BRAND NEW BLOG

Well, here goes, I know I've promised everyone that I'd do something related to fashion and costume again, but that silly thing called work keeps getting in the way.

I was on the Elizabeth Stewart radio show a few months ago (KZSB, 1290AM Santa Barbara). I've been on a few times as her "couture guru" and she always throws questions at me that really force me to think, and think quick on my feet as it is a live radio and we have to keep it entertaining and moving along.

One of the questions she asked me is"What is fashion?"   I came up with a resonable answer, babbling about clothing and historic fashion, starting from the practicality of cavemen wearing skins to protect them from the elements (which of course wasn't fashion) to a brief discussion of class structure and the evolution of clothing as status elevators.  The giant farthingaled hoop skirt of the Elizabethan era, the huge wide panniers of the baroque, hundreds of year of some variation of the corset, the wet, pnuemonia causing gauze dresses of the 1800's, the 20th century girdle, the early 20th century hobble skirt were all indicators of elevated social status.   The more bizarre and constricting the costume the higher in society you were.

The sihouette and style of the upper classes would trickle down to the more "common" masses of people and be adopted as the fashion of the period.  So I guess my question back to all of you is: "Is it only fashion if it comes from a couture house or is it really fashion when it's adopted by the populace?"

Next up:  Fashion vs Style