Fashion and Beauty
As civilizations developed, so styles of dress also evolved. In Egypt, Greece and Rome, clothes were draped, while the people of northern Europe and the East wore stitched, tubular garments. In the classical world the toga, worn not only by rulers but also by philosophers and teachers, was regarded as a symbol of civilization. Breeches and tunics, by contrast, were considered typical of barbarian, tribal societies.
But the idea of fashion, with its ever changing cycles of styles and trends, first took hold in the mid 1300 in Paris, London and the Italian city-states, when the elite rejected their flowing garments for tight-fitting clothes decorated to show the latest tastes. Men’s robes, which had previously been ankle-length, now reached above the knee, while female dress was transformed by lacing, buttons and the introduction of the décolletage. As people desired to change their silhouettes at regular intervals – a trend that coincided with a growing international textiles trade – so cutting and tailoring developed.
Early fashion belonged to the elite, who tried to preserve their social superiority with ‘sumptuary laws’ forbidding tradesmen and yeomen from wearing expensive and lavishly embroidered fabrics. But the French code of dressing, based on a fixed social hierarchy and courtly etiquette, was overturned by the Revolution of 1789. Elaborate wigs and powdered hair were abandoned, men’s clothes were no longer embellished with embroidery and lace, and women adopted the simple Empire gown. Style became a mark of individual freedom, adopted for its own sake. No longer the preserve of the aristocracy, it soon became associated with the avant-garde, Romantic writers and artists, political activists and dandies.
In Britain affordable, mass-produced printed textiles and fashion accessories were made available by the Industrial Revolution. These were popular with the middle classes, who saw them as a means of expressing their new confidence and success. For men power now lay in business, not the court. The dark suit became a male ‘uniform’, while women paraded the family’s status through their own and their children’s dress. Fashion and femininity were inextricably entwined. Women were weighed down by petticoats and their mobility restricted by delicate shoes.
In the late 1800s attempts began to make female dress more ‘sensible’. But ideals of beauty and fashion held sway, with department stores offering ready-made copies of the newest styles featured in magazines, society photographs and, from the early 1900s, the cinema. From these beginnings the consumer-orientated 20th-century fashion and beauty industries were launched.
I love to read well written quality content like this. It helps me to realize there are writers that care about their material. Thank you.