Fashion Assignment on Clothing in Parisian Paintings
Question
Task:
Prepare a fashion assignment exploring the Fashion in Parisian Paintings.
Answer
Introduction
It is evident in the fashion assignment that fashion has always played a significant role in every culture and society and has constantly experienced changes and modifications over time. Every culture has developed its unique fashion forms concerning creating body ornaments, jewellery, skin colouration and clothing. Over time every culture modifies its style. It is exposed to new leaders and cultures; many also leave their traditional fashions to adapt to foreign or more recent fashion trends (Wigley). The fashion assignment will explore how adapting and changing styles is part of human nature. It is essential to keep in mind that fashion will naturally change over time and remember to save cultural heritage and traditional clothing for future generations.
Tracking Recurring Traditional Fashions over Time
Traditional and ancient fashions themes have offered modern fashion many fashionable ideas which are being used in contemporary fashion styles. Practically every fashionable trend will find itself peaking and slump within a decade, but at the same time, pictures would be adopted and used in future fashion trends. This trend of adopting traditional fashion to new fashion themes explored in the fashion assignment has been recurring over the decades. It continues to be observed in all forms of style today. An example of a recurring fashion trend is the flair pants that were in fashion during the 1960s then it faded away only to make a reappearance in the 21st century (Spell). Feather clothing accessories are another commonly recurring fashion trend that can be seen in women clothing, including large and colourful feathers, and decorative accessories. Large and exotic feathers from birds are widely used on clothing and headdresses and continue returning and being used on modern fashion themes.
These are just two of many fashion trends observed to gain and lost popularity over the years. At the same time, some continue being used every decade or so, another wait longer before being reused. The constant need to return and reuse traditional clothing fashion trends is linked to each generation of people growing bored of a fashion trend they have seen since their childhood and soon abandon it to adopt a new one of their choice. A few years later, future generations observe the previous fashion style and admire certain aspects that they choose to readopt and infuse to their modern fashion trends. Fashion tends to grow boring after each generation where the generation successor will find them adapting to new fashion trends, which makes the new generation differently distinguishable from the others. This makes fashion trends constantly change over time but phased out trends also find themselves returning to future fashion trends.
Traditional Persian and French Fashion trends in the 1800s
As per the research on fashion assignment, the French and Persian cultures have always been held in high regard for their fashionable clothing and attire. This continues to date, but similar to most other global cultures, the French and Persian fashion clothing and apparel has seen the introduction and abandonment of different fashion themes. Traditional Persian and French painting help determine 1800 and 1900 fashion trends; the regal fashion trends may have faded away, but observing modern Persian and French fashion reveals certain aspects having been adapted in contemporary fashion trends. Some common fashion trends experienced in Persian and French traditional clothing have been discussed below.
What is the use of Elaborate Headdresses outlined in the fashion assignment?
Both the Persian and French traditional clothing fashion showed the importance of the headdress to all society members. Headdresses were part of the dressing code, but they were not limited to the headdress's materials (Munro). Old Persian paintings depict both cultures to have promoted the use of headdresses among all members of society. The headdresses would mainly remain simple for children, which would allow them to stay comfortable while studying and playing. In most situation, children’s headdresses would limit to basic cloth materials. In France, headdress fashion was also similar for children who would be expected to wear simple headdresses, but these would vary in style and shape but would still be made from basic cloth materials. Children also had decorative headdresses, but these would mainly be used for special occasions and celebrations.
The Persian Headdress
The traditional Persian headdresses for boys are mainly made up of long pieces of cloth wrapped around the head to create a turban above the head. For girls, the headdress is a veil that covers the head, ears and neck. The headdress mainly aims to protect the entire head and neck and back from suntan and darkening of the skin. As the Persian children grew into their teenage and youth, their headdresses grew more elaborate, colourful and decorated to improve the wearer’s appearance.
The French Headdress
French traditional headdresses for children are linked towards a western clothing style where children wear hats which they continue wearing into adulthood. The headdress is made up of differently shaped head veils and scarfs which the individual mainly, the girls wear. There is a wide verity of French headdresses for girls, each being worn for a specific occasion.
French Overhang Protective Clothing
By observing French traditional fashion clothing as portrayed in the fashion assignment segments, it’s clear that clothing was specifically designed to have large overhangs, collars, and a detachable apron. While these also help improve the dresses appearance and make them unique to the French culture, the cloth overhangs served another vital purpose of reducing heavy laundry (Trautmann-Attmann and Johnson). The large overhangs were meant to protect the cloth inside by concealing venerable areas like the shoulders, elbows, lower front from dirt, staining, and damage. This was due to cloth materials being an expensive product in the 1800s. The dress designs also had to consider protecting the dress by placing lower quality and cheaper fabric pieces above venerable areas of the dress.
Persian Tradition Clothing Fashion
Persians have always been famous for their pride and clothing styles which continue to dominate the modern world. The majority of Persian clothing styles exhibited a rich choice of colour, ornamental decoration and embroidery on their clothing. It is also observed in this fashion assignment that children’s dresses in Persian communities having large families were shared, meaning dresses can be passed on to young individuals as they grow smaller. This has led to the Persians developing a unique form of dressing which helps set them apart from most communities (Lewisohn). In this context of fashion assignment, the main reason linked to Persian children's dresses is high quality and cost. The families live together and share amenities like clothing, thus ensuring the clothing doesn't go waste once the minor grows up and it is passed on to the next individual of that age and height.
Conclusion
When compared, it soon becomes clear that the two cultures had very different clothing fashion styles. Each adapted different clothing styles and features to improve the appearance and extended usability. It can be concluded from the overall discussion on fashion assignment that in the past, the cloth was a precious commodity that had to be protected. Some cultures choose to dress their younger generations and children in cheaper and lower quality clothing and only spend more on fashionable attire once adulthood was reached. The Persian culture could spend more on clothing for children due to the passing down of the clothes to the younger generation once small. It reduced the long term cost of apparel and allowed each parent to add to the dress, thus making it more decorative over time.
References
Lewisohn, Leonard. “In the Persian Sufi Tradition.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 1997: 1–33. Web.
Munro, Katherine. “The Treatment of a Feather Headdress.” Proceedings of the 14th Annual IIC-CG Conference = Actes Du 14e Congrès Annuel de l’IIC-CG. N.p., 1989. 172–179. Print.
Spell, C. S. “Management Fashions: Where Do They Come From, and Are They Old Wine in New Bottles?” fashion assignment Journal of Management Inquiry 2001: 358–373. Web.
Trautmann-Attmann, Julianne, and Tricia Widner Johnson. “Compulsive Consumption Behaviours: Investigating Relationships among Binge Eating, Compulsive Clothing Buying and Fashion Orientation.” International Journal of Consumer Studies 33.3 (2009): 267–273. Web.
Wigley, Stephen M. “Fashion Marketing.” Radar 2011: 22–24. Web.
