Scandalous: 5 Defining moments which changed fashion
updated the 6 October 2015 à 23:07
You wouldn’t believe what it was like before these historical moments transformed fashion.
Fashion hasn’t always been the way it is now: increasingly acceptive, creatively liberated, and entertainingly unpredictable. It overcame many milestones, which were back in the day deemed preposterous, that defined fashion as we know.
It might be hard to imagine, but women from past generations — even as late as 1920s — were shunned for wearing pants. The idea of menswear-inspired suits for women was unthinkable. Another sensitive issue was time, a restrictive factor which fashion designers had to put into consideration upon launching their collection.
Risking their reputation and career, a number of fashion geniuses challenged these so-called backwardness confining their creativity and preventing people from enjoying their designs. The admirable Coco Chanel was at the helm of popularizing the lady trousers and thankfully for us, she succeeded. Yves Saint Laurent, one of the world’s greatest designers to ever live, fearlessly brought back clothing styles and cuts reminiscent of the war years — think bouffant shoulders and mini shift dresses — and had to go into hiding from the public in consequence. Vivienne Westwood was another prominent name who caused a scandal in fashion. She breathed some air into the suffocating sophistication of the Brit style when she promulgated the punk fashion.
Now not only can we dress in all kinds of pants — from bell-bottomed jeans to cool culottes — we can also slip into intrepid punk-inspired T-shirts and rock a hardcore haircut whenever we want to, wherever we want to, guilt-free. The most shocking fashion gets nowadays is when a celebrity commits a faux pas, but never about questioning societal norms (except of course, Rick Owens’ inappropriately-placed holes in his Fall/ Winter 2015 collection).
Take a quick glance into the past by scrolling through our gallery, an ode to the five designers who went against the grain, caused a scandal and helped shape fashion to what it is now.
Natasha Gan
