University of Rhode Island
Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design
Lorraine Howes pictured (left) with TMD instructor Beth Shorrock
TMD 402K The Art and Science of Fashion - Speaker Summaries
Lorraine Howes: A Discussion of the History of Fashion as Art & Symbolism, by Kirsten Obermiller
Lorraine Howes was a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, also known as RISD. She has had a very active and colorful career in the fashion industry. Born and raised in Africa, she moved from country to country learning about and participating in the fashion world. She owned her own business in Boston and finally ended up teaching at RISD. Professor Howes has taught a myriad of topics relating to apparel, textiles, patternmaking, and fashion. On 9th February she came to share with us the knowledge and insight that she had given to RISD students in one of her classes about dress, art, and society.
Professor Howes’ discussion began with the aristocracy of the Baroque period. This period, with its segregation of classes denoted by the use of very opulent fabrics and styles, is an excellent example of the use of clothing to show power. This trend has been prevalent throughout history and in almost all cultures. Napoleon, as a commoner, had to capitalize on this attribute of clothing in order to portray himself as a nobleman. After Napoleon’s reign men’s wear would not reach that level of opulence and detail again. The modern fashions of the 1970s and the Metrosexual movement of today could be considered small tributes to this more extravagant time for men. A more modern example of power symbols through clothing would be the men’s business suit. Professor Howes feels that this could possibly be the most power symbol yet in fashion history as it has gone almost completely unchanged for over two hundred years.
Social movements and revolutions affect fashion heavily as well. The Rococo period, which followed the richness of the Baroque period, ushered in a change toward more natural forms and simple styles for the first time since antiquity. The beginning of the Industrial revolution in this period made fashion more attainable than before by lessening the gap between classes. The French revolution caused waves in the status of people as well and also aided in the end of elaborate men’s fashion. Throughout the 1800s women were objectified through fashion. They were pulled, pushed, tucked, and nipped in every direction. While men’s wear had become simple, functional, and practically classless, women’s wear had continually become more overdone to the level of sometimes being called the machine age baroque. Women, however, would not last in these stereotyped roles forever. World War I forced women into jobs they had never done before and that, in turn, forced their fashion into a new level of function that it had never been in before. Over the next decades, through World War II, Vietnam, and various women’s rights movements, women’s fashion would be forced and molded into the casual, unisex, and amorphous creature we see today. Black rights movements also greatly affected the fashions we see today.
Art, architecture, and ideals all play an enormous role in the fashion of a particular time. The extravagant palaces of Louis XIV in the baroque period are basically inanimate representations of the power he was displaying on himself through clothing. The Paris Opera house built in the late 1800s shows the same reinterpreted throw back that the tightly corseted and bustled women’s fashion of the time did. Art Nouveau made women’s natural forms more visible, Art Deco simplified the design, and modern art, with its challenge to convention and accepted thought, took fashion down many avenues that it had never been down before.
Today many people avoid fashion, giving up style and presentation for function. Most people only indulge in fashion at specific occasions such as business affairs and weddings, which are also losing some of their strict fashion rules with the introduction of concepts such as casual Fridays. Men’s and Women’s roles are blending creating a new type of unisex that crosses over into all aspects of life, including fashion. Professor Howes explained that the even the body types that are considered attractive change with fashion. She believes that today the ideal body is fit and healthy, not necessarily curvy like the 1940s or boyish like the 1920s, both of which are adjectives that could be attached to a certain gender. Even today’s erogenous zone, in her opinion, is the lower back which is also quite unisex.
Fashion has been used to symbolize many things; it has influenced architecture, inspired art, and changed people’s perceptions. It has been used to gain power, segregate people, and make a stand. It has the potential to affect so many aspects of our lives, however every aspect our lives has the potential to affect fashion.