Towards the Millennium - Dressing Down
Assessing a decade of fashion so close in time is complex. In terms of costume history it's only after a trend has been around for several years can we acknowledge that it's more than a passing fad and deserves recognition in the archives of history. We each see what we ourselves wore as what was worn and typical of the era. The mood of society in the final decade of the last millennium was more defining than what was actually worn.
So much more was on offer globally, and many people lost interest in fashion as necessary and important to their lives when business rules for dressing relaxed. Working from home became common. By the edge of the 21st century dressing down in every aspect of life became an acceptable norm. Ordinary retail clothing sales, textile manufacturing industries and stores all declined from a less active more casual marketplace.
The range of fashion goods available was huge in the 1990s, but no one knows the real answer why retail sales were often sluggish. The main thrust of fashion was the striving to achieve individuality. Fashion proliferated as fast as it could be relayed by the media and Internet and only by styling oneself rather than slavishly following a particular designer's fashion look, could individuality be achieved. Rapid dissemination of information and a more relaxed attitude to clothes has led to a certain inevitable uniformity in cities thousands of miles apart.
Comfort dressing with stretch, accounts for many sales today.
Less Became More
One thing about the decade we can say confidently was that after the conspicuous consuming years of the 1980s less became more in the 1990s. Not everyone adopted minimalism, but many did as they sought to blend and fit with an increasingly aggressive urban society. The silhouette became neater as shoulder pads finally died and jewellery became non existent or chic in its fineness and barely there quality.
The only concession to 80's glitz was a subtle, but new iridescent glitter shimmer on sheer and tulle fabrics that went through to skin make up and hair spray. For many the sleek hairstyle copied from Jennifer Aniston or the funkier choppier hairstyle of Meg Ryan was the only hairstyle to sport.
The 1990's Silhouette
Leftover Shoulder Pads
Remnants of the eighties were still around for the first years of the 90s and particularly in provincial areas. Short above knee straight skirts and stirrup ski pants masquerading as a refined version of leggings were worn with long chenille yarn sweater tunics, oversized shoulder padded shirts or big embellished T-shirts. The latter gradually reduced in size to become slimmer fitted and semi fitted garter stitch knits with fake fur collars, darted three-quarter shirts and screen printed t-tops minus the pads often worn with tie waist, easy loose trousers, jeans or boot leg trousers.
The Long Line Jacket
Several major silhouettes identify the decade. The decade began with short fitted jackets, a shoulder padded leftover from the eighties that sometimes sported peplums, fluted princess panels or hip basques with fabric swathed bertha style shoulders.
The first new different silhouette was the 1991-2 fingertip length straighter, longer line three-quarter narrower jacket that moved down an inch for every year of the era. It was worn with an above knee skirt or flirtatious circular layered or snappy pleated skirt in the early decade. Ra-Ra skirts, a froth of short frills or net set on a mini skirt were popular in the early 90s with the under twenty fives.
A short, sleeveless, boat neck shift dress that initially showed about 8 inches of the lower dress under the jacket was seen as a useful business outfit. This last look remained an acceptable fashion for the decade, one which could be dressed up or down and is still seen in the new decade, but mostly with the jacket longer at a matching length to the dress.
Trousers for Everyone
Trouser silhouettes included the oversized baggy hip hop look of Adidas windpants and baggy jeans. Young people adopted loose cargo pants and fitness sportswear as a general uniform.
The other major silhouette was the same fingertip length jacket worn with trousers. The trouser suit became a mainstay of every woman's wardrobe. Trousers became straight legged and wider including variations of boot leg slightly flared trousers.
Earlier in the decade in 1992-3 before the trouser suit became a wardrobe staple, black narrow jeans were worn and often teamed with airman's aviator distressed jackets. Blue jeans were also worn with a navy blazer and classic white or blue shirt.
Leather and leather imitations reappeared as trousers mid decade. Later in the decade short, boxy, zippered, stand neck, rock chick leather jackets in pink or black mostly got teamed with jeans. Young girls imitating pop girl bands like the Spice Girls favoured skimpy bustier tops or midriff revealing halter tops worn also with jeans, trousers, cropped trousers or mini skirts. Skimpy, stretch and cling tops made from soft Lycra enhanced fabric in imitation of designs by Léger and Alaïa were used to enhance the figures of many with breast implants.
The Classic Blazer
The classic blazer, a late 80s early 90s fashion, remained popular with women over thirty five, especially with subdued worsted wool straight trousers. One blazer sold by Marks and Spencer rumoured to have been designed by Armani was voted a best buy by a national magazine. Many UK women owned at least one of the colours it came in, which ranged over a 10 year era from navy, bottle green, camel, black, wine, red, saxe blue and several dulled tartans.
By mid decade, with its gold finish buttons now a leftover sign from the 80s, it began to look quite dated, even though the shoulder line was softened and narrowed. Still available it is worn mostly now by generations over sixty.
Petticoat Dresses
The London company Ghost kept even private members of their shop Voyage waiting for their soft floaty designs that were feminine and distinctive. However they were very easy to copy and to run up at home and soon were everywhere. Nationwide the girly fashion for the petticoat dresses or cowl neck shoestring strap dress worn with a plain, velvet trimmed or beaded cashmere cardigan or Pashmina set a return to femininity. Flesh began to be exposed again and some of the fashions looked good on younger women with toned bodies.
Cleavage came back and a Wonderbra became as essential as it had been in the early 70s. When grunge fashion arrived, showing bra straps no longer seemed important. Underwear became outerwear and was often visible under jackets.
Such was the demand for uplift bras for all sizes that in the late 1990s Charnos funded £1 million of research for the invention of the new Bioform Bra for fuller busted women.
One of the best hits in bras was the Ultimo bra. This gel filled bra gives not only a natural look, but also cleavage to flat chested women. The actress Julia Roberts wore one to great effect in the film Erin Brockenvich.
Oriental Influences 1990s
In the mid 90s a fashion for Chinese cheongsam dresses and rich dress or interior brocade fabrics came at about the same time as interest in the British handover of Hong Kong. After 156 years the colony was given back to the Chinese on July 1 1997.
Straight dresses with mandarin collars and mandarin necks on long line brocade jackets followed a similar slim line. Other garments, shawls and knits were lavished with embroidery techniques made possible by new mass production embroidery machines. The opening up of China also heralded a new availability of decorative goods such as beaded and embroidered purses at affordable prices. The pretty beaded and ethnic purse style bags were similar to Victorian reticules and were used as a finishing touch to a special outfit, particularly at weddings.
Knitwear
Woollen picture and fair isle knitwear of the early and mid 80s was overtaken by the adoption of plain and patterned lightweight fleeces. In knits, silk and cashmere mixes for ultra fine knitted twin sets were a standard item. As a reaction to picture knit and fair isle sweaters of the eighties, knitwear was very plain for most of the early and mid decade. It relied on textured stitches for interest. Added on embellishment such as peasant wool embroidery and Swiss darning made a comeback at various times in the early 90s and very late 90s.
By the millennium there was evidence of fair isle patterning in subtle border bands often with beading on the pattern. By Christmas 2001 fair isle patterned knitwear made a return debut on Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman's video 'Something Stupid' when Nicole wore a Paul Smith snowflake sweater. Fair isle was once again seen in expensive boutiques. This time around, the millennium fair isle sweater is smaller, shorter, neater and less baggy than in the 1980s.
Long Cardigan Coats
Much longer versions of all straight dress varieties and skirts were usual from 1993. They were often worn with full length fine knitted cardigan coats or over trousers, especially in winter. Women everywhere adopted styles they felt most at ease with, whether long or short. Knitted suits in fine cashmeres and angora mixes in neutral tones were a feature of autumnal dressing. Clothing fabrics became softer and physically less hard edged than they had been in the eighties.
Fleece Fashion for the Masses
Supplanting heavy outdoor jackets and thicker knits, easy cut fleece tops were a common sight for all age groups, although the quality of many later fleeces was dubious, some getting as bobbled and unattractive as old dressing gowns after one wash. The mass uniform of knobby fleeces hanging on from the 90s is a long way from the original high quality sportswear versions which are still available, but cost more. A fleece is a useful lightweight warm garment, but it's worth paying a little more for a quality item in a subtle colour that retains its appearance after washing and wearing.
Accessories, Mobile Phones and Pashminas
The Filofax died as many people now had Laptops or electronic organisers to keep records. At some time or other the only fashion accessories a smart woman could not be seen without in the 1990s was a mobile phone, a Pashmina, diamond solitaire ear studs or a small duffel back pack.
As with the patterned square fine wool shawl of the late 80s, the way the Pashmina was worn was important. The Fulham knot was the best way to cut down the bulk of the 2 yard long, 30 inch wide item which doubled as a stole with feminine dresses. Other accessories included painted panne velvet, beaded or animal print long narrow straight scarves, simple felt or leopard print fur hats and silver, white gold, or platinum jewellery.
Lycra
The use of Lycra in all sorts of clothes increased and sexy styles based on bandage designs initially worked by Azzedine Alaïa were especially popular with women with good figures. Lycra takes well to hot day-glo colours and by 1991 continental women strutted their stuff wearing these styles across the seaside resorts of Spain and Italy.
Lycra was mixed with many fibres to improve and enhance wearing and crease recovery qualities of fabrics. Trousers, jeans and skirt wools all benefited from approximately 2- 6% addition of an elastomeric such as Lycra or Spandex.
Clothes with a Lycra percentage are ideal for packing and travel. Many clothes with added elastomeric are sport clothes. Hugely popular with the masses worn as everyday casual clothes these are dealt with in Fitness Fashion.
Fabrics and Prints
Linen, silk, cashmere, devore velvets, Lycra, fleece, superior quality microfiber polyesters and Sympatex for outdoor weather were the main fabrics of the 90s.
An updated new improved cellulosic textile called Tencel soon began to replace some uses of viscose rayon which had high visibility in the 80s. Courtauld's Tencel microfibers were introduced about 1992 and mass produced by 1995. Tencel's superior handle to viscose, excellent drape, colour retention and peachskin or plain finish helped ensure early success. Over £300 million was spent researching and developing this eco friendly superior man made regenerated fibre.
Viscose which had also been used with polyester as an easy care substitute linen weave through the 80s was ousted by a craving for real linen and ramie goods. Natural creases and distressed fabrics became very acceptable so that disorder in dress was preferred to order and pressing. Such was the success of microfibers, that by 2001 the world saw the first closure of a Viscose Rayon factory as the demand for viscose declined.
Plain fabrics or subtle weaves and the novelty of computer generated abstract prints replaced floral chintz like prints throughout the nineties. Georgina Von Etzdorf a textile designer produced hand printed deeply luxurious velvet accessories and scarves in the 80s and 90s.
Devore Silks, Velvets and Brocades
By way of substitute, organic floral forms did appear on luscious and rich devore velvet scarves, dress fabrics and shirts long enough to be worn as jacket coats. Silk devore fabric was first revived in the market by the American trained British designer Jasper Conran. The velvet fabric was burnt away with acid printing which left shadows of silk chiffon amid deep velvet pile. Hungry for something different and new the public loved the revived 20s fabric. Until the 1990s most velvet produced in the 20th century was rayon or acetate based, although velvet was first made as silk velvet in the Middle Ages.
Rich brocade fabrics in intricate scrolling patterns were popular through the nineties, especially in the Christmas season and for weddings. They were made into Principal Boy style jackets that got longer and longer as the decade progressed. By 2000 AD the slim shift under dress hemline and jacket hemlines met.
As if to make up for the sea of black that swept the country in the 1990s the eve of the millennium saw iridescent stoles and shimmering subtle glitter knits that took Cool Britannia into the year 2000
Influences on Millennium Fashion
People watchers, spotters and trend predictors ensure that designers of today are likely to be influenced by street fashion. But all too frequently they pick up an idea which kills it flat at the street level source. They have an eye to global commercial profits from the trickle down effect on their ready to wear ranges. This makes for a lack of creativity as clothes develop homogenized uniformity. Watered down versions that are picked up by chain stores all have the same look that fails to stimulate the ordinary shopper.
In a market saturated with retail outlets, clothing sales have been falling, flagging and failing. The consumer simply has too many shopping places to choose from, so spending power gets spread very thinly between all the outlets or directed to specific branded cult goods.
Choose Vintage Fashion Dressing
Little wonder film stars have started to wear vintage designer clothes from past generations.
No doubt individuals will soon start to seek out little dressmaker clothes as young girls did when they patronised Mary Quant in the 1960s. Certainly those with real money hardly want to be seen sporting the same designer top or handbag as their best friend and at a hugely inflated price.
The purpose of fashion is to reveal individual differences not provide identikit uniforms. Spotting or setting a trend early is crucial to the integrity of fashion makers.
Films are still important as influences on fashion and trends for fashion, make up, hairstyles and jewellery. A recent example of this is the influence of the Nicole Kidman film Moulin Rouge and the lace Edwardian clothing that has been copied for the high street.
Rejection of Logos for Hidden Confidence of Luxury Yarn
Some individuals have already started to reject logos and emblematic brand promotion in favour of understated confidence gained from the more subtle hidden knowledge that they alone know they are wearing a quality cashmere garment or expensive Italian silk lace bra. That no one else knows they are wearing luxury and having a private sensual experience reconfirms an individual's sense of identity and personal worth.
The individual who knows they have luxury goods on their body creates a certain self smugness which can be very satisfying. Exclusive fashion goods produced by small workshops or individuals and often only obtainable over the Internet are likely to develop a good market share in the next few years. Already individuals who want cachet have their own perfumes made by exclusive companies who are not marketing their fragrances in a global way. Rareness and exclusivity increases desirability.
The fashion cognoscenti will not miss the exclusive factor if it really does have any significance.
Global Marketing and Shopping
Ordinary people shop all over the world today. They take a bucket shop air ticket or limited stay ticket and jet to a major city like London, Paris, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Florence or Milan simply to shop until they drop. Every tourist office in the world will have day trips that make shopping its main purpose and cruise ships stop at ports for guests to stock up on even more local goodies than are already available onboard.
In England you are never more than twenty or thirty minutes from a town with shops or factory outlet shops a few miles further. In more remote parts of Britain you might have to travel up to an hour. And if you are immobile, shopping TV will probably solve your need for a shopping fix.
American Designers
In the late 20th century no other country marketed fashion like the Americans. The best known designers in America and known by all, are Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.
Calvin Klein uses advertising that highlights sexuality enough to shock a supposedly unshockable society. Erotic advertising is used to promote his diffusion lines from perfume and fashion to home furnishings. Ralph Lauren has been the arbiter of good taste in classic good looking clothes and a covetable stylish home range.
By contrast Hilfiger's clothes are aimed at the mass youth market with an easily recognisable predictable casual format of red, navy and white basics covered in logos for street wear.
In the USA all these designers along with sportswear giants Nike and Adidas have far more cachet with American consumers than Agnes B, Prada, Fendi or Gucci have in Europe.
Capsule Dressing From Donna Karan
Donna Karan designs for women on the go. She uses quality jersey with Lycra and great cutting to produce capsule wardrobe garments that hide real women's body defects. Her name was already a winner when she launched her DKNY range of affordable ready to wear items. Like Calvin Klein she uses subtle colour combinations of creamy honeys, champagnes and taupes as well as a never ending range of wearable black.
If you are in the UK you can buy Donna Karan's clothes at the Bicester Outlet Village (near Oxford) as well as from Bond Street London and from the Internet.
Karan's fashion label brand is huge and so desirable that in January 2001, LVMH bought Gabrielle Studio the license-holding company for Karan. In April 2001 LVMH also bought the company DKI making a total buy of $643 million. LVMH market the Donna Karan range as luxury lifestyle brands throughout the world.
Colours
Women of the nineties had learnt how to build capsule wardrobes from other ranges based on Karan's ideas. It's one reason why the nineties were so black. Lack of colour might be a better heading.
It was only in the last few years of the 90s that colour began to return and be worn by individuals. After some of the garish hues of the 1980s, black and more black was dominant for some ten years. Women discovered real easy dressing - black goes well with black and other neutrals. Some equally dull, but neutral browns and greys did become the so called new black for a brief season or so.
Consumers took to the drab colours with reluctance. Subtlety was everything as 80's gilt buttons were suddenly banished and dirtied dusty colours dominated the racks. The taupes, pastel pinks, olives, greys, browns, subdued rusts, greyed navy, sand and camel were a huge change from the glowing brilliant sea greens, fuchsia pinks, reds and royal blues of the 80s. Certainly in the UK the only full length coat colours to wear in the 1990s were black, camel, navy or grey.
Bright coats were never really seen and royal blue was banished once Thatcher lost power in UK. Individuals felt noticeably conspicuous in bright colours amid a sea of black. Blend in understatement became the way to dress. Only strong individuals had the courage to wear hues that suited their skin colouring rather then draining it.
Pashminas
Colours based on primary and secondary hues seemed to disappear from sight until the late 90s. Around 1997, feminine dresses in bright silks and colourful Pashmina shawls in many pastel tones became usual. Women began to wear stronger pinks, lilac, purples, reds, lime green and turquoise again. Fashion began to be pretty again and welcomed by those who wanted to relinquish track suits and sportswear or by many who had never adopted them.
The Pashmina shawl softened the drab coat colours, and also doubled as a warm stole wrap on summer evenings and at cold winter venues. Tied in the Fulham Knot as shown in the heading it became the main way to get rid of the bulk of the Pashmina when worn as a scarf.
By the year 2000 Pashminas were a mass fashion and many moved onto newer ideas. It did not go away however as many found it so useful. It returned with expensive embroidery or beadwork in 2001.
Camouflage and Animal Patterns
Camouflage patterns appeared frequently on all ranges of clothes. By 1998 the military look turned up again as combat pants and flak jackets and yet again in 2001 as a main look for summer.
In the distant past once it was realised that gaudy bright red uniforms acted as easy targets for the enemy, camouflage materials were used. They began simply as fabrics that blended such as khaki tints and shades which toned in neutrally with the landscape.
High street and chain store versions abounded. Gerry Weber printed semi sheer chiffon camouflage blouses. Dorothy Perkins and Marks & Spencer also used camouflage prints whilst Versace led with catwalk designs. Now over 350 camouflage patterns exist including the British disruptive pattern and the tiger stripe used in Vietnam.
A new, more effective but less aesthetic, neater digital Marine camouflage pattern (Marpat) was unveiled by the American Marines recently to upgrade the battle effectiveness of former 20 year old patterns.
Animal prints were equally popular ranging from leopard, wild cat, tiger, cow and zebra prints.
Stockings, Leggings, Pantyhose Tights and Nude Legs
In the late 80s and early 90s the stocking with lace top holding itself up was suddenly noticed to be more erotic than a pair of tights. Leggings were a common sight in the early 90s and continued to be worn well past their sell by date in the privacy of homes.
By the early 1990s the only tights to wear with the short skirt of the time was black and opaque. By the late 90s the bare nude look leg was in vogue and natural toned tights were acceptable again. Many younger women simply abandoned tights altogether preferring the totally natural leg. Never before frowned upon until the nineties, the biggest faux pas was to wear tights with open strappy sandals.
At the same time many variations of tights came into the shops. These could range from soft and sheer to shiny, support or bare effects. Wearing tights still remains correct for business wear and it's best to avoid bare legs for any occasion unless the legs are silky smooth and fuzz free.
Designer Label Shoes
In the 1990s status shoes such as those by Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo and Italian brands by Prada, Gucci and Renata and others took on a new importance as fashion itself became cleaner and more minimal and pared down.
During the early 1990s many UK national chain footwear shops closed because of poor trading conditions in the market, but the market regained buoyancy by the end of the decade, and the mass made footwear now on offer is of superior quality to 30 years ago.
Alongside all the fashion changes styles like Birkenstock and Clarks England make huge sales because of the comfort factor in their everyday footwear.
Footwear Future
Since 2001 the shoe shops have suddenly seen the influence of designers like Jimmy Choo appear in everyday footwear ranges. Pretty shoes with an interesting array of heels of all sorts. Newer cone heels and Louis hourglass heels are catching the attention of women again. Niche footwear outlets such as Nine West are gaining a market share and help offer a very diverse range of footwear for all tastes. Victorian boots head the millennium.
1990's Lambada and Salsa
Erotic dances such as the Salsa and exotic Bahia based rhythmic Lambada took off about 1991 and were very popular throughout Europe. Both were popular enough to encourage enthusiasts to take short courses in the dance. Pretty silk dresses with cowl necks or bandeau bra dresses with shoe string straps or Azzedine Alaïa bandage Lycra dresses were ideal to show off a swaying body.
Line Dancing
The dance craze of the 1990s was the craze for line dancing that spawned a whole new era of dance as a pleasurable form of unisex exercise with rows of dancers of every age following the instructions of the master of ceremonies. Western inspired line dancing created a demand for appropriate western cowboy influenced clothing. Some artistic license was used to create rather theatrical versions of what a rancher might have worn and the only general effect in main stream fashion were the interesting boot variations.
The Future
Mail order and home shopping is growing. Customers no longer have to wait up to 28 days to receive an order. Orders from TV shopping channels frequently arrive within 2 to 4 days or next day if you pay special delivery.
QVC a major TV shopping channel in UK, USA and parts of Europe already has over 5 million customers in UK alone. Ordering is simple and instant with a touch tone telephone and clothes for example arrive 5 - 7 working days later, with a 30 day money back guarantee if you don't like an item or it doesn't fit.
Home shopping is the future for a large percentage of fashion retailing. Trend experts predict that by 2010 more than 80% of shopping will be delivered to our homes. The fact is that many of us already browse all day in the shopping mall, but don't fret if we don't buy that day. We know from experience that the same or similar item is frequently available at less cost through direct shopping with home delivery such is the uniformity of mass produced goods in the third millennium.
However I believe that some of the so called 'TV fashion shopping hours' will for many people be replacement buying of everyday clothes rather than high fashion purchases. Perhaps there will be nods to current fashion colours and trims, but many of the TV sales will be for comfortable easy wear garments. A few better items such as the washable suede jacket of a recent TV showing show efforts to combine easy care with the current fashion for skins.
Interestingly the viewing market is far more discriminating than the TV companies realise. Browse around the superb website at shoppingtelly.com and you will find a discriminating bunch of consumers who analyse not only the products, but how they are presented and delivered. You will also find advance warning of special offers and cryptic comments in the shopping telly forum on a vast range of consumer products.
There is already a temptation for the more mediocre TV shopping channels to reproduce some items deliberately aimed to be safe, in cheap fabrics to make a cheap price, but which are unfashionable, shapeless and large enough to suit those who can find nothing to fit in the shops. Such channels are responding to a real demand for super sized clothes, but one can hardly describe them as fashion items. Some channels that have fashion hours should really rename them 'clothing hours'.
One thing is certain - Shopping TV is here to stay for now as long as the companies get their marketing right and know their target audience whether it be up, or downmarket. You may well find yourself tempted to buy and once you have one successful purchase that more than satisfies your high standards and needs, you will take the risk again and again.
