Zoot Suit

Late 1930s and 1940s United States

Zoot suits were first popularized among youth minority groups,especially African Americans, Filipino, and Hispanic American men know as "Pachucos" in Los Angeles, people who had no voice, who were pushed to the “margins” of society in the late 30s and 40s.The zoot-suit was more than the drape-shape of 1940s fashion, more than a colourful stage-costume worn by Jazz musicians, it was, in the most direct and obvious ways, an emblem of ethnicity and a way of negotiating an identity.During World War II exaggerated suit was seen as deliberately flouting cloth rationing regulations and as being anti-patriotic, disrupting the social order,which was a factor in the series of violent eruptions of Zoot Suit Riots.

Men in police line-up wearing zoot suits.Life magazine 1942.Photographer:Peter Stackpole.

Poster for play Zoot Suit which ran in 1978.In Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez weaves a story involving the real-life events when a group of young Mexican-Americans were wrongfully charged with murder--and the Zoot Suit Riots.



Designers hit the brakes on the ‘slim’ trend and reversed direction in creating a bigger, wider silhouette. Baggy and flowing pants in the style of 30’s ‘zoot suits’ were present in nearly every show.Dior Homme Spring 2009.

The “Pachuca,” the female counterpart of the Pachuco, had as strong an aesthetic sensibility as the male zoot suiter. 1942 female Zoot suit gang being taken away by the police.

John Galliano Spring 2002 collection inspired by zoot suits.

Beatniks

The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they wrote about. Central elements of "Beat" culture include a rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality.

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat generation originally released on LP January 1960.

Since 1958, the term, Beatnik has been used to describe an anti-materialistic literary movement that began with Kerouac in 1948, stretching on into the 1960's. Many historians have asserted that the beatnik philosophy of anti-materialism, combined with its fundamental soul-searching ethos, may have influenced some of the lyrics of popular 1960's musical groups such as The Beatles, and was the precursor of the Hippie generation.


A charter member of beat generation.1959 Southern California.



Beat Generation & Counterculture members Peter Orlovski,Robbie Robertson, and Bob Dylan in City Lights Bookstore basement,San Francisco 1965(detail)Photo by Larry Keenan.William Smith,a beatnik candidate for president at Ninth Circle Bar,1960.Photo by Fred W.McDarrah

Emblematic of this new stereotype were men wearing goatees and berets,dark sunglasses indoors, rolling their own cigarettes, and playing bongos. Fashions for women included black leotards and wearing their hair long, straight, and unadorned. This was a rebellion against the middle-class standards of the time which expected women to get permanent treatments for their hair.

Marc by Marc Jacobs Fall 2008










BCBG Max Azria Fall 2006.

Teddy Boys

The subculture started in London in the 1950s and rapidly spread across the UK as a reaction to the austerity imposed by the socialist government in the years following the War. Young men inspired by American rock and roll music of the time and the styles of the Edwardian period attempted to scandalize their parents with wasteful fashions that were far too camp for working class sensibilities.Rebellion and looking cool was all a major part of the teddy boy trend. The name came from a shortened version of "Edwardian", because the teddy boy fashions first began with everyone wearing Edwardian period style suits and this look was important, along with plenty of grease in the hair, slicked back with a big quiff or 'kiss curl' in the middle of the forehead. The teds hung out in gangs and dated "teddy girls" and often rioted amongst the rockers.
The movement found such devotees as John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison and eventually evolved into rockabillies in the 70s which is still very much around.

A Teddy boy shows off his tattoo at a gathering of Teddy boys, Manchester, c1983


Largely overlooked teenage teddy girls also took their look from the Edwardians' cameo brooches and high collars, their boyish short haircuts, trousers and even jeans set the blueprint for generations of tomboys to follow.Ken Russell's 1955 Photo Essay on London's Teddy Girls.


Comme des Garçons incorporated new takes on the Teddy Boy classic in Fall 2009 show.



Christian Dior Fall 2004.The collection, John Galliano explained, was inspired by illustrated Vogue covers from the 1900s, using them as a route through to the Edwardiana/teddy boy revival of the 1950s.

Mods

60s England

Mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London and emerged in the late 1950s and hit its peak in the mid-60s. By this time teenagers were bored with what they deemed as the dull, uninspired British culture around them, repressed and riddled with British class system. The Mod rebellious lifestyle revolved around consuming pleasures such as Italian suits and French fashion,night-clubs and amphetamine,Italian motor-scooters,collecting records and listening to the music such as African-American soul, Jamaican ska, British beat music and R&B.By doing so the youth subculture rejected the class system and grueling nine-to-five working week that gotten their parents nowhere.An opposition to Mods were Rockers,who viewed the vanity and clothes-obsession of the mods as un-masculine.The conflicts between them often led to riots.


Mods in white suits. Bound for dance, Barry Hall, 17, Ken Todd, 18 and Brian Hemmings, 17 (all with face powder), show off their new suits. 1964
Female modeling Mod Street Style,Richards,1966.


Mods were self-conscious and critical,they customized existing styles, symbols and artefacts such as the Union flag and the Royal Air Force roundel symbol, and put them on their jackets in a pop art-style.Carnaby Tavern Shop ad for Union Jack 'Jam" Jacket.ca.1965. Twiggy an iconic 60s model and the symbol of Mod high-fashion in union-jack dress,designer unknown. Look Magazine, 1967


Compared with other youth subcultures, mod culture gave young women high visibility and relative autonomy.The emphasis on clothing and a stylized look for women demonstrated the same focus for detail in clothes as their male mod counterparts.Female mod fashion went from an underground style to a more commercialized high-fashion mod look.



Luella Bartley Spring 2007




Philip Lim 3.1 Fall 2009

Hippies

60s

The hippie subculture began as a youth movement that originated in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. These people inherited the countercultural values of the Beat Generation, created their own communities, listened to psychedelic rock, embraced the sexual revolution and aspects of Eastern philosophy, used drugs like cannabis and LSD to explore consciousness.

Hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War.Using anti-fashion as yet another form of protest against the establishment, they utilized clothing to tell of their plight for social equality and diversity.


Hippies at Haight&Ashbury intersection in San Francisco,CA.1968.


Hippies borrowed clothing from folk cultures, used strong colors, flamboyant styles and a love of humble items such as jeans and other tattered and embellished street wear items to proclaim their non-conformism and thirst from freedom.
Although their behavior was appalling to the mainstream audience, their styles soon entered the mainstream and the world of high fashion.





Woodstock,legendary music and art festival,Hippies dressed in jeans,the symbol of youth,freedom and counter-culture. Bethel, New York.August 1969.Photo by Shelly Rusten





Gucci Fall 2008 Ad Campaign inspired by Summer of Love.

Ethnic motives and hippie luxe at Gucci Resort 2009




Bell bottom tie dye jeans at Balmain Spring 2008.

Disco

70s

Disco is a dance music that originated in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Loud music and the flashing lights,dance,fashion and a thriving drug culture describes disco club scene of the 70s.
Disco-goer generation created a venue for a new kind of clothing called disco wear which was based on stretch clothes and light reflecting fabrics that shone under disco lighting.There was so much going on - lots of metallics, glitter, skin tight pants and stretch halter jumpsuits.Polyester shirts for men with pointy collars, preferably open at the chest, often worn with double-knit suit jackets.

There was no more thrilling nightlife than the dance at the legendary Studio 54.It was favorite amongst many celebrities like Diana Ross,Gloria Estefan, Bianca and Mick Jagger,Liza Minelli,Andy Warhol and many more.Fabulous Liza Minnelli was a frequent Studio 54 Disco dancer! Liza’s sequins are styled by Halston.Australian Women’s Weekly, 5/9/1973.No designer symbolizes the 70’s Disco like Halston. Disco dresses, halter tops, beads, and sequins.





Films like Saturday Night Fever of 1977 as John Travolta illustrates in the header, emphasised how important it was to release all the pent up energy of the working week on the weekend. Posing clothes designed to show off the body and made in materials like figure moulding stretch Lycra were ideal.




Claudia Schiffer modeling sequin jumpsuit for Yves Saint Laurent's Advertising campaign,Spring Summer 2009.

Metallic top and high waist trouser combo just screams disco!Tibi Spring/Summer 2008

Fluid jersey dresses inspired by disco era at Versace spring 2009.

Punk

late 70s

The punk subculture is a youth movement based around aggressive genre of punk rock music,which first emerge in the United States and the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s.Early punk fashions intended to appear as confrontational, shocking and rebellious as possible.This style of punk dress was significantly different from what would later be considered the basic punk look.In general Punks stand out with outrageous hair styles in vibrant, unnatural hues,ripped clothing held together by safety pins or wrapped with tape,safety pins and razor blades that are used as jewelry.Punks tend to adorn their favorite rocker jacket or vest with pin-back buttons and patches of bands they love and ideas they believe in, telling the world around them a little bit about who they are.In contrast to punks who believe the fashion is a central part of the punk subculture, there are some punks who are decidedly "anti-fashion," arguing that music and/or ideology should define punk, not fashion.Current factions of the punk subculture have different clothing habits, although there's often crossover between the different subgroups in terms of style.


Punks.Picture taken in The West End, London in June 1972.

Anarchist Fashion

Vivienne Westwood is associated with the punk subculture in Britain in 1970s.She is linked with the Sex Pistols via Malcolm McLaren and their SEX boutique in London during the 1970s.Their early designs captured the essence of street wear during that era, especially the punk youth subculture.Westwood contribute to an aesthetic that brings a subcultural style to the forefront of fashion.
Images: Vivienne Westwood and a poster for the Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the UK Photo PA.

Vivienne Westwood &Malcolm McLaren "Bondage" suit, 1976 Bondage straps between the knees, which were an extension of the sado-masochistic look that they promoted at the time for its shock value.The suit became one of iconic garments of punk style, one that is still in production to this day.





Metal studs, PVC, tartan and fishnets strike a rebellious chord of Punks were present in Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2007 collection .

Hip Hop

80s


Hip Hop emerged in the ghettos of the Bronx, New York in the 1970s, where block parties became common among African-American youth and was accompanied by rap music, break-dancing and graffiti artists.Although rap music was originally more a part of the social culture than anything overtly political, its values, narratives and structure were often directly opposing the logic of dominant white middle-class western culture.Though the movement started out in the African-American comunities, Hip-Hop music,culture and fashion has crossed social and ethnic barriers and has spread to all other parts of the world.

Prominent elements of hip hop street wear are sportswear, oversized –extra large garments such as baggy sagging jeans, T-shirts and bomber jackets, heavy gold jewelry, baseball caps and bandanas,and also gangsta style clothes.

80s was in the heights of the portable stereo craze.Boomboxes or Ghetto Blasters were held on the shoulder or positioned on a street corner for an impromptu breakdancing. Nas for 'Hip Hop Is Dead'album cover released Dec 19, 2006.


Breakdancer with the boombox.Photo by Nicolas Ferrando.2004



























Bandanas or do-rags have become a fad of the hip hop generation.Graffiti of murdered rap star Tupac Shakur with bandana tied around his head.Lisbon 2007.



Elite members of the hip hop community looked back to the gangsters of the 1930s and 1940s for inspiration.Mafioso influences, especially and primarily inspired by the 1983 remake version of Scarface, became popular in hip hop.Coolio and Snoop-Doggy-Dogg,'The Return of the Gangsta'.Photo by Alessio Pizzicannella 2006.









Heavy Hip hop jewelry is one big fashion statement.Rapper Yung Joc wears diamond jewelry at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.Photo: Ethan Miller,Sep 09, 2007.



Hip hop influences in Chanel's Fall 1991 collection and again in Fall 2009.






































John Galliano's Spring 2001.






DSquared2 Spring/Summer 2009 Menswear Hip-Hop style.

Urban Fetishism

Urban Fetishism is a new street trend that incorporates fetish fashion elements into a casual wardrobe.Fetish fashion is a type of clothing usually created to be extreme or provocative and is related to the culture of sexual fetishism and S&M.Urban fetishist's wears fetish garments such as latex and pvc tights or skirts,thigh-high boots,chains and handcuffs not as a declaration to sexual orientation,but purely as a fashion statement.

The following image is from Altamira NYC.October 8, 2008 Urban Fetishism started with uber fashionable homosexuals who began to use the rarely-used leather clothing and other fetish items publicly and as identification and separation from the norm.


Image from Manila Style, August 28, 2008 Guy in in Manilla,Philippines accessorizes with handcuffs.

Pop star Lady-Gaga wears pink latex skirt and latex bra. 1/29/09 Photo: FilmMagic



Kate Moss rocking Urban Fetishist's staple latex leggings,accessorized with high heal boots and S&M belt at the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England Saturday June 23, 2007.AP Images

S&M Fetish Items escaping undergrounds to the daylight.







Hussein Chalayan Fall 2009-2010
Burrberry Prorsum Fall 2007