🗊Our British fashion awareness in the II part of the XX century

Our British fashion awareness in the II part of the XX century

Introduction Too many words are said about fashion…. Too many colorful reference books can be found on the shelves. Picturesque magazines with attractive models are displayed everywhere. All looks like a fairy tale…… But why is this fairy tale almost about French designers and fashion houses? Is there any English connection and what is this story like in my country and particularly in my city in the time when my parents and grand parents were young? Did we have the same trends in fashion with Great Britain for the same periods? We decided to study this subject by the example of the latter half of the XXth century, taking them by decades. Just for this, we’ve searched for information on British fashion, we’ve learned our situation and made a survey among our relatives and friends for making further comparison and careful analysis.

1950-s United Kingdom Fashion history would never be the same again for austere Britain after the 1950s when youthful look became an emerging fashion voice. Since then French fashion designers like Dior and Chanel dominated British world with their patterns. British women quickly adopted Dior’s “H”, princess “A” and “Y” lines in garments. Chanel’s simple elegant collarless jacket, finished with gold braid, enjoyed its spell of popularity even in 60-s! Although fashion houses patterns were aimed at wealthy clients only, it quickly became the standard formal look for women at all social levels, so much they were imitated and copied. In this era women were made look feminine and glamorous. The right effect could only be achieved if you wore brightly patterned dresses with tight waists and wide, just below the knee skirts with stiff, starched petticoats. Imitation fur, or fur fabric was very popular and mink fur and leopard skin pattern made young women dream! Men’s fashion was introduced with tighter fitting narrow legged trousers, and pullovers . A new consumer driven society was born and girls would never aspire to look like being 30-40 years old, but like movie stars!

1950s The USSR

Interim conclusion As we can see from the studied materials, Britain itself was heavily influenced by French fashion and American lifestyle in 50-s It was a period of rather conservative attitudes and values. At the beginning of 50-s rationing was in both countries and post war period marked by regaining export-import markets to survive. Nevertheless, a new restored peaceful life made people want and expect more for the future. Dancing parties were a regular meeting place for youths and models of that time provided a careless and relaxed atmosphere. Both countries have New Look’s style, but the USSR got it much later. Also, we take notice of woman’s fashion, it is ideal figure with a thin waist and magnificent bust, which was created by a corset, protective straps on thighs and gaskets in a bra, and careful make-up which was inflicted already from early morning. For formal occasions Chanel’s look was the must in both countries with a little time difference. People starved of novelty became the hostages of TV black and white screen, which showed vigorous Rock-n-Roll and the beauty of fashion style was widely displayed in dance.

1960-s United Kingdom

1960-s The USSR

Interim conclusion Stylistically the 60-s freely borrowed from other periods becoming eclectic since then. It was the era of “Swinging London” and different music styles contributed to this diversity, what is not proper to our country. We’ve still been cherishing the 50-s look, due to its appearance in the mid and late 50-s. The only style came to our territory and minds was Hippy, that brought garments with prints and colors. A few people could enjoy their new fashionable look, as only restricted shops’ consumers had enough money and chance to buy these models. TV and local magazines could help in changing style.

1970-s United Kingdom 70-s fashion followed the one of 60-x in many ways, moreover it bursted into a multitude of different styles and influences. Thus, “flower” influence was everywhere in the air. There was a place for mini midi (mid-calf length) and maxi (full length) skirts. Hot pants, ultra short shorts with bibs and braces varied the skirt’s theme. Long socks were worn with those pieces of clothes. On the top – tight fitting blouses or shirts in bright colors with big rounded collars or even printed T-shirts. Increasingly flared jeans (just from the knee) were popular with men and women for everyday wear. Hipsters were also widely spread in wearing. Cheesecloth shirts and blouses showed the mainstream fashion trends. Platform soles was another time defining element, mainly worn by women and more fashionable men. Trainers and canvas shoes were needed if you wore jeans or shorts. Long hair becomes fashionable for both women and men! This period has a lot of hangovers as 70-s “suffered with nostalgia for bygone years, since 20-s! Brown shades, tweed, long skirts, long-sleeved shirts or smocks topped with a floppy brimmed hat had their revival. Disco look as a new style 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 colors with stretch sequin bandeau tops were often adaptations of professional modern dance wear that found itself making an impact at discos as disco dancing became fashionable. More often men wore skin tight see through shirts, open to the waist. Gold lame, leopard skin and stretch halter jumpsuits and white clothes that glowed in Ultra Violet lights capture the 70s Disco fashion perfectly. Late 70-s were marked as a splash of Punk fashion: Punk bands created a new look which was based on a sexual fetish for black leather, combined with ripped T-shirts with provocative slogans printed on them. As Punk demonstrated rejection of anything, mean: protest, their ripped and bleached clothes, spiked hair, dyed in bright colors, black make up were also largely ignored by passers by of the decade to come.

1970-s The USSR

Interim conclusion As we stated, 70-s brought many improvements to people’s lives; travelling abroad became accessible to many more citizens of both countries. A new big luxury for people was a color television and this rare thing gathered those who wanted to see the world in its full beauty. The opportunity to share ideas involved new well-connections. While Britain was experimenting with hangovers and new styles we caught up with the missing trends in fashion of 60-s and felt nearly contemporary and equal with them, except outrageous sub cultural elements in clothing that came and developed much later. People here were happy to procure some foreign gadgets for their close.

1980-s United Kingdom

1980-s The USSR Style of 80-s was considered to be very vulgar, possibly, for this reason it had a long run. It remained eclectic due to the fact that imported things, like outfits were possibly the remains of previous seasons and people were buying garments they could afford. Local manufactured things left much to be desired as nearly everything was in the same dull colors, nevertheless spotted print was hot at that time. Many surprising things start to take place In our country, first a new European magazine appeared on sale called « Burda Moden». This new edition became an original «window to Europe», and our women were able to have a clear concept of what was fashionable in contemporary world society. First fashion show finally took place in Moscow and became a regular event since then. Those, who was able to sew, looked advanced and smart. Perfection and boldness of woman of 80s affected the Soviet Union as well: the same shoulder pads were widely used in outfits, heavy fabrics gave an impression of firmness and self-confidence. Various imitation jewelry gave a hint of aspiration for being trendy.

Interim conclusion   The 80-s was an era of trends of different directions, but dominant was the one of being the City trader doing business; it was also a decade of deep social divisions, we felt changes in mid-80-s with “Perestroika” period. It was like an avalanche of information, freedom and opening opportunities for developing of any kind. This fact in history mixed everything since then. New life conditions became more permissive than ever before and people lived on with great expectations about their future. The trend towards looser fitting and layered clothing was coming from Japanese designers for the rest of new trends there was a TV series like “Dynasty”. Russian people continue living within their means and were fortunately still far from those problems Western countries already had.

1990-s United Kingdom

1990-s The USSR

Interim conclusion This time, seems, we cought up with the two previous decades and felt expert in some things. We new lots of fabrics and their properties, we tried different styles and thanks to the international relations in fashion sphere all new trends could be seen and imitated in time by humble people. There was a little difference between fashion house models and street fashion. Designers started creating art things to make this difference more distinctive.

Overall conclusion The applied art to design clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time makes fashion design, but somehow, people who are not professionals are able to influence mainstream fashion in their places. We thought a lot about global meaning of international communication and times…… What is definitely known is the fact of international co-design. We couldn’t state at any viewed decade in comparison that we had a purely British fashion influence due to the mutual impact of Western countries upon each other. People of our country were also and still are in different social status: if in post war period they were somewhere beautifully, neatly dressed, - people in our region (most of them were political exiles) had to dress their children and themselves in things made from fabrics for foot wraps or modify the oldest second-hand things. Only their strong will maintained good look and taste in things. Making survey among local people, we have found out that this fashion theme is worth studying further so it is individual and intimate how each person had managed to look trendy! We’ve noticed the lack of information about detailed descriptions of fashion garments in different regions of our country and resolved that having our relatives still alive we can restore the real image of different generations in Russia listening and editing unforgettable vivid recollections. Just talk to your local people and you’ll be able to possess priceless facts for social history.

Resources used “История костюма “ Вольфганг Брун, Макс Тильке, изд-во «Эксмо-пресс», Москва, 2000г. Современная энциклопедия «Мода и стиль», издательство «Аванта+»,Москва, 2002, гл. редактор В. А. Володин "Уроки для юных леди" авт-сост. И. Н. Крайнева, изд-во "Кристалл", СПб, 1998. Энциклопедия для детей «Искусство часть 3», издательство «Аванта+», Москва, 2000, гл. редактор В. А. Володин "Энциклопедия для девочек", изд-во "Олимп”, Москва, 1999. The Internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_fashion http://www.couturiers.ru/ http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm http://fashion.wworld.com.ua/ http://forum.knitty.ru/index.php?showtopic=10225 http://www.fuk.co.uk/ http://homeland.su/ http://home.damotvet.ru/kids/926260.htm http://www.mavicanet.ru/lite/eng/19968.html http://www.retrowow.co.uk/index.html http://savok.name/225-sovetskaja-moda.html http://www.vogue.co.uk/

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