Street Trends

Fashion has a particualr cyle, so we can see street trends( or street fashion) are alwasys changing. Streets are also an interesting place where designers can get some paritcular inspirations. In my point of view, in this year, the most influential trend is the minitary style. The military influence seems to be ubiquitous from 2010 spring runway show to the streets in New york, London, Tokyo, etc. Hence, there is no doubt that military style is the most massive of the fall/winter trends. There are some key elements we have to catch in the trend. First of all, the mainstream color is army green, and the next is navy blue. Second, the key looks are army and aviator. About this style, there are a lot of ways to interpret it. The masculine cuts with fitted feminine styles are really stylish and chic on the streets. Also, this trend is easy to match with other clothes in our wardrobe in this year.

Actually, designers always pay attention to the military style and get inspiration on the streets. They never forgot this style, and they just tried to create some new ideas for this style. Before 2010, designers also had some great ideas about this style. The photo showed a series of fabulous military looks from Temperley, Ralph Lauren, Alexander McQueen, Derek Lam, and Collette Dinnigan in 2009. On the runway shows, we can see some gold detailing and ornate trims with military cuts. In 2009, we might guess the military style would come back again.

Indeed, this year we can really find one of the most important trends in 2010 spring runway shows is the military style. Military style is coming! Moreover, we can see the looks are very elegant and feminine to change the impression of military in the past. It is a little different from the style in 2009, and these brands or designers seem to get more ideas from street fashion.

Balmain

Burberry

Louis Vuitton

Marc Jacobs

Let's see more great looks on the streets this year. As we know, the military style is easy to match with our clothes, and it just makes our styles have more variations or create different looks with others on the streets, so it could be a military accessories with camouflage prints, strappy shoes, aviator caps or a military style jacket.

Finally, I just want to share a very short vedio. It is "HOGAN - VIDEO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN FALL WINTER 2011", and Olivia Palermo shows a nice military style in this vedio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZO23izwL3w&feature=player_embedded

Fashion and Art

When I saw all kinds of fabulous and specific garments on the runway shows, I am always thinking where these designers get their inspirations in fashion. Sometimes, designers say they were inspired from their daily life, such as street styles. However, some designers were still inspired by historical artistic styles. Interestingly, we can find some great examples to show their similarity and creativity.

1. Alexander McQueen's feather dress from fall '08 and Elyse Hochstadt's feather chair:

This black leather chair was designed by Elyse Hochstadt back in 2007, and the actual name of the chair is Portrait of George 1. When I saw the runway show, I can clearly connect the dress with the chair because of the beautiful black leathers.

Alexander McQueen, fall, 2008. "Portrait of George 1" by Elyse Hochstadt's , 2007.

2. The decoration of massive gold chains by Riccardo Tisci's and a jewelry chandelier by Floto + warner:

Artists Floto + Warner used some baubles to remake the beautiful artworks, which were made from recycled and secondhand jewelry. Besides, Riccardo Tisci used black colors to design clothes, butdecorated his collection with golden jewels that seemed to draw inspiration from Floto + warner.

Riccardo Tisci, Fall, 2008

Riccardo Tisci, Fall, 2009

Floto + Warner, Second-Hand Chandeliers

3. BALENCIAGA and Gerhard Richter

In this collection, we can find the pants showed the similarity of abstact styles between colors and lines. Balenciaga seems to get inspiration from the abstract oil painting by Gerhard Richter.

Balenciaga, Spring 2010 RTW

Oil on canvas by Gerhard Richter, 1992

4. John Galliano and Origami

Japan is a very beautiful country where they have their specific art and culture, and Origami is a traditional Japanese folk art that uses paper folding. It started in the 17th century AD and was popularized in the mid-1900s. Many designers were inspired by Origami, such as John Galliano, Lisa Bigalke, and Andre Lima, etc. We can see the shoulder and bottom of this fabulous origami wedding dress, which looks like a idea from the paper crane.

Origami, Japan
John Galliano for Christian Dior

5. The strong impact of YSL which was inspired by Van Gogh and Georges Braque

Yves Saint Laurent must be a great example to talk about fashion and art. YSL get a lot of inspirations from many famous paintings, such as Irises by Vincent Van Gogh and Les Oiseaux by Georges Braque. We can see the patterns of clothes in the YSL runway shows are very similar to these fabulous paintings that shows very beaufiful sunflowers and lovely birds.

YSL

Vincent Van Gogh, "Irises", 1889

YSL. Georges Braque,"Les Oiseaux", 1953-1954

6. Jean Charles de Castelbajac and the graffiti art of Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist who can represent the New York City street culture of the 1980s through his graffiti artworks that there are many cute figures to show all kinds of actions and characteristic. We can easily find the same idea that Jean Charles de Castelbajac used in his collection.

Jean Charles Castelbajac, 2002-2003.

Keith Haring, Icon (Radiant Beauty), 1990

This mural on the Church of Sant’Antonio in Pisa entitled “Tuttomondo,” was his last public project in 1990.

1970s and Minimalism

In my point of view, the age of 1970s is essential in fashion, especially the minimalism. Moreover, I would like to discuss the influence of minimalism now. In fact, Roy Halston Frowick, known as Halston, was an important designer of the 1970s, and he was the original minimalist. Halston was known as a master of minimalism for his sleek designs and solid colors, the works of Halston look as fresh and modern today.Until today, we have found a lot of fashion designers who were affected because of minimalism. In this season, minimalism really goes back and brings us more interest and creation. Alexander Wang, who was born in 1984, is a very young but great American desginer. In his works, it is obvious to see the trace of minimalism. The difference between Halston and Alexander Wang is the color. Moreover, we know Halston had a fresh and colorful style in his clothes. However, in this season, Alexander Wang focused on the light color, especially he used a lof of white in his designs. Anyway, even though Alexander Wang is so young in the fashion world, he was still deeply affected by the minmalism of 1970s. In the future, I believe minimalism is never out of fashion becasue it si simple and elegant.

Spring 2011 RTW by Alexander Wang

History of T-shirt

T-shirt is a shirt which is pulled on over the head to cover a person's body. Nowsadays, T-shirt has become a basic and common style in our daily life. T-shirt seems to exist for a long time, and it is so difficult to imagine a life without any T-shirt. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the T-Shirt quickly became people's favorite garment. Now, after a century, people still love T-shirt in the twenty-first century. Therefore, when and who started to wear T-shirt? In fact, during WWI, American troops wore wool uniforms in hot summer in Europe and noticed European soldiers wearing lightweight cotton undershirts.

The British Army WWI Gray (grey) wool collarless undershirt, 1910s

The left lady wearing a handprinted "Kilroy was here" t-shirt, 1947

Actually, “t-shirt” didn’t become a word in the English dictionary until the 1920’s and the style didn’t enter mainstream fashion until the 1960’s. In 1950s, T-shirts were still considered underwear, but John Wayne, Marlon Brando and James Dean really shocked Americans by wearing their underwear on TV. For instance, in 1951, Marlon Brando in his film "A Streetcar Named Desire" is successful to make people pay more attentions to the shirt.

Marlon Brando, "A Streetcar Named Desire", 1951

In 1955, James Dean made the T-Shirt real cool in "Rebel Without A Cause". James Dean made the T-Shirt a symbol of rebellious youth.

James Dean, 1950s

Moreover, becasue of the advance of screenprinting, people started to use such a way to print T-shirts in 1960s. Tye dying also became popular in addition to other forms of the t-shirt, such as tank tops and muscle shirts. In the late sixties and seventies, the ringer T-shirt appeared and became a staple fashion for youth and rock-n-rollers.

Ringer T-shirt

teenagers, in Los Angeles, 1970s

In the late 1980s and especially the 1990s, T-shirts with prominent brand-name logos have been popular, and in 2000s, it is popular that T-shirts have slogans and designs, with a strong inclination to the humorous or ironic sentences, and people still like the designer brands' T-shirts. Nowadays, female likes T-shirts with some specific, lovely, and beautiful decorations, such as ruffles, laces, and studs.

T-shirts with bold slogans, in UK, 1980s

Calvin Klein, 2000s Guess, 2000s

Simply speaking, before 1950s, T-shirts were originally worn as undershirts. In 1940s, the technique of printing is not common, so the pattern was just handprinted. In 1950s, it started to be popular in public, and the style focused on simple and monochromatic T-shirts. In 1960s, People used tie-dye and screenprint, so there are more styles in this age, such as tank top, muscle shirt, V-neck, etc. In 1980s to 1990s, T-shrits were popular to use brand name logo. In 2000s, it is popular that T-shirts have big slogans and humorous designs. Now, we can find T- shirts with more decorations, such as laces, studs, ruffles, etc.