Fashion For Breakfast

Today's Fashion History Delight:  

 Poiret Frees Women from the Corset

Paul Poiret changed fashion history as he was the first one to put out a line of dresses that did not require women to torture themselves wearing those horrible restraining corsets.

In the turn of the century dresses were designed with the specific need of a corset in order to get the desired look the dress was designed for.

The beautiful dress above was designed by Poiret in romantic, flowing fabrics to create a beautiful and comfortable look for women that did not require them to wear a corset. 
The silhouette of the dress is slim and high-waisted creating a look that was modern in design for his time. 

Poiret collaborated with Georges Lepape to illustrate his collections, as Poiret was one of the first to use fashion magazines to display his work. 

The turn of century called for media to inform the world of new fashion developments--and in 1892 Vogue was born in New York.

Above are some sketches of Lepape's work of Poiret's fashion. 

Poiret is also famous for bringing harem pants to the fashion world and the "lampshade" tunic.
Poiret has made a huge influence on fashion history and his concepts are still relevant in today's fashion trends--harem pants, turbans and lampshade tunics are reflections of his exotic creations that are saturarted in the marketplace today.

Credits:
Fukai, Akiko, Tamami Suoh, Miki Iwagami, Reiko Koga, and Rii Nie. Fashion: a History from the 18th to the 20th Century. Koeln: Taschen, 2002. Print.
Lepape's sketches via google images

Fashion For Breakfast

Today's Fashion History Delight: Turban Evolution

During WWII there was a shortage of materials as we all know. In Paris, even the unappreciated yet incredibly useful hairpins disappeared from the market.  This made it impossible for women to put their hair up.  To tidy up undone hair, large hats grew in popularity as a quick fix to the tousled tresses.  

This is how elaborate hats such as the Turban came to be in Parisian fashion. 

Since there were also restrictions on other materials used for clothes, women relied on elaborate hats and turbans to dress up their plain clothing.

 

So interesting how a trend came to be right?  Today, the turban is a fierce fashion statement that has made a come back.  Turbans will be perfect for Spring and Summer when it will be easier to throw your hair back into a scarf rather than to maintain hair in the heat and humidity.

Credits:
Photo of early 1940's Parisian Turbans by © Takashi Hatakeyama
Fukai, Akiko, Tamami Suoh, Miki Iwagami, Reiko Koga, and Rii Nie. Fashion: a History from the 18th to the 20th Century. Koeln: Taschen, 2002. Print.

Fashion History Posts coming soon

I am excited to inform you that in an effort to educate myself on all the wonders of fashion history I will be sharing my learnings with you through my blog.

Fashion History has always fascinated and been of interest to me, so now I am finally doing the due diligence of educating myself on what I want to learn.

I will now be including posts titled "Fashion For Breakfast" that will have fun tidbits of fashion history for you to learn about.
I have been checking out books from the Library as a way to get away from the darn computer and to mix up the content where my knowledge will be coming from.

I will also be scanning photos from books that I feel are relevant to share with you, so you can get some authentic images that might not be available online.

Hope you enjoy what is to come, and as always I would love your thoughts on what is shared.