About fashion

From the end of the seventeenth century shows the development from the trained mantua through the various robes, and the chemise dress, to the bellshaped crilonine, the back-fullness bustle, and finally the tubular or linear style that, give or take a few brief departures such as DIOR's New Look of the late 1940s, is still with us today.

The spell cast by fashion has remained undiminished, from the excesses of Marie Antoinette two centuries ago, to the lady who recently admitted to owning over two two hundred pairs of shoes with matching handbags, and wardrobes crammed with suits and dresses, many of which had never been worn, nor were likely to be since she bought, on average, one complete outfit every week! Fashion is one of the more rewarding expressions of a vigorous consumer society, that is, a society that demands and find stimulus in variety and constant change.Fashion in clothes, as in autos, electronics, household appliances, and other goods, reflects economic growth and social progress.

The clothes that we wear, our shoes, our hats and other accessories, indicate our class and nationality, and can date us to within a decade or sometimes to within a year or even a brief season, such is the rapid rate of change in dress.Most people follow the styles of contemporary fashions either because they wish to avoid being singled out...What is it all about? What is the purpose or meaning of fashion, if anything?

The 1920s heralded the age of functional fashion, as opposed to the rather Grande Dame styles of the previous decades, and the extravagant, theatrical designs of that great individualist Poiret.His decline and fall occured because he was unable to adapt to the post-war mood and its demand for simplicity.Women wanted easy-to-wear clothes, and responded to the tomboy look exemplified by that other great individualist who practised what she preached-Coco Chanel.