Fashion History

In our time everything is already discovered and invented by someone else, and all we have to do is look for ideas in the past and reinvent them given today's conditions, playing with the ingenious ideas of the great masters. It's no revelation that fashion goes in cycles. And though fashion weeks attract big audience every year, there's no denying the fact that most collections are only recreating fashion trends from earlier periods. 1920s were one of the turning points in the history of fashion which gave 20th century many of its greatest highlights in clothing, jewelry and makeup.

The history of the wedding veil, the crucial accessory of the bride to compliment her image and the wedding ensemble, comes from old rituals and religious traditions of ancient times.  Nowadays the veil is the fetching sheer fabric that is not designed to conceal the bride's face. In the old times the wedding veil was presented as the opaque dense cover to screen the bride from head to toes. The tradition to hide the bride under the cover appeared during the times of ancient Greece and Rome when the veil was believed to protect the bride from ill looks of envious person s, to turn away from the evil eye and hex. However, in the ancient time the veil was not white. The Greek brides concealed their faces under the yellow fabric while the Roman brides were covered by the veil of vivid red color or decorated the hair with multicolor fabric with embroidery.

The Byzantine attire was created in the times when the Christianity made the first world achievements and distinguished with its astonishing asceticism and constant expectation of a miracle. All Christian wonders have a spirit as a source but not the body, and the Byzantine attire is fully penetrated with the idea to emphasize the spirit masking the body. It is interesting that when advocating the rejection of material benefits and announcing the world of sensitiveness as the world of vice and sin Byzantine put intentionally luxury attire onto the asceticism. The Byzantine attire is the intensified decoration, rich and luxury fabric, embroidery and luxury patterns and deep colors and abundance of jewelry.

Cocktail dress aka cocktail gown found its ready market and may be small black dress, the classic garment created by Coco Chanel and well accepted and practiced throughout the world for many years. The cocktail dress when appeared in 20s of the previous year is almost one hundred years old, interpreted in the legendary collection New Look by Christian Dior and garments worn by Audrey Hepburn who epitomized the Chanel ideal for wearing little black dresses, accessorized with pearls, to Hubert de Givenchy and the latest haute couture designer collections.

The Fashion Week that came to its end where the designers presented Spring-Summer 2009-2010 Collections, appeared to be the latest fashion function held in the reputed Bryant Park the place for all Fashion Week arrangements for the last 16 years. In September 2010 the New York Fashion Week moved to the Lincoln Center celebrating the end of the entire epoch related to the Bryant Park. The place provided the tented territory to judge the fashion industry workers, and there new talented designers were first acknowledged, and some were even proposed in love.

Handbags, totes, purses, coffrets, and other bags we wear all the time in hands. A modern woman cannot be thought without any kind of bag. We are so accustomed to wearing bags that we cannot even imagine how we managed without them in the previous times.  And our grandmother really did without them. As a separate accessory, a bag appeared some time back, in XIX century. Prior to this period, women had to use secret pockets and leather bags attached to the waist to keep necessary things on them.

It appeared that Victoria's Secret Brand so adored and fascinated by millions of ladies all over the world, was created by a man. Some time back one Mr. Raymond conceived the idea to make his wife happy presenting the luxurious lingerie. When he came up to the women's wear store, he got upset, lost and escaped from there. Though, some time later he thought on really elegant clothes and in 1977 he opened his own store of lingerie.

In case if the present age group cannot remember what the hoop skirts are, it is women's undergarment worn in various periods to hold the skirt extended into a fashionable shape. They were «a must have» for any woman of previous centuries. As well as mini skirts found in the wardrobe of any young girl of our days. This is the real and striking shift of vogue, though the trends look similar. People tend to comfort, less fabric and more naked body. And beach wear proves this tendency as the most outright fashion today.

The Second World War swept off not only millions of lives and national boundaries but the length of the skirt as well. And if the former was a tragedy, the latter became a true blessing. One should think - famine and wasteland, deprivation, people could hardly survive... But when did women relinquish their love for the fashion? And could any war totally eradicate fashion trends? Throughout the human history, it never happened. And Coco Chanel, anticipating the wind of change and sensitive to the slightest variation of style and fashion, in 1926 designed a true masterpiece - a little black dress, a token of mourning upon the passed long skirts and intricate attire cuts, and at the same time - a salute to the new lifestyle.

The name «brocade» comes from the Italian broccato which means «embossed cloth». There is a legend about an Emperor who fell in love with a poor common girl. The girl was purposeful and she demanded that the Emperor learned some handiwork and the Emperor learned weaving to win the heart of the beauty. He gained skills in weaving royal brocade. In the nearest future the skill of him saved his life.

When Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor in 1804, he indented to make France the leader and trendsetter of fashion and innovator of design and craft skills. Within the French Revolution period, the French textile industry did not develop to the extent as that in England, for example. Thus, Napoleon banned to import English textile and made all attempts to revive Valenciennes lace industry. He made the curious policy in fashion when with the commercial and business reasons he set the trend to wear a dress for one event and change it for another. The fashion forced women purchase more fabric. Regency fashion really touched the heart of the people. That was the epoch of romance and sensitiveness.

The history of the wedding ensemble dates back many years on the one part, but on the other part, the dress we consider as wedding dress, appeared quite some time ago. Up to the particular moment there was no specific wedding gown and a young girl would wear her best clothing to show and underline age and gentle hood of their family. In ancient Greece brides used to wear beautiful and elegant dresses, embracing the figure with peplos, long square of cloth. And the bride's dress was decorated with two clasps to make her stand out the crowd. The richer was the family of the bride, the more elegant and precious were clasps. The head of the girl was covered by a yellow cloth to symbolize a sun joy, happiness and virginity.