Evolution of the Fashion world -I

April 8: The conflict between the distress of the poor and the extremity of the royals became the cause of French Revolution in 1789. Thus the fashion changed from extreme royal to simpler garments.

The art of dressmaking was known as Couturier in France. Charles Worth, a successful independent designer is often referred as the father of the fashion for his great contributions to dressmaking and fashion world. The early couturiers saw big opportunities in the dress making and designing and it caught up and turned to be a big enterprise, with different people and artisans taking different roles as merchandisers, tailors, and dress designers. Back in 1868, a trade association was being organized by some pioneers of the fashion world in Paris. Other European states soon followed and as such FRANCE became the leading country of the Fashion industry. As time passed, Fashion became the status symbol; the middle class society became richer and had the capacity of spending more money, and slowly got established as an unorganized industry. It became symbolic of the show off. By the time it was 18th century, fashion had equally grasped the attention of both genders. With the growth of textile industry the great fashion world and courtiers underwent a sea change and started existing as separate and autonomous industry.

The First Sewing Machine
In 1829, Thimmonier invented wooden chain-stitch machine and became the first contributor of the new revolution of sewing machine. In 1859 ‘Isaac Singer’ became the first person to produce the gent’s garments on the mass level. Earlier sewing machines were being used to stitch military uniform but were later used to form the gents garments. In 1921 electrically powered sewing machine came in to existence and the revolution began of manufacturing of clothes on the mass level. In the last two decades of 19th century the separation of women’s fashion revolution came in the existence due to new style of blouse and skirts.

Retailing

After the industrial revolution, sales had decreased to a considerable amount. The custom of retailing had begun in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Specialty and departmental stores got installed in great numbers. Two Americans founded the first departmental store in 1826 in New York City.

Changes due to Communication, Leisure and Industry

The increasing popularity of sports and new types of emerging games made popular the latest sports wear and a new segment of fashion had been evolved. In this era swimming costumes and pants for both men and women were developed.

The industrial revolution also helped in developing the fashion industry. New technologies and invention of new fibers and threads boosted the garment industry. These became the causes of boosting the fashion industry.

World War-I and its effect on fashion

Before World War I, people in West liked to wear body fitted suit. For this they used to have their personal tailor or the dress designer. There were huge differences in men’s and women’s dress. Once world war began in 1914, huge numbers of the males died in the war and yet more were wounded. Sometimes women had to take the official charges; she used to begin wearing official dress like males. Women pants and shirts have mostly evolved during this period. Women enjoyed greater liberty at that time. The male dominating society had assumed that women could also handle the world. Women finally got their authority of voting in America in 1920. The fashion was also affected by their liberation. At the same time and in France leadership in fashion industry was catching up. The designers were designing regularly new sort of garments. Paul Poiret, Gabriel Chanel, Madeleine Vionnnet and Jean Patou were the early trend setters. Chic pants for women; bias cut body skimming dress and flappers were the darlings. Their styles were copied for the public on all levels. The copying of style eventually reduced the individual preferences of the person and the trend of ready-made garments had been started then. The production of ready-made garments took place at mass level, the consumption of this production worried the manufacturers, and the number of retail shop started increasing very rapidly. Specialty stores had been open for high-fashion trendy costumes while general customers; chain stores were being open in big cities at low price. As the purchasing power of masses increased, the numbers of retail shop also witnessed an increase.

World Wars Implications on fashion

The results of First World War were horrible. It broke the economic backbone of many small countries. Huge amount of man power, money power and friendly relation among countries had been demolished. In America, the business reached towards its end. People had little money to buy anything. The habit of credit also ruined the public. They were in great debt. So frustrations were high and reflected in the mood of people. At the same time Hollywood was going through its golden period. People soon followed the trail and started following the stars. This is how fashion depicted by Hollywood got spread out. Hollywood became a trend setter.

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