The 21th Century

WE DID IT, our last post 'Historical Appearances'! We've learned a lot about fashion history and make up and I hope you learned something too or enjoyed our posts ;) ! Some people might think fashion is superficial or just a pair of pants. But I think it's very interesting, because it's not just something you wear, it's a reflection of how history and society changes and tells something more about you. It's a pure art form how designers make their collections, like painters create their exhibition.

TIP: check out the documentary 'Fashion with a soul' of Dries Van Noten.

I want to do a more personal post for this period, because it involved the most years of my life and it's also to early to make a conclusion about fashion history of ten years ago. So I'm certainly very curious what historians will write about this time in twenty years or so!

When 'the Nillies' started I was about 15 years old. I remember Britney Spears was a big hype back then. Music always has a big influence on fashion (eg. the 60s, with The Beatles). I think the early 2000 were a mishmash of pop music, with low-rise flared jeans, cropped tops, newsboy caps, glitter lipgloss, little hand bags, lots of pink (thank you Paris Hilton),...

Over the last 20 years, style hasn't changed a lot. Ok, there's a change for example from the flared low-rise jeans to the skinny or 'boyfriend' jeans. Or from a pink Barbie look to bohemian style... But designers always got inspired by trends of the past. Anything goes. One season wearing long skirts could be a trend, but this is inspired by example the Seventies. Another season, the mini-skirt (of the Sixties) could take over. Of course there are sub cultures, like skater boys, hipsters or Yuccies. They want to distinguish themselves or are recognizable by their same style. But also those items are all based on an earlier fashion trend.

So where is the change?

I think nowadays people are getting more conscious about mass production and the environment. We see more local small designers coming up and working with organic fabrics. Fair trade fashion or recycle concepts are also big winners on the market.

Because Amanda Hallay always says, "Fashion is not an Island, it's a response." - fashion has always made big shifts in the past, because of big changes in society or technology. Remember for example, how fashion responded after the Great War. Nothing has changed much in society in my whole life. There were no big events, which could turn the world upside down. Except 9/11, I think this was a shift of the good and peace in the nineties. But that's my personal feeling, because I was a young child in the nineties.

In my opinion, people became more conservative after 9/11. They are less experimenting in fashion - if you compare the punk culture of the seventies, people now are so 'goody-goody'. Or if you look at the twentieth century, we had to make a post every decade because fashion was changing so much! So, has fashion slowed down now - like previous 18th, 17th,.. centuries?

Taken into account that designers have to make every six months a new collection (which I think is crazy!), maybe there's no room for lot of experimenting because it has to go so fast? Or designers do experiment a lot, but people just don't want to buy it? So it's not about the designer, but the 'save' or easy-going mindset of society?

In the past, people got influenced by royalty or the rich, movie stars, music artists or later on by people in the street. Nowadays with social media, everybody could be an influencer in fashion! Trends are what people post on their Instagram or blog. A lot of brands are paying them to get some publicity. Which results in a nice picture for their product, but not in a new fashion style.

I know, they are experimenting with digital processes and producing fabrics in a different way (digital printing, etc.). These are things you don't see yet on the market. But maybe in a few years, we're wearing clothes which could check your body health or are connected to your smart phones,... Something like that? But what would it look like? Would it be presented as a plain T-shirt? What do you think?

Now go check out Margo's post and beautiful drawings! She will talk more about makeup. Thank you Margo for your collaboration :) I really enjoyed doing this with you!