I want to talk about things like, buildings that began popping up in the Late Mod time of domination and the clothes and the stuff. There were very new ways of thinking being presented so it's no surprise that we got some very cool looking new buildings and some daring clothes. Don't you think?
I want to talk about clothes first because I like fashion and I wish I was a supermodel.
One of my favorites, Christian Dior, got a pretty epic start going into the 40's and 50's. His new look struck a mighty high cord in fashion and he became the IT man. His looks inspired the rock and roll skirts that all the teens were wearing. His passion for simplicity showed through in all the high fashion he produced.
The mini skirt of the 60's represented a new relaxed attitude towards the body. Which is pretty neat considering all the BS woman dealt with (and still do!) about what we wear or want to wear. Doesn't that just piss you off? Anyway, the mini skirt was a time changer. Especially after Mary Quant's little London Boutique "Bazaar" kept showing it off.
Back to Dior, Did you know he'd have been 100 in 2005? Wild right? Anyway, in 1947 Life magazine called his fresh ideas "the New Look" and declared it would be here to stay. It was a separate look from the military fierceness from WWII and it was a welcome change. Then we had the Glamour Years! Hollywood has been setting the stage for fashion and style icons since the silent movies. But, once the 50's really took off, it changed. The actors lived in a world of glamour on and off set. Not to say that they weren't already controlling what the hair, make-up and clothing trends were before this, but the 50's brought everything in vibrant color, fueling the fascination for film goers. After WWII, Hollywood did it's part to bring the nation back together, bonding us over a mutual love of an ideal image to project to the world that said, "We made it and we are still going forward." If set a standard and groomed the ideas for looks to follow. The elegance and timeless look that the stars of the 50's had can not be pulled off as easily by the stars now. They just don't have 'it', in my opinion anyway...The best survivor of the starlet era for the glitz and glam would be Joan Collins.
The 50's had the best music. The Rock n Roll Era! Fashion moved away from what mom and dad wore to focusing on what the teens wore. Yong women and men were officially coined 'teenagers' and they set about torching the world with their forward ideas and rebellion. The teens were eager to show that they were not their parents, they were a new breed all together. James Dean and Elvis let parents know their sons were going to be angst ridden, rebellious and beautiful in their jeans and leather jackets. Girls gave their parents nightmares with their skirts and their jive dancing.
That isn't to say that NYC was the only capital of fashion though. It was the epicenter of art in general! Fashion, advertising, graphic design, music, architecture! Everything was bustling. But in 1966, when that mini skirt came across the pond from "Swinging London" -- those baby boomers changed the world. The Beatles stole the hearts of the American public and the rest is history. Some historians say that 'Britain had its finger on the pulse of the new fashion era'. It's so strange to see the baby boomers now, as they chastise the young for being to rebellious or disobeying when they wrote the book on how to do just that. I digress.
The age of the hippy happened too. The 60's brought flowers, peace signs, and protests lit the streets.
Garments from far away places (like the middle and far east) became the uniform of a generation. Afghan coats, Romanian and Indian peasant embroidery, cheesecloth, safari and Nehru jackets to Art Nouveau, flower power made the the hippies! It trickled down into Yves St. Laurent and reached a mass market nobody thought of.
Well, is that enough for the fashion of the late modern era? I was going to go into the buildings and stuff but I kinda feel tired from the typing. So, sit with this and maybe, just maybe I'll remember to post again tomorrow.
anybody else see Cersei Lannister in this dress design? Open shoulders? No? Maybe?
I got a lot of material from:
http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/!lectures/history/1945/latemodern.html
http://www.fashion-era.com/fashion_eras.htm#1947-1970
and of course the handy dandy google and wikipedia
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