Haute Couture and Golden Age

Haute Couture is a creation of exclusive high fashion clothing or knows as high dressing made by atelier/fashion houses. It may have started in France but it was a concept born of an Englishman. The origins of it is attributed to Charles Frederick Worth he began his training in London before moving to Paris in 1845, in 1858 founded the first Couture House in Paris. Charles realised that women would want more if it was shown the dress made by the materials from scratch, he is the 1st fashion designer to have a fashion show and also, he started to showcase his outfits on mannequins.

Christian Dior founded a Couture House in Paris which easily get fabrics due to having a fabric company backing him. The launch of Christian Dior 'New Look ' in 1947 which establish a beginning of historic fashion decade, which Dior called 'Golden Age '. Therefore, he was the right designer at the right period of the time because it was the end of the 2nd world war and for celebrating the end and the birth of the new era, therefore, Dior brought back more a feminine look which is reflecting more positive note in reflection to the war. During the era french couturiers such as Pierre Balmain, Jacques Fath and Cristobal Balenciaga dominated fashion with their unique styles creations. Therefore, in London there were new competitor designers arrived Norman Hartnell , Hardy Amies and Digby Morton they were identified with glamour of the royal family.

As I said in 1947 Dior launched his collection called 'New Look', his collection was the contrast of masculine wartime fashions. With sloping shoulders, full bust and cinched-in waist above full and long skirts. London couturier John Cavanagh define as 'a total glorification of the female form'. One of the most famous suit from his collection is the The Bar Suit which is manifest an attributes of Dior's dramatic atavism.

The Bar Suit was made with four yard of silk shantung in a soft ivory shade and padded at the hipline for a more rounded and feminine shape. The suit was a successful sales which it was copied and replicated but also, Dior reworked and updated his piece and made different versions in all of the 22 couture collections.

In my opinion, there was an immigration with the country became very multicultural, between 50s and 60s. Therefore, there were changing of attitudes because after the war finished men came home and started to work, meanwhile, women starting back to stay home while the men went to work. On the fashion side, men used to wear suits which made with heavy woven. Therefore, for women had to wore old clothing due to lack of materials. Because of it I assumed for the society men were icons with their quality of clothes and the good position of their jobs. Meantime, women were treated not good as they used to be treated, because women used to help their countries too for examples they were: nurse, ambulance drivers and doctors. Some women were enrolled to the army as well. Another reason, after the war and the destruction that caused, men not only had better job but they had even higher pay than before. Which they spend it to buy new clothes for look nice and increased the money.

Fashion industry during the industrial revolution

When we talk about the industrial revolution, we think about the period of history which has affect on the society, politically and economic side. Meanwhile, in fashion industry the industrial revolution had affect in fabrics and materials that we used to make clothes. In England, at that time the main fabrics were wool and then cotton. Also, the society had a desire to be different from each other, in additional, people could pretend to be upper class.

In the early industrial revolution , in 1764 was invented the SPINNING JENNY by James Hargreaves. The spinning jenny was a machine which they used a large wheel to spin many spindles of thread at once. It was used for the cotton which means that workers had more and better clothing, as that type of textile (cotton) led more demand. Thanks for this innovation, it increased the production of the ability of textile manufactures. The impact on the environment was indirect, therefore, the spinning jenny could spin thread into the yarn much faster than a person.

Hargreaves sold his creation to certain foundry in the area, which he made little money from it. Furthermore, from his innovation other creations who built get inspired by him.

In 1850 Isaac Merritt Singer created the first practical SINGER sewing machine was named as Standard 1, a first straight stitch sewing machine at a small machine shop in Boston. When he invented the first sewing machine he made official of the beginning the brand SINGER, which with time became very famous in the world. There was a huge difference between sewing with machine and doing by hand, it took 14 hours to sew a man’s shirt by hand, meanwhile, it took 1 hour and 16 minutes with a Singer machine. Therefore, in 1860, 400 Singer machines were able to do any piece of work that may be done by two thousand workers. In 1863, the brand started to sell 20.000 sewing machines on annual basis and in 1867 the sewing machines were started to be manufactured in Glasgow, Scotland.

During the industrial revolution the society were became Capitalism. It was very important and the reason is during this period, the industrialisation was required significant work and investment from individuals and not necessarily from the government. It was focused more on the economic side, we can say there was an economic revolution as well, even though it tend to benefit more levels of society rather than just the aristocratic. In my opinion, the capitalism benefits more the differences of the socials class. Because with the capitalism it increase with a surplus of affordable products being mass-produced, which nowadays inside the fashion industry we called FAST-FASHION.

In these days, I describe Fast Fashion as economical, fashionable and mass-produced clothing but it affect on the environment. Inside the industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions every year and there is an estimation to use around 1.5 trillion litres of water annually. Furthermore, it concerns to been rising pollution from chemical waste to microplastics. Let's put the problems in one side for a moment, even though in fast fashion industry the clothes are very cheap, it is procured a rapid trends change, for example Shein. Dr Patsy Perry's team mention the global nature of the fashion industry means clothes travelled around the world several time in course of the manufacture. Also, mention about the industry's water consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, textile waste and use of chemicals- substances they not only risk the environment but also the health risks for who are involved in the industry. The team wrote 'In one example, a single European textile -finishing company uses over 466g of chemicals per kilogram of textile'. Most of the manufacture fabric are not in US or EU but they are situated in developing countries.

The social class during the industrial revolution, change which means there is a formation of MIDDLE CLASS and began to raise people from lower class to middle class. Therefore, in the political side the capitalism encourage an individual liberty, an economist Milton Friedman wrote in Capitalism and Freedom in 1962 ‘ capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom’.

One of the negative side during the Capitalism and the industrial revolution , is there were unemployed people. It came a point where workers are left out of the fabrics. Which creates a strong struggle for the people, they used to fight for better conditions, because of it there was a social inequalities.

What is fashion and how you define it today?

The word 'fashion' means a popular style of clothing, make up, accessories and hairstyles. Therefore, people has different prospective about the meaning of fashion. It can be affect by society, culture and art history. Moreover, fashion is not only what people think of what to wear or be fashionable and follow the trends. Behind every style and each clothes we wear we express our identity, our feelings and we tell our story.

Nowadays, fashion is not about what society thinks but it is more about a way to stand out and show who you really are. Most people thinks fashion is just doing shopping online or doing it at the mall. Instead, the world of fashion is more complex. Behind each pieces of clothes there is a story. In particular, how the designer get inspired for the collection, the option on which fabrics are suitable for it and patching pieces all together. As I said, it can be impact the society and culture. In my opinion, the society is not like in the past in the 19th century. At that period looking at what they are wearing you can identify which social class they were belonging to. Meanwhile, nowadays is not that clear if you are rich or poor. Joanna Entwistle said 'getting dressed is act of preparing the body for the social world', I disagree. Because you can wear something to be yourself or communicate how you feel on that specific day, and not your social class. Sometimes when someone see a person with a tracksuits going out with friends to eat in a fancy restaurant, they might think: 'what did you wear to come here? Did you see yourself before going out?'. In my opinion, if someone from the society start judging you for how you wear it, in this time, is only because they think that the person can wear something more appropriate for that occasions. However, I believe people alway have a reason behind any decision regarding their style. Another example, can be the lady's outfit during the summer time. If she wears a bikini at the beach it is sees as appropriate. However, if she is wearing short trouser and the bra to go out for a dinner such an outfit could be judged by people as unsuitable for a restaurant when she might just wanted to be comfortable and wear something cozy. The same outfits in different places are judged in different ways by the society. But obviously we are no one to judge someone else styles, everyone are free to decide what to wear.

Personally, when I was a teenager I used wore everything that was fashionable at the time just because I wanted to be accepted from people, even though it didn't identify who I really am and most of time felt uncomfortable to wear clothes similar to everyone. At that time I was thinking "if I was not wearing something fashionable they would laugh at me". Since I was little I like wear unique clothes and be different from the mass. After I moved to London this thought that I put in my mind started to change. When I moved here, somehow I started to be confident of myself and people seem appreciate me for how I was, playing with colours and clothes. Even my friends and classmates liked it. I think it is because the society and the culture are different from where I used to live. In this city you can be yourself and no one judge you. I remember that my friends admired me because of what I was wearing and I was shocked they accept myself and didn’t laughed at me. They liked how I customised and make it as my own style. In conclusion, now I am very confident with my own style and to be honest I do not care anymore about different judgments because in my opinion, nowadays people love to be different and unique.