1990-2000

1990's fashion was more subtle and minimalistic than 1980's fashion, brought back the return of the more minimal style from the 50's and 70's. Women wore oversized T-shirts and sweatshirts, overalls, wind-pants, straight leg jeans and baggy jeans. in the US people dressing down lead to informality, comfort and athletic look, override business attire. Main trends of this decade were grunge, neon colours, bare midriff, two piece formal.

Towards the start of the decade continued the more obvious, in your face, style of the 1980's, the neon colours. This was a very different style to grunge as it was a feminine, brightly coloured tight fitting clothing style unlike grunge which is the contrast to that.

Grunge a new style started by youth culture; messy uncombed, not a lot of effort. Many teens adopted this trend and was associated with tattoos, body piercings and body modifications. Women and men both were introduced to the popular trend and was worn by most youths for the decade. Women's fashion garments for this style would be flannel shirts, ripped jeans, combat boots, band T-shirts, oversized knit jumpers, mom jeans, long and droopy skirts, ripped tights, Doc Martens, Birkenstocks, and hiking boots. All very casual attire steering away from smarter business dress. The grunge style was highlighted on the TV series 'My So Called Life'.

 

1980-1990

The 1980's was a year to remember for fashion whether people hated it or not it was an outstanding decade for a big change in fashion. The 80's had a wide mix of fashions and styles influenced by many different factors; power dressing, new romantic look, rap music, and most importantly money.
Lots of fashion Phenomenon's happened in this decade; skirt lengths continued to vary between mini, midi or maxi, platform shoes were worn by men and women.

As the world was becoming more multicultural and interlinked culture became a big thing and styles from other countries and cultures were adopted by people, tunics and Indian styles became popular.

 

Popular fashion crazes in the 1980's were; Leg warmers, flared trousers, logo wear, exercise wear, designer jeans, denim and lycra.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The fitness boom of the 1980s, as part of this self-conscious and self indulgent decade, spawned a fashion trend that took dance and exercise wear from the studio and gym to the runway and the street. Tracksuits and exercise wear became acceptable daywear becoming more and more fashionable.Jane Fonda sported neon leotards and leg warmers in her exercise videos and women soon embraced them as functional fashion. The aerobics craze influenced designer fashion with Lycra and other body conscious fabrics and styles infusing the dress designs of Azzedine Alaia and bodysuits by Donna Karan.

 

A big part of fashion is influences and idols, in the 1980's there was many fashion influences to which people looked up to and aspired to style like. some style icons were Madonna, Joan Colllins, Princess Diana etc.

 

 

The decade for disco 1970-1980

This decade contrasts with the last decade as women’s wear bounced back to a more masculine look, pantsuits, day wear, overalls, women emerging into the work place more meant that they needed more practical clothing. This decade was very different to previous decades in fashion as unlike other eras where women wore specific dresses in length and style very similar to each other, in the 70's women would where a large variety of  clothing like skirts, pants, pants suits, dresses. From the previous decades with a specific hem length for each decade changed as in this decade hemlines varied as skirts could be seen in different lengths; mini, midi or maxi. For eveningwear women often wore full length maxi dresses, evening trousers or glamorous halter neck catsuits.

The hippie flower child look from the late 1960s carried over into the first half of the decade in a non-restrictive bohemian silhouette with a heavy folksy influence. This allowed people to embrace the non-silhouette look with loose fitted clothing and allowed the embrace of different ethic culture styles, with Indian style prints, free flowing clothing, breezy gauzy tent dresses and wide legged pants.

 

Trousers and trouser suits were serious fashions in the 1970s. Pants began gently flared and reached wide bell bottom proportions by about 1975. This then began to slowly reduce again to wide, straight leg, until by the end of the 70’s they reduced back to a narrow leg. Popular fabrics included heavy crepes, wool jersey knits, Courtelle jersey and woven Polyester suiting such as Trevira. Colour was an important thing in the 70’s as Emerald green, apple green and bottle green were all favoured fashion colours of the early 1970s.

The decade for disco. The 1970’s was the era where disco became the craze Disco looks began in the 1970s and was memorable for its hot pants look and Spandex tops. Shiny clinging Lycra stretch disco pants in hot strident shiny colours with stretch sequin bandeau tops were often adaptations of professional modern dance wear that found itself making an impact in discos as disco dancing became serious. Gold lame, leopard skin and stretch halter jumpsuits and white clothes that glowed in Ultra Violet lights capture the 70s Disco fashion perfectly. Satin jackets that reflected the light and a medallion resting on a tanned chest in an open neck shirt with the collar turned up were de rigueur.

 

Media also played a part in the up building of the population for disco; Films like Saturday Night Fever of 1977 as John Travolta illustrates in the header, emphasised how important the importance of the weekend after a long working week, persuading people to go out the weekend for ‘disco’. Posing clothes designed to show off the body and made in materials like figure moulding stretch Lycra were ideal.

Changing face of Fashion 1960-1970

1960’s fashion was  dominated  by youth culture. The post War baby boom had created millions of teenagers for the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the politics of the decade.The 1960's began with crew cuts on men and bouffant hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid and buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were required wear for women in most public places. By 1965 miniskirts or hot pants, often worn with go-go boots, were revealing legs and curves, and women's hair was either very short or long and lanky. Menswear had a much needed renaissance; bright colours, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in vogue.

Early 1960's- Predominated by high profile French and London based fashion designers. Fashions in the early 1960’s reflected the elegance of the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Pillbox hats were worn with suits with short boxy jackets, and over-sized buttons. Simple, geometric dresses, known as shifts, were also in style. For evening wear, full-skirted evening gowns were worn; these often had a low neck line and had close-fitting waists. For casual wear, capri trousers were the fashion for women and girls. Stiletto heel shoes were widely popular.

 

 

Mary Quant Mid 1960’s- In 1955 Mary Quant began designing clothes for her shop (Bazaar) in King’s Road, London. Her clothes were not cheap but reflected a rise in the power of young people who wanted to express themselves through fashion.

Some say that she ‘invented’ the mini skirt, but it was probably more the product of the times rather than a brand new fashion idea.

Hem lines started to creep up in the late 1950’s and were shortest at the time this dress was designed in 1967. Indeed, the white band on the bottom of this dress (thought to be called ‘Peggy’), suggests the original dress was designed to be even shorter than it finally was. Designs were ‘unfussy’, easy to wear garments, made of materials such as wool jersey.

 

Her designs became so popular that she later launched a lower priced ‘Ginger-Group’ ready to wear range, which made her and her designs a household name and huge commercial success.

Beatniks- Mary Quant was influenced by Chelsea beatniks and dance outfits she remembered from childhood.

Her clothes were made up of simple shapes combined with strong colours.

 

Pierre Cardin- His interest in architecture showed up in the geometric shapes which became his trademark in the 1960s.

His dresses were decorated with circular and rectangular motifs. He preferred crisp, supple textiles like wool crepe and jersey. His designs appealed to the wider public.

Cardin was also fascinated by new 'space age' materials like vinyl, silver fabrics and large zips. He added moulded plastic visors to helmet-like hats to make them resemble astronauts' headgear.

Givenchy- By contrast to the youthful Mary Quant Givenchy creations concentrated on haute couture, which, at the time, seemed a little out of touch to some critics. However, in 1968, a New York Times reporter wrote that Givenchy's “evening clothes…have a perfection that not many designers show these days.”

In retrospect, Givenchy's designs had a timeless appeal lacking in trendier late 1960s designs. The black evening dresses featured here retain their elegance and could easily be worn today.

This dress epitomises quality - a delicate triangle of a black coq feather dress flowing from a small black velvet silk bodice.

Late 1960’s fashion - Male fashions in 1968 reflected the growing tendency to mix and match a wide variety of materials, styles and accessories. It was an exciting time in men’s fashion.
Tailored suits gave way to a unprecedented array of daring styles. Men wore turtlenecks, Nehru jackets and jewelled pendants. Even bright madras plaids were challenged by the flower-splashed resort blazers.

 

1950-1960

Dior’s 1947 New Look had been embraced by public this brought a new positive light after the depression and the war, it brought new hope and style for women. After the war, men adopted an Edwardian Style of dress.

This was a very feminine era contrasting from the last decade from which women had to dress rather masculine to fit with the work in factories, therefore women tried to emphasis feminism; they wore makeup for everyday outings, gloves became popular, most women wore earrings. This was all inspired by the new style of ‘the perfectly groomed women’.

 

Following with the feminist craze women looked up to people like Audrey Hepburn as idols, as she became the best known and most copied of all famous faces. The hourglass figure was still continued as women’s idols like Audrey Hepburn’s clothing highlighted an hourglass figure which women aspired to style like. Women would also wear heels on a very regular occasion; ‘the stiletto’ shoe became the biggest craze since Dior’s “New Look” it introduced heels into womens fashion as still to present day heels are a very popular choice for work wear or evening wear.

 

Although in this era women dressed very feminine, there was a change in this decade for clothing as a result of people becoming more family orientated as men and women spent more time at home with their families and doing household chores around the house so women dressed in a more practical way for ‘wifely’ roles. They would wear more house dresses for practically even when taking outings for errands. As the country got out of depression people had more disposable income so families would take annual holidays therefore beachwear became very popular. In 1947 the first bikini was unveiled.

 

As designers began experimenting with silhouettes the sack dress was introduced by Balenciaga (Spanish designer) changed the restricted waistline. Then Dior created the tunic dress, very off the body draping no figure hugging or hourglass shaped garments, changing silhouettes dramatically.

 

 

Blue jeans were another huge craze in this era and became popular for lots of different people and functions. They were very popular with teenagers in this decade and also worn as work wear and practicality. “I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes” Yves Saint Laurent. Levi strauss introduced the blue jean in 1873 which became one of the biggest fashion innovations ever. The classic levi 501 jeans founded a fashion phenomenon which from then on all designers and companies have adapted and used this design and it’s such an innovative and successful design.

 

 

1940-1950

In this period World war 2 took over starting in 1939 and ending in 1945, this changed everything including fashion. As rationing became a big thing after the war because of the war, rationing clothes was also introduced. Because of extreme rationing and different living conditions people got used to a different way of life; women had to work, they got used to wearing trousers, which in earlier eras would never be accepted. People and the Media began to strive for victory/ peace such as when vogue began new slogans like ‘dig for victory’. Vogue ran articles on “your one and only dress”. Silk and other materials were banned from public use. Rations even meant that American Soldiers became a source for nylon stockings.

The war brought the country together as a unit. Military detailing on civilian clothing gave the wearer a sense of unity. Even some Wedding dresses were designed with a utility, uniform line in mind this allowed even fashion of public to feel like they were supporting they country in this rough time and believed they could win, many people showed this by adapting there clothing like this to show unity. Materials that were needed for military purposes were restricted for civilian use. Utility and practicality became more fashionable and “Rosie the Riveter” was created as a role model.

 

 

Due the large amount of work load women were called in to do as the men were off fighting they had to adapt their clothing and style to the work place bringing a social and cultural change. This meant that women working in factories would have to wear overalls and have to have their hair tied up for health and safety.  Slacks, once considered scandalous and fit only for the boudoir, gained popularity.

 

February 1947 brought one of fashion history’s most dramatic events – Christian Dior’s explosive first collection hit the runway. He named the collection the Corolle line however it was better known by public and press as ‘New Look’. This was a positive end to the war and had an explosive effect on public as the style became a craze; rounded shoulders, exaggerated bust lines, wasp waists and padded hips and long, often extravagantly full skirts that required an exorbitant amount of fabric.