Historical Development Of Haute Couture

The 18th century, more precisely between 1715 and 1789, was a significant time period in the fashion sphere for women in France. The time period itself was a mark of great change for the history of France due to various political reasons as well as various art movements and often times fashion, despite being a branch of art, is overlooked by most viewers. However, fashion during this time excelled in France and was essentially the symbol of a new era in this domain; French fashion was now snowballing into something much greater that still echoes to this today. Ultimately, the goal of this essay is to describe women’s fashion during the period of 1715-1789 and the shifts it made through the analytical use of various sources including artwork, literature, museums’ online archives and internet sources.

There have been and still are hundreds of fashion designers in the world. But only a few of them have had any major impact on fashion industry today. And even fewer have revolutionised the fashion industry completely. One of these revolutionaries is the renowned Christian Dior. He reestablished Paris as the centre of the fashion world, and created his name as a symbol of elegance, quality, and modernity. I will be looking into how Dior’s context informed his practice, by using three of his most iconic and popular designs; The Bar Suit, Venus Dress and the Cygne Noir dress. And how these were a direct representation of 1945-1950 France.

In this essay I want to examine how the corset evolved from a staple of the British feminine wardrobe of the Nineteenth Century into a symbol of an outmoded tradition – only to later return as a statement of female liberation. I am going to look at different aspects of this development including technological advances, economic facts, external events, particularly the First World War and changes in social, political and aesthetic attitudes. I will also look briefly at the role of Chanel on the silhouette and how this impacted on the corset: focusing on the trend to towards ‘opulent androgyny’ in the 1920’s. Finally I will examine the resurgence of the corset

Let’s take a look at the women’s of the 1920’s, the changes that took place in fashion and the roles of women in society. Women’s fashion will be compared from early days up until the 1930’s, with a brief comparison of the roles of women before and after the 1920’s. A discussion of the different avenues that opened up for women after 1920 and the impact that it has had on modern day women will also be covered within this paper. you need a stronger introduction

There was a time when social classes were most easily identified through material goods and possessions. Whether wealth was gained through inheritance or hard work, it was the luxury items that made the most visible and tangible statement regarding a person’s social status. Men could rely on a large house or expensive car to proclaim the success they had earned. It was much more common to see women adorned in jewels, designer clothes, and furs as symbols of her upper class status. The extravagance of a woman’s appearance was a reflection of the success of her husband, so it was natural to indulge her desire for expensive material possessions.

Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a

The fashion industry is rapidly growing and constantly generating new fashion trends almost weekly. Fashion for some may seem ridiculous and unnecessary; but fashion is not just a meaningless usage of article of clothing or farcical materials sew together for coverage. There is more to fashion than meets the eyes, fashion is precious and significant. It is a reflection of self-image, it speak the ream about who we are and how we review ourselves. Not only is fashion the reflection of self-image but also the reflection of our history as Coco Channel have said, “Fashion is not something that exist in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Fashion

Fairchilds argues that debates over women’s political rights were neither the only nor the most significant causes for the emergence of Revolutionary regulations of dress. She suggests that these regulations emerged due to the policy of consumption and consumer goods, which was shaped by two contradictory notions: the notion that consumers had the right to buy what they wanted and the notion that goods had symbolic, formative and didactic traits that reflected and shaped the consumer’s personality. Through the examination of the Old Regime luxury debates, Fairchilds explains the beginnings of these ideas and how they influenced Revolutionary policies towards dress. In addition, she suggests that the concept that fashion reflects an individual’s

Fast forward to Chanel’s young adult life, and you can see it wasn’t long off that she would set up shop in Paris, France in 1910, eventually expanding out to Deauville, and then Biarritz. She had started off with designing, and marketing hats which became a very successful hit amongst the fashionistas of that day. Chanel’s empire was growing exponentially, and in 1920 she expanded into the realms of couture now working in jersey which at the time was unheard of in the French fashion circle. Soon she was blurring the lines of what was acceptable, setting fashion trends instead of adhering to the routine, and was giving way to entire style genres such as the “chemise” and the “little boy” look. Her fashion statements were a gigantic contrast to what was socially acceptable, and of course Chanel fell under scrutiny over it, but she went on to create more casual, shorter, and idyllically “liberating” clothing for the day’s modern woman. In essence she was liberating women from the stuffy, confining fashions that they were used to, and giving way to a loose more relaxed style all together while maintaining it’s inherent feminine charm. Chanel was creating more than just a design, or an article of clothing, she was creating a movement that would change the way society viewed fashion in it’s entirety. (Lewis)

The way in which this honour was portrayed to the outside world involved elaborate and restrictive corsetry and bulky skirts for the women and patent shoes, gloves, top hats and suits for the men. Such clothing, especially that worn by women, was completely impractical for engaging in any form of physical labour. As a quote taken from Thorstein Veblen’s ‘The Theory of the Leisure Class’ eloquently states, the general consensus of this era was that '...apparel is always in evidence and affords an indication of our pecuniary standing to all observers at first glance...dress, therefore, in order to serve its purpose effectively should not only be expensive, but it should also make plain to all observers that the wearer is not engaged in any kind of productive labour...' (www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/vebleis7.html).

Fashion has been around ever since ancient times, since the time of the Romans, it survived the world wars and is yet today a business with rapid changes. Fashion started off as an art form, a way for the riches to show their social status with unique and innovative designs that only they could afford. It was a way to separate the social classes of the society. In this paper I will include the creator of haute couture, and how the following designers developed couture, as well as having leading names in today’s ready-to-wear industry. The list is long, but I chose to focus on the three most important designers of the modern fashion industry.

What is avant-garde and how does it fit into South African contemporary fashion design? In order for one to determine if you are for or against avant-garde, and specifically in relations to South African avant-garde, one must first define

Society is constructed in such a way that some people become inferior to other people because of how society treats certain individuals. Fashion has become a catalyst that leaves a gap between the lower class and the upper class; this brings out the aspect of social structure as it ranks categories of people in a hierarchy,( Macious & Plummer, 2008).Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, social capital and cultural capital gives an illustration of the elite and the lower class in terms of their fashion taste. This essay consists of three parts; the first part will look at the London Fashion Week applying Bourdieu’s concepts, the second part will describe the difference sorts of capital required for elite women to join the ‘secret club’ of

Paul Poiret was born on April 20th, 1879 in Paris, France. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion has earned him the title in many people’s eyes as the “King of Fashion”, because he established the principle of modern dress and created the blueprint of the modern fashion industry. Poiret’s designs and ideas led the direction of modern design history. He was born into a working class family and his natural charisma eventually gained him entry into some of the most exclusive ateliers of the Belle Époque. Jacques Doucet, one of the capital’s most prominent couturiers, hired him after seeing promising sketches he had sold to other dressmakers. Furthermore, he was hired by the House of Worth and was put to work to create less

The passageway of modernism has introduced innovative components in the development of an individual's personality. The identity character as a social construct is highlighted through the effect that fashion has brought in, experimenting, producing and changing individual identity. The style and appearance of an individual is a portion of the fashion's period and usually refers to the possibility of people to utilize fashion industry products. This takes place just like any other consumer good that can be modified with respect to the prevalent societal codes. The modifications can be made either through surpassing or through copying them. Modern fashions are part of postmodernism. This is in the view of the fact that developments and growth in the fashion industry accompany and express development of the society through embracing postmodernism. Developments in the fashion industry offer options regarding styles, image and clothing through rejecting the options presented in modernism. This paper discusses Versace designs and their relationship to postmodernism.