1. World events sometimes impact fashion. Name the war during this time period and tell how it impacted the world of fashion.
The War in this time was the War of Vietnam from September 26, 1959 to April 30, 1975. Yes, it affected the world’s fashion. Because, the war of Vietnam were taking in many young people they were the ones to create and spread around the fashion. That’s were the fashion of hippies began, colorful clothing, and signs of Peace and Love. Also that’s when the fashion of wearing fatigue clothing began.
2. Select a prominent fashion designer from this time period, discuss what made him/her famous, and describe the fashion styles that are attributed to this designer.
Christian Lacroix from France. He became the designer for Jean Patou in 1981. He seduced the fashion press with spectacular shows, reviving fashion staples such as the frou-frou petticoat and the puffball skirt.
David Fernandez from Puerto Rico US (my Uncle) were I come from who is his short career was one of the best designer of the 80’s His Prêt a Porte design was exhibit in the biggest chain store in US like Bloomingdales, Sacks Fifth Ave., Lord & Taylor who make the dress for 2 of Miss Universe.
3. Give a description of new materials that were used in clothing during this time period.
Trevira start in the 70’s was a less bulky version of polyester. Another was Viscose Rayon crinkled textures were used was also a very fine crepe de chine polyester fabrics. Sanitized Polyesters was also a new technology to produce fabrics that looked like real silk. Cotton came back as natural fabric also. They were a relief to many synthetic fabrics especially in summer, also Linen.
4. Discuss with a family member, friend, or neighbor pictures of fashions you found from this time period. Discuss whether these fashions have cycled back into recent times. The person you interview does not need to have lived during the time period. You can ask him/her what he/she learned or what he/she remembers about the fashions you researched and have him/her explain if he/she sees these fashions in recent times. Write a three to five sentence paragraph that includes the name of the person you spoke with and the details about these fashions.
My friend’s name is Wilbert Pagan a well-known designer from P.R. He’s a good friend of my Uncle, David who passed away in 1992. Both David and Wilbert belonged to that era of glamour. Wilbert was only 19 years old when he began in the fashion industries. He remembers those days as revolutionary and never forgotten times. In those times, back then; a lot of different colors were used, also from a very short skirt to a long one, a pencil skirt to flair. The big shoulder pads were used mostly in every design and the beaded dresses were a very popular fashion for an evening gown.
Wilbert compared today's fashion with the 80’s and he said that now you can see a lot of those days. The bellbottom pants, the platform shoes, the pencil skirt, the long dresses called maxi dress, and in a short time he said that also the padded shoulders will come back sooner or later.
5. Pretend you are a buyer for a department store and you attended a fashion show during this time period. In your own words, write a short story of what you observed on the runway.
I went to the fashion runway of Bill Blass and observed the models wearing a lot of shoulder pads with many different kinds of hats for example, Pamela hats and Sailor like hats combining them with short blazers and long blazers also pencil skirts, short tight dresses with pumps shoes in many different colors. The colors being used were black and white, red and white and gold, with over sized earrings and short gloves.
http://www.fashion-era.com/1970s.htm
http://www.fashion-era.com/diana_80s_fashion_icon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_fashion
http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/Ki-Le/Lacroix-Christian.html
http://costume.osu.edu/exhibitions/fas/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYwM2ZuPBAg
