Fashion origin

Fashion Origin
The center of fashion

• Until the industrial revolution the people belonged to two main classes the wealthy landowners and poor labor and farmers.
• During 18th century Paris became the fashion capital of Europe.
• The textile industries grew in the French cities supplying with silk fabric, ribbon and laces.

Hand sewing by dress makers and tailors

• All cloths are not only hand made but also custom made.
• Each garment was made to fit the customer’s exact measurement.
• Poor people wore cast off clothing from the rich or made their own clothing.

Growth of couture

• The costume made garments are called as couture.
• France became the center of fashion because of the development of silk industry.
• A male designer was a couturier.
• A female designer was a couturiere.
• Haute couture was found in the same period in which the sewing machine was invented.
• The father of haute couture is Charles worth who was the first successful designer born in England and came to Paris at the age of 20.
• He took prominent women as his clients like wife of emperor Napoleon III.
• Other couture houses followed Worth.
• Most people could not afford couture clothes but they managed to copy them.

Effects if industrial revolution on fashion

• Most materials were imported from abroad like silk from China, India, Italy.
• The modern textile industries were developed which enabled more fabrics to be produced in less time.
• Complete textile production from raw cotton fiber to finished cloths are done by one company.

Growth of the middle class

• Great economic , social, and fashion changes happened throughout the western world in the late 18th century.
• Trades and industries in turn created the middle class with money to spend on the luxuries of life including better clothing.
• Money gave power to the new middle class not only in business and society but also to influence fashion trends.
• Fashion became a status symbol and a visual image to show off wealth.

Mass production of clothing
Invention of the sewing machine.

• The mass production was made possible with the invention of the sewing machine which turned a handicraft into an industry.
• In 1859 Isaac Singer mass produced sewing machines .
• He developed a foot treadle an improvement that left the hand free to guide the fabric.

Women’s fashion reflects social changes

• Fashion conveyed the rigid difference between the roles of the sexes.
• Men wore trousers which became the symbol of dominance.
• Women wore constraining garment showing their restricted life style.
• They did not have rights to own anything other than their wardrobes which made them more interested towards clothes.

Mass production of women separates

• The introduction of separate blouses and skirts in the 1880s made it possible to manufacture the ready to wear garments.
• Blouse is made to fit shoulder and bust measurement and skirt to fit the hip and waist line.
• The cost of the ready made garment was less than half cost of the custom made garment.

Children’s fashion

• The wealthy were the only ones who had money to spend for fashionable children’s clothing.
• The working class and middle class made their children garment at home.
• As they grew older children where suppose to act like adults and they are dressed with the miniature version of the adult garments. (remake of their parents).

The effects of the world war on the fashion

• World war influenced women to wear shorter skirts and dresses.
• The more obvious of these was in a move by women in more into more comfortable, and practical clothes that were required for their more active participation in the variety of jobs that they had taken over from men
• During the war women worked in factories and it was dangerous to have long hair and long dresses. Women working in factories had to cut their hair, and raise hemlines.
• The war affected colors and fabrics. Wool was in shot supply as it was used to manufacture the uniform for fighting men. The scarcity of chemicals used for certain dye stuff restricted the use of dark color.