Fashion Cycles

Fashion Cycles—and Our Beauty Dilemma

On a remembered edition of “Gordon,” a syndicated talk show, four panelists told of their experiences in trying to find peace of mind regarding their personal appearance. Searching for beauty, each of them underwent cosmetic surgeries to change their physical appearance from what they were to what they wanted to be. One man in his early 30s told of twenty separate operations pursuing an ideal look. One procedure in particular was a very upsetting  and painful experience when he had collagen inserted into his lips to achieve a “pouty” look.  When asked why he went to such lengths his response was simple. “I just like that look better.”

One woman related her near death experience because of breast augmentation and the complications resulting from her implants. While most of the program centered on horror stories about painful cosmetic surgery and recovery, some of the guests were pleased with their results. I was intrigued by the pain, expense, and inconvenience these people went through for their “ideal” beauty.

I hear the voices, “If only my thighs were smaller . . . my breasts larger . . . my lips more full. If only . . . If  only . . . ” I’ve watched, I’ve listened and thought of Procrustes.

Procrustes was a scoundrel from Greek mythology who earned his nickname—The Stretcher—through some very peculiar habits as a roadside host. Procrustes’ house bordered the highway to Athens. While he often invited travelers into his home to spend the night, he would tolerate no deviations from the proportions of his house. A guest had to fit his iron bedstead exactly. Guests who were too short were stretched on a rack and guests who were too tall had their legs cut off.

It’s a grisly fable, with a modern corollary. We are racked on a Procrustean bed of style and color.

In our world of fashion, we are bombarded with images of how we should look and what we should wear. Women’s Wear Daily prints an issue each January that announces which fashions are “out” and which are “in.” At one time, its editors also made lists of those who were “in” according to its definitions—typically including such celebrities as the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis or Diana, Princess of Wales. Others, who were “out” fared more poorly.

Understanding the history and cycles of fashion helps to free us from the Procrustean bed.

Approximately once a decade, fashion designers, reflecting the social climate of the times, define a major style shape that affects clothing, hair, shoes, accessories, and “mood.” It’s a fun ‘read’ to follow the shapes of fashion cycles.

A Fashion History

The Turn of the Century

From 1900 to 1920, middle-class respectable women wore Victorian styles—dresses with close-fitting bodices and sleeves, high necks, sleeves to the wrist, and voluminous skirts to the shoe. They were usually sober in color, without patterns, but intricately embroidered, beaded, or pleated. Hair was worn long but was always arranged on top of the head, controlled by combs. Rouge and lip color was confined to actresses and prostitutes.

The Roaring Twenties

World War I, however, shattered this hegemony of respectability. Women started wearing heavier makeup and more exciting colors. With the end of the war, more women were in the work place than ever, and the Feminist movement got rolling. These two changes affected female fashion drastically. From a stark, conservative, feminine look, the fashion traveled to a bright, revolutionary, masculine look.

“Flapper” skirts shot up to the knee, and silk stockings, often ornamented with designs called “clocks,” drew attention to shapely calves. Young women tried to achieve a “flat” or a masculine style by bobbing their hair, abandoning broad-brimmed, ornamented hats for smart, close-fitting helmet styles, adopting a more casual style, and casting aside the rigid corsets of their mothers for straight sides – the tube shape. Low-waist dresses that sported a full hemline were popular and added to this “tubular” look. They still allowed woman a freedom of movement—especially to join in the current dances. The “flapper” look was a visible index of the agitation and unrest—indeed, the need of the times.

The Thirties

In 1929, the stock market collapsed, unions advanced, and the Great Depression was a sobering reminder that the heady days were over. The Thirties look featured large jackets and blouses with square padded shoulders and slim mid-calf-length skirts, often with bias shaping.

The fashions pulled back to a conservative look in response to the Great Depression. Women went back to a more traditional “womanly” look with the waistline returning to the waist with open skirts that reached to mid-calf. Along with the natural waist-line, fashion used the empire line to bring emphasis to the shoulders (this emphasis was helped along by shoulder pads or puffed sleeves). Short hair remained popular, but was often curled.

If the twenties look had been a slim cylinder, then, with all these changes, the thirties shape was a triangle with the point-down.

The Forties

In 1939, World War II broke out in Europe. When the U.S.   joined in 1941, women’s suits and coats took on a severe masculine design, often reminiscent of military uniforms. Women also entered factories, taking jobs formerly held by men and wearing trousers, coveralls, and caps. The post-war forties look featured skirts shortened to just below the knee. Subtly, the  triangle shape was changed to the “hourglass.”

At the beginning of the decade, nylon stockings came on the scene and met with huge success. During the war, female fashion of necessity took a more masculine approach as working women adapted the clothing of their away-at-war husband to themselves with feminine blouses under the jackets and a big belt at the waist.

After the war, the fashions remained more masculine with jackets still in style, but made more feminine with pencil skirts, high heels, and enthusiastic use of accessories.

The Fabulous Fifties

In the 1950s, the world seemed divided between the ideologies of communism and capitalism. Conflicts broke out in Korea. Fashion reflected this conflict. The “Beatniks” adopted eccentric habits of dress and grooming as a protest against “the establishment.” Henry Winkler as “Fonzie” catapulted the black leather jacket worn over a T-shirt into fashion; teenagers wore white buck shoes and felt skirts with voluminous petticoats. Men wore beards and pony tails; sneakers replaced leather lace-up shoes for men and stiletto heels for women; peasant blouses and other forms of ethnic dress and jewelry replaced suits. They experimented with drugs, turned to Eastern mysticism, especially Zen Buddhism, and rejected the “square” world.

Establishment women, in contrast, abandoned the masculine shirtwaist dress for a more romantic, feminine, narrow-waist look. Formal dress for women included gloves, hats,  stoles, and pocketbooks carried in hand. Pants were so slim that you had to remove your shoes to put them on.

The Sexual Revolution: The Sixties

Both trends intensified during the 1960s, with hippies wearing chains of beads and hand-made leather sandals while urging us to “make love, not war.” Jacqueline Kennedy, with her natural flair for style, dominated fashion from the White House with pillbox hats, A-line dresses, and princess-style coats. Designers set the fashion shape as the dome. Hairstyles copied the dome-shaped beehive: ratted and sprayed high, sleek, and smooth. The theme was sophistication. Popular fabrics were wools and silks—capitalism expressed in fashion.

Among the younger set, however, girls let their hair grow straight and long (remember the Marsha Brady); girls, whose hair was not naturally straight, ironed out the curl. Then Vidal Sassoon burst on the fashion scene with geometric hairstyles—smooth, sleek with chiseled lines – “wash and wear hair.” Even the Beatles wore the look. The weekly visits to the beauty salon for shampoos and sets were replaced with the blow-dryer and curling iron. Now the fashion shape was the triangle with the point at the top. Shoulders, like the hairstyles, were narrow. Bell-bottom pants had to be worn with just the right heel height.

The Dance Revolution: The Seventies

In the seventies, grooming became covert: hair had to look as if nothing had been done to it—despite the fact that it may have been sun-streaked in a salon and carefully blown-dry. Makeup had to look natural even though it took just as long to apply sheer foundations, blush, and lipsticks and carefully smudge eye crayons. At least, during the day. Evening makeup was flashy–like the clothes. Seventies styles alternated between simple or floral prints for daytime and glitzy  extravagance for evening.

The style shape was of a long triangle—rather than the short upside-down triangle of the 40s, think of a long isosceles triangle. The point is up top and it’s a long, narrow way down until the wide bottom, whether this was shown by the bell bottom pants or hot pants/mini skirts and platform shoes. The tops were generally tight and more revealing than in previous fashions with halter tops or off-the-shoulders peasant blouses.

The Information Age: The Eighties

And  then in the 1980s, designers flipped the fashion triangle right over with the point on the bottom. Stirrup pants or pants fitted close to the ankles worn with flat shoes  returned. Hair was still flat on top but wide and curly. Shoulders were wide with big, big shoulder pads and deep, loose armholes.

Aerobics and exercise dance  became a craze and it was not unusual to see women walking around in leotards, tights, legwarmers, and a matching elastic headband. To keep with the upside-down triangle look, women would often wear leggings with sneakers and an over-sized t-shirt or sweatshirt; bike shorts with baby-doll dresses or short dresses. During this period, wearing a shirt or sweater off one shoulder also became popular.

Looking at the overall fashion trends over the decades,  fashions have consistently become more casual—even the men’s fashion showed this with Hawaiian shirts gaining popularity. An emerging style for men was to wear casual t-shirts under suit jackets. This style continued as the 80s gave way to the 90s.

The Technology Craze: The Nineties

In the 90s, most of the fashion trends revolved around the casual style—t-shirt and jeans. Generally, the fashions favored tight on the bottom (tight trousers, leggings, drainpipe jeans) and big on the top (oversized sweaters, t-shirts, babydoll dresses, denim jackets)—a variation of the upside-down triangle continuing from the 80s. Also, during this time, the grunge look gained force with shaggy hairstyles and ripped jeans seen everywhere. Baggy flannel shirts also became popular.

About midway through the 90s, there was a revival of the “hippie” style from the 60s and 70s with long floral dresses, conch shell necklaces, straw hats, gypsy tops, and chunky wedge heeled shoes.

The men were also going more casual, leaving behind the business suits and moving toward business casual (jeans or khakis with a polo or dress shirt, neckties and cufflinks are not required, and generally the first two buttons on a dress shirt may be unbuttoned).

Instead of the 80s’ teased hair, the fashion veered more toward a straight look. Headbands and scrunchies in various colors were used. Often they were worn with side pony tails. Also during this decade, the pixie cut was introduced for women and became very popular.

The Generation of Excess: The Two-Thousands

In the 2000′s, we saw a continuation of the casual styles that dominated the 90s, although general fashion amongst the females morphed the casual style into a more feminine approach (for example, adding a big belt with the oversized shirt, or wearing mismatched “vintage” jewelry).

In the later 2000′s, we also see a return to the tube shape with girls wearing skinny jeans with a lace camisole and fitted t-shirt. Straight hair returned to  popularity; “flat irons” or “straighteners” were a must for every woman who wanted to stay with the trends.

The 2000′s also showed comebacks of different styles from earlier decades. Interestingly, there really wasn’t one unifying style of the decade. With the Internet and abundant media including movies, people picked ‘the look’ they liked from many different eras.

Beyond Eras

Despite all these changes, two classic shapes persist as foundational geometries: the hourglass and the tube, both of which are close to the natural physical shapes for women’s bodies

It’s good to know that color is also dictated. A Congress of Color, made up of representatives from top manufacturers and designers from around the world, meet annually to determine yearly choices of colors within a ten-year theme. Such industry regulation is necessary. Manufacturers must match buttons, threads, and zippers to the fabrics they make into clothes. If each dress manufacturer had to separately produce its own notions, the waste would be enormous.

So fashion is controlled change, a playing of new ideas and a fresh approach to the age old problem of fashion. The challenge is how to adapt contemporary fashion to ourselves.

I now know that each person has her or his own best fashion shape. A person with short legs will look better with the triangle point down: simple, tighter-legged pants that lengthen the appearance of her legs and bodices with neckline detail to shorten the top half of her figure. Regardless of fashion, this woman will look best working toward that shape. I well remember the effect of bell-bottom pants on a short, heavy-set friend. Because of the principle of repetition, her wide hips looked even wider with wide bells at her ankles. A better choice of pants for her would have been a simple straight leg regardless of pants fashions but with trendier choices in her jackets and blouses. One fashion shape cannot meet the needs of most people just as one color set can’t work on all people. We confront these needs in real life. During the 2000′s, fashion hyped lime green as the ‘in’ color. Only 3% or the population can wear lime green well.

No Procrustean bed of conformity can release the full power that is each woman’s individual beauty. No one else has the unique reflection of light that makes up your coloring. No one else has your body type nor your rare blend of personality traits.

Emphasize, stylize and color define your individuality with your makeup and wardrobe. The science of the Beauty Code gives you the way to do this.