4/24/2022 Your wardrobe as ArtifactGood morning fellow fashion lovers and welcome to your new hotspot for all things vintage! Did you know that some of your most loved staple pieces are products of counterculture? Sometimes, we all get so hyped up about the newest trends and thrifted finds that we forget to take a deeper look into where our clothing originates from. What era is the piece from? What did it represent at the time? Who did the designers originally envision wearing these pieces? And how do we style these pieces now? These are all questions that I will be exploring throughout my blog. Let’s dive deeper into our wardrobes and listen to the many stories our clothes can tell us about the past. To get us started, a brief background on counterculture fashions. Eras of cultural and political liberation such as the Anti-War Movement of late 1960s/70s America influenced new waves of fashion. Many of our staple pieces today, whether they are vintage or newly made garments, stem from trends that were worn during the peace protests during this time. From bell-bottom jeans to military style jackets and even your favourite floral print shirt, we can link all these popular vintage styles back to this period of crisis. Through an understanding of counterculture discourse, we can view fashion as a cultural mode that people used to express themselves during this time. The Counterculture fashions of the 1960s and 70s moved away from the conformist nature of the previous decade and inspired the inclusion of free-flowing patterns and colours in people’s wardrobes. Trending pieces like floor length poodle skirts, polka dot and monochrome patterns that were popular in the fifties and early sixties were out, and abstract was in. Counterculture is often recognised as a rejection of the materialistic and consumeristic interpretation of the American Dream, an interpretation which many Americans held during this period of war. Lead primarily by youths, counterculture exceeded the boundaries of typical fashions and brought about a new appreciation for self-expression. With little to control during an era of crisis, people used clothing as ways to communicate both their individual identities and political standpoints. The images to the left and below were taken during peace protests around 1969. Throughout the past few decades, pieces from this era have resurfaced time and time again. With each resurgence of 1970s trends, the original meaning behind the clothing seems to be lost. A fashion that was once associated with counterculture, for example flared jeans, have become a staple in many people’s wardrobes. As appreciators of vintage fashion, we should view these pieces as artifacts. So, now that we know there can be greater meaning behind our clothing, lets select a few items in our personal wardrobes that can tell us about the times they first thrived in. Comments are closed.
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