“It’s just fashion. Is it? Is it really?”*
Marc Jacobs Fall 2007 ... echoing the most elegant of the '30s. (I love this look.)
Does fashion predict or presage historical events?
(That is, the '30s were the period of Fascist incubation prior to World War II.)
*attributed, I think, to Miranda Priestly (who is supposedly Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue) in The Devil Wears Prada.
posted by mireille at 9:50 AM
5 Comments:
I'm taking your word on this.
6:31 AM
as much as I know about fashion, yes it is. :-P
12:19 PM
I think hemlines so down in bad times, and get shorter in good economic times.
I don't know if the chicken or the egg comes first though.
8:38 PM
Hello, i got your comment about the perfume, Thanks! It's not the one, but it sure is pretty! Now I have to go find a place to smell it. i consulted with my husband and we both now think it was called "Lucky Day"
megan
9:52 PM
Hmmm, good question. I do know that the thin body ideal for women has become popular during times of economic/political advantage for women (research supports this): thin flat flapper look during the suffragette era, curvy postwar look when women were forced back into the home, Twiggy popular during 2nd wave feminism, and even (some would argue) the waif look becoming popular with the Clinton/Rodham-Clinton years. As for why, two key arguments have been advanced: (1) when women have to assimilate within a male-dominated work world, angular and flat are useful attributes (think shoulder pads in the '80s); (2) "society" can't take the notion of powerful women and therefore pressures them to look small, waiflike, and nonthreatening (harder argument to buy because where is the mind behind this reified thing, "Society?") Anyway, interesting idea that makes one think about female fashion as something way beyond simply trends in art. (Oh, and there's also research showing that during comfy economic times, movie actresses tend to be more babyfaced, whereas during more difficult times, they tend to be more angular and grown-up looking--evolutionary arguments advanced by way of explanation.) And on and on it goes... :-)
7:46 PM
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