The garments that changed clothing history
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1. Satin dress in John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame X’ painting (1884)
“It was designed by the sitter, Madame Pierre Gautreau (Louisiana-born Virginie Amélie Avegno), an American Parisian socialite who was married to a French banker,” says the British Turkish fashion designer. Erdem Moralioglu48. “The painting was completely scandalous because she was portrayed in this attractive black dress during a particularly conservative time. There is a sensuality to Sargent’s insistence: a strap was originally painted to look as if it had fallen off and was later re-painted over it. To me, it is a beautiful example of feminine power.”
2. Henriette Negrin’s Delphos gown for Fortuny (1907)
“You can wrap it up and it’s easily packed, which is very modern,” says New York-based designer Rachel Scott, 42, creative director of Proenza Schouler and her own line. diotimaAbout this pleated, column-shaped silk dress. Inspired by Greek tunics, Negrin created the garment in partnership with her husband, Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish-born Venetian designer and artist known for his innovative use of materials. “Its wearability, and the fact that it doesn’t fit over one body, makes it modern,” says Scott. “It influenced Madame Grace, Halston and Issey Miyake and feels like it would be revolutionary if it were still made.”
3. Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel’s little black dress (1926)
“By changing the shape and length of women’s dresses, she changed their lifestyle,” says American designer Norma Kamali, 80. Through her little black dress – often made from black crepe de Chine with a nipped waist and long sleeves – Chanel, who had begun wearing looser, more comfortable jersey dresses in place of corsetry in the 1910s, said goodbye to restrictive clothing and transformed black from a mourning color. Changed into more. “She changed the way women walked, giving them the confidence and power to move through the world with ease,” says Kamali. “There are other designers who have changed women’s lives, but none as profoundly as Chanel.”
4. Christian Dior’s Bar Jacket (1947)
“With his New Look collection, Christian Dior changed fashion,” says Carla Sozzani78, president and co-founder of the Fondation Azzedine Alaia, which recently opened an exhibition in Paris comparing the couture work of the Tunisian-born French designer Alaia, who died in 2017, and the couture works of Dior. With his Bar jacket, a cream-colored silk shantung piece, with a flared waist and padded hips, Dior “brought back the corset” (as well as rounded shoulders and a structured bust), which had fallen out of fashion. At the same time, he brought back the feminine lightness that still influences not only the Dior collections (by Jonathan Anderson) but also the Métiers Féquelles (a brand started by Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran). When people want to do something feminine, they wear a big skirt and a very tight jacket – the effect is eternal.
5. angelina dashiki (1962)
“Dashiki is a mysterious garment,” says Edward Buchanan, a 55-year-old American designer and creative director. Ghanaian highlife band) Sweet Talks, it was first produced for the Central and West African markets in the early 1960s, In 1967, two New Yorkers named Jason Benning and Howard Davis began selling them in Harlem, and the dashiki was, and still is, a symbol or sign worn by black people as protest apparel during the civil rights and Black Power movements.
6. mini skirt (mid 1960s)
“For the first time in history, women were wearing skirts above their knees or mid-thigh,” Kamali says of the advent of the miniskirt, which is often credited with the advent of the miniskirt. mary quantthe English designer who popularized it in London in the mid-1960s, and André Courrèges, the French designer who included it in his 1964 collection. (The one featured here was produced by Annemarie Gardin, a New York-based Swiss designer of the time.) “People went crazy. They couldn’t believe it. As quickly as you can imagine, I pulled up my skirt. Cars would stop and (people) would call me a whore!”
7. Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking (1966)
“As the story goes, the classic tuxedo” — often made of velvet or satin and worn after dinner over formal evening dress — “was created for men to wear while smoking a cigar,” says Buchanan, “to absorb the odor.” “And then in 1966, Saint Laurent said, ‘I want to make a tuxedo for women.’ But he didn’t want to just put a man’s tuxedo on her, so he cut a new silhouette for a woman’s bust and gave it a more generous collar. For me, le smoking – that’s when the word ‘chick’ was created. All subsequent women’s tuxedos” – from Marc Jacobs, Helmut Lang, Phoebe Philo or Stefano Pilati – “came from Le Smoking.”
8. Stephen Burroughs’ lettuce-hem dresses (1970)
“Most people don’t know what that looks like when they see a lettuce hem”—a wavy edge, usually reserved for weaves—” at Miu Miu, Proenza Schouler or rick owensHe invented it,” Buchanan says of Burroughs, the first Black American designer to achieve international recognition. “When you’re sewing the edge of the fabric, you spread it and then do an overlock stitch. When you let it go, it goes away boeing – Making a slightly rolled edge. That was his description. Today, when everything is being upcycled and patchworked, designers are exploring the technique as it is the easiest way to sew two pieces of fabric together.
9. Azzedine Alaia’s leggings (early 1980s)
‘Nobody was doing it,'” says Sozzani. “She was inspired by the work of (20th-century French designer) Madeleine Vionnet and the fact that she allowed the body to move freely. She developed all these threads, making her creations like sculptures, and introduced knitwear as a way of life. (Chanel and) Sonia Rykiel had created knitwear before, but there’s so much of it in your wardrobe. It was unusual. Alaia knitted everything from leggings to dresses to coats.”
10. Alexander McQueen’s amazing pants (Fall 1993)
“It was a strange take on sexuality and sensuality, exposing a part of the body that you would normally despise,” Scott says of the British provocateur’s low-slung trousers, which were cut to expose the tops of the buttocks. “Bizarre turned sensual. I love the tension between tailoring and sensuality. Bad taste, expertly done.”
11. Jean Paul Gaultier’s printed mesh top (Spring 1994)
“It was scandalous,” Buchanan says, referring to the French designer’s collection, which included trompe l’oeil mesh tops made to look like tattooed skin. “Pure excitement with skill and design. Remember, Gaultier was the man who taught (avant-garde Belgian designer) Martin Margiela.”
12. zuli bet’s puma collaboration (Spring 1995)
“Created by Malian designer Lamine Kouyaté, this collaboration was the first of its kind,” says Buchanan. “In the 1990s, if you were a sportswear brand, you stayed here, and if you were a luxury brand, you stayed there. But Kouyaté” – who made colorful clothes from recycled fabrics and dead-stock textiles – “was passionate about sportswear, and he connected with PUMA and they collaborated on this funky, cool streetwear collection. It consisted of deconstructed dresses and tops in technical fabrics with PUMA logos on them. The logo was way ahead of its time. (The ongoing partnership between Yohji and Adidas would not have happened without it.) kim jones And Supreme, or Balenciaga and Under Armour, couldn’t exist without it. He was the first.”
13. Marjan Pejowski’s swan dress (Fall 2001)
“The Oscars are for the most conservatively dressed people,” Moralioglu says. “And (in 2001, Icelandic singer) björkAs someone who is very progressive culturally, she chose to wear (Macedonian designer) Marjan Pejovski’s swan dress, which was totally crazy. But she looked amazing. It happened during a time of openness and exploration, and I think this dress embodies that.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
