Analyzing Fashion Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Valerie Steele

The hemlines of History

Valerie Steele

• Ph.D., Yale University

• Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

• Editor-in-chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (Berg Publishers)

• TV appearances The Oprah Winfrey Show and Undressed: The Story of Fashion

• Written 18 books and also articles

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

• Fashion is in constant evolution

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

• Fashion is in constant evolution

• Brands transmit different values

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

• Fashion is in constant evolution

• Brands transmit different values• The Rebels

McQueen

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

• Fashion is in constant evolution

• Brands transmit different values• The Rebels

McQueen• The Modernists Jil Sander

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

• Fashion is in constant evolution

• Brands transmit different values• The Rebels

McQueen• The Modernists Jil Sander• The Romantics

Galliano

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• Overview of Fashion

along the History

• Fashion is in constant evolution

• Brands transmit different values• The Rebels

McQueen• The Modernists Jil Sander• The Romantics

Galliano

• «Style tribes»

Fashion: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow• No more «New Looks»

• Changes• Gender equality

• Youthquake

• Mass Manufacturing &

• Globalization

Gender equality

• Business dominated by women before and during the WWI• Chanel• Jeanne Lanvin

• After the war• Christian Dior• Christobal Balenciaga• Jacques Fath

• Cold War = Dress right

• Women’s liberation• Mary Quant

• 60s – 70s Women start to work and wear trousers

Youthquake

• Mary Quant vs The world• Miniskirt• Designed for young

people• «It wasn’t me or

Courregès who invented the miniskirt- it was the girls in the street who did it»

Youthquake

• Mary Quant vs The world• Miniskirt• Designed for young

people• «It wasn’t me or

Courregès who invented the miniskirt- it was the girls in the street who did it»

• YSL = Beat Look 60s

Youthquake

• Mary Quant vs The world• Miniskirt• Designed for young

people• «It wasn’t me or

Courregès who invented the miniskirt- it was the girls in the street who did it»

• YSL = Beat Look 60s• Hippies against the

System

Youthquake

• Mary Quant vs The world• Miniskirt• Designed for young

people• «It wasn’t me or

Courregès who invented the miniskirt- it was the girls in the street who did it»

• YSL = Beat Look 60s• Hippies against the

System• 70s = Conservative vs

«trash»• Vivienne Westwood =

punk style• Jean Paul Gaultier• Calvin Klein = minimalist

modernism

Mass manufacturing & Globalization

• From atelier to a global corporate conglomerate

• Designers in charge of brands of other countries

• Tom Ford for Gucci

• New Designers from Japan

• Kawakubos

• Yohji Yamamoto

• Issey Miyake