NEWS
The Advent Of The Designer Tie
"A pioneering Paris fashion designer, Jean Patou, invented the designer silk ties. He made silk ties from women's clothing material including patterns inspired by the latest art movements of the day, Cubism and Art Deco.
Targeted toward women purchasers, his were highly successful. Today women buy 80 percent of sold in the US. Therefore ties are often displayed near the perfume or women's clothing departments.
Designer ties made quite a splash in the 1960s, when designers from London's Carnaby Street devised the Peacock Look and churned out wide, colourful ties in a variety of flowered, abstract and psychedelic patterns. Know mod (for modern) styles were the forerunners of the hippie movement, which often dispensed with neckties altogether, often favouring colourful scarves at the neck, or wearing open shirts with chains or medallions."
Denim Jeans, Their Progress Through Fashion; Still Making History
Denim jeans have been associated with heavy industry to high fashion and become one of the most versatile and enduring clothing styles in fashion history. Hollywood stars like Katherine Hepburn aided denim’s progress through fashion in the 70’s. And now Savile Row tailors champion its continuing success, as they cut denim suits for some of the most famous names in the world. But what of its origins, Denim and Jeans have travelled the world.
Captured in denim the Americans, commercialised, stylised, in a word, Levis, American Wild West culture. But the fabric was adopted from another continent by early Americans who created functional hard wearing work gear. At the same time they introduced a style without the aid of catwalks.
Mr Jacob Davis a tailor from Reno Nevada decided to put copper rivets on the corners of his denim trouser pockets to prevent them from ripping. Unable to cover the cost of patenting the idea he sought help from prosperous clothing distributor Mr Levi Strauss. Mr Strauss added his own style by putting the garment label on the outside rather than on the inside. Thus a new style was born. Reference 102.9
Denim (derived from De-Nimes in France) had already been styled into bell bottom trousers and worn by Italian sailors from Genoa and given the name Geans (Jeans). These trousers had very practical applications. If a sailor went overboard he could easily slip off the trousers easily over the feet and thus stand a better chance of staying afloat.
The style has gone from De-Nimes, to Denim, from Genoa to Jeans, from France to America and travelled the world. Style knows no cultural or geographic boundaries. Experience the history.
It’s all about style, Vivienne Westwood knows.
