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Grenfell mission hooked mat made from silk stockings depicting dog sled with medical supplies, c. 1928 - 1932, from the Paula Laverty collection

One of the goals of the Fashion History Museum is to create a Canadian fashion databank that will keep information and images on all Canadian designers, manufacturers and retailers, past and present.  In all my years of collecting I have had only a few items go through my hands with Newfoundland labels, but I recently had this hand knit sweater cross my path. The label ‘NONIA - Newfoundland’ meant nothing to me but a quick online search turned up a history of the NONIA label.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishing industry was based in small isolated coastal communities accessible only by boat. In 1892 a Dr. Wilfred Grenfell arrived in Newfoundland and began to work on improving medical services for the inhabitants of these villages. He set up the Grenfell mission in 1900 and in 1908 began to raise money for the mission by organising the production and sale of hooked mats, a popular local craft tradition. Between 1918 and 1931, Grenfell mats were popular folk products, traded and sold for the benefit of the Grenfell medical mission. The Depression of the 1930s decreased sales and Grenfell mats ceased being made commercially by the time Dr. Grenfell died in 1940. The mats were made from silk and cotton stockings, and the shift to nylons after the war ended the remains of the tradition in the post war years.

However, when Grenfell mats were just becoming successful, they were an inspiration for the creation of the Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA), founded in 1920 and incorporated as a non-profit business in 1924. It was also established to assist Newfoundland communities by creating better access to health services, raising money from the sale of hand-knit garments to pay the salaries of public health nurses. The health care portion of NONIA’s operation was taken over by the government in 1934 but the industrial side was maintained and continued on. Today, NONIA employs approximately 175 knitters and weavers across the province to knit sweaters, socks, hats and mitts, and weave scarves and table linens.

NONIA Newfoundland label from sweater, c. 1955Sweater by NONIA, c. 1955

Sweater by NONIA, c. 1955

Congratulations to all who sent in their answers to the fashion designer quiz. All questions were answered correctly but not by one person! There was a three-way tie for first place with a score of 10 out of 12 by VIntage Visage, Linn Alber, and Mary-Jane Enros but the first person to submit their answers was Mary-Jane Enros of Poppysvintageclothing - CONGRATULATIONS!

1 - This designer survived the sinking of the Titanic

The answer is Lady Duff Gordon who worked under the name Lucile. She opened her dressmaking firm in London in 1891 but only became well known after she married Sir Cosmos Duff Gordon in 1900. In 1909 a branch of Lucile was opened in New York and another branch opened in Paris in 1911 - she was on her way from Paris to New York when she boarded the Titanic in April 1912. The lifeboat she and her husband were in had left the Titanic nearly empty and did not go back for survivors, leaving the Duff-Gordons open to speculation of paying off the boatmen. Her reputation never fully recovered and by 1918 her romantic dress styles were less appealing to modern woman and her London business closed. The New York and Paris shops closed with the onset of the Depression in about 1930. Lady Gordon died in 1935.

2 - This designer’s first job was designing skiwear for White Stag in 1948

Pucci is a leading figure in Italian fashion of the 1950s and 1960s, but his designing career began when he was commissioned by the American company White Stag to design skiwear after Pucci was photographed for Harper’s Bazaar in 1948, wearing a ski suit of his own design. In 1950 he opened his own couture house in Florence and gained a reputation for colourful casual clothing. By the mid 1960s his clothing was seen everywhere including as stewardess uniforms for Braniff airlines. At the height of his fame as a designer he served as a Member of Parliament for Florence between 1964 and 1973.

3 - This designer was known for wearing dark glasses decades before Karl Lagerfeld or Anna Wintour

Admittedly this was a bit of a trick question, because I didn’t specify it was a FASHION designer… Edith Head, the costume designer wore dark blue lensed glasses as a way to see how costumes would look in a black and white film. The glasses became her trademark and although she was rarely photographed with out her blue glasses, she commonly wore clear glasses when out of public view.

4 - This shoe designer trained for the Italian track and field team for the 1960 Olympics

Most people probably don’t know his name but they will know his shoes… Armando Pollini was an athlete before he settled down to shoe design. His most famous was a clog mule with a leather strap that sold millions of pairs in the late 1970s under the brand name of Candies.

5 - This designer redesigned the Girl Scout uniform in 1948

Born Main Rousseau Bocher, he served in WWI and stayed on in Europe after the war, eventually becoming the fashion editor for French Vogue. He founded his own atelier in Paris in 1930 and quickly became a very successful couturier as well as the first American admitted to the couture syndicate. He fled Paris in 1940 and went to New York where he was quickly embraced as a prodigal American designer. In 1948 he was commissioned to redesign the Girl Scout uniform. Before opening his atelier in Paris, his name was properly prounounced as Main ‘Bocker’ or ‘Bosher’. However in Paris he took on the French pronunciation of his name - ‘Mahnboshay’.

6 - This designer survived the explosion of the Hindenburg

Philip Mangone was the son of an immigrant Italian tailor. He learned his craft from his father before working at numerous different firms eventually opening his own business in 1916. He became famous for his tailored wool coats and suits that were often made of European wools. After one of his European fabric buying trips in 1937 he headed home, with a severe cold, aboard the Zeppelin Hindenburg.  He was badly burned in the crash and spent most of the next year recovering in hospital. Upon his release the first thing he did was to board a flight to Chicago to prove to himself he wasn’t afraid to fly.

7 - This designer was engaged to Grace Kelly before she married Prince Ranier of Monaco

Oleg Cassini was working in Hollywood as a costume designer when he met and married the actress Gene Tierney. However, the marriage suffered, especially after Gene’s daughter was born retarded - caused by Gene having been exposed to measles while pregnant. The story became the inspiration for Agatha Christie’s novel ‘And the Mirror Cracked’.  After the couple divorced in 1952 Oleg Cassini took up with Grace Kelly and had proposed to her on several occasions before finally being rebuffed for Prince Rainier of Monaco.

8 - This shoe designer’s ancestor is Sun Yat Sen, the first president of the Republic of China in 1912

Beatrix Ong is fairly new on the scene of shoe design. She worked at Jimmy Choo under Tamara Mellon before striking out on her own. Beatrix can trace her ancestry back to a great uncle who was Sun Yat Sen.

9 - This designer survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima

As a seven year old, Issey Miyake lived on the outskirts of Hiroshima. To this day he says he can remember the bright light and black cloud and the desperation of the people running about after the explosion. The only good to have come from it for him was a passion to create rather than destroy.

10 - This designer consulted a psychic before opening his Parisian atelier to make sure the timing was right

Isaac Mizrahi, Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel - many designers used psychics, fortune tellers, mediums, and ouiji boards to foresee the future and their success. However, Christian Dior was probably the most avid follower of psychic visions. At a young age he was told he would become very important for women, and before agreeing to open his own atelier he sought the advice of a psychic to make sure the timing was right. In matters of business, the psychics were absolutely right in all the advice they gave Dior.

11 - This designer dated a German officer who had worked as a spy in Paris before World War II

During World War II, at the age of 56, Coco Chanel took up residence at the Paris Ritz hotel, along with Hans Gunther von Dinklage, a German officer 13 years her junior, who had been living in Paris since the 1930s, working as a spy.

12 - This designer changed her last name to be the same as the richest person in America

The story goes that Viennese born Henrietta Kanengeiser emigrated to the United States at the age of eleven and trained as a milliner. Before opening her first hat shop in 1909 she realized her last name would not pull in wealthy clients so Henriette or ‘Hattie’ called her shop ‘Carnegie - Ladies Hatter’, after the richest man in America at the time, Andrew Carnegie. By 1914 she was known simply as Hattie Carnegie.

I commented earlier that films set in time periods within living memory can be more difficult because audiences will notice errors. The costumers for Taking Woodstock avoided this problem by thoroughly doing their homework - researching, sourcing, recreating and styling the extras and stars with great attention to detail and authenticity. The director also realized the limitation of the budget and didn’t push his costumers to perform beyond a realistic expectation.

This scene takes place in 1966, although the actors are dressed more accurately for 1973

This was not the case for Talk to Me, which so obviously relied upon racks of period party dresses from costume houses for the extras to wear in daytime crowd scenes. The costumers focussed on the stars but tended to over-dress them in nth degree fashions that were inappropriate for the date of the scene in the movie. The anachromisms were plentiful and not just with the costuming (as a background check at the IMDB confirms).

The film takes place primarily between 1966 and 1972 - a hugely important era in social history, especially in the United States. It was in this era that American black culture transitioned from marginalized to mainstream. The filmakers however, blended the period into one giant cliche, with only one character, the straight-laced radio executive who hires Petey Green, showing any sense of his growing black self-identity through his clothing. Although the film is described as a comedy, the only thing I found comical were the costumes. This film gets a very poor 4/10 from me.

1910 postcard

In 1910 the Edwardian era came to an end with the death of England’s King Edward VII. It was also the year Mexico had a revolution, Japan began its empire with the annexation of Korea, the women’s suffrage movement was gaining momentum, and Father’s day was first celebrated.

Some fashion milestones from 1910 include the founding of Elizabeth Arden in New York (women were beginning to wear small amounts of rouge on their cheeks and lips.) The death of King Edward in May 1910, was just before  Ascot, which resulted in England’s elite wearing full mourning to the races. A half century later, this event inspired Cecil Beaton to costume the Ascot race scene for My Fair Lady in black and white.

The fashion designer Paul Poiret introduced his “Liberateur” line which freed women of corsets, and Jean Patou, an architect of modern fashion through the development of sportswear, opened his fashion atelier in 1910. Casual and sporting activities such as sea bathing, picnicking, golf, and motoring were on the rise, just in time for the word ‘week-end’ to be coined to reflect the half Saturday and full Sunday being enjoyed by the majority of the working classes for the pursuit of leisure (the two day weekend wasn’t common until the 1930s.)

But most amusingly, according to a snippet from the New York Times, March 22, 1910, long hat pins were being banned!

“It is now a misdemeanor for any woman to wear a long hatpin in public places in Chicago. Any woman caught wearing one is liable to arrest and a fine of $50… A crowd of women had gathered to protest against the measure on the ground that the city had no right to attempt to regulate women’s wearing apparel, and that long hatpins often at night formed women’s only weapon of defense.

The ordinance decrees that “no person while in the public streets…shall wear any hatpin, the exposed point whereof shall protrude more than one-half inch beyond the crown of the hat…”

The argument for the measure was that long hatpins worn in crowded places endangered the eyes, noses, and faces of people. When the vote was announced cries of ‘Shame! Shame!’ came from women in the galleries.”

Thomas Hoving died last week. His name may not be familiar to most, but in the museum field Thomas Hoving is remembered as a controversial director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the late 1960s and 1970s. Hoving immodestly recounted his experience at the Met in his book “Making the Mummies Dance”. He was not always likable, or ethical, but he knew how to sell tickets at the door, and the museum world is still dancing in the shadow of Thomas Hoving’s influence every time a blockbuster exhibition opens.

Hoving was influential in changing how museums present themselves. The visitor experience has improved in the last forty years because museums now consider their audiences, producing relevant and popular exhibitions rather than navel-gazing academic diatribes. One of the more popular topics have been fashion history exhibitions. Under Hoving, Diana Vreeland produced the first contemporary retrospective exhibition about Yves St. Laurent. This may not seem like a controversial idea now, but for a museum to mount an exhibition about a living designer was, at the time, unheard of.

Whether a good idea or not (some day I will blog about why I don’t think curators should do retrospectives of living designers), that show proved to museums that the public likes to look at clothing. There had been little respect for the field of fashion history at the time, and only now is the field gaining respect as a serious topic. I was cleaning out an old file (part of the end of year ritual) and came across a brochure from a 1998 conference at the New York University entitled ‘Fashion: The Newest Art’ suggesting it was only then being recognized as something above a trade.

I have had a file called ‘Collectors and Museums’ for over twenty years now, and every time I got a brochure or found an article about some interesting fashion, costume or textile collection somewhere I added it to the file. Coming across this file inspired this blog, but not in the way I thought it would. I thought I might turn the contents of the file into a blog about little known historical fashion and accessory museums but when I started searching out details, I discovered most of these collections had closed.

It’s no secret that the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the Brooklyn museum’s costume collection this year. This will make the Met the largest repository of historical fashion in the world, even after de-accessioning Brooklyn artifacts that duplicate the Met’s already extensive holdings.

Both the Denver Art Museum in Colorado, and Castle Howard in York, England had spectacular ‘Every Dior Out the Door’ close-out sales of their historic fashion collections a few years ago. Similarly, the Nottingham museum of costume in England closed its doors, but I am not sure what happened to their collection. More recently, the Fashion Museum in Abilene Kansas and La Crasia glove Museum in New York City have disappeared (no websites exist and their phone numbers are no longer operational.) Even corporate collections are quietly disappearing, like the Maidenform Museum collection in New York (again no contact information was working when I checked). I don’t know where these collections ended up - perhaps at auction…

It has been difficult to keep up with all the recent museum deaccession auctions. Although I am all for museums honing their collections rather than just amassing huge quantities of junk, some museum auctions have ended in controversy. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) experienced negative publicity for selling off garments from their collection. Usually museums quietly discard their ‘also-rans’ but LACMA advertised their clear-out which resulted in some buyers using the LACMA connection to springboard their own careers. One ‘artist’ bought fifty items and then used the destruction of these garments through redesign for the purpose of promoting himself. One of the worst was a Claire McCardell dress turned into a hobo satchel and witches’ hat.

Like everything else in life, museums are not necessarily forever and its a shame when carefully acquired collections are scattered to the winds. However, despite the disappearance of some collections, and corporate-like buy-outs of others, there are new collections being formed, from the Museo de la Moda, in Santiago Chile, to our own Fashion History Museum (website to be launched in early 2010), in Ontario.

If you know of any little gems of fashion and costume related museums, drop us a line in the comments - I would love to amass an updated resource of exceptional fashion museums still in business, and keep tabs on what is being shown and when.

Here’s one to get the ball rolling: The Museum of Vision Science at the University of Waterloo.

Advertisement for Grendha Jellies - March 1985

Jellies (molded rubber shoes) were popular once again this past summer - this time with high heels rather than the usual flat sole styles. The first time they were hits was the mid 1980s as this advertisment from the March 1985 US Vogue proves. The pair in green offered in the advert by Grendha, the Brazilian manufacturer, is identical to the red pair marked Thierry Mugler.

Red Jellies labelled Thierry Mugler, 1985

Xray of a chopine showing spikes used to strengthen and attach the two blocks of wood used in its construction

I love it when I find preeminent exhibitions. The Met’s Poiret exhibition in 2007 and the Yves St. Laurent retrospective in Montreal in 2008 were both superlative shows that could not have been better.

The Bata Shoe Museum now joins this prestigious circle with its newest exhibition On A Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque Heels. This is the best assemblage of Renaissance and Baroque footwear ever seen - in fact I think about a half of all extant Chopines are in this display. The exhibition is small (these are shoes we are talking about, and even if they are upwards of a metre tall they are still usually not more than a size 4), but the privilege to see these all gathered into one gallery is memorable.

It is a miracle that the twenty or so examples of Chopines (some pairs, some singles) survived at all considering the oldest complete dress dates only from 1640, at the end of the Chopine’s height of popularity which had begun over a century before - fifty years before the rise of the heel. It is the story of the heel that makes up the second part of the exhibition. The origin of the heel is traced from Middle Eastern horseback riding (the heel kept the shoe in place in the stirrup) to Baroque Northern European high-street fashions. Most amazing and amusing are the cross-over styles that use both platforms and high heels and look surprisingly familiar (yes Nicholas Kirkwood I am looking at you.)

Exhibition catalogue

There is an excellent catalogue to accompany the exhibition, available in the museum’s gift shop, that traces the history of the platform and the heel back to ancient times and foreign lands. This is a wise purchase as my only complaint about the exhibition is the usual unavoidable problem of trying to read text in a dimly lit gallery, but the shoes are five hundred years old and I am not yet fifty, so they need more care than I do…

I highly recommend making the trip if you can because the shoes in this exhibition come from museums around the world (from Boston to Venice to Stockholm) and they don’t normally travel because of their age and rarity. One of the examples on display is at the museum only because the funds were donated to conserve it before being sent to the Bata Shoe Museum. On A Pedestal runs until September 20, 2010, so you have plenty of time to make plans for the pilgrimage!

Right: The cover of the Exhibition catalogue ‘On a Pedestal’, by Elizabeth Semmelhack, curator, Bata Shoe Museum

Above: Photograph copyright 2009 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / X-ray courtesy of Joel Thompson, Associated Textile Conservator and Richard Newman, Research Scientist

J-Lo in a low low cut dress, 2000

I know it doesn’t feel like a decade has passed since Y2K but in a little more than a month we will be entering the 2010s and that means the first decade of 21st century fashion is wrapping up. Science fiction predicted we would all be wearing unisex jumpsuits in crease resistant synthetics, but in reality the first decade of the new millennium offered no space age vision. The entire decade was about looking back, not forward.

Sarah Jessica Parker in a vintage inspired cocktail dress

Vintage fashions from the 1950s to the 1980s were the inspiration for all new fashions from chain stores to haute couture. Department stores resembled giant vintage clothing warehouses filled with separates from different eras to mix and match for a hodge podge contemporary look (a way of styling delineated by Patricia Field in her costuming for Sex and the City, but difficult to pull off successfully). Vintage shops carried authentic Jackie Kennedy sheath dresses, mod coats, beaded cardigans, Disco T-shirts, and Flashdance leggings that could transform you into any vintage fashion icon from Holly Go-Lightly to Rhoda Morganstern. Borrowing from the past to create modern style has been common since Barbara Hulanicki revived the 1930s and 1940s for her Biba label, but when Ralph Lauren got too close to copying an Yves St. Laurent tuxedo dress he was fined by a French court in 1994 for copyright infringement. But that didn’t stop the trend. From Anna Sui to Nicholas Ghesquiere, raiding vintage wardrobes for style ideas was the dominant trend of the 2000s. Cameron Silver of Decades, a vintage clothing store in West Hollywood, admitted in 2002 that 60% of his sales went to designers “who are just hyper stylists these days.”

Crocs - the summer 2006 hit

Some defining fashions of the 2000s were continuations of trends that began in the 1990s or before. Tattooing and piercing, for example, grew in popularity with the punk and fetish cultures but generally remained unseen until the early 2000s. At first, small ankle tattoos appeared, and then lower back tats were exposed in bare midriff tops and low-rise jeans (thong underwear straps were also showcased by low-rise jeans.) By the end of the decade, neck calligraphy and entire sleeves of Japanese motifs were covering arms. However, piercing all but disappeared, with the exception of the occasional tribal style ear lobe plug worn by skateboarders and bicycle couriers.

Shaved heads, made popular by Hip Hop singers and Sinead O’Connor in the 1990s, turned the street tough/chemo patient look into a mainstream tress code in the 2000s. For women, the tousled ‘I just fell out of bed’ look of the 1990s persisted but lost momentum by the end of the decade in favour of more coifed locks. And with a nod to the Studio 54 era, Afros and corn rowing had small return engagements, as did coloured hair, but really only for performers like Lil’ Kim and Pink. Caramel highlights was about as daring as anyone got who didn’t perform on stage.

Crop top and low rise jeans, New York, Spring 2001

Thin was very ’in’ despite the fact that most of the population was getting fatter, probably because we all put on weight while quitting smoking. Meanwhile in fashionland, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Lara Flynn Boyle, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss resembled their wafer thin laptops when they turned sideways. The only discernable bumps on most fashion icons were those made by surgically implanted or padded breasts. Take away cigarettes, cocaine, and bulimia and you have to wonder how many rail thin celebrities would be able to maintain their 00 dress sizes.

Bratz dolls, fall 2002

Most work places saw casual dress codes expand from Fridays to every day. The most popular casual look for work and weekend at the beginning of the decade was low-rise jeans or trousers with full or flared legs. When worn in combination with a crop top, the toned tummy became the new erogenous zone but pudgy muffin tops were the reality. In the middle of the decade flares disappeared and tight tapered styles and leggings reappeared; waistlines also moved back up to the top of the hips. Crop tops were abandoned in favour of more modest empire-waist peasant tops, making an entire generation of women look like unwed mothers. The biggest non-fashion event of the 2000s was the return of the poncho. Ponchos were in fashion for about 3 minutes in the winter of 2004/2005, and were long gone by the time Martha Stewart emerged from prison or Ugly Betty wore her Guadalajara version to work. The poncho was part of the Bohemian or ‘Boho’ style of peasant tops and gypsy skirts that returned often throughout the decade. Also in for repeat performances were animal prints, denim, military (cargo pants, camouflage), and pimp and pole dancer styles (Pussycat Doll chic consisting of micro minis, Huggie Bear hats, and bling).

Baby Doll Dress, spring 2000

For dressier occasions the baby doll dress lasted most of the decade. Worn with dark stockings or no stockings at all, baby doll dresses never reached the nth degree cult status of the Japanese Goth-Lolita look. However, most other subculture fashions, from Goth to Gay, went mainstream in the 2000s.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was launched in 2003 as part of the landslide of reality TV makeover shows (What Not to Wear, Ten Years Younger, Extreme Makeover…) The format became routine: An overweight woman of a certain age who is exhausted from work and taking care of her kids is given a brutal talking to by a bunch of stylists who sharpen their wits on her high school hair-do and age inappropriate 90s wardrobe. She is given a dye job, her eyebrows are plucked, she puts on a new outfit or two, and her life is suddenly worth living again because she says she feels sexy in her new too-tight jeans floral print blouse, and stiletto shoes. The sponsors of these shows were often mainstream chain stores, which meant New York location shoots did not explore the wonderful shops of Tribeca, but rather the H&M on Broadway.

Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton, 2003

The Gap and Banana Republic, leading retailers in the 1990s, waned in popularity in the 2000’s, while Old Navy, a budget basics store from the same parent company, held its own alongside strong fashion retailers like H&M and Target. Founded in Sweden in 1947, H&M began opening franchises across Europe in the 1960s; their first American store opened in Manhattan in 2000. The origins of Target date back over a century but in the shift from five and dime retailer to Walmart competitor, Target hired designers such as Steven Sprouse in 2002 and Isaac Mizrahi in 2003 to create collections for budget-conscious customers. H&M followed suit, hiring designers Stella McCartney in 2005 and Roberto Cavalli in 2007.

French Connection, founded in 1972, accidentally discovered in 1997 that their UK branch was identified in a fax as FCUK. Leaping upon the vulgar dyslexic acronym for marketing purposes, the French Connection sold T-shirts with sayings like ‘FCUK fashion’ to style-deprived imbeciles. The company feigned surprise when they lost their bid to the rights of the acronym; First Consultants UK Ltd. proved precedence in court and in 2006 French Connection abandoned their FCUK campaign.

Juicy Couture track pants and Uggs

One of the decade’s leading marketing success stories began when Gel Nash-Taylor, the wife of Duran Duran’s John Taylor, and her partner Pamela Skaist-Levy branded a line of maternity pants in 1996 under the name Juicy Couture. Juicy Couture offered affordable, comfortable casual wear aimed at the yummy mummy’s market wedged between girl power and cougars. The label found limited success until 2003 when Liz Claiborne bought the fledgling company for 50 million dollars. By 2005, Juicy Couture and its knock-offs had women 18-45 in tracksuits with words like Juicy, Sweet, Sexy, and Meow written across the butt.

Chavs in Burberry plaid

Long-standing brands re-marketed themselves for a hipper look in the new millennium. The English classic Burberry reinvented itself in 2002 to appeal to a younger crowd, losing most of their older, established clientele in the process when Chavs (English term for teenage delinquents such as soccer hooligans) picked up on the trend for Burberry plaid. Similarly Marc Jacobs hired artist Takashi Murakami to update a bag for Louis Vuitton that would appeal to the Japanese Lolita aesthetic in 2003.

Celebrity brands exploded in the 2000s. In most cases the celebrities had marginal input into the design and only loaned their name for branding. The list included: Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Gwen Stefani, Kelli Osbourne, Lenny Kravitz, Anna Nicole Smith, Mariah Carey, Donald Trump, Lil’ Kim, Jessica Simpson, Jessica Alba, Kanye, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Lopez, P Diddy, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne… and many more.

Japanese Goth Lolita

On a high fashion note, the leading American designer torch passed from Tom Ford to Marc Jacobs in the 2000s. Across the pond it was the talented ‘l’enfant terrible’ Alexander McQueen who managed to find recognition and funding for his label from the Gucci Group, courtesy of Tom Ford in 2002. John Galliano remained a bright light in fashionland at Christian Dior, even though his couture consists of irrelevant fantasy gowns made solely for media exploitation. Galliano also has Anna ‘Nuclear’ Wintour, chief editor of American Vogue, as his number one fan. Anna Wintour’s thinly veiled send up in the 2003 book and 2006 film ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ proved that fashion was just business after all, and not a very nice one at that. While getting along with Wintour is necessary for good reportage in Vogue, Armani and Alaia are not quiet about their disdain for her. She may need to be wary of burnt bridges now as the current falling circulation doesn’t look good on her twenty-one year reign at Vogue.

Fashion reportage is changing and the fashion magazine is no longer the dominant style delineator. The 2000s saw the birth of television channels devoted to fashion. The Internet put the power of fashion coverage into many more hands; The Vintage Fashion Guild, The Sartorialist, Worn Fashion Journal, and numerous other professional and amateur websites and blogs now report on and influence the path of fashion.

Roberto Cavalli dressed as Karl Lagerfeld for Halloween 2007

In the 2000s we saw less of Karl Lagerfeld (42 kilos less). We also saw brilliant designers retire: Issey Miyake, Calvin Klein, Hanae Mori, Valentino, Christian Lacroix, and Tom Ford. And some designers we lost forever: Thea Porter, Bonnie Cashin, Bill Blass, Roberta de Camerino, Pauline Trigere, Hardy Amies, Geoffrey Beene, Stephen Sprouse, Giovanna Fontana, Donald Brooks, Liz Claiborne, Mr. Blackwell, Oleg Cassini, Gianfranco Ferre, and Yves St. Laurent.

Gladiator platform sandals, spring 2008

As for coming attractions in the 2010s, I suspect we will see more environmentally friendly fashions including sustainable materials coming into fashion – more hemp, less polyester. Mixed in with revivals, including a broader shoulder line from the 80s, fashion is already showing a trend for new ways of constructing and decorating that are contemporary, not retro. Vintage is here to stay, but not always in its original form. There is already a strong trend for ‘up cycling’ – remaking bad vintage into good wearables. Don’t forget this was the way things used to be until prosperity in the 1950s made North Americans consumers with voracious appetites for novelty. We have already seen shoes with built in Ipods and coats and dresses with cell phone pockets so perhaps more technology and fashion will combine in the coming decade. On the negative side expect to see significant cost increases in labour and shipping. Other than these few prognostications – time will only tell.

Ten things I will remember about fashion in the 2000s, and most of them aren’t good:

Miss Piggy takes a cue from Janet Jackson from a 2004 viral email image

1 - 2004’s ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’ – Tell the truth Janet it wasn’t an accident; it was just a bad idea.

2 - Flip-flops – They are too casual and dangerous to wear any place other than the beach or the back yard

3 - Uggs – They get stinky and dirty quickly, they make your legs look fat, and they’re ugly

4 - Eco terrorists – from P.E.T.A. members who send images of skinned animals to vintage websites that have a 1940s rabbit muff for sale, to vegans who like to remind everyone at the table why they are superior because they don’t wear leather shoes or use cosmetics. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

5 - Paris Hilton and all the other celebrities with sex tapes and no underwear

6 - Knock-offs – Fashion is all about knocking off someone else’s ideas – Victor Costa and Nettie Rosenstein weren’t designers, they were copyists. Fake purses, sunglasses and shoes became common in the 2000s but the real issue here is trademark infringement. Obviously a company logo is clearly copyrightable, but is quilted kid or contrast stitching? China (the United States biggest creditor) makes the most profits from the production and sale of knock-offs so until websites that offer $89.00 ‘Louboutin’ shoes are closed down, don’t tell me tales of terrorists making money from Louis ‘Fauxton’ bags because I am not listening.

Boho Chic, 2008, as worn by Kelly Bensimon, with a corset belt and Minnetonka moccasin boots

7 - Non-clothing accessories – everything from a Starbucks coffee to a teacup Chihuahua – must you walk around with perceived status symbols in your hand?

8 - Oversized, over-designed handbags – What happened to all those elegant crocodile Kelly bags and evening clutches from the 90s – purses were wonderful then but now they are big and ugly.

9 - Overpriced cheap products – Crocs are a good example. They are great shoes for the beach or back yard, but why are knock-offs available for a tenth of the price? Hey Crocs – your products are rubber sandals, not art, charge accordingly.

10 - Reality fashion programs. I keep promising myself to stop watching Project Runway and I will – next time. I don’t like the unfair and unrealistic expectations set upon the contestants. I am still angry over the 2006 ‘couture’ challenge in Paris - couture can NOT be made with glue in two days, to fit two different models

All Images were gleaned off the net - if any are copyrighted I will glady remove them at the owner’s request.

Canadian knitted winter hood with instructions for knitting a similar looking hood shown in Petersons magazine, 1859

The Fashion History Museum’s exhibition Everyday Attire opens November 21 at Ball’s Falls in Jordan, Ontario. Running until January 18, the exhibition looks at what women wore every day between 1820 and 1920, before the days of jeans and T-shirts. Simple cotton print dresses based on high fashion silhouettes and the popular rise of the skirt and blouse, as well as garments designed strictly for home use, including wrappers and aprons, are highlights of this survey of everyday clothing.

1904 skirt and blouse with accessories in display case, 1877 grey wool winter suit, Cotton print dress worn in Buffalo, New York in 1838, and an English cotton print day dress, about 1820