I recently began looking through photographs of my mothers family, and the thing that was most interesting was that the first thing you notice was the change in fashion and trends.
I started because I found a beautiful picture of my grandmother from the 1940's wearing a silk dress outside of the house I grew up in. Like today, rich women would have hundreds of dresses to choose from, and many shoes – but the women in my family would only have one or two nice dresses that they'd only wear to church on Sundays. I remember very clearly my grandmother telling me “if you were rich, you'd wear fur, if you were poor, you'd be cold”.
Times got harder when the first world war began. All the silk England could get was used by the army to make parachutes, and women started painting a black line on the back of their legs so it looked like they were wearing tights!
After the second world war, fashion really started changing – men started to wear expensive italian suits and women wore brighter colours. People started to experiment more, and during the 50's women in America and the UK even began wearing suits to work, though always with a skirt and never trousers. Moving into the 60's women wore more trousers, and the trends were loose dresses, bright clothing, more natural makeup and flowery designs.
The 70s were all about disco. I have a funny photo of my father dressed in an extremely tight white suit that he wore every night to his favourite dance club. In the 80's when my mother was a teenager women curled their hair and started showing more skin. The miniskirt came into fashion and Madonna was every teenage girl's role model. My mother has hundreds of photos of her wearing her favourite red miniskirt, and for short men like my dad – high heels were acceptable! I'm glad they aren't any more!
Nowadays, it seems like streetwear and retro are the big trends. I can't describe how happy I am when I find a lovely pair of trousers or a shirt from the 60s or 70s, and my friends love vintage too. My sister only wears streetwear fashion – italian jackets, handbags, boots, and high heels are all she cares about! My favourite item of clothing is my jeans from the 1950's, and she couldn't live without her fur coat in London – she's even bought her dog one! The crazy thing is she wears a red miniskirt, just like our mother – so I guess things haven't changed that much after all!
