S'habiller en toute liberté : Histoire du look - Documentaire Mode - Fashion Week - CTB

For the greatest pleasure of the ladies, the 19th century had seen the advent of haute couture and the first big shops. After the very naked parenthesis of the fashion of the first empire, women fell under the carcasses of the crinoline, faux asses and fleurs-de-toffe. And it is not the first bicycle Amazons that have been able to truly reverse this trend. So, under the impulse of seamstresses, but above all of a seamstress, the 20th century will totally reinvent the women's wardrobe. Freedom to no longer wear corsets, to put on make-up, to fully reveal one's femininity or to grab men's clothes, in six decades, all the dress codes in force for centuries will fly away. The last century is a 100% feminine clothing epic, a story of boldness and freedom by dressing up, but also by undressing. In an era that will take the name of Belle a few decades later, all the opportunities are good to freshen up and dress up, especially when it comes to celebrating a first wedding anniversary at the Château de Breteuil. These gentlemen have adopted black for half a century. Dresses or vests to be more relaxed, ties, vests, trousers and hats complete this male uniform, which will no longer undergo real revolutions over the centuries. On the contrary, the 20th century will totally change the women's clothing. In two generations, a new woman will be born. In the meantime, in their corsets and long skirts, these ladies keep a very refined attitude. This does not prevent them from dancing to the retro successes of the Second Empire. Only some young women change their clothing codes a little. Those who still go for a young bride, daring to wear a knight's uniform and a vest, arouse many comments about her appearance. She is judged to be disguised, but she assumes this Amazonian style, which is still one of the only ways to wear a lighter outfit. The legs remain totally invisible, because unveiling her ankles is not worthy of a respectable woman. These ladies, who pass the eyes of writers like Jean Cocteau for a real impregnable fortress during the day, are also like that in the moonlight. As a night dress, she wears a curious shirt, called procreation. Placed on the front of a fountain, around which was embroidered, God willing, she allowed love affairs in accordance with Christian morality, while remaining totally dressed. We get the sense from night dresses that there was little intimacy between man and woman in the couple. But then if you look at the image of the woman outside the marriage, if you look at the actresses, for example, the stars of the musical, the models in the advertisements for the two women, we see voluptuous and half-naked women. But she refers to an image that is considered disrespectful of the woman. So I think it is the marriage and a respectable middle class life that imposed restrictions on the behavior and the way of dressing. The husband has the privilege of having the boots of his wife, which is already a remarkable eroticism. And this Amazon hat bears the premonitory sign of the arrival of a woman much more pantyhose. In 1908, in Compiègne, in the Royalieux Park, this young woman at the Grand Galop multiplies the audaces. She rides, no longer in the Amazon, but in Califourchon, dressed as a man. In a period when ladies never walk without their umbrella, some obfuscates wonder if it's original all over their heads. But they don't know that this young woman, when meeting them, wonders how with such hats the brain can still function. This superb young woman, brown and thin, has the beauty a little atypical for her time, which sets foot on the ground, it's Gabrielle Chanel. At 25, both voluntary and inspired, she studies with a tailor the cut of her jodhpurs, inspired by a palefrenier outfit. Four years later, in 1912, it's as a fashion designer that the name of Gabrielle Chanel is on all the lips of Parisian elegant women with a well-made head and who wish for superb hats, but simple to wear. It's a success. Gabrielle becomes a personality of fashion that matters. For the first time, the news is there to film her and forget an increasingly strong international tension. Is it the letter from an admirer that makes her so happy? It's the confirmation that she will be able to open a fashion boutique in Deauville. The young fashion designer will have to compete with the great fashion designer in vogue, Paul Poiret, who for a few years has also been using the word liberty in his own way. Paul Poiret is undoubtedly the tailor who frees the corset woman by inventing in the 1910s these odalisque dresses, these dresses that are pure reminders of exotism. He completely frees the woman from all her constraints. He frees her as much as he compresses her very quickly, because a few years later, in the 1910s, he reinvents an entangled skirt, as scandalous as this suppression had been, and which will entangle the feminine approach. But it is undoubtedly his common measure with what the corset could represent. But Paul Poiret is not only a visionary who has fully given women the freedom to breathe. Inspired by the feasts of the anti-corset seamstress, which last until dawn, these young muses in high-waisted dresses, dressed in ample coats, derived from caftan or kimono, and stripped of turbans, finally enjoy total ease. For these women who love speed, but also subtle scents, Paul Poiret launched in 1911 the first society of seamstress perfumes in history. An avant-garde creator, he conceived the first diversification of the activities of haute couture, at the origin of contemporary marketing. Illustrations, perfumes, decorations, he offers the woman not only dresses, but a whole artistic universe. In his shop, he will also exhibit the works of a Spanish creator, Mariano Fortuny. This artist, who chose Venice to create, will give women the freedom to fully reveal the natural curves of their bodies. Two steps from the Grand Canal, his palace, transformed into a workshop, is a place of testing of fabrics to the secrets of jealously kept fabrication. The multidisciplinary artist, who also thinks of painting and photography, will create a silhouette of a fascinating modernity, inspired by antiquity. Fortuny invented, in particular, a garment, the Adelfos. It is a very simple tunic, i.e. a rectangle, a tube, at the end a cylinder finely pleated by hand. And in 1909, he invented a machine that modifies and gives a particular undulation to this vertical pleat, by a hair effect, as he said. There is therefore a vertical pleat and a horizontal pleat. In fact, it is a garment that can only be worn by extraordinary bodies. Mariano also likes to take pictures of the reflections or transparencies of his mysterious velvet, or silk muslin, worn by his wife Henriette. Photographed under all the seams, she becomes a muse, and Marcel Proust will be the singer. Falling under the charm, the novelist confides. As his gaze advanced, the mirroring of the fabric was turning into malleable gold. The way opened by Fortuny, using new materials, is still, a century later, a major source of innovation in fashion. As at the time of the first synthetic silk or nylon, Amish Moreau is today a Londoner creator, always in the know of new textiles. In his studio, he composes collections where the elegant glamour merges with the avant-garde of sportswear, using materials intended so far for space exploration. But Amish, in plain English, likes the chic of noble materials, which can be worn at all times. So he made this model of trench coat in silk, a revolutionary treatment. With the treatment of nanotechnologies, which take away our pleasure of wearing this material, we end up with an impermeable fabric, resistant to stains. If we pour coffee or red wine on it, you'll see, the liquid becomes a small drop on the surface, which simply falls. If this was a normal textile that hadn't been treated, there would immediately have been a big water stain. And as you can see, the water flows completely. That's why this dress looks like an impermeable, to illustrate this quality. But in fact, it's a silk dress that you can wear every day. This impermeability is achieved by a nanoscopic layer of hair on the surface of the garment, which holds the air between the fabric and the exterior. As a result, it prevents any liquid body from coming into contact with the textile material. But that's not all. With nanotechnologies, the fabrics no longer have the odour of perspiration. So, wearing extremely elegant fabrics, without worrying about their wear, is a bet that is on the verge of being won. And for this seeker of second-hand clothing, soaked fabrics have become ancient history. With the outbreak of the First World War, where men will become cannon fodder and machine guns, the good old days are coming to an end. In an era that smells like gunpowder, the idea of a woman wrapped in layers and layers of fabric is fading away. The reason stands in two words. Work and shortage. More and more women will be called in to work to replace men who have gone to war. As for those who still have the means to stay idle, they wonder how to deal with the lack of chic fabric. In Flannans, the beautiful and elegant refugees in Deauville will discover in the boutique of Gabrielle Chanel a style that is all about flexibility and is designed in jersey. Fabrics considered too soft so far, just right to make underwears. In a few months, this fashion, mixing masculine and feminine, simplicity and luxury, forgetting tight sizes, going back to the hem of skirts, will be an incredible success. After the war, where women have taken on more power, fashion suddenly belongs to a woman. She is, above all, from the age of 26, this woman who invents and we never stop talking about, revisiting this domain, the little black dress, which is perhaps the most, I would say, minimalist but essential garment for the women's wardrobe. Because it is the basis of a t-shirt dress, without collar, without fioriture, without decor. It is still a big step forward towards a simplifying trend such as imposed by Chanel. This apparent extreme sobriety will make Janet Flanner write, corresponding to the New Yorker, Chanel has launched the poor genre. Small light hat, loose waist, finally unveiled legs, this audacity is taken up by all the great designers of the crazy years. In Deauville, Paris, or on the other side of the Atlantic, we see the hem of the skirts go up to the knees, shocking the American puritan milieu. In some states, like Utah, strict rules are imposed. If a dress exceeds more than 7 cm above the ankle, the unconscious woman who wears it risks a prison sentence. Another facet of America exports jazz, charleston and the black magic of Josephine Baker. With the black magazine, this flamboyant diva envelops all of Europe. In the big Parisian parties, like the Horde Festival, her look is school. But if all women do not give in to this extreme clothing denouement, they are all taken by an irresistible desire to dance. In their straight, simple and so light dress, these carefree ladies, having finally gained total ease, have emancipated themselves from heavy clothes. This, of course, will change the vision of their bodies. The denouement of the body in the 1920s is partly explained by the fact that the post-war society is very mixed, that all kinds of environments meet for the first time. And women in all areas of society begin to work, to have an active life. And who says active life says life outside, outside the house. And from the moment you have an active life, you take control of your body, you fully appropriate it, and you express by this the fact that you fully exist next to the male character. With a racket, Suzanne Langlaine, the divine flamboyant champion, has shown the way. Sport is no longer just a man's affair. Other women prefer to manage a club with a dress to succeed in a birdie. From 1925 on, sport symbolizes the dynamism of modern life. So all the departments of the great couturiers create for the first time totally dedicated clothing lines for freedom of movement. They combine light wool, cotton, and more and more often jersey. But the great success, when it comes to being chic while being sporty, is the shirt dress, and if possible, in silk. Young couturier Jean Patou takes a new step by creating sportswear lines with his initials. And it is he again who launches fashion shows, bringing the first top models from the United States, with silhouettes much more elongated and sportier than those of the French. But as if this vestimentary rupture with the past was not clear enough, young women also radically change their heads. Hairstyles salons are suddenly attacked by the same demand. Cut my hair, and run, please. Relieved of the weight of their long hair, and inspired by the heroines of silent cinema, who make the headlines in magazines, the women of the late 1920s take their gaze in hand. So long, a deep gaze drawn to the collar and to the belt, they free themselves from the moral prohibition of the Church. End the taboo of the makeup eye, and make the aspect of the gaze a symbol of the reflection of the soul. The tour of the black-eyed women is therefore no longer reserved for girls of joy, especially if they cultivate a look of a boy. The 1920s must first send us back to a generic character, a collective character, which will receive a new name, which is the boy. And the boy is truly a symbol. So of course it was criticized, because obviously the boy refers to a kind of indistinction of the sexes, which was not at all the case. But it is true that the adopted form is that of a whole body, where at the very limit the hips are not even marked. And it is a body in which the head plays a new role. From the beginning of the century, some originals had attempted the short haircut like the writer Colette. But the Louis Brooks square cut remains the absolute symbol of the 1920s. Even if the film Loulou dates from 1929 and also marks the end of the era of silent cinema. The advent of the speaker will bring to light new artists whose play will no longer be dedicated only to the expression of the gaze. So when it comes to speaking or singing love, the lips are put in more value and become more drawn, more sensual. The crash of the New York Stock Exchange will put an end to the golden age of the crazy years. Unemployment, bankruptcy, a recession in the United States and then in Europe, the freedom and daring clothing of the 1920s will be replaced by a return to much more classic looks. Fashion may have been afraid of new freedoms that did not last in an extreme way but in 1929, and this corresponds exactly to the economic crisis, we return to a classicism, to a vision of the woman as always in long dresses with deformities. We abandon the flat, androgynous silhouette that was that of the waitress. This is a phenomenon that is general and has to be related to the rise of extremism, to this era of time which, as always, explains the phenomenon of fashion. At the heart of the economic depression, fashion shows even dare to offer a fake America, a new version of the poor chic, 100% plastic material. We return to certain values. The design of the 1930s is the great return of a much more feminine and very glamorous fashion. The only sector that does not know the crisis is that of face care products and especially creams to prepare your skin for the new fashion. Expose yourself freely to the sun. A great first in the history of the look. This tan, which was forbidden throughout the history of beauty, will radically change the relationship of the woman with her body and with nature. When we ask actresses what their summer plans are, they say tan, tan, tan. This is a radical break in self-concern and the concern for the beauty of her body. In the middle of the 1930s, the only thing that resists the return of the long and that follows the new wave of wavy skins is the swimsuit. Because for the naiads who want to go to the beach, in addition to this innocent tyranny of tanning, there is another type of tanning, which is a short. Graceful or ungraceful? In the female press, the controversy is raging to find out who dared to take the liberty of offering the swimmer this outfit, which was until then the privilege of the man, virile and sporty. Feet in the water, these quarrels of aesthetics take on a much more playful form. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, women take the liberty of fighting against the sinister, especially when it comes to dressing up for a party. Fashion, as ever, defends frivolity. In 1939, we see the forms of the late last century revisited by Elsa Schiaparelli, with turtleneck dresses and more and more vertiginous naked backs. These are striped, striped and lace-up dresses, which are the most in view and which will signify the characteristic silhouette of war. In 1943, during a period of the Second World War, when victory was changing sides, when flirtatious women look into a mirror, don't we see that my tailor has been resized into men's jackets or old blankets? This woman with her lovely blond hair who tries to remain elegant is the actress Nadine Vogel. At first glance, she will play an unprecedented role that was not written at all. Painter, theatre decorator but also fashion designer, Christian Berard thinks Nadine would be much more beautiful if her hair was completely detached. In this period of restriction, if this avoids hair costs, all the better. If her interpretation is highly praised, her non-hairstyle will be very criticized. Whatever the sarcasm, the effect of a free, more glamorous hair was launched. Nadine Vogel, with her hair floating freely, was inspired by other actresses who would also arouse other criticisms. There is a film that was a model to follow with the heroine Madeleine Sologne who appears with this hairstyle that we characterized as a drowned hairstyle with a line on the side and completely smooth hair falling on each side of the face It was very surprising because until then a woman was always hairstyled and always wearing a hat. Only the women of the proletariat really came out of their homes with hair and this expression had a very infamous character. Those who do not dare to take their hair out in the wind proudly adopt turbans that hide the hair and save the hairdresser's expenses. Bell hats or close to the beret have become simpler but with shapes that could very well come back at the end of the day. When you are a fashion designer recognized as Philippe Model and you have hats in mind for 30 years, each collection is a festival of shapes and colors. The hat designer takes liberties to perfectly adjust the color of the hat to the client's outfit. It happens to me to take special colors for outfits for clients who have certain requirements. It does not mean that they are combined in a way. What interests me is that there is a slight shift in the style of the outfit. But if there can be a color for each outfit, in a sense, in his workshop Philippe Model can offer a shape for each personality. Here he has the choice among more than 800 different hats to give free rein to his inspiration but also with the air of time. I can be sensitive to the 20th century. I have often reinterpreted sequences and memories in my own way. It could be a little bit inspired by the 1920s and the shape of a short bell. But for me it is often the 1938s, very elegant. It is an eternal work of reinterpretation. Shaping, drying in the oven, then ornamentation. With this perfectionist, the hat is no longer just a social vocation as at the time when every respectable lady had to come out covered. With the look of Philippe Model, the hat is no longer just an accessory. It is a touch of heart that marks an allure, a personality and a sense of freedom. In Paris, in a hotel on Avenue Montaigne, a couturier will give all his lustre to the Parisian haute couture by taking the liberty of creating a luxury again that makes you dream. It is Christian Dior. After the war, fashion was very limited by the use of raw materials since rationing cards were maintained until 1948. Dior allowed to use expensive materials in considerable films. It is true that Dior's fashion was a return to the luxury of pre-war which no longer corresponded with the world of today. With a bar-cut and his ultra-sleeved white jacket, his ample black skirt and the elongated hem, Christian Dior creates a new look that American journalist Carmel Snow enthusiastically calls a new look. It is February 12, 1947 and Dior, dressed in a suit and composed of a flow of luxurious fabrics, marks the renewal of French haute couture. In Germany, two years later, fashion crosses a new level. In Düsseldorf, the first ready-to-wear salon opens its doors. The era of mass fashion is a new era of the most diverse shapes, fabrics and colors in which each woman will find her happiness. Meanwhile, Dior surfs on the success of his women-flowers and plays the game of magazines with his silhouette formulas that demote those of the previous season. Dior, a woman more in harmony with her time. Thirty years after her little black dress, Mademoiselle imposes a fashionable style with her little jacket that will make Jackie Kennedy an unforgettable icon. Besides this luxury of simplicity, as during the crazy years, feminine fashion comes to life again. This time, for the first time, she walks on her knees in a mini and very rhythmic version. André Courrèges in Paris, Marie Kant in London rejuvenate women with a little girl style. Their audience, the young people, their source of inspiration, is the Swinning London mini-skirt, the English version of the mini-skirt. To this sudden liberation of the classical clothing codes responds the use of new textile materials. When the nylon and the collars arrived, it was a real liberation. It was the beginning of a movement that continued to create waterproofs in PVC, a material that was then used only for the floors. Paco Rabanne also experimented with plastic, but especially with metal. He was then called the plumber of fashion. During this time, among young people, the bottom of the air turns to protest. Pacifists in American campuses wear trousers, but not just any trousers, but jeans. Four decades later, this emblem of women who had rejected the established order is once again the symbol of another struggle, this time in the name of respect for the environment. In this hall, the Pantin, in a Parisian suburb, is classified as a symbol of an unsubmissive youth, a basic of the current wardrobe that François Girbaud has constantly evolved. Today, what determines the ideas of this jean-wearer is the respect of the environment by avoiding the errors of the past and the fashion of washing. When you are responsible for polluting all the rivers with the stonewash, leaving all this indigo we didn't know in the 60s, we didn't really know all this stuff. So if it's not people like us who scream, who use jeans again in a militant way, the jeans can be used again. As a result, for these new collections he presents in Milan or Paris, the maestro of denim has decided to radically change the score by presenting jeans made without water consumption Before, for my piano, it was water and stones. Now I have light. For some time now, we have lasers, ultrasound, we are using all this. And even the jeans, we have jeans that are thermo-welded, so I can make jeans without sewing. There is no need for that. So you can make a very clean jean that corresponds to an urban jean. The jeans of the 21st century, according to François Girbaud, seem to reveal the interiority of the person wearing it. These patterns of colors or flowers seem to be the signs of a tribe wearing a jean washed of all its past prejudices. The second half of the 20th century has invented a new garment, the undressed. The reflection of the novelist and journalist Jacques Laurent with the bikini. Named after Anatol of the Pacific, an American nuclear test site, this garment, made of only four small triangles of fabric, will look like a bomb. Because giving up the one-piece jacket was not an easy task. This ultimate act of freedom which consists of wearing a two-piece bikini, well, it begins at the end of the war, in 1945, but if it is not worn immediately, a young generation of the 60s will adopt it with pleasure, because it totally corresponds to what young women and feminists in particular want to say through the garment, express their freedom of being in a garment that frees the body. Undressed or dressed, changes affect the society, including the jet set. When it comes to looking very elegant for a cocktail, here too the clothing conveniences are upset. The glamorous lightness of cocktail dresses will be made very classic by the modernity of women who will dare to take the liberty to grab the most ultra neck of the masculine chic, the smoking. In the evening, accompanied by transparent blouses, these cabans, or saharien or feminine, the androgynous style of Yves Saint Laurent is a revolution. It marks a culminating point in the clothing emancipation of women. In the same day, they can be undressed in a bikini and very dressed in the spirit of haute couture. A premonitory decision in a context where many haute couture houses live their last hours of glory. Haute couture houses have acquired themselves with their own close-knit. With this idea that turned out to be wrong, they would undress the daughters of their clients. What no one realized was that a girl would have to undress the daughters of her clients. Haute couture houses did not undress the daughters of their clients, but their clients, who found it extremely modern to undress in close-knit at incredibly affordable prices. The beginning of the 1970s is a turning point. In less than seven decades, women have completed their clothing revolution. Women are definitely escaping the dictates of haute couture. There is no more fashion, but fashions. Clothing becomes a reflection of a movement of thought, of an ideal of life. The hippies, in flower dresses in the Peace and Love version, succeed the creatures dressed in Iroquois hammering the no future, the punks.