suit with drawers for pockets, the shoe-shaped hat, the silk dresses painted with flies and bearing a picture of a large lobster, respectively. All of Paris thronged to her salon at 21 Place Vendôme as collection succeeded collection.

Madeleine Vionnet found her inspiration in ancient statues, creating timeless and beautiful gowns that would not look out of place on a Greek frieze. Queen of the bias cut (cutting diagonally across the fabric's lengthwise threads), she produced evening dresses that fitted the body without excessive elaboration or dissimulation, employing a flowing and elegant line. Her perfect draping of chiffon, silk, and Moroccan crepe created a marvelously poised and sensual effect. The unparalleled success of Vionnet's cuts guaranteed her reputation right up to her retirement in 1939.

Mainbocher, the first American designer to live and work in Paris, was also influential, with his plain yet supremely elegant designs, often employing the bias cut pioneered by Vionnet. The luxury goods manufacturer Hermès began to sell handmade printed silk square scarves in the early 1930s, in addition to popularizing the zipper and many other practical innovations. Toward the end of the decade, women's fashions took on a somewhat more imposing and broad-shouldered silhouette, possibly influenced by Elsa Schiaparelli. Men's fashions continued the informal, practical trend that had dominated since the end of the First World War.

Mid-twentieth century

The Second World War created many radical changes in the fashion industry. After the War, Paris's reputation as the global center of fashion began to crumble, and off-the-peg and mass-manufactured fashions became increasingly popular. A new youth style emerged in the 1950s, changing the focus of fashion forever. As the installation of central heating became more widespread, the age of minimum-care garments began, and lighter textiles and, eventually, synthetics, were introduced.

In the West, the traditional divide that had always existed between high society and the working class became considered unjustifiable. In particular, a new young generation wanted to reap the benefits of a booming consumer society. Privilege became less blatantly advertised than in the past and differences were more glossed over. As the ancient European hierarchies were overturned, the external marks of distinction faded. By the time the first rockets were launched into space, Europe was more than ready to adopt a quality ready-to-wear garment along American lines—something to occupy the middle ground between off-the-peg and couture. This need was all the more pressing because increases in overheads and raw material costs were beginning to relegate handmade fashion to the sidelines. Meanwhile, rapidly developing new technologies made it increasingly easy to manufacture an ever-improving, high-quality product.

Faced with the threat of a factory-made, fashion-based product, Parisian haute couture mounted its defenses, but to little effect. While the old world was taking its final bow, the changes in fashion were one of the most visible manifestations of the general shake- up in society. Before long, classes of women hitherto restricted to inferior substitutes to haute couture would enjoy a greatly enlarged freedom of choice. Dealing in far larger quantities, production cycles were longer than those of couture workshops, which meant that stylists planning their lines for the twice-yearly collections had to try to guess more than a year in advance what their customers would want. A new authority had taken over—that of the street, constituting a further threat to the dictatorship of couture.

1940s

Many fashion houses closed during the occupation of Paris during World War II, including the Maison Vionnet and the Maison Chanel. Several designers, including Mainbocher, permanently relocated to New York. In the enormous moral and intellectual re-education program undertaken by the French state, couture was not spared. In contrast to the stylish, liberated Parisienne, the Vichy regime promoted the model of the wife and mother—a robust, athletic young woman—a figure much more consistent with the new regime's political agenda. Meanwhile, Germany was taking possession of over half of what France produced, including high fashion, and was considering relocating French haute couture to Berlin and Vienna, neither of which had any significant fashion tradition. The archives of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture were seized, including, most consequentially, the client list. The point of all this was to break up a monopoly that supposedly threatened the dominance of the Third Reich. Due to difficult times, hemlines crept upward in both evening wear and day wear, the latter of which was made using substitute materials whenever possible. From 1940 onward, no more than four meters (thirteen feet) of cloth was permitted to be used for a coat and a little over one meter (three feet) for a blouse. No belt could be over 3 centimetres (one and a half inches) wide. Despite this, haute couture did its best to keep its flag flying. Humor and frivolity became a popstar way of defying the occupying powers and couture survived. Although some have argued that the reason it endured was due to the patronage of the wives of wealthy Nazis, in actuality, records reveal that, aside from the usual wealthy Parisiennes, it was an eclectic mix of the wives of foreign ambassadors, clients from the black market, and miscellaneous other patrons of the salons (among whom German women were but a minority) that kept the doors(shut) open at fashion houses such as Jacques Fath, Maggy Rouff, Marcel Rochas, Jeanne Lafaurie, Nina Ricci, and Madeleine Vramant.

Permed hairstyles remained standard, although during the '40s, this evolved into a bobbed roll along the lower part of the hairline.

During the Occupation, the only true way for a woman to flaunt her extravagance or add color to a drab outfit was to wear a hat. In this period, hats were often made of scraps of material that would otherwise have been thrown away, including bits of paper and wood shavings. Among the most innovative milliners of the time were Pauline Adam, Simone Naudet, Rose Valois, and Le Monnier.

Paris's isolated situation in the 1940s enabled Americans to fully utilize the ingenuity and creativity of their own designers. During the Second World War, Vera Maxwell presented outfits constituted of plain, simply cut co-ordinates, and introduced innovations to men's work clothes. Bonnie Cashin transformed boots into a major fashion accessory, and, in 1944, began the production of original and imaginative sportswear. Claire McCardell, Anne Klein, and Cashin formed a remarkable trio of women who laid the foundations of American sportswear, ensuring that ready-to-wear was not considered a mere second best, but an elegant and comfortable way for modern women to dress.

In the War Years, the zoot suit (and in France the zazou suit) became popular among young men.

Many actresses of the time, including Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, and Marlene Dietrich, had a significant impact on popular fashion.

The couturier Christian Dior created a tidal wave with his first collection in February 1947. The collection contained dresses with accentuated busts, tiny (or "wasp") waists, and extravagantly full skirts, emphasizing the feminine hourglass figure in a manner very similar to the style of the Belle Époque. The lavish use of fabric and the feminine elegance of the designs appealed to post-war clientele, and ensured Dior's meteoric rise to fame. The sheer sophistication of the style incited the all-powerful editor of the American Harper's Bazaar, Carmel Snow, to exclaim 'This is a new look!'.

1950s Flying in the face of continuity, logic, and erudite sociological predictions, fashion in the 1950s, far from being revolutionary and progressive, used more from the previous decade. A whole society which, in the 1920s and 1930s, had greatly believed in progress, was now much more circumspect. Despite the fact that women had the right to vote, to work, and to drive their own cars, they chose to wear dresses made of opulent materials, with corseted waists and swirling skirts to mid-calf. As fashion looked to the past, haute couture experienced something of a revival and spawned a myriad of star designers who profited hugely from the rapid growth of the media.

Throughout the 1950s, although it would be for the last time, women around the world continued to submit to the trends of Parisian haute couture. Three of the most prominent of the Parisian couturiers of the time were Cristobal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, and Pierre Balmain. The frugal prince of luxury, Cristobal Balenciaga Esagri made his fashion debut in the late 1930s. However, it was not until the post-war years that the full scale of the inventiveness of this highly original designer became evident. In 1951, he totally transformed the silhouette, broadening the shoulders and removing the waist. In 1955, he designed the tunic dress, which later developed into the chemise dress of 1957. And eventually, in 1959, his work culminated in the Empire line, with high-waisted dresses and coats cut like kimonos. His mastery of fabric design and creation defied belief. Balenciaga is also notable as one of the few couturiers in fashion history who could use their own hands to design, cut, and sew the models which symbolized the height of his artistry.

Hubert de Givenchy opened his first couture house in 1952 and created a sensation with his separates, which could be mixed and matched at will. Most renowned was his Bettina blouse made from shirting, which was named after his top model. Soon, boutiques were opened in Rome, Zurich, and Buenos Aires. A man of immense taste and discrimination, he was, perhaps more than any other designer of the period, an integral part of the world whose understated elegance he helped to define.

Pierre Balmain opened his own salon in 1945. It was in a series of collections named 'Jolie Madame' that he experienced his greatest success, from 1952 onwards. Balmain's vision of the elegantly dressed woman was particularly Parisian and was typified by the tailored glamour of the "New Look", with its ample bust, narrow waist, and full skirts, by mastery of cut and imaginative assemblies of fabrics in subtle color combinations. His sophisticated clientele was equally at home with luxurious elegance, simple tailoring, and a more natural look. Along with his haute couture work, the talented businessman pioneered a ready-to-wear range called Florilege and also launched a number of highly successful perfumes.

Also notable is the return of Coco Chanel (who detested the "New Look") to the fashion world. Following the closure of her salons in the war years, in 1954, aged over seventy, she staged a comeback and on February 5 she presented a collection which contained a whole range of ideas that would be adopted and copied by women all over the world: her famous little braided suit with gold chains, shiny costume jewelry, silk blouses in colors that matched the suit linings, sleek tweeds, monogrammed buttons, flat black silk bows, boaters, quilted bags on chains, and evening dresses and furs that were marvels of simplicity. Despite being a high fashion designer, American born Mainbocher also designed military and civilian service uniforms. In 1952, he redesigned the Women Marines service uniform combining femininity with functionality. Previous redesigns include uniforms for the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1942, and uniform designs for the Girl Scouts of the USA and the American Red Cross in 1948.

Dior's "New Look" (that premiered in 1947) revived the popularity of girdles and the all-in-one corselettes. In the early 1950s, many couture houses used the interest in "foundationwear" to launch their own lines, soon after many lingerie manufacturers began to build their own brands. In 1957, Jane Russell wore the "Cantilever" bra that was scientifically designed by Howard Hughes to maximize a voluptuous look. The invention of Lycra (originally called "Fibre K") in 1959 revolutionized the underwear industry and was quickly incorporated into every aspect of lingerie.

After the war, the American look (which consisted of broad shoulders, floral ties, straight-legged pants, and shirts with long pointed collars, often worn hanging out rather than tucked in) became very popular among men in Europe. Certain London manufacturers ushered in a revival of Edwardian elegance in men's fashion, adopting a tight-fitting retro style that was intended to appeal to traditionalists. This look, originally aimed at the respectable young man about town, was translated into popular fashion as the Teddy boy style. The Italian look, popularized by Caraceni, Brioni, and Cifonelli, was taken up by an entire generation of elegant young lovers, on both sides of the Atlantic. Plaid was very common in 1950s men's fashion, both for shirts and suits, along with the "ducktail" haircut, which was often viewed as a symbol of teenage rebellion and banned in schools.

During the second half of the 1950s, there was a general move towards less formal clothing, especially among men's fashion. The fedora and Homburg hat, as well as trench coats, disappeared from widespread use (this trend had already began some years earlier on the more informal West Coast of the US) after having been standard parts of menswear since the 1920s.

The designers of Hollywood created a particular type of glamour for the stars of American film, and outfits worn by the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, or Grace Kelly were widely copied. Quantitatively speaking, a costume worn by an actress in a Hollywood movie would have a much bigger audience than the photograph of a dress designed by a couturier illustrated in a magazine read by no more than a few thousand people. Without even trying to keep track of all the Paris styles, its costume designers focused on their own version of classicism, which was meant to be timeless, flattering, and photogenic. Using apparently luxurious materials, such as sequins, chiffon, and fur, the clothes were very simply cut, often including some memorable detail, such as a low-cut back to a dress which was only revealed when the actress turned her back from the camera or some particularly stunning accessory. The most influential and respected designers of Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1950s were Edith Head, Orry-Kelly, William Travilla, Jean Louis, Travis Banton, and Gilbert Adrian. Everyday women's clothing during the decade consisted of long coats, hats with small veils, and leather gloves. Knee-length dresses combined with pearl necklaces, which were made instantly popular by First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. Short, permed hair was the standard women's hairstyle of the period. By the end of the decade mass-manufactured, off-the-peg clothing had become much more popular than in the past, granting the general public unprecedented access to fashionable styles.

1960s

Until the 1960s, Paris was considered to be the center of fashion throughout the world. However, between 1960 and 1969 a radical shake-up occurred in the fundamental structure of fashion. From the 1960s onward, there would never be just one single, prevailing trend or fashion but a great plethora of possibilities, indivisibly linked to all the various influences in other areas of people's lives. Prosperity and the emergence of a distinct teenager culture, combined with the counterculture movement, would all have major effects on fashion.

After 30 years of conservative clothing styles, the '60s saw a kind of throwback to the 1920s with women once again adopting a childlike look with bobbed haircuts and progressively less modest clothing. At the start of the decade skirts were knee-length, but steadily became shorter and shorter until the mini-skirt emerged in 1965. By the end of the decade they had shot well above the stocking top, making the transition to tights inevitable.

Many of the radical changes in fashion developed in the streets of London, with such gifted designers as Mary Quant (known for launching the mini skirt) and Barbara Hulanicki (the founder of the legendary boutique Biba). Paris also had its share of new and revolutionary designers, including Pierre Cardin (known for his visionary and skillfully cut designs), André Courrèges (known for his futuristic outfits and for launching the mini skirt along with Mary Quant), Yves Saint Laurent (known for his revolutionary yet elegant fashions), and Emanuel Ungaro (known for his imaginative use of color and bold baroque contrasts). In the United States, Rudi Gernreich (known for his avant-garde and futuristic designs) and James Galanos (known for his luxurious read-to-wear) were also reaching a young audience. The main outlets for these new young fashion designers were small boutiques, selling outfits that were not exactly 'one- offs', but were made in small quantities in a limited range of sizes and colors. However, not all designers took well to the new style and mood. In 1965, Coco Chanel mounted a rearguard action against the exposure of the knee and Balenciaga resolutely continued to produce feminine and conservative designs.

The basic shape and style of the time was simple, neat, trim, and colorful. Synthetic fabrics were very widely used during the 1960s. They took dyes easily and well, giving rise to colors that were both clear and bright, very much mirroring the mood of the period. Hats had already began their decline in the previous decade and were now almost completely extinct except for special occasions. Lower kitten heels were a pretty substitute to stilettos. Pointed toes gave way to chisel shaped toes in 1961 and to an almond toe in 1963. Flat boots also became popular with very short dresses in 1965 and eventually they rose up the leg and reached the knee.

The '60s for the first time saw a widespread assortment of popular hairstyles, including bobs, pageboy cuts, and beehives. Two notable and influential designers in the 1960s were Emilio Pucci and Paco Rabanne. Emilio Pucci's sportswear designs and prints inspired by Op art, psychedelia, and medieval heraldic banners earned him a reputation that extended far beyond the circles of high society. His sleek shift dresses, tunics, and beachwear, created a 'Puccimania' that was all part of a movement to liberate the female form and his designs are today synonymous with the 1960s. Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo (later Paco Rabanne) opened his first couture house in 1966 and, from the start, produced resolutely modern designs. Rather than using conventional dress materials, he created garments from aluminum, Rhodoid, and pieces of scrap metal. His designs, as well as being experimental, were also closely in tune with what modern adventurous young women wanted to wear. Among his innovations are the seamless dress made, after much experiment, by spraying vinyl chloride on to a mold, and the low-budget disposable dress made of paper and nylon thread. Rabanne was also the first fashion designer to use black models, which very nearly resulted in his dismissal from the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. The success of his perfume Calandre helped support the less profitable areas of his work, while his utopianism assured him a unique position in the conservative world of haute couture.

The principal change in menswear in the 1960s was in the weight of the fabric used. The choice of materials and the method of manufacture produced a suit that, because it was lighter in weight, had a totally different look, with a line that was closer to the natural shape of the body, causing men to look at their figures more critically. The spread of jeans served to accelerate a radical change in the male wardrobe. Young men grew their hair down to their collars and added a touch of color, and even floral motifs, to their shirts. The polo neck never succeeded in replacing the tie, but the adoption of the workman's jacket in rough corduroy, and especially the Mao jacket proved to be more than simply a political statement. A few futuristic rumblings were set off by Pierre Cardin and Andre Courrèges, but the three-piece suit still survived intact.

In the early 1960s there were influential 'partnerships' of celebrities and high-fashion designers, most famously Audrey Hepburn with Givenchy, and Jackie Kennedy with Oleg Cassini. Also, many models had a very profound effect on fashion, most notably Twiggy, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton. Early in the decade, culottes were in style and the bikini finally came into fashion in 1963. The hippie and psychedelic movements late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans (designed by the English tailor Tommy Nutter, from his Savoy store), tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints.

1970s

Nicknamed the 'me' decade; 'please yourself' was the catchphrase of the 1970s. Some saw it as the end of good taste. The decade began with a continuation of the hippie look of the late 1960s, with kaftans, Indian scarves, and floral-print tunics. Jeans remained frayed and bell-bottomed, tie dye was still popular, and the fashion for unisex mushroomed. An immense movement claiming civil rights for blacks combined with the influence of soul music from the USA created a nostalgia for Africa and African culture. A radical chic emerged, influenced by the likes of James Brown, Diana Ross, Angela Davis, and the Black Panthers, in everything from afro hairstyles to platform soles. During the 1970s brands greatly increased their share of the international market. Hems began dropping in 1974 to below the knee, until finally reaching the lower mid calf in 1977 and shoulderlines were dropped. After 1975, fashions came to be dominated by the "disco look" which included feathered women's haircuts and on men, the three-piece leisure suit. Bell-bottomed pants would remain popular through the entire decade.

Perhaps the two most innovative fashion designers in 1970s France were Kenzo Takada and Sonia Rykiel. The undisputed star of Parisian fashion in the 1970s, Kenzo drew his inspiration from all over the world, mixing Western and Oriental folk influences with a fantastic joie de vivre and an instinctive understanding of what his young customers wanted. With his fluid lines, unusual prints, clever accessories, and finery that was hitherto unprecedented in ready-to-wear, he very much turned the fashion world upside down. The queen of figure-hugging knits, in 1974, Sonia Rykiel designed her first pullovers with reversed seams. However, more than that, she created a whole range of clothes that were extremely individual and yet could be worn almost anywhere. The Rykiel style, dominated by fluid knitted garments, dark blacks, rhinestones, long boa- like scarves, and little crocheted hats, conquered the American market, and even to this day Rykiel is considered by many Americans as the true successor of Chanel.

Because of punk, London retained a considerable degree of influence over fashion, most significantly in the boutiques of the King's Road, where Vivienne Westwood's boutique, SEX, which opened in 1971, blew with the prevailing wind. This temple of British iconoclasm centered on fetishistic accessories and ranges of clothing in which black rubber and steel studs were the external signs of an underlying sadism. Postmodernist and iconoclastic in essence the punk movement was a direct reaction to the economic situation during the economic depression of the period, the vehicle for a hatred that was more visceral than political. Punk had at its heart a manifesto of creation through disorder. With their ripped T-shirts, Red Indian hairstyles, Doc Martens, bondage trousers, and chains, the punks exported an overall feeling of disgust around the globe.

Another popular British style the was the resolutely unmodern, feminine, countrified style of clothing popularized by Laura Ashley, which consisted of long flounced skirts and high-necked blouses in traditional floral prints, worn with crocheted shawls. Laura Ashley started out running a small business in Wales in the mid-1960s and the company continued to expand until the accidental death of its owner in 1985. Laura Ashley was not the only designer to look nostalgically to the past. Fashions based on the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s were popular throughout much of the decade, with Hollywood films like The Godfather and The Great Gatsby, and numerous exhibitions on costume history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York increasing their popularity. In Japan, the boutiques of Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku district sold many reworked versions of traditional British and American looks.

In the United States, the general trend in fashion was towards simplification and longer skirts, although many women reacted negatively to the midi-length, which they felt to be aging. Pants, on the other hand, earned unanimous approval. Jeans profited most from becoming an accepted part of the American fashion scene in the 1970s, their new- found respectability deriving from their inclusion in collections under the heading of sportswear. The new stars of American ready-to-wear adapted the best of what they learned from Europe to the massive American clothing industry. Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren rose from anonymity more or less simultaneously to tackle the question of designing clothes for the men and women of a new world. Two opposing movements dominated fashion in the U.S.A. during the 1970s. On one hand, there was the tailored, unisex look; on the other hand, a fluid, unstructured style with a strong feeling of 1930s glamor. The most influential American designer of the time, Roy Halston Frowick (known simply as Halston), belonged to the latter category. Acquiring celebrity status on the New York scene, his particular talent was in reconciling the made-to-measure garment for the special occasion with concepts of comfort, naturalness, and relaxation. With his kaftans, shirtwaisters, djellabas, ultra-lightweight shift dresses, and tunics worn over shorts and wide-legged pants, he was an icon of the era, and a regular visitor at the VIP room of the Studio 54 after its opening in 1977.

Geoffrey Beene, praised for his elegant and sophisticated cuts and his use of black and white, was at his most successful in the radically simplified designs at which he excelled. His smart little dresses and well-cut suits in jersey, flannel, and wool were instrumental in discouraging American women from over-accessorizing. Bill Blass, who launched his own range in 1962, developed the habit of traveling all over the United States in order to hear for himself what his customers desired. One of the most popular designers of the time, he was almost too successful in fulfilling his customers wishes. His disciplined style and workmanship was particularly favored by businesswomen and the wives of senior executives. Betsey Johnson started out designing for the boutique Paraphernalia. Using vinyl and metallic fabrics and putting emphasis on wit, imagination, and independence, she brought an unprecedented spirit of irreverence to New York in the 1970s.

In popular fashion the glam rock style of clothing, worn by such rock performers as David Bowie and Marc Bolan, was very influential, particularly in the United Kingdom. The designer Elio Fiorucci had a very similar look. His boutique in Milan sold such things as brightly colored rubber boots, plastic daisy sandals, fake fur, and Pop Art- inspired jackets.

During the 1970s a new generation of menswear boutiques sprang up, aiming to change the decor, rituals, and customer base of a traditionally 'difficult' trade. To sell fashionable clothes to a young man at the end of the 1960s was still, in many circles, tantamount to questioning his masculinity. Men's appearance changed more in the 1970s than it had done in a whole century. Many of the fashion designers who revolutionized the male look owed a lot of their innovations to Pierre Cardin: narrow shoulders, tight-fitting lines, no tie, no interfacing, zip-up boiler suits, waisted jackets or tunics, sometimes no shirt. Work clothes supplied inspiration for a less formal style, encouraging designers to look beyond the traditional suit and, for example, adopt a unisex look or investigate the massive supply of second-hand clothes. Sometimes this kind of male dressing-down, often denounced as 'hippie', gained formal recognition as a deliberate look. At certain other times, as part of a retro movement, designers introduced a revival of 1930s elegance. The unearthing of old military clothing, preferably khaki and from the United States; English-style shoes; Oxford shirts; immaculate T-shirts; tweed jackets with padded shoulders; brightly colored V-neck sweaters; cashmere-printed scarves draped around the neck all imposed a certain uniformity on the casual beatnik look of the male wardrobe at the end of the 1970s.

Also significant are the developments in Italian fashion that happened during the period. In the course of the 1970s, as a result of its ready-to-wear industry, Milan confirmed its status as second only to Paris as a center of international fashion. The 'alta moda' preferred Rome, the base of the couturiers Valentino, Capucci, and Schön. Capitalizing on the dominant trend of anti-fashion Italy offered a glamor that had nothing to do with the dictates of Parisian haute couture. While profiting from a clearly defined style, Italian fashion was luxurious and easy to wear. The two most influential Italian fashion designers of the time were probably Giorgio Armani and Nino Cerruti. Giorgio Armani produced his first collection for women in 1975. From the outset, the line was dynamic, urban, and understated, androgynous in inspiration. Armani offered a restrained style that greatly appealed to the increasing population of women who now had access to the world of work and occupied progressively more senior positions within it. This was only the beginning of a tremendous career, which came to fruition in 1981 when Emporio Armani was launched. In 1957 Nino Cerruti opened the menswear boutique Hitman in Milan. A man of taste and discernment, in 1976 he presented his first collection for women. Two years later, he launched his first perfume. In linking the career of a successful industrialist with that of a high-quality designer, Cerruti occupied a unique position in Italian ready-to-wear.

Late twentieth century

During the late 20th century, fashions began to criss-cross international boundaries with rapidity. Popular Western styles were adopted all over the world, and many designers from outside of the West had a profound impact on fashion. Synthetic materials such as Lycra/spandex, and viscose became widely used, and fashion, after two decades of looking to the future, once again turned to the past for inspiration.

1980s

The society of the 1980s no longer criticized itself as consumerist, but was, instead, interested in 'the spectacle'. The self-conscious image of the decade was very good for the fashion industry, which had never been quite so à la mode. Fashion shows were transfigured into media-saturated spectaculars and frequently televised, taking high priority in the social calendar. Appearance was related to performance, which was of supreme importance to a whole generation of young urban professionals, whose desire to look the part related to a craving for power. The way in which men and women associated with the latest styles was no more a matter of passive submission but disco music rapidly fell out of favor as the decade began, along with its associated clothing styles. By 1982, the last traces of 1970s fashion were gone.

During the 1980s, the mullet became the standard men's haircut and women sported large, square-cut perms although there were many variations of both. Jumpsuits became a popular element of female clothing and on men, skinny neckties and wraparound sunglasses. Also during the '80s, aerobics were in vogue and so brought into style Spandex leggings and headbands.

The two French fashion designers who best defined the look of the period were Thierry Mugler and Azzedine Alaia. Strongly influenced by his early career in the theater, Thierry Mugler produced fashion designs that combined Hollywood retro and futurism, with rounded hips, sharply accentuated shoulders, and a slight hint of the galactic heroine. Mugler's glamorous dresses were a remarkable success, and signified the complete end of the hippy era and its unstructured silhouette. Known for his awe- inspiring combinations, Azzedine Alaia greatly influenced the silhouette of the woman of the 1980s. The master of all kinds of techniques that had previously been known only to haute couture, he experimented with many new and underused materials, such as spandex and viscose. The finish, simplicity, and sheer sexiness of Alaia's look made women of every generation identify with his seductive style, and during the 1980s he achieved a certain glory and was held in high regard by members of his own profession.

Also creating designs very typical of the era were Claude Montana, whose imposing, broad-shouldered designs, often made of leather, would not have looked out of place in the futuristic universe of Thierry Mugler, and Christian Lacroix, who sent shock waves through the world of haute couture, with his flounced skirts, embroidered corselets, bustles, and polka-dotted crinolines which evoked the rhythms of flamenco.

A number of promising newcomers entered the fashion scene in the 1980s. Angelo Tarlazzi, an extraordinary technician who once worked for Patou, bewitched both the press and his customers with his 'handkerchief' dresses. Made of squares of fabric, they transpired, when you came to put them on, to be far more complicated than at first appeared. Many a Parisian soirée of the 1980s was enlivened by his dresses, all in a fluid and original style, in which cutting and sewing were kept to a minimum. Chantal Thomas, the queen of sexy stockings and lace, won a devoted following for her seductive underwear and for evening gowns that looked like nightdresses and vice versa. Guy Paulin was one of the first designers to promote a severe, plain, and uncluttered look. His garments were classical in their proportions and made for comfort and simplicity, with their harmonious lines reinforced by a subtle palette of colors and fine materials. Under his own name, Joseph designed luxurious knitwear along classic lines, creating loose, sexy garments in neutral colors. Carolina Herrera, long regarded as one of the most elegant members of the jet set, in 1981 launched a series of collections aimed at women like herself, featuring impeccably cut clothes of high quality and attractive evening dresses.

Japanese designers such as Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto offered a look which marked a total break with the prevailing fashion image of the time. Flat shoes, no make- up, reserve, modesty, and secrecy were the hallmarks of this modern look. Eventually, it began to include details from the fashions of the past, as Europe's ancient sites were revisited by these anarchists of fashion, whose influence on shape of clothes, at the end of the 20th-century, became legendary.

In American fashion the seductive, clinging style of Donna Karan and the casual sophistication of Ralph Lauren were very influential. A star of the New York social scene, Donna Karan brought a very personal and feminine approach to the severe, sober-colored, casual look that dominated American ready-to-wear. Setting up her own label in 1984, her designs won instant popularity among active urban women who greatly appreciated the understated luxury of her clothes. In 1971 Ralph Lauren opened a boutique for both men and women in Beverly Hills. His aristocratic style at prices the average American could afford created a sensation. For an elite faced with all kinds of avant-garde fashions, it represented a rallying point, endorsing a classic look that had been adopted for an active life. The number one of American ready-to-wear, Lauren was equally successful with his sportswear and jeans, which allowed him to reach the widest possible range of social classes and age groups. Central to the success of a new wave of American sportswear was the Perry Ellis label, established in 1978, which used color and natural fibers to great advantage in its elegant variations on the basics. Norma Kamali, with her short skirts made of sweatshirting, leotards, headbands, and leg warmers, made jogging look fashionable. Kamali also created the popular 'rah-rah skirt'. Also notable is the extreme popularity of the Adidas sports label, which achieved an incredible level of street cred in the 1980s, inciting the hip hop group Run DMC to release the single 'My Adidas' in 1986. The legendary shoe designer Manolo Blahnik also rose to fame during the 1980s.

The multiplicity of trends that bloomed during the 80s were curtailed by the economic recession that set in at the beginning of the 1990s, largely destroying the optimistic mood that is so advantageous to the fashion industry.

1990s

In the 1990s it was no longer the done thing to follow fashion slavishly, a sharp contrast to the highly a la mode 1970s and 1980s. The phobia of being underdressed was finally completely displaced by the fear of overdressing. Fashion in the 1990s united around a new standard, minimalism, and styles of stark simplicity became the vogue. Despite the best efforts of a few designers to keep the flag for pretty dresses flying, by the end of the decade the notion of ostentatious finery had virtually disappeared. As well as the styling of the product, its promotion in the media became crucial to its success and image. The financial pressures of the decade had a devastating effect on the development of new talent and lessened the autonomy enjoyed by more established designers.

Fashion at the end of the 20th century tackled themes that fashion had not previously embraced. These themes included rape, disability, religious violence, death, and body modification. There was a dramatic move away from the sexy styles aimed at the glamorous femme fatale of the 1980s, and many designers, taken with a vision of romantic poverty, adopted the style of the poverty-stricken waif, dressed in a stark, perversely sober palette, with a face devoid of make-up. Clothes by ready-to-wear retailers such as The Gap, Banana Republic, and Eddie Bauer came to the forefront of fashion, managing to tap into the needs of women who simply wanted comfortable, wearable clothes. Retro clothing inspired by the 1960s and 1970s was popular for much of the 1990s.

The famous Italian fashion house, Gucci was created in 1921, by Guccio Gucci and was originally a firm that sold luxury leather goods. Under Guccio Gucci's children, by the end of the 1960s the label had expanded to include a plethora of products with a distinctly Latin glamor. However, only in the 1990s, when the Gucci heirs gave up control of the company to Invest Corp., who planned to turn the business around, did it truly begin to enjoy the kind of success it enjoys in the present day. Employing an unknown designer, Tom Ford, as design director in 1994, the fashion house was endowed with a great prestige, as Ford triggered a tidal wave with his chic and shocking collections, perfumes for men and women, revamped boutiques, and advertising campaigns. In 1998 Gucci is named "European Company of the year" by European Business Press Federation.[1] Today it is the second biggest-selling fashion brand (after LVMH) worldwide with US$7 billion worldwide of revenue in 2006 according to BusinessWeek magazine.[2] In the 1990s the designer label Prada became a true creative force in the fashion industry. The Milanese company was first established in 1923, two years after Gucci, and like Gucci, it was a firm that sold high-quality shoes and leather. It was until the 1980s that Miuccia Prada, the niece of the company's founder, began to produce ready- to-wear fashion, gaining fame for her subtle, streamlined, yet unquestionably luxurious style, that catered for the privileged young woman who prefers understatement to flamboyant extravagance.

In America three of the most influential fashion designers of the time were Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, and Calvin Klein. Michael Kors set up his own business in 1980. However, it was not until the 1990s that the designer reached the peak of his popularity. His knowledge and consciousness of trends enabled him to produce simple well-cut garments, whose sophistication and elegance appealed to a whole new breed of wealthy American customers drawn to the new vogue for minimalist chic. Marc Jacobs is one of the most notable American designers of the period in that, unlike many American fashion designers in the past, he was not so much the co-ordinator of a mass-produced garment as a designer in the European sense of the word. One of the most promising talents in the fashion industry at the time, the LVMH (Louis Vuitton-Moet Henessy) group offered him the job of designing a line of ready-to-wear to compliment the de- luxe products of luggage specialist Louis Vuitton in the late 1990s. One of the first fashion designers to anticipate the globalization of world markets, the already well- known designer Calvin Klein started to market his fashions, perfumes, and accessories not only right across the US, but also in Europe and Asia, achieving an unequaled success. A brilliant artistic director, Klein used carefully constructed advertisements containing images tinted with eroticism to promote his sophisticatedly functional mass- produced designs, which won massive popularity among the urban youth of the 1990s.

The group of designers known as the 'Antwerp Six' (so named because all of them were graduates of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp), who first emerged in the 1980s, came to prominence in the 1990s. Three of the most influential of the group were Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, and Walter Van Beirendonck. Ann Demeulemeester, from her first collection in 1991, demonstrated a great deal of confidence and inventiveness. Naturally inclined to understatement, she built her designs on contradictions, introducing contrasting elements into her fluid and streamlined fashions, which appealed to women who dressed, above all, to please themselves. The work of Dries van Noten was founded on a solid mastery of the art of tailoring, to which the young designer added discreet touches of fantasy in a highly personal style. Managing to be both classical and original, his fashions appealed to those who preferred to express their individuality rather than slavishly follow trends. Walter Van Beirendonck, who erupted onto the fashion scene in 1995, produced decidedly futuristic designs under his label W & LT (Wild and Lethal Trash). Deliberately using fabrics developed by the very latest technologies, in violently contrasting colors, he produced clothes that were full of erotic and sadomasochistic references, touched with a caustic adolescent humor. His highly distinctive approach related to a resurgence of anti-fashion, but this time an anti-fashion with nothing in the least ethnic about its origins, instead based on science fiction that provided the inspiration for displays of such high-spirited provocation.

In Italy, Gianni Versace, with his brilliant, sexy, and colorful designs, and Dolce & Gabbana, with their superfeminine and fantastical style, broke away from the serious and sober-minded fashions that dominated during much of the 1990s. The British designer Vivienne Westwood produced many influential and popular collections in the early 1990s, which included outfits inspired by 18th-century courtesans and the Marquis de Sade, with rounded hips, corsets, and platform heels. The London-based designer Rifat Ozbek was also popular, particularly in New York and Milan. His youthful style, which mixed references to India, Africa, and his native Turkey with clever takes on historical clothing, was reminiscent of hippest nightclubs and the more outrageous street fashions of the time. Rap music was a prominent influence on popular and street fashion during the early and mid-1990s. Followers of hip hop adopted huge baggy jeans, similar to those worn in American prisons, with big patterned shirts and heavy black shoes. The sports label Nike had great popularity and materials such as Lycra/spandex were increasingly used for sportswear. Increasing eco-awareness and animal rights made even top couture houses such as Chanel introduce fake fur and natural fibers into their collections.

Twenty First Century

2000s

In the 2000s, with the Pakistani industry which bloomed in the 1900s, the quality and mystique of Italian fashion is unsurprisingly dominant in the twentieth century and Milan well established as the "center" of fashion and design. This is evidenced through the famous "Vogue Italia", being the most internationally acclaimed and most respected magazine in the fashion world. Thus Milan replacing Paris as the most prestigious center.

As the future began to seem increasingly bleak, fashion, and indeed the Arts in general, looked to the past for inspiration, arguably more so than in previous decades. Vintage clothing, especially from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (the 1980s idea of clashing, electric colours becoming especially popular in mid-late 2007) became extremely popular and fashion designers often sought to emulate bygone styles in their collections. The early 2000s saw a continuation of the minimalist look of the 1990s in high fashion, adopted and incorporated into Giorgio Armani's designs.

Later on, designers began to adopt a more colorful, feminine, excessive, and 'anti- modern' look, which is seen in the Dolce & Gabbana brand, in grounding some of their inspiration from Italy's past. Name brands have became of particular importance among young people and many celebrities launched their own lines of clothing. Tighter fit clothing and longer hair became mainstream for many men and women, this sense of modernism and futurism as well as the growing interest of young people was heavily influenced, for instance, by the Calvin Klein and Armani brand names, with their "Jeans" lines targeting young professionals. Therefore, Italian fashion has obviously replaced the French "Couture" influence of old times, however to the envy of some Parisian counterparts in their desperate attempts of claiming international media attention and outlets such as advertising in major magazines, have attempted to overshadow the reality of Italy's success and dominance over French designs and the undercurrent consumer preference to Italian name brands, although in some media outlets it suggests otherwise, as seen through the lack of advertising "balance" between French and Italian brands - the growth of French designers claiming more advertising space, and financial priority in advertising initiatives. Therefore, there is very strong evidence that the fundamental authority in the fashion industry still rests strongly with Europe, particularly Milan and Italian designers - evidenced through the palpable international praise and worshiping of the quality and superiority of Italian tailoring and "Alta Costura" or "high-end" Italian designer products. Regardless of the modern phenomena of the growth of luxury resorts and products being manufactured outside Europe, such as in Asia and the Middle-East, amazingly, Milan is still the dominant center of luxury and prestige in the world, supported by its history and superior quality surpassing the other so-called "centers" labelled by the media which are based mainly on industry and advertising, rather than quality and elegance. These trends suggest that Milanese dominance will continue, as designers from foreign nations look up to and completely depend on Italian and French maestros and masters of the art to teach them. There is an increasing need for excellence and "hyper-luxury", stated in Vogue Australia March 2012, as seen through Italian and French designer prices climbing even higher in spite of the recent economic crisis.

For many of the own-label designers who emerged in the early years of the 21st century, financial factors became increasingly critical. Many new young talents found they now depended on investors (to whom, in extreme cases, they would even surrender their names) and were always burdened by the risk that their partners, motivated by market realism and the desire for quick returns, would severely restrict their autonomy.

Designers like Berny Martin struck out on their own to places like the US Midwest. Their hopes were to bring fashion design back to its artisan roots.

See also Fashion portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fashion • Fashion • Fashion design • Haute couture • History of western fashion • List of fashion designers • List of fashion topics • Sustainable fashion

References 1. ^ "Gucci History- 1990s". Gucci. 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012. 2. ^ "Best Global Brands: Gucci". images.businessweek.com. 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.

Further reading • Breward, Christopher, The culture of fashion: a new history of fashionable dress, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0719041259 • Hollander, Anne, Seeing through clothes, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0520082311 • Hollander, Anne, Sex and suits: the evolution of modern dress, New York: Knopf, 1994, ISBN 978-0679430964 • Hollander, Anne, Feeding the eye: essays, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999, ISBN 978-0374282011 • Hollander, Anne, Fabric of vision: dress and drapery in painting, London: National Gallery, 2002, ISBN 978-0300094190 • Kawamura, Yuniya, Fashion-ology: an introduction to Fashion Studies, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2005, ISBN 1-85973-814-1 • Lipovetsky, Gilles (translated by Catherine Porter), The empire of fashion: dressing modern democracy, Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0691102627 • McDermott, Kathleen, Style for all: why fashion, invented by kings, now belongs to all of us (An illustrated history), 2010, ISBN 978-0-557-51917-0 — Many hand-drawn color illustrations, extensive annotated bibliography and reading guide • Perrot, Philippe (translated by Richard Bienvenu), Fashioning the bourgeoisie: a history of clothing in the nineteenth century, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0691000817 • Steele, Valerie, Paris fashion: a cultural history (second edition, revised and updated), Oxford: Berg, 1998, ISBN 978-1859739730 • Steele, Valerie, Fifty years of fashion: new look to now, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0300087383 • Steele, Valerie, Encyclopedia of clothing and fashion, Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005

0–9 • 1100–1200 in fashion • 1200–1300 in fashion • 1300–1400 in fashion • 1400–1500 in fashion • 1500–1550 in fashion • 1550–1600 in fashion • 1600–1650 in fashion • 1650–1700 in fashion • 1700–1750 in fashion • 1750–1795 in fashion • 1795–1820 in fashion • 1820s in fashion • 1830s in fashion • 1840s in fashion • 1850s in fashion • 1860s in fashion • 1870s in fashion • 1880s in fashion • 1890s in fashion • 1900s in fashion • 1910s in fashion • 1920s in fashion • 1930–1945 in fashion • 1945–1960 in fashion • 1960s in fashion • 1970s in fashion • 1980s in fashion • 1990s in fashion • 2000s in fashion • 2010s in fashion

A • A-2 jacket • A-line • Abacá • Abaca slippers • Abacost • Abaniko • Abarka • Abaya • Abolla • Aboyne dress • Academic dress • Academic scarf • Academic stole • Achkan • Acid dye • Acrylic fiber • Adaptive clothing • Adjustable-focus eyeglasses • Adornment • Afghan (blanket) • Afghan Coat • Afghanka • African textiles • Afterwear • Agal (accessory) • Aglet • Aguayo (cloth) • Aida cloth • Aigrette • Aiguillette • Aiguillette (ornament) • Aikidogi • Ajrak • Alasho • Alb • Albanian hat • Alençon lace • Alice in Wonderland dress • All over print • Aloha shirt • Alpaca fiber • Altdeutsche Tracht • Amauti • Amice • Ammunition boot • Anglo-Saxon dress • Angora wool • Angusticlavia • Animal print • Anklet (sock) • Annie Hall • Anorak • Anthony Eden hat • Antique satin • Antistatic garments • Antwerp lace • Áo bà ba • Ao dai • Áo gấm • Áo tứ thân • Apex (headdress) • Apostolnik • Appliqué • Appliqué lace • Approach shoe • Apron • Araimudi • Aran jumper • Arch support • Archducal hat • Architectonic jewellery • Argentan lace • Argyle (pattern) • Arkhalig • Arm ring • Arm warmer • Armenian dress • Armet • Armscye • Art jewelry • Artificial hair integrations • Artificial leather • Ascot cap • Ascot tie • Aso Oke fabric • Aso Oke hat • Assam silk • Asymmetric cut • Assyrian clothing • Athletic shoe • Atilla (clothing) • Attic helmet • Attifet • Aussies (headwear) • Australian Aboriginal fibrecraft • Australian Fashion Week • Australian work boot • Av Pak • Avarca (shoe) • Ave Maria lace • Aventail • Aviator hat • Away colours • Ayam (cap) • Aztec clothing

B • Baby sling • Babydoll • Back closure • Backcombing • Backless dress • Backpack • Baggies (clothing) • Baggy green • Bahag (garment) • Baja Jacket • Baji (clothing) • Baju Kurung • Baju Melayu • Bakhu • Bakya • Balaclava (clothing) • Baldness • Baldric(k) • Balgha • Ball gown • Ballerina neckline • Ballerina skirt • Ballet boot • Ballet flat • Ballet shoe • Ballet tutu • Ballistic vest • Balmoral bonnet • Baluchar Sari • Bamboo • Banarasi saris • Banbi • Band collar • Bandeau • Bandhani • Bandolier • Bands (neckwear) • Bangle • Banyan (clothing) • Baptismal clothing • Bar tack • Barathea • Barbute • Baro't saya • Barong Tagalog • Barretina • Barrette • Bascinet • Baseball cap • Baseball glove • Baseball uniform • Bases (fashion) • Bashlyk • Basque (clothing) • Bast fibre • Bast shoe • Bathing dress • Bathrobe • Batik • Batiste • Batsuit • Battenberg lace • Batting glove • Batting helmet • Battle Dress • Battle jacket • Battledress • Bead • Bead crochet • Beadwork • Beanie (North America) • Bearskin • Beatle boot • Beaver hat • Beca (garment) • Bed jacket • Bedgown • Bedford cord • Beetlewing • Beetling • Beizi • Bekishe • Bell sleeve • Bell-bottoms • Bell-boy hat • Bell-boy jacket • Belly chain • Belt (clothing) • Belt buckle • Belt hook • Belted plaid • Bench shirt • Beonggeoji • Beoseon • Beret • Bergère hat • Berlin Iron Jewellery • Bermuda shorts • Bernos • Bespoke • Bhaad-gaaule • Bias (textile) • Bib (garment) • Biblical clothing • Biblical sandals • Bicorne • Big hair • Bikini • Bikini variants • Bilum • Binche lace • Bindi (decoration) • Bindle • Binyeo • Biretta • Birkenstock • Birkin bag • Birrus • Bishop Andrewes cap • Bisht (clothing) • Black beret • Black cap • Black tie • Blackwork • Blangkon • Blanket sleeper • Blanket stitch • Blazer • Bling-bling • Blonde lace • Bloomers (clothing) • Blouse • Blouson • Blucher shoe • Bluecoat • Boardshorts • Boar's tusk helmet • Boat neck • Boat shoes • Boater • Bob cut • Bobbin lace • Bobble hat • Bobby pin • Bobby sock • Bobby soxer • Bògòlanfini • Bodice • Body modification • Bodystocking • Bodysuit • Boeotian helmet • Bokgeon • Bolo tie • Bondage pants • Bondage corset • Bone (corsetry) • Bone lace • Bonnet (headgear) • Book bag • Boonie hat • Boot • Boot fetishism • Boot jack • Boot socks • Bootee • Boothose • Boshiya • Boss of the Plains • Boubou (clothing) • Bouclé • Bouffant • Bouffant gown • Boutonnière • Bow tie • Bowler hat • Bowling shirt • Bowyangs • Boxer briefs • Boxer shorts • Boxing glove • Boyar hat • Boyfriend (fashion) • Braccae • Bracteate • Braid • Braiding machine • Braies (undergarment) • Brassard • Brassiere • Brassiere measurement • Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi • Breathability • Breechcloth • Breeches • Breeching (boys) • Breeks • Brez (clothing) • Briefcase • Briefs • Brigandine • Bristle • British Fashion Awards • British Fashion Council • British Inspiration Awards • Broadcloth • Brocade • Broderie Anglaise • Brogan (shoes) • Brogue shoe • Brooch • Broomstick lace • Brothel creeper • Browline glasses • Brunswick (clothing) • Brussels lace • Bucket hat • Buckle • Buckram • Bucks point lace • Buckskin (leather) • Buckskins • Budenovka • Buff coat • Buffalo coat • Buka cloak • Bun (hairstyle) • Bunad • Bunny boots • Bunny slippers • Burgonet • Burka (Caucasus) • Burnout (clothing) • Burnous • Burqa • Burqini • Busby • Business casual • Busk • Buskin • Bustier • Bustle • Bustle (regalia) • Button • Button blanket • Buttonhole • Buyer (fashion) • Buzz cut • BWH • Bycoket • Byssus • Byzantine chain • Byzantine dress • Byzantine silk

C • Cabbage-tree hat • Cable knitting • Cache-cœur • Cache-sexe • Cagoule • Calendering • Calfskin • Calico (textile) • Caligae • Camauro • Cambric • Camel hair • Cameleurion • Camisa blouse • Camisole • Camlet • Camocas • Camp shirt • Campaign hat • Can-can dress • Canadian military fur wedge cap • Candlewicking • Canepin • Canezou • Canterbury cap • Canvas • Cap • Cap (sport) • Cap badge • Cap of Maintenance • Capalana • Cape • Capeline • Capirote • Capotain • Cappello Alpino • Cappello romano • Capri pants • Capuchon • Caraco • Card enclosure • Cardigan (sweater) • Carding • Cargo pants • Carmagnole • Carpenter jeans • Carpet bag • Capsule wardrobe • Carrickmacross lace • Cashmere wool • Casquette • Casquette d'Afrique • Cassock • Casual • Casual Friday • Casual (subculture) • Cat eye glasses • Catholic school uniform • Catsuit • Caubeen • Caul (headgear) • Caulk boots • Cavalier boots • Cavalier hat • Cellulose • Celtic brooch • Ceremonial clothing in Western cultures • Ceremonial dress • Cervelliere • Cestus • Chador • Chalcidian helmet • Chamanto • Chamois leather • Championship belt • Chang kben • Chang'ao • Changshan • Chantilly lace • Chap boot • Chapan • Chapatsu • Chapeau • Chaperon (headgear) • Chaps • Charm bracelet • Charmeuse • Chastity belt • Chasuble • Chatelaine (chain) • Chausses • Che Guevara in fashion • Cheerleading uniform • Cheesecloth • Chef's uniform • Chelsea boot • Chemise • Chemise cagoule • Chemisette • Chenille fabric • Cheongsam • Cheopji • Chesterfield coat • Chic (style) • Chicken suit • Chiffon (clothing) • Chiffon (fabric) • Chignon (hairstyle) • Chikan (embroidery) • Children's clothing • Chilote cap • Chilote poncho • Chima (clothing) • Chima jeogori • Chimere • Chinese academic dress • Chinese clothing • Chino cloth • Chintz • Chiton (costume) • Chlamys • Choga • Choir dress • Choker • Chokha • Choli • Choora • Chopine • Christian clothing • Christian headcovering • Chuba • Chugha • Chukka boot • Chullo • Chupalla • Churidar • Cieszyn folk costume • Cilice • Cincture • Circlet • Clear heels • Cleat (shoe) • Cleavage (breasts) • Cleavage enhancement • Clerical clothing • Clerical collar • Climbing shoe • Clip-on tie • Cloak • Cloche hat • Close-bodied gown • Close helm • Close helmet • Clothing fetish • Clothing in Africa • Clothing in ancient Egypt • Clothing in ancient Greece • Clothing in ancient Rome • Clothing in India • Clothing in Mauritius • Clothing in the ancient world • Clothing in the Ragtime Era • Clothing insulation • Clothing laws by country • Clothing material • Clothing sizes • Clothing technology • Clothing terminology • Clog (British) • Clog (shoe) • Clubwear • Clutch (pin fastener) • Coat (clothing) • Coat pocket • Cockade • Cockernonnie • Cocktail dress • Cocktail hat • Coconut jewelry • Codpiece • Coif • Coin purse • Cointoise • Coir • Collar (BDSM) • Collar (clothing) • Collar (jewelry) • Collar pin • Collar stays • Colobium sindonis • Colour fastness • Coloured hat • Combat boot • Combing • Compression garment • Compression shorts • Compression sportswear • Compression stockings • Concert T-shirt • Conical Asian hat • Contemporary Western wedding dress • Cooling vest • Coolus helmet • Coonskin cap • Cooper A-2 jacket • Cope • Coppola (cap) • Çorape • Corduroy • Cork hat • Corinthian helmet • Cornette • Cornrows • Corolla (chaplet) • Coronet • Corsage • Corsage (bodice) • Corselet • Corset • Corslet • Cosmetics • Cosmetics in Ancient Rome • Cosmetics in the 1920s • Cosplay • Costume • Costume de rigueur • Costume jewelry • Cotton • Cotton duck • Coty Award • Council of Fashion Designers of America • Court dress • Court shoe • Court uniform and dress • Courtepy • Coutil • Couturier • Cowboy boot • Cowboy hat • Cowhide • Cowichan knitting • Cowl • Crakow (shoe) • Crape • Cravat • Cretonne • Crew cut • Crew neck • Crew sock • Cricket cap • Cricket whites • Crinoline • Croatian national costume • Crochet • Crochet thread • Crocheted lace • Crop (hairstyle) • Crop top • Cross country running shoes • Cross necklace • Crown (headgear) • Cruise collection • Cuban heel • Cuff • Cufflink • Culottes • Cummerbund • Cuprammonium rayon • Custodian helmet • Cut and sew • Cut-off • Cut-resistant gloves • Cutsew • Cutty sark • Cycling glove • Cycling shoe • Cycling shorts • Czapka

D • Daenggi • Dalmatic • Damask • Dance belt • Dandy • Dangui • Daopao • Dark adaptor goggles • Dart (sewing) • Dashiki • Dastar • Daura-Suruwal • Daxiushan • Débutante dress • Décolletage • Deel (clothing) • Deely bobber • Deerskin trade • Deerstalker • Delia (clothing) • Delphos gown • Denim • Denim skirt • Denison smock • Dép lốp • Derby shoe • Designer clothing • Designer label • Desizing • Detachable collar • Deubré • Devilock • Devoré • Dhaka topi • Dhakai • Dhoti • Diabetic sock • Diadem • Diaper • Diaper bag • Dickey (garment) • Dillybag • Dimity • Diplomatic uniform • Dirndl • Disruptive Pattern Combat Uniform • Disruptive Pattern Material • Ditto suit • Diving suit • Diyi • Djellaba • Do-rag • Dobok • Doctoral hat • Dolly Varden (costume) • Dolman • Dolphin shorts • Domino mask • Donegal tweed • Donkey jacket • Doobon coat • Dopo (clothing) • Dopp kit • Doppa • Dori shoes • Dotted Swiss (Fabric) • Double cloth • Double-breasted • Double knitting • Doublet (clothing) • Down feather • Drag (clothing) • Drape suit • Draped garment • Drapery • Drawstring • Dreadlocks • Dress • Dress boot • Dress code • Dress code (Western) • Dress of the Year • Dress pants • Dress shirt • Dress shoe • Dress socks • Dress uniform • Driglam namzha • Drill (fabric) • Driving glove • Driving moccasins • Driza-Bone • Duffel bag • Duffle coat • Dumalla • Dumdyam • Dumpra • Dunce cap • Dupatta • Dupioni • Durumagi • Dush-toh • Duster (clothing) • Dutch cap • Dutch Fashion Awards • Duty armband • Dwikkoji • Dye • Dyeing

E • E-textiles • Early medieval European dress • Earmuffs • Earring • Easter bonnet • Earth shoe • Edible underwear • Eisenhower jacket • Elastomer • Electric jacket • Elevator shoes • Elle Style Awards • Embroidery • Empire silhouette • EN 13402 • End-on-end • Energy dome • Engageante • Engineer boot • English medieval clothing • Engolpion • Epanokamelavkion • Epaulette • Ephod • Epigonation • Epimanikia • Episcopal sandals • Epitrachil • Equestrian helmet • Eri silk • Espadrille • Ethiopian coffee dress • Ethiopian suit • Eton crop • Etruscan jewelry • Eunjangdo • Evening glove • Evening gown • Exerlopers • Exomis • Extraocular implant • Extreme environment clothing • Eyelet • Eyepatch

F • Facekini • Facing (sewing) • Facing colour • Faggoting (knitting) • Fáinne • Fair Isle (technique) • Fake fur • Falling buffe • Falsies • Faluche • Fanny pack • Faroese shawl • Farshi Pajama • Farthingale • Fascia (vestment) • Fascinator • Fashion • Fashion accessory • Fashion cigarettes • Fashion capital • Fashion doll • Fashion entrepreneur • Fashion forecasting • Fashion images • Fashion in the United States • Fashion law • Fashion matrix • Fashion museum • Fashion plate • Fashion week • Fast fashion • Feather boa • Feather bonnet • Feather cloak • Feather tights • Featherstitch • Fedora • Felt • Ferreruolo • Fetish fashion • Fez (hat) • Fiber • Fibroin • Fibula (brooch) • Fichu • Field sign • Filet crochet • Filet lace • Fillet (clothing) • Finding • Finger wave • Fingerling (finger accessory) • Fishnet • Flak jacket • Flame retardant • Flamenco shoes • Flannel • Flannel vest • Flapper • Flax • Flight jacket • Flight suit • Flip-flops • Flipsters • Floating canvas • Flocking (texture) • Flogger (fashion) • Fly (clothing) • Fly plaid • Focale • Fofudja • Folk costume • Fontange • Foot binding • Football boot • Footwraps • Forage cap • Form-fitting garment • Formal Thai national costume • Formal trousers • Formal wear • Foulard • Foundation (cosmetics) • Foundation garment • Four-in-hand knot • Four Winds hat • Fouta towels • Freezy Freakies • French braid • French hood • French knickers • French twist (hairstyle) • Friendship bracelet • Frieze (textile) • Fringe (hair) • Fringe (trim) • Frock • Frock coat • Frog (fastening) • Fruit hat • Fuck-me shoes • Full dress • Full plaid • Fulling • Fully fashioned stockings • Fundoshi • Furisode • Fur • Fur clothing • Fursuit • Fustanella • Fustian

G • G-1 military flight jacket • G-string • Gabardine • Gaberdine • Gable hood • Gache • Gagra choli • Gaiters • Gajra • Gákti • Galea (helmet) • Galero • Galesh • Galloon • Galoshes • Gambeson • Gamine • Gamosa • Gamsbart • Gamucha • Gamurra • Gandhi cap • Ganguro • Ganse cord • Garibaldi shirt • Garot • Gartel • Garter (stockings) • Gat (hat) • Gather (sewing) • Gauge (knitting) • Gaung baung • Gauntlet (glove) • Gauze • Gel bracelet • Geneva gown • Genital jewellery • Geodeulji • Georgette (fabric) • Geotextiles • Geta (footwear) • Geumbak • Ghanaian smock • Gharara • Ghillie shirt • Ghillie suit • Ghillies (dance) • Gho • Għonnella • Ghoonghat • Ghost shirt • Ghungroo • GI glasses • Gilet • Gimp (thread) • Gingham • Girdle • Girdle book • Girl boxers • Giveh • Gladstone bag • Glamour (presentation) • Glass fiber • Glasses • Glen plaid • Glengarry • Glossary of dyeing terms • Glossary of sewing terms • Glossary of textile manufacturing • Glossary of textile terminology • Glove • Glove (ice hockey) • Go-go boot • Goatskin (material) • Godet (sewing) • Goggle jacket • Goggles • Going commando • Gold-filled jewelry • Golden hat • Gomesi • Gomusin • Gonryongpo • Gook (headgear) • Gore (segment) • Gore-Tex • Gorget • Gota Work • Gothic fashion • Gown • Gowni • Grameen Check • Grandfather shirt • Granny square • Grass skirt • Greatcoat • Great helm • Grecian bend • Greek Army uniforms • Greek fisherman's cap • Green beret • Green eyeshade • Green jersey • Grenadine (cloth) • Grill (jewelry) • Grommet • Grosgrain • Grotulja • Guayabera • Guernsey (clothing) • Gugel • Guimpe • Gulle • Gusset • Gwanbok • Gyaru • Gymnasterka • Gymslip

H • Haapsalu shawl • Habesha kemis • Hachimaki • Hackle • Hadagi • Haferlschuh • Hair crimping • Hair drop • Hair jewellery • Hair stick • Hair tie • Hairnet • Hairpin (fashion) • Hairpin lace • Hakama • Half-Windsor knot • Halterneck • Hammer pants • Han Chinese clothing • Hanbok • Hand knitting • Handbag • Handkerchief • Handkerchief skirt • Hanfu movement • Hangaroc • Hanten • Happi • Haramaki (clothing) • Hard hat • Hardee hat • Harem pants • Harrington jacket • Harris tweed • Hat • Hat Act • Hat tax • Hatpin • Hatstand • Hauberk • Haute couture • Haversack • Head tie • Headband • Headgear • Headgear (martial arts) • Headpiece • Headscarf • Heated clothing • Heather (fabric) • Heel (shoe) • Heelys • Hejazi turban • Helmet • Helmet (cricket) • Hem • Hemline • Hemline index • Hemp • Hemp jewelry • Henley shirt • Hennin • Herringbone (cloth) • Hessian (boot) • High-low skirt • High-technology swimwear fabric • High-top • High-visibility clothing • Highland dress • Hijab • Hijab by country • Hiking boot • Himation • Hime cut • Hip and buttock padding • Hip boot • Hip-hop fashion • Hip-huggers • History of brassieres • History of clothing and textiles • History of corsets • History of jewelry in Ukraine • History of knitting • History of silk • History of suits • History of the bikini • History of the kilt • Hnyat-phanat • Hobble skirt • Hobnail • Hobo bag • Hockey helmet • Hockey pants • Hogeon • Holbeinesque jewellery • Hold-ups • Holdall • Holland cloth • Homburg (hat) • Hōmongi • Honeycomb • Hongreline • Honiton lace • Hood (headgear) • Hoodie • Hook-and-eye closure • Hoop skirt • Horn-rimmed glasses • Horned helmet • Horsehair • Hose (clothing) • Hosiery • Houndstooth • Hounskull • Houppelande • Hourglass corset • Hoxton knot • Huarache (running shoe) • Huarache (shoe) • Huipil • Humeral veil • Hwa • Hwagwan • Hwarot • Hypercolor

I • Ice skate • Icelandic national costume • Icelandic tail-cap • Ihram clothing • Ikat • Ilkal saree • Illyrian type helmet • Imperial helmet • Imperial Japanese Army Uniforms • Imperial yellow jacket • Inline skate • Insolia • Indian wedding clothes • Indigo dye • Indo-Western clothing • Infant bodysuit • Infant's binder • Informal attire • Intarsia (knitting) • Interfacing • International Best Dressed List • Inverness cape • Inverness coat • Irish clothing • Irish lace • Irish linen • Iron-on • It Bag ] • Italian charm bracelet • Isiagu • Islam and clothing • Islamic dress in Europe • Izaar

J • Jaapi • Jabot (neckwear) • Jackboot • Jacket • Jacket lapel • Jacquard • Jamavar • Jamdani • Jangot • Japanese armour • Japanese clothing • Japanese school uniform • Jazerant • Jazz shoe • Jeans • Jeep cap • Jeggings • Jelebiya • Jelick • Jellabiya • Jelly shoes • Jeogori • Jeonbok • Jeongjagwan • Jerkin (garment) • Jersey (clothing) • Jersey (fabric) • Jet (lignite) • Jewellery • Jewellery in the Pacific • Jewelry design • Jewish hat • Jewish religious clothing • Jilbāb • Jika-tabi • Jinbei • Jingle dress • Jipsin • Job skirt • Jobawi • Jockstrap • Jodhpur boot • Jodhpuri • Jodhpurs • Jōe • Jokduri • Jorabs • Jubba • Judogi • Jujutsugi • Juliet cap • Jump boot • Jump smock • Jumper (dress) • Jumpsoles • Jumpsuit • Jūnihitoe • Jupe (jacket) • Jussishirt • Justacorps • Jute • Jutti

K • Kabney • Kacchera • Kaftan • Kalaghai • Kalamkari • Kalimavkion • Kamleika • Kanchipuram Sari • Kanga (African garment) • Kantha • Kanthi Mala • Kanzashi • Kalpak • Kanzu • Kapa • Kappōgi • Karakul (hat) • Karate belts • Karate gi • Kariba suit • Kariyushi shirt • Kaross • Karvalakki • Kasa (hat) • Kasaya (clothing) • Kashket • Kasket • Kasta sari • Kasuti • Kate-bukuro • Kate Middleton effect • Kausia • Kebaya • Keffiyeh • Kegelhelm • Keikogi • Kemp (wool) • Kente cloth • Kepi • Kerchief • Kerseymere • Kesh (Sikhism) • Keski • Kettle hat • Khādī • Khaki • Khaki drill • Khalat • Khăn rằn • Khandua • Khara Dupatta • Khata • Khmer clothing • Kho (costume) • Kiahan (kyahan) • Kidan Habesha • Kidney belt • Kiekie (clothing) • Kijōka-bashōfu • Kilt • Kilt accessories • Kilt pin • Kimono • Kinky boots • Kiondo • Kippah • Kipper tie • Kira (Bhutan) • Kirtle • Kirza • Kitenge • Kittel • Kitten heel • Kitty Foyle (dress) • Kkachi durumagi • Klomp • Klobuk • Knee-high boot • Knee highs • Knickerbockers (clothing) • Knitted fabric • Knitting • Knochensack • Kofia (hat) • Kokoshnik • Kolhapuri chappal • Kolpik • Kolpos • Konos (helmet) • Kontusz • Korean school uniform • Kosa silk • Kosode • Kosovorotka • Kota Doria • Koteka • Koto (traditional clothing) • Koukoulion • Kowpeenam • Kozhukh • Kozhushanka • Krama • Kroje • Kubi bukuro • Kufi • Kumihimo • Kumkum • Kundan • Kupiah • Kurdish clothing • Kurta • Kurtka • Kuta (clothing) • Kuthampully Saree

L • Lace • Lace wig • Lacrosse glove • Lamba (garment) • Lambswool • Lamé (fabric) • Langa oni • Langota • Lap-lap • Lapel pin • Lappet • Late Roman ridge helmet • Latex clothing • Laticlave • Laundry • Laundry symbol • Laurel wreath • Lava-lava • Lavalier • Lawn cloth • Layered clothing • Layered hair • Layette • Le Smoking • Leading strings • Leather • Leather helmet • Leather jacket • Leather skirt • Lederhosen • Leg warmer • Leggings • Legskin • Lehenga Style Saree • Lei (garland) • Lèine bhàn • Leisure suit • Lensless glasses • Letterman (sports) • Liberty bodice • Liberty spikes • Lightweight Rucksack • Lika cap • Limerick lace • Linen • Linen clothes • Lingerie • Lingerie tape • Lining (sewing) • Liqui liqui • Liripipe • List of brassiere designs • List of crochet stitches • List of Han Chinese clothing • List of headgear • List of Korean clothing • List of types of fur • List of types of sartorial hijab • List of World War II uniforms and clothing • List of yarns for crochet and knitting • Little black dress • Little Lord Fauntleroy • Livery • Livery collar • Llauto • Lock ring • Lock stitch • Locking clothing • Loculus (satchel) • Loden cape • Loincloth • Lolita fashion • London Fashion Week • Long hair • Long-sleeved T-shirt • Long underwear • Longcloth • Longyi • Lookbook • Loom • Loose socks • Lopapeysa • Lord Anthony • Lorgnette • Lotus shoes • Love beads • Low cut sock • Low-rise jeans • Luckenbooth brooch • Lugade • Luhkka • Lungi • Lurex (yarn) • Lusekofte • Lux Style Award • Luyet • Lyocell

M • M-1941 Field Jacket • M-1951 field jacket • M-1965 field jacket • M42 jacket • M43 field cap • M98 battle uniform • MA-1 bomber jacket • MA-2 bomber jacket • Macaroni (fashion) • Mackinaw cloth • Mackintosh • Macramé • Made to measure • Madiba shirt • Madisar • Madras (cloth) • Madras (costume) • Magnetic boots • Magoja • Mahiole • Mail (armour) • Maillot • Makarapa • Malaysian batik • Malaysian cultural outfits • Malaysian school uniform • Male bra • Malong • Mandarin collar • Mandarin square • Mangalsutra • Manggeon • MANGO Fashion Awards • Mandilion • Manila shawl • Manillas • Maniple (vestment) • Manta (dress) • Mantelletta • Mantilla • Mantle (clothing) • Mantle (vesture) • Mantua (clothing) • Mantyhose • Mao suit • Māori traditional textiles • Marcasite jewellery • Marcelling • Maria Clara gown • Maroon beret • Mask • Mary Jane (shoe) • Matchy-Matchy • Matelassé • Maternity clothing • Matron's badge • Mawashi • Maxi dress • Maya textiles • Mechanical watch • Mechlin lace • Medebeli • Medical bag • Medical gloves • Medical identification tag • Medicine bag • Medieval jewelry • Mekhela chador • Memorial Bracelets • Men's skirts • Mengu (Japanese facial armour) • Mercerised cotton • Merino • Mesh • Mess dress • Mess jacket • Messenger bag • Metal corset • Metallic fiber • Mexican pointy boots • Microfiber • Microskirt • Midriff • Milan Fashion Week • Military beret • Minaudière • Miner's apron • Miner's cap • Miner's habit • Ming official headwear • Mining helmet • Miniskirt • Miniver • Mink • Mirrored sunglasses • Misanga • Mitre • Mitznefet (Israeli military) • Mixed martial arts clothing • Mob cap • Mobile phone charm • Moccasin • Mockado • Mod (subculture) • Modacrylic • Modern dress • Modern girl • Modern Irish Army uniform • Modius (headdress) • Mohair • Mohra (necklace) • Moire (fabric) • Mojari • Mohawk hairstyle • Moleskin • Money bag • Money belt • Money clip • Monk's cloth • Monk shoe • Monkey jacket • Monmouth cap • Monocle • Monokini • Montefortino helmet • Montenegrin cap • Montera • Montera picona • Moon Boot • Mooskappe • Mordant • Morion (helmet) • Morning dress • Morocco leather • Morphsuits • Mother Hubbard dress • Motley • Motorcycle boot • Motoring hood • Mountaineering boot • Mounteere Cap • Mourning • Muff (handwarmer) • Mufti (dress) • Mukluk • Mule (footwear) • Mullet (haircut) • Multi-Terrain Pattern • Mundu • Mundum Neriyathum • Muscadin • Mushanana • Muslin • Muu-muu • Myeonbok • Myeonje baegab • Mysore Peta

N • Nabedrennik • Naga shawl • Nainsook • Nakshi kantha • Namaksin • Namba (clothing) • Nambawi • Nankeen • Nanofiber • Nantucket Reds • Nap (textile) • Napa leather • Nasal helmet • National costumes of Poland • Nationella dräkten • Native American jewelry • Natural dye • Natural fiber • Nazi chic • NBA dress code • Neck corset • Neck gaiter • Neck ring • Neckerchief • Necklace • Neckline • Necktie • Neckwear • Needlepoint • Negligee • Nehru jacket • Neiman Marcus Fashion Award • Nemes • Neoprene • Net (textile) • Netela • New bespoke movement • New Year's glasses • New York Fashion Week • Newsboy cap • Nezela • Nightcap (garment) • Nightgown • Nightshirt • Ninon • Niqāb • Niqāb in Egypt • Noil • Nón quai thao • Nonwoven fabric • Norigae • Norfolk jacket • Nose-jewel • Nose piercing • Nosegay • Nubuck • Nurse uniform • Nurse's cap • Nursing bra • Nylon

O • Obi (martial arts) • Obi (sash) • Obi-ita • Ochipok • Ohaguro • Oilskin • Olefin fiber • Omega chain • Omophor • One-piece swimsuit • Onnara • Opanak • Open-crotch pants • Open drawers • Opera coat • Opinga • Orarion • Orenburg shawl • Organ shoes • Organdy • Organic clothing • Organic cotton • Organza • Ostrich leather • Ottoman (textile) • Ottoman clothing • Outerwear • Oven glove • Over-the-knee boot • Overall • Overcoat • Overfrock • Overskirt • Oxford (cloth) • Oxford bags • Oxford shoe

P • Paambadam • Paduasoy • Paduka • Paenula • Pageboy • Pahlavi hat • Pagri (turban) • Paisley (design) • Paithani • Pajamas • Pakistani clothing • Pakol • Palazzo trousers • Palestinian costumes • Palla (garment) • Pallium • Paludamentum • Pampootie • Panama hat • Pangi (Maroon) • Panling Lanshan • Pannier (clothing) • Pantalettes • Panties • Pants • Pantsuit • Panty line • Pantyhose • Pantyhose for men • Papakhi • Papal fanon • Papal shoes • Papal Slippers • Papal tiara • Paper clothing • Papoose • Parachute pants • Paranja • Pareo • Paris Fashion Week • Party dress • Party hat • Parure • Pas kontuszowy (sash) • Pasapali Sari • Pashmina • Pashtun dress • Pasiking • Passementerie • Pasties • Patchwork • Patent leather • Patiala salwar • Patrol cap • Patten (shoe) • Pattern grading • Pattern (sewing) • Pattu pavadai • Pea coat • Peaked cap • Pectoral (Ancient Egypt) • Pectoral cross • Pedal pushers • Peep-toe shoe • Peineta (comb) • Pelisse • Pelvic protector • Pencil skirt • Pencil suit • Pendilia • Peplos • Peplum (disambiguation) • Peplum jacket • Perak (headdress) • Peranakan beaded slippers • Percale • Persian clothing • Persian embroidery • Persian hat • Persian weave • Personal Clothing System • Personal protective equipment • Peshawari chappal • Petasos • Peter Pan collar • Petersham ribbon • Petite size • Petticoat • Petticoat breeches • Pettipants • Phat pants • Phelonion • Pheta (turban) • Phoenix crown • Phra Kiao • Phrygian cap • Phrygian type helmet • Phulkari • Physical training uniform • Piccadill • Picnic hat • Picot • Pien Fu • Pigtail • Pile (textile) • Pile weave • Pileus (hat) • Pilgrim's hat • Pill (textile) • Pillbox hat • Pima cotton • Pin-back button • Pin stripes • Piña • Pinafore • Pince-nez • Pinking shears • Piping (sewing) • Piqué • Pith helmet • Pixie cut • Placket • Plague doctor costume • Plaid (pattern) • Plain dress • Plain weave • Plastic clothing • Plastic pants • Plate armour • Platform boot • Platform shoe • Playsuit (children's clothing) • Playsuit (lingerie) • Pleat • Pledge pin • Plimsoll shoe • Plus fours • Plus-size clothing • Plush • Po (clothing) • Pocket • Pocket protector • Pocket watch • Podvorotnichok • Poet shirt • Point de Venise • Pointe shoe • Pointed hat • Pointed shoe • Pointinini • Poke bonnet • Polar fleece • Police duty belt • Police uniforms and equipment in the United Kingdom • Political t-shirt • Political uniform • Polka dot • Pollera • Polo neck • Polo shirt • Polonaise (clothing) • Polos • Polyester • Polypropylene • Pom-pon • Pompadour (hairstyle) • Poncho • Pongee • Pontifical vestments • Ponytail • Poodle skirt • Poplin • Pork pie hat • Portmanteau (luggage) • Possum-skin cloak • POW bracelet • Power dressing • Prairie skirt • Pram suit • Pratt knot • Prayer shawl • Preppy • Presidential sash • Priestly robe (Judaism) • Priestly sash • Priestly tunic • Priestly turban • Priestly undergarments • Prince Albert piercing • Princess seams • Printed T-shirt • Printer's hat • Prison uniform • Privilège du blanc • Provence • Pteruges • Pudding hat • Puletasi • Puneri Pagadi • Pungcha • Purdah • Purse • Purse hook • Puttee

Q • Qeleshe • Qing official headwear • Quadrille dress • Queue (hairstyle) • Quiff • Quilting • Quoit (brooch)

R • Rabbit hair • Raccoon coat • Racing flat • Raffia palm • Raglan sleeve • Rah-rah skirt • Rain pants • Raincoat • Raj pattern • Rajshahi silk • Rakusu • Rally cap • Ramie • Randoseru • Rash guard • Rastacap • Rationale (clothing) • Rawhide (textile) • Rayadillo • Rayon • Ready-to-wear • Rebozo • Recycling • Red beret • Red carpet fashion • Red coat (British army) • Red Sea rig • Redingote • Redresseur corset • Reimiro • Rekel • Religious attire • Religious clothing • Religious habit • Resist dyeing • Resort wear • Reticella • Revers • Reversible garment • Rhinegraves • Rhinestone • Ribbing (knitting) • Ribbon • Ribbon work • Rickrack • Riding boot • Riding habit • Riding Mac Fashion • Rigger boot • Right to clothing • Riha (garment) • Rimless eyeglasses • Ring (jewellery) • Ring size • Ringer T-shirt • Ringlet (haircut) • Ripstop • Roach (headdress) • Robe • Robe de style • Rochet • Rocker bottom shoe • Rogatywka • Roller printing on textiles • Roller shoes • Roller skate • Romanian dress • Romper suit • Rondel (armour) • Rosemount Ski Boots • Royal Air Force uniform • Royal Navy uniform • Ruby slippers • Ruana • Rubber glove • Rubber pants • Ruff (clothing) • Ruffle • Rugby shirt • Rugby shorts • Rugby socks • Rumāl • Running shorts • Ruqun • Russian boot

S • Sabaton • Sable • Sabot (shoe) • Sabretache • Sack-back gown • Saddle shoe • Saekdongot • Safari jacket • Safari suit • Sagging (fashion) • Sagum • Sagyusam • Sailcloth • Sailor cap • Sailor suit • Šajkača • Sakkos • Salako • Salakot • Sallet • Saltwater sandals • Sam Browne belt • Sambalpuri saree • Samite • Sampot • Sampot Samloy • Samue • Sanbenito • Sandal • Sanforization • Sangu (armour) • Sans-culottes • Santa suit • Sarafan • Saran (plastic) • Sari • Sarong • Sarpech • Sash • Satchel (bag) • Sateen • Satin • Satin weave • Satlada • Sauna suit • Savile Row • Sbai • Scapular • Scarf • School uniform • School uniforms in England • School uniforms in Sri Lanka • Scissors-glasses • Scogger • Scoop neck • Scrambled egg (uniform) • Screen printing • Scrimmage vest • Scrubs (clothing) • Scrum cap • Scrunchie • Sea silk • Seaboot • See-through clothing • Seersucker • Sehra • Selburose • Self-fabric • Selvage • Semi-casual • Semi-formal • Senegalese kaftan • Senninbari • Sennit • Senufo Bird • Sequin • Serape • Serbian national costume • Serge • Sericin • Set-saree • Setesdalsbunad • Sgian-dubh • Shadbelly • Shagreen • Shahmina • Shahtoosh • Shako • Shalwar kameez • Shalu (sari) • Shahmina • Shank (footwear) • Sharkskin • Sharovary • Shawl • Shearling • Shearling coat • Sheath dress • Sheepskin • Sheepskin boots • Sheer fabric • Sheitel • Shell cordovan • Shell gorget • Shell jacket • Shell stitch • Shendyt • Shenyi • Sherwani • Shetland wool • Shingle bob • Shinobi shōzoku • Shiraro • Shirizaya • Shirring • Shirt • Shirt stays • Shirt stud • Shirtdress • Shisha (embroidery) • Shitagi • Shmarjet • Shoe • Shoe buckle • Shoe size • Shoe tree • Shoehorn • Shoelace knot • Shoelaces • Shoemaking • Shorts • Shot silk • Shoulder pads • Shoulder pads (fashion) • Shoulder strap • Shower cap • Shpitzel • Shrug (clothing) • Shtreimel • Shutter Shades • Šibenik cap • Side cap • Sign language glove • Sikh chola • Silambu • Silhouette • Silk • Simar • Sindhi cap • Single-breasted • Sirwal • Sisal • Size zero • Skate shoes • Skeleton suit • Ski boot • Ski helmet • Ski suit • Skirt • Skort • Skufia • Slap bracelet • Sleeve • Sleeve garter • Sleeved blanket • Sleeveless shirt • Slide (footwear) • Slim-fit pants • Sling bag • Slingback • Slip (clothing) • Slip-on shoe • Slipper • Slouch hat • Slouch socks • Small knot • Smart casual • Smock-frock • Smock Parachutist DPM • Smocking • Smoking cap • Smoking jacket • Snap fastener • Snapback (hat) • Sneakers (footwear) • Snood (headgear) • Snow boot • Snowboarding jacket • Snowboarding pants • Snowshoe • Social impact of thong underwear • Sock • Sokutai • Sombrero • Sombrero calañés • Sombrero cordobés • Sombrero de catite • Sombrero Vueltiao • Sonepuri Sari • Song official headwear • Songket • Songkok • Soutache • South American fashion • Spaghetti strap • Spandex • Spangenhelm • Spanish breeches • Spats (footwear) • Spectator shoe • Speedsuit • Spencer (clothing) • Spinning (textiles) • Splittermuster • Spodik • Spool heel • Spoon busk • Sporran • Sport coat • Sports bra • Sports visor • Sportswear (activewear) • Sportswear (fashion) • Sprang • Spur • Square academic cap • Square leg suit • St. Tropez belt • Stab vest • The Stackhat • Starter jacket • Station wear • Stayclip • Steek • Steel-toe boot • Stetson • Sticharion • Stiletto heel • Stirrup pants • Stock tie • Stocking • Stola • Stole (shawl) • Stole (vestment) • Stomacher • Stormy Kromer cap • Strap • Strapless dress • Straw • Straw hat • Street fashion • String bag • Stripweave • Stroller (style) • Student cap • Student overall • Stump sock • Style line • Style tribe • Šubara • Subligaculum • Suea khrui • Suede • Suit (clothing) • Sumptuary law • Sun hat • Sundress • Sunglasses • Supermodel • Surcingle belt • Surcoat • Surplice • Surtout • Suspenders • Sustainable fashion • Swaddling • Sweater • Sweater design • Sweater girl • Sweater vest • Sweatpants • Swedish goggles • Swedish Military Uniform • Swim briefs • Swim cap • Swim diaper • Swimsuit • Synthesis (clothing)

T • T-Bar Sandals • T-shirt • T-skirt • Ta'ovala • Tabard • Tabi • Tactel • Tactical pants • Taffeta • Tagelmust • Tailcoat • Tainia (costume) • Takchita • Tallit • Tally (cap) • Tam o' Shanter (cap) • Tambour lace • Tan beret • Tang official headwear • Tanga (clothing) • Tanggeon • Tangzhuang • Tanker boot • Tankini • Tantour • Tap pants • Tapa cloth • Tapestry crochet • Tapis (Philippine clothing) • Taqiyah (cap) • Taranga (clothing) • Tartan • Tascu (cap) • Tassel • Tatami (Japanese armour) • Tatting • Tattooing • Tau robe • Tea gown • Teddy (garment) • Tēfui • Telnyashka • Telogreika • Tembel hat • Temple garment • Temple ring • Temple robes • Teneriffe lace • Tengura • Tent dress • Terrycloth • Textile printing • Textiles and dresses of Assam • Thaar • Thai fisherman pants • Thali necklace • Thawb • Théâtre de la Mode • Thigh-high boots • Third jersey • Thong (clothing) • Thracian clothing • Thread count • Three quarter pants • Throwback uniform • Tiara • Tichel • Tie chain • Tie clip • Tie-dye • Tie pin • Tiger-head shoes • Tigerstripe • Tight trousers • Tightlacing • Tights • Tignon • Tilfi • Tilmàtli • Timeline of clothing and textiles technology • Tippet • Titovka (cap) • Tobi trousers • Toe cleavage • Toe tights • Toe socks • Toego • Toga • Toile • Tokin • Tomesode • Tønder lace • Tonsure • Top (clothing) • Top hat • Topee • Topi (cap) • Topi (disambiguation) • Topor (headgear) • Toque • Torc • Torchon lace • Torsolette • Tote bag • Toupée • Toupha • Trabea • Tracht • Track spikes • Tracksuit • Trading jacket • Traditional Albanian clothing • Traditional dyes of the Scottish Highlands • Traditional Welsh costume • Train (clothing) • Training bra • Training corset • Traje de flamenca • Traje de luces • Trapper (ice hockey) • Trashion • Travel pack • Tregging • Trench boot • Trench coat • Tressoir • Trews • Tricana poveira • Tricorne • Triglavka • Trilby • Trim (sewing) • Troentorp Clogs • Trousers • Trucker hat • Trunks (clothing) • Tsarouhi • Tsujigahana • Tsunokakushi • Tube top • Tubeteika • Tudong • Tudor bonnet • Tulle bi telli • Tulle netting • Tunic • Tunica molesta • Tunicle • Tunisian crochet • Tupenu • Tuque • Turban • Turkish trousers • Turnshoe • Tussar • Tuxedo • Tweed (cloth) • Twill • Twinset • Type 07 • Type 97 Service Dress • Tyrolean hat • Tzitzit U • Ugg boots • Uchi-bukuro • UK Lingerie Awards • Ukrainian embroidery • Ukrainian wreath • Ulster coat • Ultra sheer • Ultrasuede • Umbrella • Umbrella Hat • Undergarment • Underpants • Undershirt • Underwear as outerwear • Underwire bra • Uniform • Uniform (gymnastics) • Uniform beret • Uniforms of La Grande Armée • Uniforms of the American Civil War • Uniforms of the Confederate States military forces • Uniforms of the Singapore Police Force • Union suit • Unisex dress • Unit Colour Patch • Unitard • Updo • Upturned collar • US standard clothing size • Usekh collar • Ushanka • Utility clothing • Utility cover • Uttariya • Uwa-obi • Uwabaki • Uwagi

V • Valenciennes lace • Valenki • Vambrace • Vanity sizing • Vat dye • Veil • Veilkini • Velcro • Veldskoen • Velour • Velvet • Velveteen • Venetian style shoe • Vent (tailoring) • Vest • Vestment • Vibram FiveFingers • Victorian dress reform • Victorian fashion • Vicuña • Vietnamese clothing • Virago sleeve • Viscose • Visor • Vista All Terrain Pattern • Viyella • Vo Phuc • Voile • Vyshyvanka

W • Waders (footwear) • Waxed jacket • Waist (clothing) • Waist cincher • Waistcoat • Waistline (clothing) • Walk shorts • Wallet • Wallet band • War bonnet • Waraji • Wardrobe (clothing) • Warp knitting • Warp printing • Warp (weaving) • Wasp waist • Watch • Water polo cap • Water shoe • Webbed belt • Wearable art • Wearable technology • Weaving • Wedding dress • Wedding sari • Weft • Weighted silk • Wellington boot • Welsh hat • Welt (shoe) • Western cosmetics in the 1970s • Western wear • Wetsuit • Wetsuit boots • Whale tail • Whipcord • White clothing (religious) • White coat • White tie • Wide leg jeans • Wig • Wild silk • Willy warmer • Wimple • Windbreaker • Windproof smock • Windsor knot • Windsor uniform • Wine country casual • Wings (haircut) • Winklepicker • Woggle • Women wearing pants • Women's clothing in China • Women's oversized fashion in the United States since the 1920s • Wonju (Bhutan) • Wonsam • Woodblock printing on textiles • Wool • Wörishofer • World War II German uniform • Worsted • Woven fabric • Wrap (clothing) • Wrap dress • Wrapper (clothing) • Wreath (attire) • Wrestling shoe • Wrestling singlet • Wristband

X • Xhaqete Y • Yak lace • Yanggwan • Yarn • Yashmak • Yếm • Yoga pants • Yoke (clothing) • Yuanlingshan • Yukata

Z • Zardozi • Zari • Zazou • Zentai • Zephyr (garment) • Zephyr cloth • Zephyrina Jupon • Zhiduo (clothing) • Zibellino • Zierscheibe • Zipper • Zone (vestment) • Zonnar • Zoot suit • Zōri • Zoster (costume) • Zouave • Zouave jacket • Zucchetto • Żupan • Zuria

See also • List of grands couturiers http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poir/hd_poir.htm

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Every decade has its seer or sybil of style, a designer who, above all others, is able to divine and define the desires of women. In the 1910s, this oracle of the mode was Paul Poiret, known in America as "The King of Fashion." In Paris, he was simply Le Magnifique, after Süleyman the Magnificent, a suitable soubriquet for a couturier who, alongside the all-pervasive influence of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, employed the language of orientalism to develop the romantic and theatrical possibilities of clothing. Like his artistic confrere Léon Bakst, Poiret's exoticized tendencies were expressed through his use of vivid color coordinations and enigmatic silhouettes such as his iconic "lampshade" tunic and his "harem" trousers, or pantaloons. However, these orientalist fantasies (or, rather, fantasies of the Orient) have served to detract from Poiret's more enduring innovations, namely his technical and marketing achievements. Poiret effectively established the canon of modern dress and developed the blueprint of the modern fashion industry. Such was his vision that Poiret not only changed the course of costume history but also steered it in the direction of modern design history.

In Paris, he was simply Le Magnifique, a suitable soubriquet for a couturier who employed the language of orientalism to develop the romantic and theatrical possibilities of clothing. Related Timelines (7) Primary Thematic Essays (5) Other Thematic Essays (20) Maps (4) Index Terms (20) Share

Poiret's route into couture followed the common practice of shopping around one's drawings of original fashion designs. His efforts were rewarded in 1898, when the couturière Madeleine Chéruit bought twelve of his designs. In the same year, he began working for Jacques Doucet, one of the most prominent couturiers in Paris. According to Poiret's memoirs, My First Fifty Years (1931), the first design he created for the house was a red wool cloak with gray crêpe de chine lining and revers, which sold 400 copies. But it was a mantle he made for the actress Réjane in a play called Zaza that would secure his fame. Using the stage as a runway was to become a typical strategy of Poiret's marketing practices, enabling him to present his most avant-garde creations. The mantle was of black tulle over a black taffeta that had been painted by Billotey, then a famous fan painter, with large white and mauve irises. In Poiret's words, "All the sadness of a romantic dénouement, all the bitterness of a fourth act, were in this so- expressive cloak, and when they saw it appear, the audience foresaw the end of the play . . Thenceforth, I was established, chez Doucet and in all of Paris." By the time he left Doucet in 1900 to fulfill his military service, Poiret had risen to become head of the tailoring department.

In 1901, Poiret joined the House of Worth, where he was asked to create what Gaston Worth (the son of Charles Frederick Worth, the eponymous founder) called "fried potatoes," simple, practical garments that were side dishes to Worth's main course of "truffles," opulent evening and reception gowns. One of his "fried potatoes," a cloak made from black wool and cut along straight lines like the kimono, proved too simple for one of Worth's royal clients, the Russian princess Bariatinsky, who on seeing it cried, "What horror; with us, when there are low fellows who run after our sledges and annoy us, we have their heads cut off, and we put them in sacks just like that." Her reaction, however, prompted Poiret to found his own maison de couture in 1903 at 5 rue Auber. Later, in 1906, he moved his atelier to 37 rue Pasquier, and then, in 1909, to 9 avenue d'Antin. Two years later, he established a perfume and cosmetics company named after his eldest daughter, Rosine, and a decorative arts company named after his second daughter, Martine, both located at 107 Faubourg Saint-Honoré. In so doing, he was the first couturier to align fashion with interior design and promote the concept of a "total lifestyle."

While Poiret learned his craft at two of the oldest and most revered couture houses, he spent his first decade as an independent couturier not only breaking with established conventions of dressmaking, but subverting and eventually destroying their underlying presumptions. He began with the body, liberating it first from the petticoat in 1903 and then from the corset in 1906. Although constantly shifting in its placement, the corseted waistline, which had persisted almost without interruption since the Renaissance, divided the female form into two distinct masses. By 1900, it promoted an S-curve silhouette with large, forward-projecting breasts and equally large backward-protruding bottom. In promoting an uncorseted silhouette, Poiret presented an integrated and intelligible corporeality. He was not alone in this vision of dress reform. Lucile (also known as Lady Duff Gordon) and Madeleine Vionnet also advanced an uncorseted silhouette, but it was Poiret, largely owing to his acumen for publicity, who became most widely associated with the new look.

In freeing women from corsets and dissolving the fortified grandeur of the obdurate, hyperbolic silhouette, Poiret effected a concomitant revolution in dressmaking, one that shifted the emphasis away from the skills of tailoring to those based on the skills of draping. It was a radical departure from the couture traditions of the nineteenth century, which, like menswear (to which they were indebted), relied on pattern pieces, or more specifically the precision of pattern making, for their efficacy. Looking to both antique and regional dress types, most notably to the Greek chiton, the Japanese kimono, and the North African and Middle Eastern caftan, Poiret advocated fashions cut along straight lines and constructed of rectangles. Such an emphasis on flatness and planarity required a complete reversal of the optical effects of fashion. The cylindrical wardrobe replaced the statuesque, turning, three-dimensional representation into two-dimensional abstraction. It was a strategy that dethroned the primacy and destabilized the paradigm of Western fashion.

Poiret's process of design through draping is the source of fashion's modern forms. It introduced clothing that hung from the shoulders and facilitated a multiplicity of possibilities. Poiret exploited its fullest potential by launching, in quick succession, a series of designs that were startling in their simplicity and originality. From 1906 to 1911, he presented garments that promoted an etiolated, high-waisted Directoire Revival silhouette. Different versions appeared in two limited-edition albums, Paul Iribe's Les robes de Paul Poiret (1908) and Georges Lepape's Les choses de Paul Poiret (1911), early examples of Poiret's attempts to cement the relationship between art and fashion (later expressed in collaborations with Erté and Raoul Dufy, among others). Both albums relied on the stenciling technique known as pochoir, resulting in brilliantly saturated areas of color (2009.300.1289). It was an approach that not only reflected the novelty of Poiret's designs but also his unique palette. Indeed, although the columnar garments depicted in the pochoirs referenced Neoclassicism, their acidic colors and exotic accessorization, most notably turbans wrapped à la Madame de Staël, were more an expression of orientalism (as were several cocoon or kimono coats for which Poiret was known throughout his career).

Spurred on by the success of the Ballets Russes production of Schéhérazade in 1910, Poiret gave full vent to his orientalist sensibilities, launching a sequence of fantastical confections, including "harem" pantaloons in 1911 and "lampshade" tunics in 1913 (earlier, in 1910, Poiret had introduced hobble skirts, which also can be interpreted as an expression of his orientalism). As well as hosting a lavish fancy-dress party in 1911 called "The Thousand and Second Night," in which the fashions and the scenography reflected a phantasmagoric mythical East, he also designed costumes for several theatrical productions with orientalist themes, most notably Jacques Richepin's Le Minaret, which premiered in Paris in 1913 and presented the couturier with a platform on which to promote his "lampshade" silhouette. Even when Poiret reopened his fashion business after World War I, during which he served as a military tailor, orientalism continued to exercise a powerful influence over his creativity. By this time, however, its fashionability had been overshadowed by modernism. Utility, function, and rationality supplanted luxury, ornament, and sensuality. Poiret could not reconcile the ideals and aesthetics of modernism with those of his own artistic vision, a fact that contributed not only to his diminished popularity in the 1920s but also, ultimately, to the closure of his business in 1929.

It is ironic that Poiret rejected modernism, given that his technical and commercial innovations were fundamental to its emergence and development. But although Poiret's orientalism was at odds with modernism, both ideologically and aesthetically, it served as the principal expression of his modernity, enabling him to radically transform the couture traditions of the Belle Époque. While Poiret may have been fashion's last great orientalist, he was also its first great modernist. Harold Koda The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Andrew Bolton The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Citation Koda, Harold, and Andrew Bolton. "Paul Poiret (1879–1944)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poir/hd_poir.htm (September 2008)

Further Reading Davis, Mary E. Classic Chic: Music, Fashion, and Modernism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Deslandres, Yvonne. Poiret: Paul Poiret, 1879–1944. New York: Rizzoli, 1987. Koda, Harold, and Andrew Bolton. Poiret. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007. Lepape, Claude, and Thierry Denfert. From the Ballets Russes to Vogue: The Art of Georges Lepape. New York: Vendome Press, 1984. Martin, Richard. Cubism and Fashion. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. Milbank, Caroline. "Paul Poiret." In Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, edited by Valerie Steele. Detroit: Thomson, 2005. Paul Poiret et Nicole Groult: Maîtres de la mode art déco: Musée de la Mode et du Costume, Palais Galliéra. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Édition Paris Musées, 1986. La création en liberté: Univers de Denise et Paul Poiret, 1905–1928. 2 vols. Paris: PIASA, 2005. Poiret, Paul. En habillent l'époque. Paris: Grasset, 1930. Poiret, Paul. My First Fifty Years. Translated by Stephen Haden Guest. London: Victor Gollancz, 1931. Poiret, Paul. Art et phynance. Paris: Lutetia, 1934. Silver, Kenneth E. Esprit de corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914–1925. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. Steele, Valerie. Paris Fashion: A Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Troy, Nancy J. Couture Culture: A Study in Modern Art and Fashion. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003. Weill, Alain. La mode parisienne: La Gazette du Bon Ton, 1912–1925. Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Image, 2000. White, Palmer. Poiret. New York: C. N. Potter, 1973. Wollen, Peter. Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Druesedow, Jean L. "In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of The Costume Institute." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 45, no. 2 (Fall, 1987). JSTOR | PDF | Supplemental PDFs