Fashion History

Being the recognized symbol of women sexuality, the hosiery is the privilege of women today, though appearance of this garment owed to knights. Today stockings is the intimate and alluring part of the women wear while in the past, during XII-XIII  centuries stockings were the garment designed for men. Stockings were introduced in fashion in Europe during primary knight trips. And the stockings served for the British and German knights as the practical garment to protect warriors from external factors.

Fashion is a very changeable woman and as any woman it repeats itself. Big discoveries are too rare in fashion and all the trends so demanded these days are nothing but replication of the things that have been all invented, created and built earlier.

Any woman who loves herself and want to improve her style with all fashion changes will state that shoes and handbags should be as many as she needs. A handbag is the female fetish for ever days, and when the fetish is from Italy – she is crushed. A Furla Company has made something impossible when it made affordable the handbags it manufactures. The handbags of the Company are luxury details which symbolize the Italian style with unique traditions of handicraft.

Fashion of 50s of the twentieth century is the most favorable time in many regards. The outcomes of the World War II go into the oblivion and people as if get awaken from such heavy years. Previously put into the strict and laconic clothes more appropriate for the times of war, they come to flourishing and they show their concern in the life and fashion, in particular.

Fashion holds a mirror to the epoch. Though trite, it's true. We can most accurately determine the epoch, with all its political, philosophical, cultural and other implications, by its headwear, the presence or absence of lace, length and shape of a women's skirt or a men's waistcoat. Every age generates its own aesthetic image, forges its characteristic beauty standards, expressed through art, architecture, and costume design (in proportions, shapes, volume, details, material, color, hairstyles, makeup, and accessories).

The fashion practiced in the times of Middle Age used to have more powers and authority than the current fashion flow ever. The key objective of the fashion of that time was the intention to expose the social status of the wearer. And serious scandals and intrigues were common in regards to the trends when the fashion trends were set on the highest level and it was common when the royal family appeared to be the major trendsetter.

In our time everything is already discovered and invented by someone else, and all we have to do is look for ideas in the past and reinvent them given today's conditions, playing with the ingenious ideas of the great masters. It's no revelation that fashion goes in cycles. And though fashion weeks attract big audience every year, there's no denying the fact that most collections are only recreating fashion trends from earlier periods. 1920s were one of the turning points in the history of fashion which gave 20th century many of its greatest highlights in clothing, jewelry and makeup.

The history of the wedding veil, the crucial accessory of the bride to compliment her image and the wedding ensemble, comes from old rituals and religious traditions of ancient times.  Nowadays the veil is the fetching sheer fabric that is not designed to conceal the bride's face. In the old times the wedding veil was presented as the opaque dense cover to screen the bride from head to toes. The tradition to hide the bride under the cover appeared during the times of ancient Greece and Rome when the veil was believed to protect the bride from ill looks of envious person s, to turn away from the evil eye and hex. However, in the ancient time the veil was not white. The Greek brides concealed their faces under the yellow fabric while the Roman brides were covered by the veil of vivid red color or decorated the hair with multicolor fabric with embroidery.

The Byzantine attire was created in the times when the Christianity made the first world achievements and distinguished with its astonishing asceticism and constant expectation of a miracle. All Christian wonders have a spirit as a source but not the body, and the Byzantine attire is fully penetrated with the idea to emphasize the spirit masking the body. It is interesting that when advocating the rejection of material benefits and announcing the world of sensitiveness as the world of vice and sin Byzantine put intentionally luxury attire onto the asceticism. The Byzantine attire is the intensified decoration, rich and luxury fabric, embroidery and luxury patterns and deep colors and abundance of jewelry.

Cocktail dress aka cocktail gown found its ready market and may be small black dress, the classic garment created by Coco Chanel and well accepted and practiced throughout the world for many years. The cocktail dress when appeared in 20s of the previous year is almost one hundred years old, interpreted in the legendary collection New Look by Christian Dior and garments worn by Audrey Hepburn who epitomized the Chanel ideal for wearing little black dresses, accessorized with pearls, to Hubert de Givenchy and the latest haute couture designer collections.

The Fashion Week that came to its end where the designers presented Spring-Summer 2009-2010 Collections, appeared to be the latest fashion function held in the reputed Bryant Park the place for all Fashion Week arrangements for the last 16 years. In September 2010 the New York Fashion Week moved to the Lincoln Center celebrating the end of the entire epoch related to the Bryant Park. The place provided the tented territory to judge the fashion industry workers, and there new talented designers were first acknowledged, and some were even proposed in love.

Handbags, totes, purses, coffrets, and other bags we wear all the time in hands. A modern woman cannot be thought without any kind of bag. We are so accustomed to wearing bags that we cannot even imagine how we managed without them in the previous times.  And our grandmother really did without them. As a separate accessory, a bag appeared some time back, in XIX century. Prior to this period, women had to use secret pockets and leather bags attached to the waist to keep necessary things on them.