Repeating

 When I was younger, my father told me that fashions always repeat throughout time.  I caught some of Project Runway a few years ago and many of the competitors  used historical fashion as inspiration for their designs.

What about the popularity of corset that originally was a undergarment worn to create a certain shape  Corsets also reinforced the fact that women were under man's control.  Now the corset is acceptable evening wear.  You find corsets in magazines, on high fashion models, everywhere, even when the model has a corset on backwards!

Yes, backwards.  Who ever dressed the model didn't know that all the lacing goes up the back, not the front.  I laughed when I saw that ad.  My eyes were first drawn to the ad due to the skirt but as my eyes slid up the figure, the lacing caught my attention.  If I remember correctly, the ad was designed to sell the skirt.

I was looking through my photos from the fashion exhibit held at the Bishop Museum and noticed that one offering resembled a style of dress I'd seen on a statue.  The statue is on the left and the dress on the right.

It wasn't that long ago I saw students wearing outfits reminiscent of the 1960's hippie era with their flared bottom pants (aka bell bottoms), Nehru jackets, and platform heels.  I think that designers run out of ideas so they look to past trends to tweak and adjust into a "new" offering.

If you stop and think about it, how many of us wear jeans in most situations?  The lowly jean started out for miners so their pants didn't fall apart when digging gold and then became associated with cowboys before finally taking over fashion.  I often wear a pair of black jeans paired with shirt and suit coat when I need to be a bit more formal.  Otherwise, I live in jeans.  In winter, I wear jeans lined with flannel or polar fleece and in the summer, its regular jeans.

It used to be if you went to a meeting, you would never wear jeans, now its acceptable in certain areas of business.  My how things have changed!