Dr. Feelgood and I are watching Daisy Jones and the Six. The fashion is on point–Riley Keough (Elvis’ granddaughter!) can rock macramé like a goddess. Unsurprisingly, the show has inspired 70s fashion renaissance–in my town, young women are dressed just like I was (way) back in the day!
It’s tough to beat the 70s for fashion. It’s the decade routinely cited for best dressed.
I’m not sure I agree. I love the clothes from the 20s but, let’s be honest, I’m not dressing that way. Personally, my favorite modern(ish) decade for fashion is the 90s. All those luxe fabrics in minimalist styles are my jam.
What do you think? What era do you think had the best clothes?
Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.
In response to Lynda X below, I think the reason so many modern clothes are uncomfortable is that they’re “fast fashion” – made in the trend of the moment, to be sold cheaply, worn a few times and then discarded. Also made out of inexpensive synthetics – I live in a place where the summers can get very hot and so I wear a lot of cotton and linen, which tend to last longer and be more comfortable than synthetics.
The width between what the queen and movie stars wear and what the average girls wear has never, ever been wider. In the fifties (and before, judging by movies), women got dressed up (and all men wore suits at almost all events) all the time, even to go “down town.” Dresses were ironed and starched, even for school which was, well, a pain not only for the mothers (and it was mothers) who did so, but also for little girls who couldn’t go on half the playground equipment because of our skirts. No jungle gyms to risk falling to your death. Yes, we could go up the slides, but teeter toddles–well, you have to be “lady-like” at all times. Women wore hats, some of which were beautiful, especially to church. If you didn’t have a hat (if you were Catholic), you put a kleenex on your head and felt disgraced. Jackie Kennedy entranced America with her lace, black mantillas.
From what I can see, there IS no style today, either for men who look like unshaven louts or for girls. For older women, style is wearing very high heels.
Americans barely get dressed up for weddings–except if you are bride or in the bridal party.
I fear we have become a nation of slobs, where comfort is everything.
I see this differently. We have season tickets to the ballet so I’m regularly going places where people dress up. What I see is plenty of people still enjoy dressing up, and it crosses all age groups. Older people are as likely to dress down while 20-to-40 somethings are likely to really dress up. While I do see dress casual, I never see slobs.
I love the way our society has gotten away from rigid dressing rules. And I say that as one who couldn’t wear white after Labor Day when I was a girl and ony dresses to school until I was a junior in high school. (I did, however, play on ALL the playground equipment, dresses or no.) I think the new attitude actually leaves a lot more room for personal expression of what’s dressy. At a recent wedding I went to I saw a wide range in styles, which made sense. The attendees were from varied places such as NYC, Asheville, NC and smaller southern towns. No one dressed sloppily, though. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be comfortable. Comfortable doesn’t equal sloppy.
Carrie, I think you have some excellent points. I do not want to go back to when properly-dressed women had to wear white gloves and a girdle in August or that whole “after Memorial Day to wear white” ridiculousness. It IS important to be comfortable.
I go to NY about once a year to Broadway shows and the Met and am appalled that anyone would show up in jeans, regardless of their age (and you’re right–often it’s older people). If you can afford the ticket, you can afford to dress appropriately.
Yeah, I know, I know. “Who appointed you to decide what is appropriate?”
Like most people, I have seen people (and we are NOT talking about the homeless) wear pj’s and slippers to the grocery store. I went to a wake where people (again, not young people, either) dressed in cut-offs and crop tops.
Too often, what people choose to wear is, in my opinion, sloppy and inappropriate and without their meaning to, shows a lack of thought–and even disrespect.
Your comment about Broadway theater audiences was interesting, as just last week I read an article about how to not look like a tourist in NYC. The author, a New Yorker, said you could tell the tourists in the theater because they were the ones who didn’t dress up; that real New Yorkers still dressed up (although not to the extent they used to) when they went out.
I can attest to this! As someone who has travelled with tour groups, it is hard to get to everything one might want to see or do in a single day. Rarely do we have time to go back to a hotel room to dress for dinner and an evening out. Restaurant casual can be found in most places for a bite to eat but finding time to dress for an evening performance usually doesn’t happen. On the other hand, when we had season tickets for the symphony near where we lived, we enjoyed dressing for the evening out.
My paternal grandmother made several skirt suits for me in the 1960s. They were always comfortable, fit very, very well, and had pockets. I loved wearing the things she made.
I am baffled by the number of items of clothing sold that are stiff, scratchy, awkward, sweat-trapping, ill-fitting, and sometimes even allergy-triggering. Comfort should not necessarily be sloppy, but manufacturers can be lazy when customers will buy pieces that dig into skin uncomfortably or make them itch.
My take has been that many of “the nation of slobs” want clothes that are easy to wash and don’t need ironing. Finding ways to make well-fitted formal clothes that are “easy care” would help. Formal wear often requires the attention of service workers, such as employees at dry cleaners, who are the modern equivalent of servants. A lot of normcore clothing can be maintained without service workers, which is one dimension of its appeal.
I would say the 1960’s because it really starts out as the leftovers from the 50’s then morphs into the “Jackie Kennedy” era of beautifully fitted suits and hats then the swinging Mod/Carnaby street fashions take over and by the end of the decade is presaging the early 70’s with multicultural influences and the “back to nature” look.
If you are talking all of history I would say the Rococo era and the gorgeous gowns and men’s frock suits of the 18th century.
But speaking historically it’s usually much larger swaths of time. We often think reigns or even centuries rather than decades as we do now.
Yes, there was so much change in the 60’s. I was living in the southern USA and they were still wearing teased hair and waisted dresses when I was young, but by the late 60’s things were much more flowing due to the hippie influence plus we had miniskirts. I was pretty much always in jeans in the 70’s because I was working with horses or going to college, but by late 70’s/early 80’s I was in a-line skirts or chinos, and blouses for my job. I somehow missed the blocky mixed-color styles and huge buttons of the 70’s! :-)
If we’re talking about what the celebs wear/wore to society events, then I have no opinion. I don’t see that big a difference from the photos from the ’70s and ’90s you posted. As for everyday wear, I guess I’ll always love my hip-hugger bell bottoms and prairie tops or halter tops (which are in your photos), empire waist mini dresses, and a-line maxi skirts that flared towards the bottom (sort of what’s called mermaind style now). I’ve always worn comfortable, and while all the headlines tell me I’m way to old to wear jeans, I just laugh and laugh.
I think the problem with the 1990’s on- perhaps after “grunge” which was not my favorite fashion era, there is really nothing new. It’s all “reinvention” and rehashing old ideas.
The seventies and sixties has been borrowed and revived so many times now it seems like there are no new silhouettes or styles to be discovered.
I’ve never been a dedicated follower of fashion (!) – mostly – and this touches on what Elaine says in her comment – because I’ve almost always been what is today called “plus-sized” (apart from a brief time in my late teens/early twenties) so buying clothes that fit, let alone fashionable ones when I was younger was practically impossible. Even today, where there is better availablilty of bigger sizes, things are still designed to fit those of slender or more average proportions, and those styles don’t necessarily fit those of us who don’t fit that pattern.
The only thing those pictures make me think is “nope, not for me”.
As there is no indication of time-frame given in Dabney’s Ask, I will put forward the clothing (of the wealthy) in the Georgian Era as the best for clothes. Here is a link to an exhibition I am going to see in a few weeks: Visit The Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace (rct.uk) I adore the insanely luxurious fabrics, the crazy underpinnings and the peacock-ish clothing of the men including their fabulous high-heeled shoes. Visits to the Costume Museum in Bath (in the Assembly Rooms) have enabled me see up close the elaborate work on the clothing of the rich and fashionable and, in particular, the exquisite embroidery. No doubt most folk were dressed very simply and often wore second, third or fourth-hand clothing but the tailor-made Georgian garments for those who could afford them were just simply a dream.
I think what turns me off about so much modern clothing from, say, the 1920s onwards – certainly for women – is that designers design for those who are slender in the extreme. I am not a “curvy” woman by any means but it seems that fashion is aimed continually at UK sizes 4-8, EU 30-36 and US 0-4 meaning the average woman struggles to find anything in what I would term “realistic” sizes. The result is that the garments pictured above don’t translate to larger sizes in a meaningful, flattering way. There was a brief trend, I understand, on designing for more realistic sizes and even for those in the XXL and XXXL categories but this has come to a halt. It was ever thus and I doubt I will see a re-think anytime soon.
You might also be interested in the new exhibition at Kensington Palace – Crown to Couture. (My daughter tells me it was originally to be called “Court to Couture” but it was changed because they were worried American tourists wouldn’t understand the “court” reference…)
Thanks for the tip. I did visit the exhibition of Queen Elizabeth’s wardrobe a few years ago that included her coronation and wedding gowns. Superb and very interesting.
I’m jealous that you will be able to go to these exhibitions. I would love to see them. I went to the Costume Museum in Bath a few years ago, and I loved seeing the clothing from different eras. People were definitely shorter back in the day!
I’m about to go to Bath! I’ll check that out.
The costume museum is temporary closed – it’s moving to a new home in the centre of Bath, but that isn’t for a few years yet, sadly. It was housed in the very famous assembly rooms, and those are re-opening or have re-opened now, I think, so you can still visit there.
Clothes of the wealthy in the Georgian era in England, and probably clothes of the wealthy in France under Louis XIV, XV, and XVI: It was an era of lush fabric, lush surface design, intricate layering, and head-to-toe extravagance for those who were at the peak of the social pyramid.
The catch, of course, is that all that 18th-century luxury was exclusionary. The history of what folks were allowed to wear is intriguing. I have started reading Dress Codes, and it is fascinating, illuminating, and includes the legs and shoes of Louis XIV in full color on the cover:
https://www.amazon.com/Dress-Codes-Laws-Fashion-History/dp/1501180061
In terms of a “best” decade, particularly during my lifetime, I don’t see one. My ideal decade would feature a lot of color and surface design unencumbered by gendered rules, a wide range of fabrics, ethical and sustainable production, accessibility at all price points (and social levels), and superior comfort. As far as my exploration of textile and fashion history has gone, no era has met those standards.
My particular animus is reserved for Beau Brummell, who ushered in the men-in-black era, and John Molloy, the author of Dress for Success, who codified Anglo-American White Male Executive style to the detriment of people of color around the globe.
I have read several biographies of Beau Brummel and perhaps his greatest contribution to dressing well was his emphasis on bodily cleanliness and of the garments he promoted for his concept of a well-dressed gentleman.
I’m not sure about the 70s; it’s usually referred to in Australia as ‘the decade that fashion forgot.’ Celebrities may have looked great sometimes, but people living ordinary lives back then would have plenty of old photos that made them cringe in later years. The huge collars, the ugly patterns, the bellbottoms…
Leaving aside its penchant for synthetic fabrics, in style terms I reckon the 60s was super cool (the early to mid-60s, anyway, before bedraggled hippie chic took over) and elements of the look are still wearable today. The shift dresses, high boots, block colours, etc. Women in that era could look smart and put together without needing lots of garments or layers.
I have a sizeable collection of midcentury costume jewellery and it makes me wish I lived in a time when people still made an effort to dress well.
I collect vintage jewelry as well and mid century through the 60’s is such a fun time for costume jewelry. I am always trolling EBay and Etsy looking for pieces or just to enjoy browsing.
I grew up on re-runs of shows like The Monkees and Gillian’s Island and was sad people didn’t wear the styles like than any more.
Don’t forget the safari suit from 70s Australia. Reading, “It’s tough to beat the 70s for fashion. It’s the decade routinely cited for best dressed.” I almost spit out my Weet Bix ;)
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/1970s-fashion-beauty-products-1980s-culture-madonna-style-a9090736.html
https://www.elle.com/fashion/trend-reports/g28520318/70s-fashion-style-trends/