1990-2000

 

Decade of Grunge, Heroin Chic and Girl Power

The Supers say Hello!
 
The 1990s were the heyday of the original supermodels;  When Linda Evangelista mentioned to Vogue that "we don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day”, the modeling changed from being fashion focused to being a celebrity industry.

'Heroin Chic'  



Kate Moss became the face of the nineties fashion industry and caused controversy with her pale skin, gaunt features and being such a young age. Creating the heroin chic look. Moss's waif look became desirable until the insurgance of the 'sexy' supermodel in the late nineties, Giselle Bundchen led the way...

 

The Grunge Look
 
In the early nineties bands such Nirvana, Green Day and Placebo led the grunge charge. The great unwashed became fashionable, think black and grey, baggy and loose, unstructured and simple.




Girl Power!
Pre millenium, five ladies became heroes and the Spice Girls were born. Baby, Scary, Sporty, Ginger and Posh became more than nicknames: they were global fashion trends. The high street couldn't sell enough platform trainers, mini skirts and leopard print. The Spice Girls were a lasting legacy, and are still everyones favourite fancy dress opportunity.



Long Live McQueen...

The nineties saw the birth of a British fashion genius, Alexander McQueen burst onto the scene with low slug hipsters, scottish influences and an attitude to match. One of the greatest designers that ever came out of the nineties. A riot of controversy and clothing. 

1980-1990

The decade that fashion forgot!
 

No other decade is as notorious as the eighties, from neon leg warmers to 'MC Hammer' style trousers, the decade had everything.
Colour was everything in the eighties, and contrasting and clashing were at there peak.

Shoulder Pads

As female identity in the work place rose, so did the need to show power and this came in the form of fashion, especially shoulder pads. Usually worn with bow ties, ties or decorative scarves to accessorize, and very commonly lined with femanine colours then rolled sleeves to show this colour creating an accessory in itself and promoting femininity.

Mini Skirts

Although many designers tried to drop the mini skirt, in the beginning of the eighties, the public wouldnt let go of it and it stayed strong throughout the decade.
Mini skirts were being made in many fabrics including denim, leather and knitwear. They were popularly paired with leggings, and fish-net tights.
 

 

Leg Warmers

 

Leg warmers were a huge part of eighties fash that developed from leg warmers worn by dancers for practical uses, however leg warmers of the eighties were neon, patterned and as many colours as possible. The rise of leg warmers was due to movies such as fame and footloose. However by the mid eighties leg warmers had had their day and were never worn as part of the fashion.

 

Parachute Trousers

 

During the early eighties parachute trousers were tight and shiny made of synthetic materials. They were originally designed for break dancers who need trousers that would be versatile and durable. To add detail they were made with added zips for an edgy feel.

No longer seen in high street fashion and rarely seen on the catwalk parachute pants will forever be known as a mens eighties craze.

Stretch-stirrup Pants

 

These were another eighties fashion fad that created a triangular shape leg,consisting of a knit fabric that tapers towards the angle ending with a stirrup, making anyones legs look larger than they were.

Stirrup pants really came into their own in the mid eighties and went back into fashion about a year later.  

 

 

1970-1980

In the 1970's women were in control of what they wore, if they wanted to wear hotpants one day and a maxi skirt the next they would.
The seventies brought a wider range of fashion, due to people travelling around the world and the many different cultures and social groups both in Britain and American. The hippies from the sixties had brought forward clothes from different ethnic groups and loose flowing robes and dresses made there way into western cities. From the mid seventies kaftans, kimonos and other styles of African and Asian clothing was translated into designs for the western market, led by designers such as Yves St Laurent.

Disco Fashion
Disco fashion developed when disco dancing became more widely appreciated, the fashion consisted of hotpants, tight disco pants, stretch sequin bandeau tops and spandex tops. Disco gave way to dress codes, which meant people needed to dress right in order to gain entry to the clubs. This form of fashion was not acceptable during the day but became almost compulsory in the evenings.

  

Punk

The subcultures of the seventies also included Punk, a trend partly introduced by Vivienne Westwood. Throughout the seventies she introduced new fashion ideas, whilst designing costumes for many bands such as 'The Sex Pistols' and for 'The New York Dolls'. Vivienne Westwood influenced an entire age of fashion.

 

'The Bay City Rollers' were a big influence on seventies fashion, they introduced Scottish tartan into young, teen fashion creating a craze during their time in the public eye.  

 

1960-1970

The Swinging Sixties

The 1960's began with the continuing trend of the 1950's and the hourglass silhouette but by the end of the 1960's it was the complete opposite.

America's first lady Jackie Kennedy was a major influence in fashion in the early 60's. Her innate sense of style, made her the leader of  American fashion. Designers such as Oleg Cassini excelled at short-jacketed suits capturing the first lady's passion for french style.

As the new teens became of age, fashion turned to a more youthful silhouette, they dominated the fashion market and soon the older generation. The french 'baby doll' look comprised of short skirts and big hair, adopted by brigitte bardot, led the way for the 'british invasion'. Where teens embraced the free and fun fashions of London. Twiggy became the "it" girl of the 60's and appeared on the covers of all the major fashion magazines and promoted colourful shift dresses and space-age prints.

The movement to more modern designs was international and influenced many designers. Designers like Pucci created psychedelic patterns and colours, transforming people into walking works of art.
American designers led the way in casual sportswear and french designers, led by Yves St. Laurent explored new ideas.

Mary Quant and the mini skirt
Mary Quant was a leading designer in British fashion,and by 1966 she was introducing mini dresses and skirts set 6-7inches above the knee. She found many young women in London raring to try her new risque designs, the trend took off as you had to be youthful to wear the controversial designs. This style was soon known as the 'Chelsea look'.    

 

The sixties was all about the youth as the post war baby boom had created 70 million teenagers and these teens led the fashion, fads and even politics of the decade. 

 

By the end of the decade men's ties had continued to be colourful and vibrant even worn with vibrant patterned shirts. Women wore turtleneck or polo neck sweaters and in the towards the end of the decade sleeveless tops became popular.  

1930-1940

This decade began with the aftermath of the wall street crash and depression was in the air. This was a direct contrast to the luxury and the excitement of the 1920's. Britain and America were in financial crisis and classes began to become more seperated and live very different lives.

The wealthy could live comfortably with servants, shop in designer boutiques, have more than one house and travel in the motor car.

The poor would have to cram into houses fitting familys of 8 into 2 bedroom houses, with no inside toilet and rarely clean running water.

People tried to harder to look well dressed, clean and respectable due to the financial hardship.
The 1930's was a complete contrast of the 20's and was a quiet era, where emphasis was on behaving in a respectable manner.

Menswear


Men were expected to dress appropriately and would only sit in shirt sleeves in the privacy and comfort of their own homes. Even those without jobs and little money would try to keep a suit for 'Sunday Best'.

Burtons created affordable mens tailoring for all social groups, creating a set fashion for all men.




Womenswear

This era prompted more respectable clothing. The fashion was femanine, figures were slightly curvacious, emphasising the bust slightly, using the bias cut and frills. Hair was long and wavy with the forehead exposed. Plate shaped hats were worn towards the back of the head.
 

1950-1960

Moving on……

After Dior’s ‘new look’ in 1947, women were now able to flaunt their shape and femininity. Dior’s ‘new look’ dominated the era for the next 10 years and up into the earlier part of the fifties.

Tight fitting jacket, with padded hips pulled in, emphasizing the tiny waist with a long pleated wool skirt, backed with cambric (fine white plain weave linen cloth) making it exceptionally heavy.

The Festival of Britain Exhibition 1951

This exhibition was designed to celebrate Britain's past but most importantly look towards Britain's future and show the rest of the world how they had recovered from the war.

For many it was an exciting but depressing experience as many of the items were destined for export.

The festival was held at the south bank on the River Thames, and lots of new buildings were created for the event, the festival produced new colourful fabrics, clothing and accessories as well as scientific developments, including the televisions which for most people was the first time they had seen one.

 glamour had arrived

The clear dividing moment in the decade was in 1956 when fashion and society began to move away from the strict controls of the 40’s to a more flexible and youthful lifestyle.

The 1950’s brought the age of the teenager, before then women had made themselves to look like their mothers and the optimum age was age 30’s-40’s at the beginning of the 1950’s. A new teenage driven fashion style was born. The 50’s saw the breaking of a mould and people today still strive to look as youthful as possible.

Men's Clothing

The beginning of the 1950’s saw men wearing virtually the same clothes as they had been for the past ten years, lounge suits, raincoats and trilby-type hats. But under this was a quite revolution in menswear. The war years saw uniformity and  this led to a desire for a more casual approach to dress.

The war meant the USA had become the source of fashion and represented everything that had disappeared from Britain, even the uniforms of the GI’s looked better than those of the British.

Highly decorative ties, usually hand painted sporting exotic scenes, jazzy patterns, skyscrapers and even pin-up girls were often worn.

The ‘Bold Look’

A very popular American import was the wide-shouldered ‘zoot suit’. With its longer length, wider cut, and large stripes or checks it was named the ‘bold look’. When Cecil Gee a shop in Charing Cross began importing American menswear, queues formed outside.

For most of the decade men continued to wear the traditional lounge suit with slight changes in the form of jumpers, colourful waistcoats and ties.

One of the biggest revolutions came in the form of a shirt, the Hawaiian shirt found its way from America to England and open the door to unfitted, short sleeved and patterned shirts. This then developed into shirts with waist high pockets worn un-tucked and into a cross between a shirt and a jacket.

American styles such as the Hawaiian shirt, and growing market in denim jeans, driven initially by teens but slowing spreading throughout the ages, reflected the idea of America being the source of new and desirable things,  and also the growing wealth of Britain.

‘Teddy Boys’

Some men resented American imports and decided to sport a more traditional dress. They emulated what their fathers or their grandfathers had worn. This consisted of a long, narrow pin-stripe, single breasted suits, worn under fitted coats with velvet collars. Little did these upper class Brits realise that they would inspire the south London youth.

By the mid 1950’s men wanted a change and new clothes needed to be more stylish, and the focus swung from America to Italy and owning an Italian suit became almost a status symbol.

The increasing amount of British tourist due to rising wages and falling travel costs brought back theses suits.

Women’s Clothing

Although throughout the 1950’s hemlines changed all the time, the hourglass figure remained. Both full layered skirts and tight pencil skirts were popular.

The emphasis on silhouette led to a dependency on undergarments - bullet bras, corselets, waist-cincher corsets,  girdles and shaped circle skirts.

Dior continued to be popular and lead french couture but private couturers began to be replaced by ready-to-wear clothing.

Design houses such as Suzy Perette and Lilli Ann, as well as american designers like Tina Leser proved that off-the-rack garments could still be made of good quality. America led the way with high fashion, once restricted to the wealthy, was available to everyone. 

Women were focused on rearing children and looking after the home, after returning from there jobs in the war years. Emphasis was on atrractive practical clothing,not just for household duties but also suitable for running erands. 

Women were expected to attend or hold social gatherings to further their husbands careers, this brought in the cocktail dress, a shorted version of a ball gown, women wore hats outside of the house and gloves, short during the day time and long in the evenings. 

The later part of the 50's still focused on women dressing for men, emphasising their figure with girdles and bras, highlighting their natural appeal.

In the late 50's two new looks arrived, the sack dress, completely going against the hour glass silhouette and the trapeze dress created by Yves Saint Laurent, slightly more fitted but still different from the fashions of the day.  

1920-1930

The end of the War

The war created hardship and unhappiness, when it ended peoples social attitudes had changed and people began to look forward.

Fashion designers took peoples search for youthfulness and modernism into their designs. Dancing was also a major part of post war Britain, jazz bands held dances in large hotels and high society men spent the most of their time going to dances, waiting for jobs.

Attitudes

The new attitudes of the 1920s altered peoples lifestyles, the younger generation were free to live away from their parents, clothes were more casual and manners were less formal.

Young girls went to events unaccompanied, they shortened their skirts, wore more make up and cut off their hair.

It was also more acceptable for young girls to smoke in public.

This was the birth of the flapper girl!

Young Men

Men's fashion also became more casual, they drank cocktails and those who could afford it drove fast cars. Sports continued to become increasingly popular and sports clothing was suddenly a big fashion statement.

Hollywood

The women's new fashions and femininity was also publicised through cinema and young women strived to look like the movie stars. Theda Bara and Pola Negri both launched the fashion for eye make-up. 

"Vamped"

During this decade eyes became the focal point, making them dark and intensely dramatic. It became fashionable to wear a ribbon, hat, band or thick fringe to cover the brow and forehead.

Bias Cut

Bias cut was the practise of cutting a pattern diagonal to the salvage edge, this created a flowing drape. This was primarily introduced by Madeleine Vionnet and was greatly influenced by the cubists.

Sleeves were long and full often with cuffs, low waistlines had loose blouses over them and scarves were often slung across the shoulder. Tassels and fringing were often hung from sleeves and hemlines.  

Exhibition of decorative Arts

The exhibition of decorative arts was held in Paris in 1925, it was full of new contemporary, modern art and was full of art deco, buildings were rectangular and there were no curves in sight. Cubist art had replaced the smooth, bending lines of art nouveau.

Art deco focused on lines rather than decoration.

During this period architecture, art and fashion all weaved together creating a clear style for the decade.

Menswear

Men began to wear a new popular style of trousers introduced by under graduates of oxford university. They were called "oxford bags" and were made from grey flannel, had a a long centre fold and got wider as they went down the leg. 
These were worn with casual blazers and skirts to create basic lounge suits.


Gigolos


This new male look was rivalled by "gigolos", these were dark young men usually with a south American background, they would wear finely pressed tail and suit trousers with their hair combed back. 


Womenswear


This decade meant the decline of the tea dress and young girls opted for cocktails and the cocktail dress appeared in Paris fashion house collections and usually had beaded or embroidered detail. 
Because of the demise of the corset, women's fashion was a more boyish figure and younger adolescent women's bodies became the wanted. 
In 1925 Chanel designed straight hanging jersey dresses, which were sleek, elegant and expressed the jazz age. 
This new style became available to everyone through mass market production, this took fashion into a classless world. 


 Moving Forward


Towards the end of the decade women had a more social role and more revealing fashion was created. Tennis champion Suzanne Lenglen began the trend of having bare arms, when she wore a sleeveless sweater designed by Patou, this made a connection between sports and fashion for women.


The fashion industry developed this new exposed look, designing evening dresses with sleeveless bodices and cut away plunge backs. 
The geometric lines of the early 1920's were replaced with curves and soft floral prints, femininity was making a come back.


  Enjoying Life

The end of the century was about enjoying life after the harshness of the first world war. Leisure became a major part of society through cars, ocean liners and the birth of flying machines. The fashion industry was booming, couturiers, furriers, fabric printers and milliners created the age of opulence.

The Wall Street Crash

In 1929 the decade ended with the wall street crash, This depression created an ironic contrast to the richness, optimism and luxury of the roaring 1920's.