High street wedding dresses just keep getting better and better. Stylish brides on a budget now have their pick of an ever-expanding selection of high street wedding dresses.From floor-length gowns to sleek lace minis and everything in between including some rather gorgeous beaded boho dresses – there’s something for every style.
Did you know that every 0.25 of a second, a fashion blog is launched somewhere in the world? Well, not strictly true (actually, it probably is – we just don’t have the scientific evidence). But it seems like it, non? And don’t get us started on all the #ootd posts on the ‘gram.
Street style for kids is big business today. Funky, quirky and jazzed up with glamour accessories team up with the carefully casual look for girls and boys.
Street style has always been there. It is only since the mid-1950s that its importance has been recognised, appreciated and emulated. Street fashion is considered to have emerged not from studios, but from the grassroots. It is generally linked with youth culture, and is often seen in major urban centres even though smaller towns have their own smaller hubs.
heories about origin of street fashion
The Trickle Up Theory involves innovation or a picky style that begins on the streets, worn by lower income groups. It is picked up by designers and projected to upper class spheres which purchase the designs.
A typical example of this is the T-shirt. From a modest start, the Tee has turned into an emblem of global fashion. It has become not just a fashion and cultural icon, but a message board where people can express their feelings in the form of slogans, symbols and logos. Messages focus on the wider audience of popular culture, or are directed at subcultures, politics, economics, social issues and more.
Most major youth subcultures have had been associated with street fashion adopted by today’s kids who are not only stylish, but decide their style. Despite naysayers, children have become a cult classic with the tag of cool city kid.
Many factors are to blame for this contemporary hunger for new trends. Part of it comes down to overstimulation from all sides, as the Internet has allowed us to welcome instant gratification as the new norm. Another major (and perhaps even more worrying) reason for this, though, is the cost factor. It was during the 1960s that clothing became cheaper and young people started embracing a faster trend cycle as a way to rebel from the sartorial traditions of older generations. In turn, retailers opened more textile mills and pushed into the developing world as a way to respond to this demand. The problem now, however, is that the cycle seems to have flipped and it’s the fast fashion brands pushing people to consume, rather than the other way around. As European and US companies began saving millions of dollars by outsourcing labour, they also realised just how much more money could be made simply by making more clothes.
But do we actually want all of these new garments? Pieces whose very ‘trendy’ nature means that they will be totally tired within a matter of months? Perhaps we do. But then separating wants from needs has always been part of the human experience. For previous generations, reassessing wants (like wanting the luxury of tailor-made clothing, for example) often came as a result of war. Today our experience of war is vastly different. But whether or not we perceive it in this way, it is now our planet that war is being waged war against. Our proclivity to buy into the onslaught of new clothing trends served up to us each season does very little to help that fact. And while it mightn’t feel quite so personal as having loved ones in battle, the threat is no less real or pressing. So, armed with a better understanding of how trend culture first began and later morphed into the beast that it is today, perhaps we can all reassess our own wants and needs in order to build better wardrobes and more responsible fashion businesses for the future.
Where exactly did this modern voracity for trend culture really develop? The answer is actually not with fast fashion conglomerates, most of whom have only been around for the past few decades. H&M, for example, was established in 1947, followed by Zara in 1974 and Boohoo in 2006. But according to Fashionista, trend culture really developed in fashion as early as the 1800s. Before the Industrial Revolution, people had to rely on raising sheep for wool that could be spun into yarn and then weaved into cloth. The concept of 52 micro-seasons simply wasn’t an option. Fast-forward to the introduction of textile machines, factories and ready-made clothing in a post Industrial Revolution world. And suddenly the scale of manufacturing was vastly increased. Still, things moved at a much slower pace and were far more localised back then.
There was also integrity to the clothes in those days that came partly from circumstance — that is, not being able to automate the process so much — but also from aspiration. It was seen as desirable to own something custom and unique back then. Which feels worlds apart from where most consumers are at today. What radically changed this fact, though, was actually the shifting values brought about by war. In particular it was World War II that really changed things, after which there was an increase in standardised production for all clothing. By its very nature, war is known to underscore the value of functionality, so in this context middle-class consumers became all of a sudden more receptive to the idea of purchasing mass-produced clothing. And things slowly began to move more quickly.
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