18th century fashion and today's Fashion

Introduction

The European idea of fashion as a personal statement rather than a cultural expression begins in the 16th century: ten portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats. But the local culture still set the bounds, as Albrecht Dürer recorded in his actual or composite contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (Meinhold 1-17). Fashions among upper-class Europeans began to move in synchronicity in the 18th century; though colors and patterns of textiles changed from year to year, (Josef Bacharach 162), the cut of a gentleman's coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the pattern to which a lady's dress was cut changed more slowly. Men's fashions derived from military models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk" cravat.

The 18th Century woman was the most well respected in history of Western Civilization until the 20th Century(Fernand 23). The Enlightenment had suddenly changed the rules of Western society. The dominant style in the early part of the century was with the formal mode of dress, which gradually phased out, until in 1800, almost all that was left was the informal day dress. Dress during this period goes through a dramatic shift. Women s dress collapsed from it s padded and puffed look to a thin, often translucent silhouette.

Discussion

The time period of the 18th century was a time of change. Changes were being made from geographical moves to fashion. Those from England were moving to the New World to break away from anarchy. There was the French Enlightment, the Enlightment is when certain thinkers and writers, primarily in London and Paris, believed that they were more enlightened than their compatriots and set out to enlighten them(Laver 62). The fashion style of the 18th century was a reflection of the morals of the time. Most people dressed conservatively. Women for instance, showed very little skin, but accentuated their figures. Men wore clothes that advertised their trade or occupations.The style of this century was donned the Rocco Period. The Rococo period was marked stylistically by the same elaborate decoration, which characterized the Baroque period immediately preceding it. Despite similarity the Rococo style had, at its center was a radical difference(Cumming 112).

The Baroque period had very solid colors and a type of heaviness about its fabric. While the Rocco Period seemed to have more of a lightness to its fabric. The Rocco Period began using more floral motifs and also began using birds and bows in their fashion. In the second half of the prior century wigs had entered into court fashion in both England and France. In the early years of the 18th century the Full Bottomed Periwig reigned with its cascade of curls. As the century progressed, the proportion of the wig generally decreased and the variety of fashionable forms expanded ...