Through the Decades - Fashion Illustrations
OBJECTIVE: To attempt ten alternative designed fashion or communication based products while deriving from any ten decades of modern fashion.
PRODUCT CHOSEN : Fashion Illustrations; an attempt to redesign fashion illustrations throughout the decades in compliance with one’s own illustrative style and the elements remaining prominent in those given times.
The majority of fashion illustrations were created to be seen on a page at close range, allowing for the personal experience associated with books and letters. Therefore, fashion illustrations possess a unique feeling of intimacy, with the image held in the viewer’s hand, as well as an urgency, the need to stop us in our tracks before we turn the page.
1900s
Fashion for women in the first decade of the twentieth century largely followed the fashion of the previous century. The highly structured silhouette of the Gibson Girl was still popular at the beginning of the decade. For a large part of the decade, the fashionable silhouette continued to be dominated by the S-shape created by a new “health” corset. These corsets pushed the bust forward and the hips back in an attempt to avoid pressure on the abdomen . The shape emphasized a narrow waist and large “mono-bosom,” Modesty was emphasized with day dresses covering the body from the neck to the floor and long sleeves covering the arms. however, for most of the first decade of the 20th century, fashion mainly showed seasonal modifications rather than any fundamental changes. As the century unfolded, the concept of the ‘natural figure’ banished the corseted and exaggerated S-shaped figure that was fashionable at the beginning of the decade. These innovations, a significant liberation for women, were accompanied by the introduction of strong and vibrant colors. The illustrations earlier this decade still flaunted the S-Shape, thus here I’ve attempted to illustrate the element , keeping in thought, the integrities of a Gibson Girl’s fashion illustration.
1910s
The 1910s were a period of dramatic change in fashion. Though many trends had their roots in fashions of the previous decade, the First World War cemented the move towards more practical, less restrictive clothing. As women were called into factories and offices, fashionable dress simplified and shortened. This fashion illustration portrays a dinner dress by the House of Drecoll, founded by Christoff von Drecoll in Vienna, Austria in 1896. This classic pannier draping and long pointed train of this dress indicates the highest style of the period. A well thought out and interesting detail, the semi-circular shape of the brooch mimics the shape of the bodice. During the early years of the 1910s, designers started to promote the use of lighter and softer fabrics in order to make their creations increasingly free flowing. This new approach focused on fluidity provided a contrast with the stiff and S-Bend silhouettes of the previous decades.
1920s
Developments in fashion following the war were greatly influenced by the changing attitudes of women. Younger women were empowered by their wartime independence and deliberately flouted the style preferences of their mothers’ generation for flounces, frills and lace. They cropped their hair and wore skirts to the knee, with simple, linear dresses that gave them a boyish silhouette. The Paris designers obtained graceful effects in 1920s evening gowns that season by the skillful use of hip-line accents either at the side or center-front. This was very prominently depicted even with the fashion illustrations. Sashes and draperies were used for emphasis of the silhouette and the effect was carried upwards by means of delightful artificial flowers and ribbon motifs at the shoulder.
The figure is wearing a pink frock by Lalong; charmingly employing a center-front accent, whose fringe and flower trimmings were both exceedingly smart features of the winter mode. The simplicity and grace of this dress would have been perfect for the fashionable cocktail parties of the era.
1930s
Following the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, new, more down-toearth attitudes forced on the world offered great scope for a new simplicity, as encapsulated by Coco Chanel (1883–1971). In Britain, fashion became more eclectic but also more feminine and graceful and, by 1930, the ‘boyish’ look had disappeared.
The illustrative style for this decade followed the way fashion enabled it. The sleeker silhouette was depicted through illustrations. This illustration is inspired by Bergdorf Goodman’s sketch of a Chanel garment (1930-1939)
1940s
World War II had a profound effect on fashion and it became regulated and framed by government decrees. However, despite these strict regulations and the violent upheavals brought about by war, couture design, led by a talented group of dressmakers, flourished. The New Look ‘I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts.’ It is with those words that Christian Dior (1905 - 57), described the impact of his first collection in the Spring of 1947. At the time, rationing was still in place and austere, military styles were worn. Dior introduced hourglass silhouettes and luxurious fabrics, softening previously boxy shoulder pads and cinching the waist for a pronounced feminine look. So popular was his first collection that it was dubbed ‘the New Look’ by the press and was instantly emulated by designers across the world.
In this illustration, the figure embodies a Wedding Ensemble by the French designer Jeanne Lanvin (1940). Wide shoulders, tainted waistline, larger upper body, longer leaner legs were some of the key distinctive features of the illustrative style of this decade.
1950s
Often associated with the rise of youthful, ready-to-wear fashions, the fifties were nevertheless a prolific and successful decade for the fashion ‘establishment’ as embodied by couture houses and traditional dressmakers. Fashion illustration continued to flourish in the plethora of magazines published at the time. However, the privileged status of fashion drawing faded rapidly during the 1950s, and photography soon gained more prominence in post-war magazines that wanted harder-hitting imagery. The 1950s continued the late 1940s illustration style with very full skirts, cinched waists and sloping shoulders. Another popular silhouette was the narrow pencil-skirt look. In this illustration, it is an Evening Dress by House of Balenciaga in 1951. A Spaniard, Balenciaga never failed to give passionate drama to it’s dresses, imparting history and dance and ceremony in lace and silhouette. A wide skirt like this, with tiers of taffeta, assured much swing.
1960s
Before the late 1950s and 1960s, teenagers were expected to dress and behave very much as their parents. The ‘Swinging Sixties’, however, saw the emergence of a new youth market as teenagers rebelled against the aesthetics and values of their parents’ generation and established their own trends in fashion and music. Young people’s income was at its highest since the end of the Second World War, creating the desire for a wardrobe which did more than simply copy adult dress.
Amongst other things, whilst the mini-skirt was introduced, the couture was seen as very old-fashioned. London - not Paris - was leading fashion now, nurtured by the city’s fashion schools and colleges, who were providing creative environments for crops of young, talented designers. This illustration portrays much liberty for the bodice and flexibility; with long narrow hands and legs. This Cocktail Dress is by Cristobal Balenciaga, in 1962.
1970s
The 1970s were a pioneering decade, and saw the evolution of fashion into a proclamation of individuality. Seen as the reflection of the taste of the wearer, one of the consequences of these sartorial changes, was that fashion increasingly, became the concern of men as well as women. The illustration style followed close with the past decade and became just as distinctive with the upcoming fashion. In the 1970s, style developed along eclectic and romantic lines inspired by the hippie scene and by medieval and pre-Raphaelite painting.
The illustrated croquis is wearing a dress by Halston, who offered allowance for countless individual expressions through his personal styling.
1980s
The increasing profile of women in the work place required a new fashion aesthetic, and the decade witnessed the emergence of ‘Power Dressing’. Wide, padded shoulders became fashionable and women’s clothes were inspired by masculine fashion and tailoring traditions. The period also saw the display of lavish evening wear, as exemplified by the opulent dresses of Oscar de la Renta. The illustrative style emerging in this decade will now give birth to significant, much distinguished, illustrative styles. There is appropriation in the sense of illustrations emerging wherein the viewer is able to see and understand not just the style but the fashion that prevailed. From now on, illustrative styles managed to unfold on their own in accordance with the artist thought process. In this illustration, its a dress by Donna Karan in New York in 1987. The hairdo and the placement of limbs so as to display the garment is highly influenced by the fashion of this decade.
1990s
Even though the loose and oversized silhouettes of the 80s remained, the 90s also embraced mini skirts, mini-dresses and tight clothes. The 90s also had some touches of space age fashion with a lot of white, ultra violet and references to cosmology. As with all decades, different styles were true to different groups of people. To divide it roughly, the 90s had the elegant minimalistic fashion and the street style fashion. The former was about simplicity with clothes sans details, a colorless palette and silky fabrics but also some velvet and leather. The lines, and if details existed, were straight and geometric. The colors were mainly white, black, beige, grey and some tones of metallic. The clothes were rather defined and followed the silhouette of the body that should be slim and toned (the beauty ideal). Calvin Klein in the 90s or Armani is exactly the visual to look through for this. Classic, sophisticate and elegant. For this decade’s fashion illustrative style I went for something which is exclusively mine keeping in regard, details still, such as the emergence of blazers and wide shoulders again.
For this one, I made a look rather than just an ensemble on a croquis. This illustration is of Julia Roberts in 1990 turning up in a men’s pantsuit piece by Giorgio Armani at the prestigious Golden Globes Awards.
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