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Chapter 1

History of Fashion

Traces why humans began to clothe themselves, the four motivating factors behind dress, costume of the ancient civilisations, the machines of the Industrial Revolution that changed clothing forever, the rise of Indian designers and the powerful relationship between cinema and fashion.

1.1 Fashion, Apparel and Costume

  • Fashion is a social process by which a newly introduced style or trend becomes popular at a certain time and is accepted by a wide cross-section of consumers. It reflects aesthetics, art and design trends of contemporary society.
  • Apparel refers to the actual garments made of fabric, knits, leather or other wearable materials.
  • Costume comes from the word 'custom'. It is clothing for a specific use — ritual, performance, ethnic or historical — tied to a particular occasion and time.
  • Knowledge of costume history matters because dress is the inevitable outcome of the socio-cultural-political influences of its period.
  • Clothing depends on physical conditions (climate, geography, available raw material, textiles) and carries social meaning (religion, aesthetics, status, group identity).
  • Primitive man used animal skin and fur, later tree-bark fibre. Cave paintings of the early Palaeolithic period link clothing with belief in magic and successful hunting.

1.1.1 Sources of Information

  • Remnants of prehistoric clothing survive in valleys and caves; tools, costumes and accessories travelled along trade routes defined in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
  • Fur and stones were probably bartered between societies; animal skins were scraped and the fur combed.
  • The eyed-needle of bone or horn was used to assemble pieces, threaded with horse manes and tails and split reindeer tendons.
  • Few early garments survive because vegetable fibres such as rushes (grass) and linen are perishable.
  • Archaeology applies scientific methods to surviving prehistoric textile specimens to extract information about materials and manufacturing techniques.

1.1.2 Factors Affecting Clothing

  • Fashion historian James Laver proposed three principles governing clothing: Seduction, Utility and Hierarchy.
  • Other historians propose four factors: Protection, Ritualistic, Adornment and Identification.
  • Protection: shelter against temperature extremes, rain, dust, thorns, wild animals and insects, and extra protection for warfare and hunting.
  • Eskimos wear closely fitted layered fur garments to trap body warmth — the model for the European explorers' fur-lined parka. Turkoman and Kirghiz pastoralists wear three or four padded caftan-like coats with sheepskin overjackets.
  • In hot climates layering prevents dehydration: the Tuareg of the Sahara and the Bedou of Saudi Arabia wear long robes and loose trousers of light cool cotton, plus head coverings that reveal only the eyes.
  • Indigenous clothing uses locally available materials and craft skills: leather softened by scraping fat or by mastication (chewing); the Ainu of North Japan and Siberian Gilyak use fish skins for waterproof garments; North-West Canadian natives use shredded cedar bark rain capes and conical woven hats. Bark fibre is preferred to skins in moist tropical areas because it dries easily.
  • Ritualistic: claws, hooves, horns and teeth were worn to gain an animal's strength; the lion's tail and claws formed part of the Egyptian Pharaoh's regalia as symbols of bravery, vigour and shrewdness. Adopted animal symbols became family totems or crests displayed on aprons, blankets and totem poles.
  • Cowry shells, resembling the female reproductive organ, were worn to counteract the fear of sterility; amulets and rings continue this good-luck charm tradition.
  • Adornment: body modification through scarification, tattooing, body painting, jewellery, hairstyles and make-up (for example the elaborate facial make-up of Kathakali) — the desire to please oneself and others.
  • Identification: dress marks occupation, rank, religion, region, marital status and group membership — uniforms, robes of office, and the medieval long-toed poulaines whose length signalled rank.

1.2 Costume of Ancient Civilisations

  • Ancient Near East (Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, Assyria, Elam): the kaunakes, a tufted sheepskin or woven imitation skirt; later fringed and draped shawls; rich wool weaving and elaborate fringes.
  • Egyptian costume: fine bleached white linen suited to a hot dry climate. Men wore the schenti (loincloth); women wore the sheath-like kalasiris. Pleating, transparency, heavy collars (wesekh), wigs and kohl-lined eyes were characteristic. Dress declared rank — only royalty wore certain headdresses.
  • Greek costume was based on two principles: draping rectangles of uncut cloth on the body, and fastening with pins/fibulae and girdles rather than cutting and sewing.
  • Chief Greek garments: the Doric peplos (heavy wool, folded over to make an apoptygma), the Ionic chiton (lighter linen, sleeves formed by fastenings along the arm), the himation (large draped mantle) and the chlamys (short travelling/riding cloak).
  • Roman dress descended from the Greek: the tunica as basic wear and the toga as the mark of the Roman citizen; the stola and palla for women. Roman sandals excavated in London show the spread of dress along the empire.

1.3 The Industrial Revolution

  • The Industrial Revolution shifted clothing from hand production in the home to machine production in factories, creating ready-made clothing and mass markets.
  • Key inventions: John Kay's Flying Shuttle (1733), James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny (1764), Richard Arkwright's Water Frame (1769), Samuel Crompton's Spinning Mule (1779), Edmund Cartwright's Power Loom (1785), Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin (1793) and the Jacquard loom (1801).
  • Elias Howe patented the lock-stitch sewing machine (1846) and Isaac Singer made the domestic sewing machine commercially successful — the single greatest change in garment making.
  • Eighteenth-century knitting machines, synthetic (aniline) dyes and standardised sizing (developed from military uniform data) supported mass manufacture.
  • Consequences: cheaper clothing, faster fashion cycles, department stores, the rise of the ready-to-wear industry, urban factory labour and eventually the modern fashion system.

1.4 Indian Fashion Designers and Categories

  • Indian designers combine traditional crafts — embroidery, handloom, block printing, zardozi, bandhani — with contemporary silhouettes.
  • Notable names studied include Ritu Kumar, Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Manish Arora, Anamika Khanna, Ranna Gill, Nida Mahmood, Joy Mitra, Amit Agarwal, Alpana & Neeraj.
  • Wedding wear is also called bridal wear or trousseau, and is the single largest revenue category in Indian fashion.
  • Other categories: casual wear, formal wear, festive/occasion wear, resort wear, prêt (ready-to-wear) lines and diffusion lines.
  • The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) organises the major fashion weeks that showcase these designers.

1.5 Films and Fashion

  • Cinema is one of the strongest disseminators of fashion — screen costume creates mass trends far beyond the runway.
  • Costume designers interpret character, period and mood; their designs are copied by audiences within weeks of a film's release.
  • Indian examples: Bhanu Athaiya (India's first Oscar winner, for Gandhi), Neeta Lulla (Devdas, Jodhaa Akbar), Manish Malhotra (Rangeela, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Black, Guzaarish), Anna Singh, Dolly Ahluwalia (Bandit Queen, Vicky Donor).
  • Films create named trends — the 'Chandni' white salwar-kameez, the 'Mughal-e-Azam' anarkali revival, the Bandgala on screen — showing the two-way traffic between cinema and the market.
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