Tracking a fashion trend isn’t all that hard after seeing a few of them. Living from Mid-Century Modern through Twiggy Mod, Hippie Bohemian, Leisure Suit bellbottoms, and Opulent Eighties to Grunge, you get to see how they look after a while.
They usually start out with a highly dramatic change…like this:
And although this may look rather tame today, considering what came right before it, it was downright scandalous.
This style of the 1920 Elsa Schiaparelli endured through World War II, and became the frugal suit of the war years when rationing was the order of the day. As a suit that required the minimum amount of yardage, this was the perfect suit that not only showed your support of the war effort but practically bragged about your ration ability.
Here is Joan Crawford in all her should pad glory in the movie costume from Reunion in France, but still, that shoulder-padded suit had the spareness to impress any rations expert.
France had been occupied and at war as long as the Germans had, maybe a little shorter cause it was liberated before Germany. But France had also been ravaged by the departing Germans. Their art, resources and everything had been taken away, so they literally had nothing. The minute the war was over, they lifted rationing, but in a few months had to put rationing back on again, because there were so few resources available. Enter Dior, who in 1947, while France was still on ration tickets, presented this gown that took 30 yards of fabric as compared to the 3 yards of a brand new suit, which no one had. They usually used an old family jacket and then made a skirt from some scraps of fabric, and in waltzes this fashion. It was more than revolutionary, it was scandalous and the models were attacked in the streets because of the scandalous nature of the fashion
Nine years later, Mme. Chanel (who had an affair with a low-level Nazi spy and was more or less banned from France, but forgiven by the government on the order of Churchill and the Duchess of Windsor, because the rumor was that Chanel knew too much of how the Windsors were getting ready to defect to Nazi and get the Royals in England to surrender). So Chanel waited a while to re-start her house in Paris. Coco commented that Dior didn’t dress women, he upholstered them, so Coco wanted to make a suit that was glamorous and comfortable, which she did.
So watch how Dior was completely off-the-chart revolutionary, but Chanel brought the style back to a more normal place. That’s the track that fashion takes. The next phase shows that even more.
Suddenly the vive la femme look of Dior is out, and androgyny is in. One of the most notable characteristics of this fashion trend is the lack of a waist, and the straight up and down look. Twiggy was chosen as much for her youth as she was for her androgynous look.
So once again we go back to vive la femme with the broad shoulder pads and the nipped in waist only this time it’s the power suit of the 80s. The 80s finally digressed into a time of supreme opulence, that really did go over the top, but for me was still fun. Beading on top of beading on top of more beading and nothing was too much.
And then in 1992, after the premature death of Perry Ellis, Marc Jacobs was the heir apparent and took over the house of fashion of Perry Ellis. He showed the very first Grunge fashion show and again it was a huge shock to the fashion industry. Some hailed it as a major show; some thought it was just a bunch of junk and didn’t know what the young tyke was doing. He was 29 and won the major Council of Fashion Designers of America award, but the collection failed, and he was fired.
Get the trend…Dior was scandalous, Twiggy was revolutionary, and Jacobs was awarded and fired from his job. This is the trend in fashion. A trend rises, usually with great shock, settles in, becomes almost a caricature of itself, and then another shocking change. The trend can even be forecasted….watch this…Dior was characterized by the voluptuousness of the shape: artificially small waist, enormous hips, and very much different from the Schiaparelli look before Dior. Chanel comes in with a more classic modern look but is not as shapely as Dior, and then Twiggy takes that to the extreme, has no shape, and is much more androgynous. Then the 80s come in, and we have the exact opposite of Twiggy’s no-shape. We have a thin waist again, only this time with exaggerated shoulders to make the waist look so thin. Then the 80s goes into opulence, and what happens, the exact opposite, poor quality made clothing that rips and doesn’t fit and is almost anti-fashion, and then what comes in next – the exact opposite of poorly made clothing…more on that in a minute. The pendulum is swinging back and forth, back and forth. You can almost tell what’s coming by what’s been.
The unusual thing that happened with Grunge was that it became a fashion trend and an economical fashion trend. As the trend started, many clothing manufacturers were used to meeting certain standards. As the trend continued, the manufacturing companies were encouraged to make the price less and less and less. The quality cratered. But that was OK cause the garment was supposed to rip and tear, have ragged unfinished edges, and be ill-fitting, either too big or too small – all hallmarks of poor workmanship. So the price became cheaper and cheaper. Finally, the garment was woven with fewer threads in the yarn, then fewer yarns per inch in the fabric, making it more see-thru and flimsy. The cost kept coming down and down.
Soon, the consumer got used to cheap, fashionable clothing. No one was paying attention to the quality because it was fashionable to have poor-quality clothing. There were several problems with this. Poor-quality, cheaper clothing is actually more expensive than purchasing something that is very high-quality and lasts a long time. But the consumer only saw the short picture and didn’t see anything wrong. In the meantime, Amancio Ortega, who owns a little company called Zara, is one of the world’s wealthiest people. How does this happen?… selling a lot of very cheap clothing — it’s that simple.
Further, when you compare the price of clothing with the rise of the cost of bread and gasoline, clothing has a very warped value. I purchased a Yves St. Laurent blouse in 1989 for $189. If I compare that $189 to the rise in gas and a loaf of bread since 1989, my blouse would cost about $600. That’s how warped our concept of the price of clothing. I thought nothing at all of purchasing that top, and it’s made beautifully, and I would still wear it today. However, I would really have to think long and hard about spending $600 for that top today. The problem is that I sew today and know the cost of making that garment and could make it. But I bet that most consumers would pay that amount of money for a top – even a designer top.
Then in late 2010, for the Spring 2011 show, John Galliano, at the time the toast of Paris and who had made Maison Dior sing as if Christian was there himself, showed this magnificent collection. Grunge had been the rage for almost 20 years, and it was time for a change. Galliano knew that and showed this magnificent collection.
The dresses and happiness and bright colors were absolutely marvelous.
Rodarte does its best to keep up, and they have many collections since this 2016 collection that are totally feminine. So what happened is that we didn’t get this full-blown colorful, happy collection from Galliano. That spring was also when he had a breakdown and was released from Dior and went into rehab. It’s a sad story, particularly since he was on the verge of causing a major shift in fashion.
In the meantime, Grunge has hung on by default. This fashion trend had so little going for it, but because of the turndown in the economy in the 90s and then again in 2008, the pandemic, and many other factors, Grunge has hung on. Probably because it’s cheap, and if you were to price these beautiful dresses from Rodarte or John Galliano, you would gulp and head to your closest sewing machine. That’s actually the way clothes used to be priced so that sewing was less expensive. Today, because of Grunge, it’s not.
But let’s play with this a minute. What would be the exact opposite of poorly-made clothing? Well-made clothing. Guess what….here we go: Enter the new look from the most unexpected places: Summit County, Utah, where some guy sued Gwyneth Paltrow for skiing into him. Sounds absurd, but that’s not the real news of the trial. It was the fashions that Paltrow wore that were the most spectacular part of the trial. And you would think this would be like an Alexis Carrington moment. No, exact opposite. It was all about stealth wealth, or quiet luxury. I used to call it quiet quality, and here we are back to the fashion of Mme. Chanel and her famous jacket.
Fashion has always been cyclical; the longer you watch it, the more it proves so.
Thank you for this retrospective. I can relate as I was a child of the 60’s through the 2000’s
Also, thanks for whatever magic you did to get your newsletter to show up on my iPad
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