Ouvertures et enjeux du monde anglophone

7- Dress

Dress differences
India (700m women) – Women’s
dress (Sari)

Un-stitched fabric arranged over the body as

a robe
 Can be out of silk or cotton
 Bright, happy colors
 Nearly 100 draping styles depending
on regions, patterns are offently
geometric
 The basic principle is to one end to
the waist, while the other end rests
over the shoulder

Nigeria (110m women) – Women’s dress

(Wax)

 Original, extravagant patterns (much more

innovative than the Indian’s patterns)
 Vivid colours
 See with the Pair for more info

Women’s dress in the west pants

19th century: women wearing pants was often against the law
on the ground of cross-dressing

Early 20th: Pants (called bloomers) for athletic activities

 Named after Amelie Bloomer (who loved to ride)
 Especially bicycle riding (because difficult to ride with
skirts)
o Annie Londonderry is the first woman to go around the
world on a bicycle in 1894

During WW1: Worn by women in factories (and it slowly get

out of the factories)

1939: First time pants are the subject of an article in Vogue

Post-WW1: Role of capri pants (panta-court) which are shorter

than full-length pants
1950’s: California makes it illegal for employers to forbid women from wearing
pants (1st to do that)

Rise and decline of French women’s fashion

Role of Coco Chanel in the rise od elegant prêt-à-porter

 Eliminated the corset, combined simplicity
and elegance (her famous “tailleur”)

But as of 1960’s: French fashion is going to cease

dominating; US fashion is going to take over
 More French women adopt the more casual
American style
 No major difference today in French and
American street dress

 French continued its supremacy only in “Haute

Couture” and Luxury Brands.

One possible difference: French women will not try wild dress combinations like
their Anglo counterparts, there’re more reserved and controlled in cults, patterns,
colors.
 American and English people are doing more craziness than French

The mini-skirt and mini-dress

Mary Quant in England (associated with the spread of the mini skirt in London in the
60’s)
 Swinging sixties

Andre de Courrèges in France

 Also, revolutionary materials: plastics…
 Boots (often white, inspired by space travel and astronauts’ suits for his
women fashion)

Other 70’s USA Women fashion

Hot pants
 Very shorts or a mini-short

Bell bottoms
 Wide flare at the bottom of the pants

Impact of USA - Blue jeans

Invented by Levi-Strauss (1829-1902)

 German emigrant
 Moved to California to clothe the gold miners

1873: Blue jeans are invented

 Denim: a solid blue fabric made originally in Nîmes!!!
(Pants needed to be tough for people who work in the
factories)
  Another blue fabric used for work clothes came for Genoa hence maybe the
name jeans…
 Riveted pockets for greater solidity (to be sure that they’ll last long)

Later, jeans are worn as a fashion item (Brooke Shields for Calvin Klein)
Impact of USA – T-shirt

Started as an undershirt (white) then spread as standard clothing for American

sailors.

Then used as worked shirt by other types of workers

 Remember the heat in America in summer, t-shirt were popular

Finally used as standard closing

 With or without logos or decorative art (short or long sleeve)
 Sold by fashion companies
 Preferred shirts of many Californian entrepreneurs (M. Zuckerberg, S. Jobs)

Impact of USA – Hats

Until the 60s, men always wore headgear

 Formal hats for urban worker
 Caps for industrial workers
 Fancy hats for women

As of the 60s
 Hats became optional for men but often worn (but another kind  baseball
caps)
o Baseball caps: used by baseball players (now with other logos or without
logo)
o Cowboy hats: in the South of the USA (by men mostly and sometimes
women with cowboys’ shoes also)
 Optional for women but rarely worn

Impact of USA – Sportswear

Sweatshirts or without hoods were standard clothing for high school sports
 Made of a warming fabric called fleece (hence the technical term fleece
wear)

Sweatshirts then emigrated out of the sports world

 Like t-shirts, with or without logo
 Has become a standard overgarment replacing a jacket or sweater (called
pullover in UK English)
 A sweatshirt with a hood has become a Western uniform
o Even in France where we call it “que de chaperon”

Impact of USA – Shoes

Until the 60s: people would wear leather shoes worn by women (heels) and men.
 Shoe shiner was a common job

Since the 60s

 Rise of the athletic shoe being worn in the street (first women, then men).
 o Called sneakers in USA English
o 1970s: women that worked in the city would wear sneakers to go to
work and then slip into formal shoes (carried in their bag) to go to the
office
 Today: most women and men wear sports shoes in the street
 Cowboy boots as a fashion item for men or women in the south of the USA

Two unexported American particularities

1- The preppie style (famous brand: Polo Ralph Lauren)

 Bright colors
o No blue jeans
 Colored shirt typically polo
o No t-shirt
 Worn by wealthier White Americans in the south
o By frat or sorority members
o Think of the country music exception
o Corresponds a bit to the French BCBG

2- Americans dress for church and many American go to church

 Once a week, many Americans dress up (magnificent

hats and colorful dresses)
o No sweatshirts, no sport shoes
 The only time the French are as dressed is for a
wedding or similar ceremony

USA – France

50 years ago, the French dressed differently than Americans

 The French dressed more elegantly than Americans

No more, today: the French dress the same as Americans

 If anything, the French wear jeans more often than Americans
 You cannot tell whether a person is French or American by their clothes!

Few differences:
 French are not obese, so the cuts (pants and shirts) are slimmer; French and
Americans wear the same clothes but the American wear them baggy and the
French slim!
 French women and men often wear colorful scarves

Dess pair

From outside of Europe (mostly in Africa)

 A fabric: Wax
 A designer: Azzedine Alaia

Wax

Widely sed textile in Africa

  Vivid colors
 Inventive patterns
 So great variety of colors and patterns
 Wax is used in the production process hence the name

History

The Dutch East India Company colonized Indonesia

 They discovered the local fabric called Batik, a colored and patterned
textile unlike anything European

They tried to industrialize this fabric (using wax as a resistance material during
production) and try to sell it in Indonesia (but Indonesian prefer the hand-made
type).
However, they noticed that their African mercenaries (form Ghana) liked it. They
started selling it in Africa. It became successful in Africa, so successful that they
called it Wax (refers to Dutch wax).

After independence, Africans try to produce wax locally and make it cheaper, but
the Africans companies failed under poor management

The Chinese have become the major producers while a Dutch company, Vlisco,
remains the most prestigious producer

In Sub-Saharan Africa: annual sales volume 2.1 billion yards. Average production
cost $2.6 billion. Retail value $4 billion.

A Yard≈ a meter

Vlisco

Founded in 1846 the company was originally called Van Vlissingen. They created and
sold printed fabrics. They also produced industrial fabrics (using wax) for
Indonesia but unsuccessful. They, then, sold in Africa successfully; called Dutch wax
by the Africans.

After African independences in the 1960s, Visco created two factories in Ghana and
Ivory Coast.
There are four brands:
 1st: Visco
 2nd: GTP
 3rd: Uniwax (for middle wax)
 4th: Woodin (for younger buyers)
But they must fight Chine’s counterfeiters.
Sales: 300m €
Employees: 2700 of which 1800 in Africa

Les Nana Benz

Wax was a popular fabrics in Africa so in Togo

also. Starting in the 1960s and ending in the 90s,
some businesswomen signed exclusive
agreements with Europeans and Japanese producers, selling their products in
the capital Lome.

They were very successful, became very rich and therefore, were the first Togans
to be able to buy Mercedes-Benz cars (hence their name).
 Example: Dédé Rose Creppy

Wax in Europe

Adaku Parker
 www.dovetailed.co.uk

ETSY
 A platform for craftspeople

Azzedine Alaia

1935: Born in Tunis, he studied art in the Beaux Arts of

Tunis.

He then moves from sculpture to clothing.

Late 1950s: In Paris, he apprentices at Guy Laroche

1964: He opens his shop making dresses for prestigious

private customers

1979: ELLE cover

1981: Launches his first collection

 Works with future top models: the deal is he makes the dresses; they do the
defile, and the model keeps the dress

He became quickly successful; he wins 2 fashion Oscars (he dresses Grace Jones in
her James Bond film).
Tina Turner used his dress in one of her album cover, Robert Palmer clip for
“Addicted to Love” features Alaia dressed dancers.

Dior asked him to become the creative director, but he turns down the
proposition and J. Galliano becomes director.

2008: Legion of Honor

2009: M. Obama wears Alaia when she meets Queen Elizabeth II.

2013: Exposition at Paris’ fashion museum, the Palais Galliera

2017: He dies

Style

Highly sculptural form (remember he studied sculpture in art school)

He likes to highlight bodily curves (Jupes, robes moulantes) and he uses Lycra to
make curves.
He’s not afraid of using metal (especially for zippers) and has a predilection for
black (uses few warm colors…).
He also works a lot with sort of folds.