Wednesday 16 June 2010

Mode du Jour 1924 v Mode de la Nuit 2010.


This magazine is dated March 1924. I found a bunch of them in an attic that I was clearing out some years back, and, rather than throw them out, I just stuck them away in a folio.

Some might find these 20's designs 'elegant'. I find them 'cynical, and sexless'. The designer was no doubt trying to hide the natural shape of women. They appear to have no breasts, no waist, and no hips.

On the other hand, the current UK's friday-night street-wear often directs its emphasis unashamedly towards certain parts of the body (I'm sure everyone knows what I mean). Not a pleasant sight, especially when paraded by those who have no natural femininity, or have considerably over embibed. Or both!

France has always been rightly known for her chic and elegantly dressed women, and I'm very pleased to confirm that the ghastly excesses of the UK's bimbo-friday-nighters have, as yet, failed to cross the channel. But, having said that, I do hope that we never go back to those dreadfully austere designs of the 20's.

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8 comments:

  1. Cro..that is very intesting and it was an era when ladies kept their parts hidden and only shared with the love of their life...We do have the Friday night thing happening in our country but not as bad (I do not live in the city and all our kids go there to have their nights out).When I was in Paris 5 years ago I will never forget our guide and although she was dressed casually,she was so chic,so much nicer than the many track suits on the bus lol but honestly it was the one thing I really noticed over there very tre' chic( is that right?)it is however good for the soul and mind to look back and think that all those fabrics were not made for comfort at all but back then ladies were exactly that LADIES,these days you have to wait for them to open their mouths to make sure(maybe that is not kind but you know what I mean).Thanks for the nostalga even though we are too young to have been part of that our Mums were.CArole

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  2. Carole. I keep hoping that 'elegance' will be the next big thing, but it never happens. Sadly I think it'll never return, other than for the exceptional few!

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  3. I think there was a strange fascination for women dressing as men in those days, which filtered down into mainstream fashion, so maybe they weren't so sexless after all - just a different sort of sex. The 'Eton Crop' haircut for women is one example, like George Elliot's. Lesbians were quite influential in those days, I think.

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  4. P.S. It has just occurred to me that these masculine fashions came immediately after the First World War, when so many young men never came back from the battlefields of France. There was a real lack of eligible men.

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  5. Many present day designers have had a predictable penchant for boyish looks. It's always surprised me that girls were prepared to go along with them.

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  6. It's usually the heterosexual ones though - most gays love dressing up women as women. They make great shopping advisors (in my experience...)

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  7. I kind of hate that fashion too, but I do understand it. Women had gotten rid of the corset and were now moving into a very modern age. It was fashionable to slouch, and have a very tailored and trim body. Think Greta Garbo.

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  8. I saw a post with vintage dress patterns, today, as well, and it made me wish I had saved all my Vogue patterns from the 70s.

    I don't know. I'd love to be shaped like a rack. Clothes lay so nice on them.

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