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In the '80s
shoulder pads were used with almost everything in the wardrobe, from jackets
and blazers to evening dresses and casual tops. Some time later high shoulders
were successfully forgotten and outdated, though this fall they are the actual
trend to serve for a trendy and a powerful woman of today. That trendy item
became actual thanks to Christophe Decarnin, the Creative Manager to the French
House of Balmain. It was Decarnin who reincarnated such a recognizable element of
the '80s when he launched collections for Spring-Summer 2009 with a line of
military-styled jackets and dresses with shoulder pads.
The passion for Balmain
that the fashion world was seized with was productive to the extent that in the
beginning of this year the other designers followed Balmain and presented
Fall-Winter'09-10 ensembles styled '80s, from Donna Karan and Louis Vuitton to Julien
Macdonald and Jean Paul Gaultier. The trend is believed to origin from the '80s
though the true prototype of the style was that of the post-war epoch. After
the World War II, when all women had to quit from conventional women roles they
functioned as men. Respectively, the fashion changed and after the elegant
femininity of the '20s and '30s the new vision of women was practiced in abstemious
costumes with square-styled skirts and shoulder pads.
High
shoulders apparently specified authority and aggressiveness though at the same
time they make the silhouette slimmer. But high shoulders are not that
fashionable thing to suit everyone; for some women this item works, like Posh
or singer Rihanna who look nice and attractive wearing shoulder pads. Shoulder
pads can be tremendously risky to the self-esteem and image of those women who
wear them wrongly or with the wrong styles.
Victoria Beckham and Rihanna are probably two of the most bright examples in
this sense. Posh used the shoulder pads to highlight and make her slender
figure harsher for an astonishing example of power dressing, while Rihanna is
doing it as a statement that, where style and boldness are apprehended, she has
no match. Other celebrities have already used shoulder-pad clothes.
Thanks to
the appearance of New Look, the legendary collection by Christian Dior, the
trend that was the pre-image of the style of the coming '80s in the second half
of the forties was smoothed by femininity and stylishness of works by the
French designer. The image of a powerful woman was recollected some time later,
in the year 1975, when flowery prints and loose flying silhouettes of blouses
were in the great fame. Soon after, the founder of the fashionable brand Biba, the
designer Barbara
Hulanicki, launched fur coats with high shoulders. She was followed by Ossie Clark and Bill
Gibb who used shoulder pads to add some distinctness to their romantic chiffon
ensembles in the end of seventies. The other «forefather» of high shoulders is
the celebrated French couturier Yves Saint Laurent. In 1966 the designer opened
his iconic Le Smoking, a manly smoking only for women. Owing to Saint Laurent the
pantsuit became far more sexual for women for the accented thin waist matched
with high shoulders. Later on, Bianca Jagger contributed to popularization of
such pantsuits and when she married to Mick Jager in 1980, she wore a white
smoking with shoulder pads, and then she regularly appeared in similar jackets
in public.
The beginning of the eighties is memorable for the appearance of
Margaret Thatcher, the «Iron Lady» of Britain, the first female Premier
Minister. Opposing to men-conservatives, Thatcher managed to make
women-politicians be considered and her thoroughly designed image played a noteworthy
role in it. High shoulders worn by Margaret Thatcher symbolized a powerful and
strong woman, and even a string of pearls or a brooch worn to add some classic
femininity could not deceive and fade the image.
In the middle of the eighties many women imitated the figure of the
character played by Melanie Griffith in «Business woman» movie or actresses
from the legendary soap opera «Dynasty». As for men, they were not aside of the
fashion and they liked the image created by the legendary Pop King Michael
Jackson when he set trend for a military-styled jackets with shoulder pads. At
the end of the day, it was Michael Jackson who made high shoulders come back in
fashion. His favorite military-styled jackets were the source of inspiration
for Christophe Decarnin from Balmain followed by other designers.
Today a jacket with high shoulders is an absolute must-have for this
fall; and more and more Hollywood celebrities try
on shoulder-pads with decorative epaulets encrusted with Swarovski crystals.
And the largest fashion brands showed the example to cheaper retailers, from Topshop
to New Look with collections launching really elegant jackets with high
shoulders.
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