Fashion: BringingthePast TothePresent

By:TeddyAbt

Using the past as inspiration in fashion isn’t a particularly rare choice, in fact, it's a staple of the industry While originality is an intrinsic part of making a collection, there isn’t much left to invent when working with a medium that’s existed for millenia.. Nearly every textile, silhouette, color, and construction has already been used, so true originality is found few and far between, if it is even possible at all. It’s only logical that fashion designers then resolve to look at the past for inspiration, forming the basis of the twentyyear trend cycle: the theory that fashion trends work in a cyclical nature. While there is a lot of evidence to back this theory, it is not entirely accurate to portray fashion as simply bringing back the fashion of previous decades Instead, it’s an appropriation of how we think people in those eras dressed. This is most evident in the resurgence of Y2k, where bits and pieces of somewhat accurate styles are taken from relatively niche people from that time period, and then applied to the entire decade In high fashion, brands like Blumarine, “rebooted the Y2k era” according to Vogue, but when comparing their Spring 2022 collection to the actual fashion of the early aughts, they aren’t quite the same. This is because Blumarine isn’t taking inspiration from the early 2000’s as a whole, but rather early 2000s Destiny’s Child and Paris Hilton. This phenomenon isn’t only limited to the recycling of the modern For example the corset trend, which owes some of its success to the popularity of Netflix’s Regency perioddrama Bridgerton Shortly after its release, searches for corsets rose 123% according to the Daily Telegraph. However, in looking at the “Bridgerton-inspired corsets” that were trending resemble nothing close to the actual corsets worn during the early 19th century. Instead, they are simply modern takes of a Victorian corset, Tudor-era pairs of bodices, and modern bustier tops.

Much of the recycling of fashion trends are interpretations, not accurate portrayals. This raises the question of why trends are reproduced but not accurately replicated. The easy answer is to say that historic clothing is actually impractical and oftentimes ugly On a deeper level, we use fashion to romanticize the past, making things we imagine as being beautiful new again through contemporary designs.

We certainly aren’t the first to bring back the fashion of an earlier period in an attempt to romanticize it either. Just like as we romanticize the Regency era, the people of the early 19th century romanticized the Greeks and Romans, which can be seen in a rise of neoclassical architecture to interpretations of their fashion

As we come to better understand the rise and fall of trends, a deeper social critique arises in its romanticism of the past. The romanticization of the past can be problematic

Making idols of the fashion of heiresses like Paris Hilton or colonialist monarchs may be more dangerous than we think The elegance of the early 19th century fashion was also heavily influenced by Joesphine Bonaparte and her imperialist husband Some designers, however, take a different approach. British designer Vivenne Westwood first rose to prominence as the designer for the punk band Sex Pistols. Her radical antiauthortarian views paired with her turn to the past for inspiration cultivates a commentary on the fashions which she recycles.

While other designers have romanticized history, Westwood has plundered it since the “Pirate” Collection of 1981 The collection takes inspiration from pirates of the 17th century, with colorful asymmetric garments. Westwood critiques the European plundering of the Americas, evident through the usage of Indigenous American patterns on the garments She takes pieces of historical garments and alters them to create a entirely new pieces, reconstructing to cultivate entirely new meaning Unlike the modern corset trend, Westwood took history’s bourgeois undergarments and subverted them in her 1985 collection “Mini-Crini.” She subverts the coded modesty of the 19th century crinoline into something sensual, describing her creation as a mixture of “representing a mythology of restriction and encumbrance in woman's dress and an equally dubious mythology of liberation ” She approached the corset in a similar fashion, using the undergarment as an outer garment. While we’ve become desensitized to the corset, it was historically analogous to a bra, so Westwood’s subversion of it can be seen as a subversion to the rules of society Westwood applies sexuality to an area of history that is typically devoid of any, almost to the point of abrasiveness. In her 1994 Spring/Summer collection, titled “Cafe Society”, a topless Kate Moss walks down the runway in heels, a micro-mini skirt, and 18th century powdered hair, while licking on an ice cream bar. Westwood does not appropriate these garments in reverence, but as a way to make a political statement. She takes something old and then applies a new meaning to it that it hasn’t had before, as she puts it, “ "I take something from the past that has a sort of vitality that has never been exploited like the crinoline and gets very intense. In the end, you do something original because you overlay your own ideas ”

T: Yeah. I guess that the main thing is I only wore like, sweaters and pants as a child, even up until high school I would not wear short sleeves. I also couldn’t wear jeans for a while because of a texture issue I have with the buttons on the back of it.

J: What brought you into the world of short sleeves?

T: I was just insecure about my body, which I think a lot of people are in middle school. I’ve gotten less insecure about my body and also like, I’d be in the hot summer sun in a sweater, and that was too much.

J: What are elements of your style that you ’ re trying to grow?

T: I really want to wear more textures, like I love velvet. And I love historical fashions, and I’m trying to figure out how to bring that into a more modern outfit

ZBy: Michael Fadugbagbe

Model: Mirembe McDuffie-Thurmond

Special Thanks:

Wesleyan Theater Department

Olivia Kaplan

Siggy Soriano