Fashion, as we all know, is a popular clothing style, a trend that’s predominant in society at any given time. Designer fashion is defined by characteristics like high standard of workmanship, the extraordinary quality of materials, the love of detail and the search for something new.
Though fashion is a form of self-expression, the beginning of the 20th century marked a decisive turning point where fashion became institutionalised and the new phenomenon of haute couture was unleashed.
Before the 20th century, there were many different ways of dressing and these varied between countries and social classes. People at court dressed differently from the bourgeoisie and the French different from the British, Italians or Germans. It all changed when Charles Frederick Worth, an Englishman who came to Paris decided that he wanted to be more than just a supplier to Her Imperial Highness Eugénie of France and began to ‘sign’ his creations as if he were an artist. This signalled the birth of a trademark. The fournisseur (supplier) became a couturier and what he created was Fashion and this was when ‘fashion designers’ were born.Fashion is never constant. No sooner is something ‘in fashion’ than it is ‘out of fashion’ again. It may seem that couturiers make these changes on a personal whim and mood but in reality their creations only really catch on if they capture the spirit of the age. Today, the same fashion language is spoken everywhere, from New York to Tokyo to Delhi to Mumbai, and it has moved away from its French origins. Where have a hundred years of haute couture led us? One might almost say that it has led us to the very beginning. Today, we can again see the corsets and bustles that dominated the beginning of the 20th century, with bosoms and bottoms leading to a new kind of seduction. Things have come full circle.http://fashionnews99.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-12-14T02:09:00-08:00&max-results=1
