In the course of human development, fashion trends have mutated in line with changing social and economic contexts. Every decade, approaches to dressing have adapted to reflect prevailing political, psychological and environmental conditions, movements and interests. Bemusing styles propagated the process of fashion development, fostering innovation and signalling the disappearance of some design features – only for some to re-emerge centuries later.
As with any aesthetic epoch in history, our current responses to avant-garde styles appearing on the streets, or to fashion-art launched on international catwalks, range from shocked resistance to delighted amazement.
However, it is not phenomenal in itself for individual or groups of designers to storm through the boundaries of accepted norms, so establishing iconic identities and labels. Nor is our post-modern enlightenment always entirely new - antecedents for apparel rebellion can be traced back far earlier than we might realise.
According to fashion folklore, a trend of wearing less and less was orchestrated in 18th Century France by Mesdames Racamier and Tallient. One day in 1796, two young women took to the Paris streets in attire that was arresting, so to speak - one in a length of sheer gauze swathed across her body, the other appearing topless. Transparent clothing, worn without underwear and adorned with jewellery across the thighs and breasts, did not last long, though, as the moral authorities of the time apprehended any women who dared to wear such revealing garb.
The nobility of bygone eras also played a part in fashion evolution – such as Lord Raglan’s famous sleeve, and the cardigan being named after Lord Cardigan. The Duke of Windsor (King Edward VIII after his abdication) brought his distinctive necktie-knot into common usage, and was known for popularising turn-ups on trousers. The creasing down the front and back of trousers is credited to royalty. King Edward VII is said to have ignited the practice of unbuttoning the lower portion of a waistcoat, and the emergence of long coats is attributed to King Louis XIII wishing to mask his bandy legs.
The naming of fabrics has always been an important element in textile manufacturers’ marketing strategy, seeking to capture the sensory appeal created by the textile's colour and texture, and to resonate with contemporary lifestyles. Designers working with the new fabrics had to be inspired by such names. In the 18th Century, some odd examples emerged in this context: "Sick Spaniard”, “Unhappy Friend”, “Poisoned Ape”, “Sewerage”, Small-Pox” and “Carmelite's Paunch”. In 1961, a fabric dye called "Congealed Blood" became one of the colours most favoured by UK fashion designers.
Fashion concepts have often been constructed around weaponry and even used to hide weapons. A South African firm manufactured a brassiere designed to hold a small pistol. In 1959, a British tailor made suits with a "cosh-pocket” for local teenagers to carry a baton on their person. Teenagers in Glasgow during the 1920s and 30s embedded razor blades in the edges of their peaked caps. Men's double-breasted coats, with the left flap buttoned over the right, derive from 18th Century and earlier European styling to accommodate swords, and the buttoning of tunics was implemented to prevent the hilt of the sword from catching on the coat when drawn.
Wearing pants below the hips, exposing the top of the buttocks or underwear, is not unique to contemporary urban style. In 1964, the unzipped-trouser look was introduced in women’s clothing: shorts were unzipped in the front to reveal bikini underwear as an erotic teaser. The word “bikini” comes from the Bikini Atoll, the site of a nuclear weapon test – clearly analogous with shock value; it was reasoned that the excitement of the bikini, co-conceived by French engineer Luis Reard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in 1946, would be likened to a nuclear blast. Even the style of the modern bikini is not a modern concept: archaeologists have discovered murals in Sicily depicting women in the years 286-305 wearing items of skimpy clothing that we would currently identify as bikinis.
Scented socks and shirts were another novel idea, first launched in the 1950s. A Scotsman invented the masculine-scented shirt in 1953 as a sensory design feature to attract women. The early 1960s brought scented ties onto the market, offering a selection of pleasant aromas such as Mint, Orange, Strawberry and Leather. However, scented apparel could not compete with the innovative boom in male toiletries, and so faded from focus.
Fashion design has also been influenced by interest groups seeking to control the presentation of a “respectable” female image, believing that they had moral authority over codes of dress. Historical artefacts show that women wore bikini-type outfits while exercising, so today’s sportswear and beach-gear is really a reversion to 19th and early 20th and earlier Century costumes.
At least these design forms did not physically harm women or cruelly impede their natural physical motion, as did the corset or the “Bum Roll” (a strange fashion apparatus tied round the hips with a tape to create the illusion of ample buttocks). In the 1940s, the pneumatic brassiere was developed to enhance a small bust.
Pockets did not feature much on woman's clothing until the early 20th Century, but today, military camouflage and “cargo” pants with utility pockets are ubiquitous in women’s streetwear. In the 1930s, a short-lived fashion accessory for women was the knickers-pocket, used to hold a handkerchief.
During the 1950s, a group of French tailors produced a range of suits without pockets, offering instead a shoulder-bag as a menswear accessory; this idea was largely dismissed as impractical. But in the US, the magazine Esquire promoted an American version of the French male shoulder-bag called the "Side-Kick", describing it as a “saddlebag without the horse”. The promotion of the "Side-Kick" did not take off, as men did not want to be seen carrying any bag other than a briefcase.
In this Information Age, though, men and women use a "Side-Kick" of sorts: the backpack is an accessory adopted from the military as a form of everyday wear, and used by students and business executives alike to carry lap-top computers and other items needed to operate a mobile office. With technology being a major factor influencing the contemporary design of pockets on apparel, fabrics and garments are designed to carry cell-phones, iPods, flash-disks and other wireless communications gadgets such as Global Positioning Systems and radio frequency tags.
Clearly, the future of garment design is in “smart clothing” - blending technology with fashion. But in principle, are we back to the future?
Renato Palmi
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