Cultural Change.
This is something I've been trying to nut out for months, and it's taking a while so thought I might chuck it your way to see what you think.
As you know, I'm writing about vintage clothing. One of the things that has always fascinated me is why people change the way they dress - it's an ongoing process, fuelled in large part by the fashion industry who likes us to buy new clothes, but it's organic as well. We change the sort of clothes we wear when we've experienced some sort of change ourselves - maybe we develop as people, find a new need of some sort that our existing wardrobe doesn't cover...many reasons, most of them pretty standard. Many of us (especially men) are happy wearing variations of the same thing for most of our lives.
Every now and then, however, there is a major change in our culture - something happens that sweeps all before it. Suddenly, what you wore only recently looks old hat and out of date. It's not just clothes - cultural change impacts every thing we design and construct from cars to furniture to buildings and everything in between. Clothes are one small part of this, although they do tend to show the changing needs faster than other cultural representations.
During the twentieth century, I consider that there were two of these turning points.
The first one was The Great War - World War 1. The war brought changes that had been coming a long way off - as well as the war itself, there were civil rights issues like the emancipation of women and workers rights. The old regime was on it's last legs and the war acted as a catalyst for change.
What came after was the "Roaring Twenties". It's hard to fully grasp now how radical this generation was (our grandparents and great grandparents). So much of what they did seems common-place now, but the rebellion was great: not only did they discard their corsets, they charlestoned all night, smoke and snorted cocaine. The young lived for the day, indulgent and frivolous. Older generations mocked their lifestyles but couldn't deny them their fun: millions had died on the war fields, and after with the Spanish 'flu. Of course, it all came to a crashing end in 1929....
The interesting thing about womens' costume in the 1920s is it's consistency - only the very oldest, the grandest of the dames dared dress in the earlier Edwardian styles. Every one else, in photo after photo, wears a drop waisted gown, a cloche hat and strappy mary jane style shoes or plain pumps. Day dresses were plain, evening dresses more elaborate with beading and sequins. I honestly can't think of another era that is so identifiable and so uniform. Naturally enough, whe the styles went out, they went out thoroughly: some beaded gowns were remodelled in the '30s and '40s into current styles but by and large, no one wanted to dress that way again.
Flapper styles were briefly revitalised in the mid '60s, early '70s and again in the mid '80s but very differently. The drop waist style suits some figures so it's a perennial but I doubt we'll ever again see the phenomenon of every one dressing the same.
The second great turning point is the mid sixties. Popularly credited to the Baby Boomers, and coinciding with the Vietnam War and civil rights issues, the cultural change seems to have arrived on a wave of music. I find it interesting that the major musicians seem to have been born, by and large, during WW2 rather than after it - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones...anyway, what was it about this time that caused such social and cultural change?
As with the '20s, the focus was a youthful one - and almost overnight people changed the way they dressed, the way they designed the things around them. The more I look into the '60s (or especially the crucial period '65 to '76 when punk, like the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression changed things) the more surprising I find it. There was a spirit of excitement, of new discoveries. Forty years later, it's still reverberating.
Whilst the baby boomers may not have started it, it was their consumer power who supported it. In any case, all was swept before the new styles and almost over night - to walk down the street with hat, gloves, stockings, matching handbag - painted you as one of the old regime and it took surprisingly little time before even elderly ladies discarded the accoutrements of polite society.
Why have I chosen these two turning points? Because to wear an outfit from a time earlier than the 1920s looks costumey, as if you're off to a fancy dress ball. To wear an outfit from 1920 to 1965, you'll look very dressed up and attract attention. To wear an outfit post 1965, you'll hardly be noticed. Brunswick street in Fitzroy is full of people who could have stepped straight out of all sorts of eras from the mid sixties onwards.
So what am I wondering? Why it all changed so much in the mid sixties, and what the next change is going to be?
As you know, I'm writing about vintage clothing. One of the things that has always fascinated me is why people change the way they dress - it's an ongoing process, fuelled in large part by the fashion industry who likes us to buy new clothes, but it's organic as well. We change the sort of clothes we wear when we've experienced some sort of change ourselves - maybe we develop as people, find a new need of some sort that our existing wardrobe doesn't cover...many reasons, most of them pretty standard. Many of us (especially men) are happy wearing variations of the same thing for most of our lives.
Every now and then, however, there is a major change in our culture - something happens that sweeps all before it. Suddenly, what you wore only recently looks old hat and out of date. It's not just clothes - cultural change impacts every thing we design and construct from cars to furniture to buildings and everything in between. Clothes are one small part of this, although they do tend to show the changing needs faster than other cultural representations.
During the twentieth century, I consider that there were two of these turning points.
The first one was The Great War - World War 1. The war brought changes that had been coming a long way off - as well as the war itself, there were civil rights issues like the emancipation of women and workers rights. The old regime was on it's last legs and the war acted as a catalyst for change.
What came after was the "Roaring Twenties". It's hard to fully grasp now how radical this generation was (our grandparents and great grandparents). So much of what they did seems common-place now, but the rebellion was great: not only did they discard their corsets, they charlestoned all night, smoke and snorted cocaine. The young lived for the day, indulgent and frivolous. Older generations mocked their lifestyles but couldn't deny them their fun: millions had died on the war fields, and after with the Spanish 'flu. Of course, it all came to a crashing end in 1929....
The interesting thing about womens' costume in the 1920s is it's consistency - only the very oldest, the grandest of the dames dared dress in the earlier Edwardian styles. Every one else, in photo after photo, wears a drop waisted gown, a cloche hat and strappy mary jane style shoes or plain pumps. Day dresses were plain, evening dresses more elaborate with beading and sequins. I honestly can't think of another era that is so identifiable and so uniform. Naturally enough, whe the styles went out, they went out thoroughly: some beaded gowns were remodelled in the '30s and '40s into current styles but by and large, no one wanted to dress that way again.
Flapper styles were briefly revitalised in the mid '60s, early '70s and again in the mid '80s but very differently. The drop waist style suits some figures so it's a perennial but I doubt we'll ever again see the phenomenon of every one dressing the same.
The second great turning point is the mid sixties. Popularly credited to the Baby Boomers, and coinciding with the Vietnam War and civil rights issues, the cultural change seems to have arrived on a wave of music. I find it interesting that the major musicians seem to have been born, by and large, during WW2 rather than after it - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones...anyway, what was it about this time that caused such social and cultural change?
As with the '20s, the focus was a youthful one - and almost overnight people changed the way they dressed, the way they designed the things around them. The more I look into the '60s (or especially the crucial period '65 to '76 when punk, like the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression changed things) the more surprising I find it. There was a spirit of excitement, of new discoveries. Forty years later, it's still reverberating.
Whilst the baby boomers may not have started it, it was their consumer power who supported it. In any case, all was swept before the new styles and almost over night - to walk down the street with hat, gloves, stockings, matching handbag - painted you as one of the old regime and it took surprisingly little time before even elderly ladies discarded the accoutrements of polite society.
Why have I chosen these two turning points? Because to wear an outfit from a time earlier than the 1920s looks costumey, as if you're off to a fancy dress ball. To wear an outfit from 1920 to 1965, you'll look very dressed up and attract attention. To wear an outfit post 1965, you'll hardly be noticed. Brunswick street in Fitzroy is full of people who could have stepped straight out of all sorts of eras from the mid sixties onwards.
So what am I wondering? Why it all changed so much in the mid sixties, and what the next change is going to be?