“Street Style” gives self-expression to youth. It is a powerful language with which the young can define their passions and identify the like-minded, their gang. Thriving in the generation gap that broke open in the late 1950s, it is a look created by the young, the dispossessed, and the outsider and paraded on the streets. The street context is important, otherwise the look risks loosing its vitality and authenticity – its magic.
Street chic
Accessories, carefully coordinated – even in everyday wear – had enormous fashion status in the 1950s. “Ladies wear hats” was the successful advertising slogan used by milliners at that time, and it was taken for granted that a lady kept her hat on when in society or at the theater. Delicate hatpins, which looked so elegant on Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly, had a fresh, youthful appeal, while big cartwheel hats had an interesting, seductive allure. The 1950s saw the appearance of close-fitting cloche hats with satin ribbons around the brim tied into a bow in the front.
The 1950's: Mink stoles, Hermes Kelly Bags, and Roger Vivier shoes
No other garment is named after a drink; hardly any so closely related to a specific time of day nor, yet again, one so immediately associated with a particular sense of fashion history as the “cocktail dress.” The thought of a cocktail dress instantly brings to mind a certain type of glass, a cherry or skewered olive, and a very specific social setting – and, from today’s point of view, a very middle – class situation. The long years of deprivation during World War II brought forth a yearning for luxury and fashionable things, and women made a special effort to dress appropriately for every occasion; it was considered imperative that one’s accessories matched perfectly.
Cocktail dress by Christian Dior and Jean Patou
Gabrielle Chanel was born in Saumur in 1883 and raised, after the death of her mother, first in an orphanage and then in a convent. Her tendency to work against convention and prioritize the comfort and self-worth of the wearer through the articulation of a pared-down glamour has been interpreted as a reflection of her years as a cafe performer and professional beauty, entertaining the officers in the garrison town of Moulins. Her skill both in constructing wearable, basic, yet elegant costumes and in merchandizing them as elements of a definable lifestyle is often traced back to her training as a seamstress and her formative entrepreneurial experiences in millinery. She designed and retailed an exclusive range of items from her first hat shop, opened in 1910 in the rue Cambon, Paris.
Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel
During the 1950s, for the first time in history, the term “youth culture” emerged, signaling that a new generation of young people wanted to differentiate themselves from their parents in both their ideas and external appearances. The source of this development was not Europe, still shaken by the after-effects of war, but the United States. The young Hollywood actors Marlon Brando and James Dean, together with the rock ‘n’ roll superstar Elvis Presley, became icons of the younger generation. Their characters in such films as A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), East of Eden (1955), and Jailhouse Rock (1957) embodied the image of the rebellious teenager, and their clothing reflected a shared attitude: a rejection of the Establishment and of the clothing mandated by their parents’ generation.
The Renaissance spread across western Europe, but the main centers of activity lay in the rich states of northern and central Italy, particularly Florence, Rome, and Venice, and in Flanders which became an important center for trade and the arts.
The period between 1484 and 1520 is known as the High Renaissance. It was during this era that the cultural, artistic, and scientific advances made in the early Renaissance were understood and accepted.
Portraits of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, depicted in Renaissance attire
Background
On the surface, the China of five or six thousand years ago bears little resemblance to the present-day nation remade by its 20th-century revolution. However, from China’s beginning certain institutions and attitudes have repeatedly reappeared throughout the millennia. Even during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, China was home to much that is characteristic of the Chinese tradition. Such luxury items as silk, jade, bronze and lacquer were already being refined. Silk, particularly, exerted a profound influence on what came to characterize Chinese aristocratic society. By the end of the 3rd millennium B.C., silk was established as a prerogative of rank and was linked to a ruling elite that first emerged in China: the Bronze Age Shang.
The dramatic nature of Northwest Coast culture matched the grandeur of its setting, a narrow, island-fringed coastal strip stretching from southern Alaska to northern California. To the west, a rugged range of precipitous mountains plunges almost directly into the Pacific where cold Arctic waters mix with the warm Japanese current to produce a mild but damp climate. From earliest times native peoples drew their subsistence from both sea and forest.
Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia, Charles M. Russell (1864–1926)
Nothing epitomizes American style more than jeans. They are comfortable, uncontrived, casual and oh-so-sexy. No matter how many designer dresses and fabulous accessories you might have, your best fitting pair of jeans is quite often the item you treasure (and wear) more than anything else you have stashed in your closet.
A denim, hand painted handbag by Adriana Allen LLC
When it comes to selecting a garment for a day at the pool or beach, you’ve got options. These core swimwear styles offer a wide array of cuts and coverage.
One-piece/ maillot: The suit with the most coverage, it can have high-to low-cut leg openings and different styles of tops, including bandeau and halter, or just regular straps.
Bikini: Originally created in the 1940s but not a mainstay on U.S. beaches until the 1960s, this is a two-piece style with panty-like bottoms and a bra-like top. (Bottoms can be cut like boy shorts, a skirt suit, briefs or a bikini.)
One-piece swimsuit and bikini
