Fashion and art in the eighteenth century

Fashion and art in the eighteenth century

Fashion Art in the 18th century
 

 

 

*Table of Contact:

- introduction ……………………………………….(1)

- body ……………………………………………..(2-7)

- conclusion …………………………………………(8)

- references ………………………………………….(8)

Introduction:

The 18th century saw the birth of fashion as we know it today; international, media driven, corporate, seasonal, and constantly changing. Then, as now, fashion was a major industry, centered in Paris but drawing clients, materials, and inspiration from all corners of the globe. The invention of the fashion magazine during this period ensured that new styles had a wide and immediate impact. Mass production and ready-to-wear clothing were being pioneered on a small scale, though the technology necessary to realize their full potential did not yet exist. It was an experimental, transitional period between the staggeringly luxurious fashions of Louis XIV’s ancient regime and the diversity, disposability, and accessibility of fashion in the modern age.

Body:

In previous centuries, governments regulated dress according to the wearer’s social status, through sumptuary laws. From the early 18th century, these laws never very effective-ceased to be regularly renewed. For the first time, people of all classes were permitted to wear fashionable, luxurious dress, provided that they could afford it. “Clothes were no longer an accurate indicator of class or rank.” The introduction of innovative technologies and textiles in this period made never-worn clothing more affordable than in the past. Previously, only the very wealthy bought new clothing, and almost everyone else settled for used garments. As these traditional social, legal, and economic barriers disintegrated, fashion’s influence spread from the court and aristocracy to the middle and lower social strata. Fashion was still driven by the elite, but it was produced-and, increasingly, imitated-at all levels of society.

Before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, when mechanization transformed the fashion industry, clothing was a major financial investment; fashionable clothing, which had an unnaturally short life span, was an extraordinary luxury. Although labor was cheap in the 18th century, fabric was expensive. The cost of a garment lay almost entirely in the cloth and trimmings, and labor made up a fraction of the price. Trimmings were often even more expensive than the fabric onto which they were sewn. Lace, for example, was handmade and could cost as much as gems; like jewellery, it would be passed down from generation to generation. Metallic trimmings, such as gold or silver braid, contained real precious metals, and they were sold by weight rather than length. Silk, wool, and linen were the basic textile fibers, though cotton grew in importance later in the century. Cheap, manufactured imitations of these textiles did not exist; however, those who could not afford high-quality fabrics could

wear lesser-quality fabrics or used fabrics. Rough/fine and plain/complex fabrics corresponded to social rank.

Most of the clothing worn in the 18th century was bought second-hand, if not third-or fourth-hand. Clothing was so valuable that it was frequently stolen. Fashionable clothing had a finite life span; after clothing went out of fashion, it was given to a servant or sold to a second-hand clothes dealer, who might alter or update the garment. This cycle of redistribution would continue until the garment was not just outmoded but threadbare. Even the wealthy frequently had garments refurbished, remodelled, or otherwise updated, rather than buying everything new. New clothing was the exception, not the rule. However, farmers and labourers had access to fashionable, high-quality clothing through the used clothing market. The same types of garments-and frequently the very same garments-were worn across the social spectrum.

Both sexes wore a layer of white linen next to their skin, which protected the expensive outer garments of wool or silk from perspiration and protected the body from dirt and vermin. Cleanliness was determined by the state of one’s linen-visible at the collar, cuffs and hem-rather than one’s outer garments or body. Men wore T-shaped linen shirts with long tails, which they tucked between their legs; women wore long linen chemises or shifts and additional layers of underskirts. Although some men wore underpants, it was not a common practice. Women did not wear underpants at all; ironically, they were considered immoral, as bifurcated garments were traditionally reserved for men. It was considered improper for a woman to show her legs, beyond the tip of her foot. Likewise, women kept their elbows covered, and wore low-cut gowns only at night or on the most formal occasions. By the end of the century, however, all these rules would be obsolete.

Fashion and Revolution (1780 – 1789)

The French Revolution marked a turning point in fashion technology history. But long before 1789, European fashion embraced the principles of liberty and equality, taking its cues from rural and sporting dress rather than from royals and celebrities. The American Revolution of 1776 filled Paris with hairstyles and gowns.Hoops, wings, and hair powder virtually disappeared from fashionable circles; women’s towering hairstyles relaxed into soft, rounded clouds of curls. Rather than matched three – piece suits, men began to wear jackets, waistcoats and breeches of contrasting color and fabrics. Men’s coat collars grew higher, and waistcoats grew shorter.They ended at the waist, and were almost always white, to show off elaborate, sometimes whimsical, embroidery. Only at the courts of Europe did formal styles persist, frozen in time by strict etiquette.

While the French set the standard of elegance for all of Europe, the English perfected what we now call sportswear. The English taste for the outdoors and physical activity produces a distinctive wardrobe of functional, comfortable garments. Many of these garments originated as rural dress, including straw hats, aprons, gaiters, and frock coats. Hats, boots, and jackets based on jockey dress (which looks very similar today) were also popular. In England, of course, jackets were only worn while actually on horseback; in France, they were worn indoors, as high fashion, to the horror of English visitors. These casual fashions – worn in England by both the landed gentry and the peasants who worked their estates – defined the French tradition of formality and luxury. Nevertheless, they found favour in the most elite circles in Europe.French fashion often distorted the natural shape of the body; English fashions accentuated it. In France, gorgeous surface embellishment masked haphazard tailored; English garments were characterized by their flawless cut and construction,

unspoiled by superfluous ornament. Long, narrow sleeves and closely fitted bodies and coats created an elegant, distinctly English line while allowing efficient movement.

Children’s dress, in the late 18th century, frocks became less fitted around the torso and hairstyles more natural. Girls continued to wear frocks until their teen years instead of adopting adult-style gowns. Instead of breeches, boys began to wear the so called skeleton suit, a transitional style between the frock and adult clothing, consisting of a shirt – made like an adult man’s shirt but with an open, ruffled collar – worn with a jacket and long trousers that buttoned together to form a one-piece garment. The already controversial practice of swaddling infants in bands of cloth virtually disappeared between 1760 and 1780; instead, enlightened mothers’ dresses their babies in loose shirt and caps.

The French revolution of 1789 produced not just a new set of garments but also a more relaxed definition of elegance. The most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon was the term sans-culottes, which described manual laborers& urban poor, who generally wore utilitarian long trousers rather than the knee-length breeches favoured by aristocrats and the bourgeoisie, paired with short jackets called carmagnoles. On both side of the political divide, sans-culottes became shorthand for revolutionaries. Along with breeches, the sans-culottes rejected lace, embroidery, diamonds, rough, silk, swords, shoe buckles, hair powder, and non-patriotic jewellery. Fashion was no longer in fashion in France, and this change had a ripple effect throughout Europe. Fashions based on military dress and the clinging, austere robes of the ancient Greeks replaced the elegant disorder of the rococo; flowing flowered silks gave way to patriotic strips and severe tailoring.

Conclusion:

•In conclusion we learnt the history of fashion and how it began and how it did developed , it was a fantastic story that how fashion evolved , and how it was monopolized only for wealthy, and that the dress was just a symbol of class and but with the passage of the time the lifestyle being different , no longer dress monopolized the wealthy and no longer also a symbol of class, also in my opinion that the dress is also symbolizes the personality of each person living within the limits of this world, and in the end I wanted to give advice for everyone “you have to wear what you like not what people like”


Fashion from the sixteenth to nineteenth

Fashion from the sixteenth to nineteenth century

Fashion, which was a norm only used to describe upper class people between 13th Century and 16th Century, was dominated by court and aristocracy. At the beginning of 17th Century, which is also known as the end of European Renaissance, clothing represented the social standing of the wearer. The dressing code could be used to distinguish classes. It is believed that during the Renaissance, fashion was experiencing a lot of transformation in terms of colour, clothes and accessories (Jones 2000). Some people argued that Renaissance is the turning point of fashion since it reflected changes in self-esteem, erotic appeal or social advancement (Rublack 2011). In the meantime, lower class started to acquire status by adopting the clothing styles of the upper class, fashion became widely interested. Therefore, it is important to understand the fashion development since 17th Century. This paper first discusses the fashion plate, which is considered to be the first fashion magazine and early form of fashion. Secondly, it discusses the development of printing technology and its effects on fashion dissemination. Then it illustrates modern fashion disseminations including Internet, television and other social media and their influences.

Fashion plate is defined as illustrations of clothing fashion or style, originated as early as 16th Century (Nevinson 1967). The original fashion plate was in a form of either drawing or engraving of clothes, accessories and shoes on metal plates (Holland 1955). Initially, it was used in portraiture of nobility and aristocracy (Nevinson 1967). Loyal families drew portraits and clothes on the fashion plates and sent them away to other loyal families as display of marriageable members (Nevinson 1967). With the development of fashion plate and fashion, at the beginning of 17th Century, fashion plate becomes the most effective way to promote fashion workshops in Europe (Steele 2005). People distributed fashion plate to convey fashionable information around Europe. Shop owners sent fashion plates by messengers to potential clients while friends and relatives sent each other fashion plate for comparisons and communications. Fashion plate is also regarded as the earliest form of fashion magazine since the popularity of fashion plates led some publishers to use fashion plates as their publications materials to demonstrate trends and clothes instead of using plain text (Holland, 1955).

However, fashion plate did not occur at a systematic level until 18th Century when weekly publications such as the Lady’s Magazine, La Belle Assemblee, and Les Modes Parisiennes became widespread and publications became massive. At the beginning, fashion plates only depicted fashion information and predicted fashion to those who could afford. With the development of economy and technology, fashion plates soon became popular even within lower class people. Although fashion plates were pricy, people showed strong interest in them. It was the mainstream medium of fashion dissemination until the early 20th Century when printing became dominant. Fashion plate remained on fashion stage for another significant period of time until late 20th Century when other social media such as television and Internet became popular. Today it is regarded as fine art collection and most of them have the value of research study.

Another development of fashion dissemination is the invention of printing. Fashion information was delivered by printed paper ever since the invention of printing press. However, formal publication started only in 17th Century when the French publication Mercure de France was published. Mercure de France was a significant development since it was considered the first gazette and literary magazine (DeJean 2005). It played an important role in the dissemination of fashion news, fashion stories, and reviews of the latest fashion. But due to relatively slow improvement in fashion itself, weekly publication seems to be too fast and unnecessary. Fashion plates, which could be preserved over a significant time and transported multiple times, were easier to accepted by the social perception (Nevinson 1967).

The real improvement in print production started in the nineteenth century when steam power press became available. The magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book quickly became a large circulation in the country (Nevinson 1967). Massive fashion production by printing press flourished the second time after the transition to rolled paper, which significantly improve the paper feeding speed and printing speed. The invention of lithography, which is regarded as another important improvement, enabled artists and designers to print their drawings and illustration any smooth surface. Since lithograph can print on all surfaces, fashion plates started to die off from the market simply because it was too pricy for most of the people. For textile and clothing fashion, under the impulse of evolution in printing technology, the printing became an industrial process which significantly decreased the price of textile and clothes. In contemporary fashion, variety of prints could be identified. It became the trademark of a diversity of designers such as handbags and clothes. The printing technology started with simple printing press, has experience uncountable developments, today, it is still the mainstream platform of fashion dissemination.

But the biggest step forward happened when half tone printing technology was invented. The invention of half tone printing allowed people printed photographs together with text without affecting their quality. This new technology gave birth of the modern fashion magazine. In the 1820s, the first photography was developed (Hirsch 2000). Fashion photography appeared first time in a French magazine. In 1909, Vogue magazine was took over by Condé Nast, which contributed significantly to the era of fashion photography (Angeletti 2012). In 1911, photographer Edward Steichen promote fashion as fine art by the collection of photography (Niven 1997). Paris was the centre of the fashion photography at that time. Fashion photograph has generated some of the most influential materials. Although fashion was developing slowly during World War I and World War II, there continuous to be growing numbers of women increased in fashion information. Magazines and newspapers, which contained a lot of photographs, began to cater to the lower classes in cheaper, specialise and accessible manners. By the 1960s, fashion magazines became more specialised while photography became the ideal medium for recording and disseminating the fashion information.

Changes in the fashion dissemination in the 20th century were facilitated by new methods and approaches, mainly because of the evolution in technologies. More people were seeking more convenient ways to follow the trend. These new mediums such as Internet and TV created new access to fashion information and changed the ways people create fashions.

Film, as another mainstream presentation of fashion, became popular during the Great Depression (Barthes 2010). However, due to the limitation of technology, film did not improve a lot until late 20th Century. The fashion elements in film include clothes, make-ups, accessories, bags, and even cars. While films are representing themes in virtual world, most of the elements can be used to predict fashions once a particular film becomes popular (McNeil 2009). In the late 20th century movie stars began to establish their role as the fashion elite by stapling fashion design labels in their daily life. For instance, Audrey Hepburn fashion icons include fitted pants, oversized sunglasses and little black dress affected women wear still today. Another example is the car collections in James Bond’s movie series had lead car collection fashion over decades. Victoria Beckham, who had transformed herself from singer to fashion designer and businesswoman, is leading the women fashion in different fields.

Another important fashion dissemination tool, television, began to compete with film as a medium of fashion from the mid-20th Century (McNeil 2009). The advent of the video clips had introduced another approach for fashion. Since film is much longer than video clip or music video clip, it is hard for people to find a particular piece of information throughout the whole film, and it is obviously impossible to repeat the film over and over again, TV has its own advantages than film. Commercials and advertisement can be broadcasted on TV repeatedly with a reasonable cost.

With the invention of cable and digital networks, today traditional media have been assigned with different meanings. The improvement of Internet provided increasing amounts of information to people. Internet TV could reach all levels of society and more fashion information than conventional way. A variety of formats including news, magazines and other forms of fashion dissemination are transforming into digital way. The social networking has enabled a faster fashion diffuseness. Celebrities, fashion designers and other fashion related parties started using social media as their primary dissemination tool. With the impacts of new technology, fashion is experiencing faster evolution than ever.

In conclusion, the development of fashion between 17th Century and 19th Century was slow due to the limitation of technology. Fashion plate was the mainstream dissemination tool from 17th to 19th century. With the industry revolution, fashion dissemination had extended magazines and newspaper. The development of technology had empowered fashion dissemination a cheaper and convenient approach. However, it was until the invention of film and photography could fashion become widely spread. Throughout the 20th century, the social media’s role in the fashion dissemination process has become more and more important. The concept and understanding of fashion became integrated with digital technology.

Reference

Angeletti, N. O. A. W. A. 2012, In Vogue : the illustrated history of the world's most famous fashion magazine, Rizzoli : Distributed in the U.S. trade by Random House, New York.

 

Barthes, R. 2010, The fashion system, Vintage Classic, London.

 

DeJean, J. E. 2005, The essence of style : how the French invented high fashion, fine food, chic cafés, style, sophistication, and glamour, Free Press, New York.

 

Hirsch, R. 2000, Seizing the light : a history of photography, McGraw-Hill, Boston.

 

Holland, V. B. 1955, Hand coloured fashion plates, 1770 to 1899, Batsford, London.

 

Jones, A. R. S. P. 2000, Renaissance clothing and the materials of memory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England]; New York.

 

McNeil, P. K. V. C. C. 2009, Fashion in fiction : text and clothing in literature, film, and television, Berg, Oxford, UK; New York.

 

Nevinson, J. L. 1967, Origin and early history of the fashion plate, Smithsonian Press, Washington, D.C.

 

Niven, P. 1997, Steichen : a biography, Clarkson Potter, New York.

 

Rublack, U. 2011, "Renaissance fashion: The birth of power dressing", History Today, vol. 61, no.1.

 

Steele, V. 2005, Encyclopedia of clothing and fashion, Charles Scribner's Sons, Farmington Hills, MI.