Unzipping the floodgates: From a closure to decorative fashion statement, the zipper changed the course of fashion history. Shown here, Balmain’s SS 2010 zipper jacket.

Instantly recognizable by their exposed back zipper, Victoria Beckham’s signature bodycon dresses continue to be the toast of the town. The sexy design detail with little teeth has been giving Beckham’s otherwise demure mid-calf length dresses some serious bite since she launched at New York’s Fashion Week in 2009.

Victoria Beckham’s signature figure-flattering dresses with exposed zipper. 

As erotic a notion as, well, sewing notions can be, the zip and its semi-scandalous potential for exposing whatever is being hidden meant that it wasn’t until the late 1930s that the invention caught on. The popular name “zipper” was also a slow starter.

3.1 Phillip Lim’s recycled zipper dress kicked off the trend for Spring/Summer 2009. The black dress with golden meandering detailing was eco-friendly, made of a natural hemp and silk blend, hand dyed and adorned in recycled zippers and surplus remnants.

Closures prior to the zipper were limited to laces and buttons until 1851 when Elias Howe applied for a patent for his invention, the “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure.” Due to design flaws and the success of another of his inventions, the sewing machine, he did not attempt to seriously market the product. In 1914, Gideon Sundback doubled the number of teeth per inch of Howe’s version, creating the “Separable Fastener.” And then an improved version, called the “Hookless Hooker.” The hardware finally got its familiar name in1923, when B. F. Goodrich Company wanted to improve on the standard boot. It introduced the “Zipper Boot,” and the familiar name stuck.

Proving every thing old is new again… Elsa Schiaparelli created the first clothes with visible zippers in 1935. This Schiaparelli taffeta evening gown incorporates a decorative YKK plastic zipper placed diagonally on the front of the skirt.

Ever wondered why the initials YKK are stamped on your zipper? The YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha. In 1934 Tadao Yoshida founded Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha or Yoshida Industries Limited.  YKK remains the world’s foremost zipper manufacturer, making about 90% of all zippers in over 206 facilities in 52 countries. Their largest factory in Georgia makes over 7 million zippers per day.

An ad for Talon nylon zippers first launched in 1960.

Mr. Yoshida endeavored to create the best zippers in the world, basing his company on the Zen principle of the “Cycle of Goodness”, as he called it.  Namely, “No one prospers unless he renders benefit to others.”  Thanks to his mass manufacturing strategy and innovations like using DuPont nylon in the 1960s to replace the metal models (that often rusted and stuck), the zipper has become a part of all of our lives.

The Rolling Stones put a zip that works on the cover of their 1971 album Sticky Fingers created by Andy Warhol.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of Fashion Media

Now & Then: The History of the Bikini

Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of the Zipper appeared first on EcoSalon.

They’re hard to resist, but have modern-day fashion magazines lost their link to art and become too focused on celebrity culture?

French women as early as 1700 pored over magazines – then sketches of the latest dresses simply bound together – to see what was going on in fashion. Now blamed for causing eating disorders, wafer thin models and conspicuous clothing consumption, reading fashion magazines is a slightly spurious and increasingly guilty pleasure these days.

But before the influence of television and movies – let alone blogs and social media – fashion magazines were solely responsible for spreading Parisian fashion trends around the world. Both Harpers Bazaar, founded in the U.S. in 1867, and Vogue, in 1892 were created to provide sketches and patterns of fashion derived from Paris designs. Vogue was expressly designed to promote the superiority of French couture to an American clientele.

In 1900, fashion magazines began to publish photography and later fashion illustration by the most modern of visual artists, forever cementing the idea that fashion is an art form – and the glossy pages of fashion magazines, its catalogs.

Another perfect marriage appeared to be fashion and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The first fashion magazines fueled the birth of today’s celebrity culture with readers eagerly following the exploits of early movie stars like Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson and Clara Bow from its pages.

Nearly 100 years later – and inundated with dumbed-down celebrity fashion face-off stories- we might do well to reestablish the link between high culture and fashion magazines – and pay more attention to the effects on ordinary women of glorifying imagined “ideal” lives via mass media.

The Way They Were – Lets take a look back at some of fashion media’s most important milestones:

1886, Cosmopolitan is launched in the U.S. as a fiction magazine for the family.

1937,  Diana Vreeland writes her first “Why Don’t You?” column for Harper’s Bazaar, she eventually becomes editor.

1938, Harpers Bazaar editor, Carmel Snow hires Russian-born Alexey Brodovitch as Art Director. Revolutionizing editorial layout and design he was known for his signature use of white-space. He inspired some of the greatest visual artists of the 20th century (including protégés Irving Penn and Richard Avedon) to create some of fashions most legendary images.

1965, Helen Gurley Brown becomes the editor-in chief of Cosmopolitan turning it into the bible of single girls worldwide and the magazine for “fun, fearless, females.”

1988, Anna Wintour’s first cover as Vogue editor. Wintour wrote. “This one broke all the rules.”

2005, Scott Schuman’s street style blog The Sartorialist is launched, unleashing a tsunami of DIY camera-phone-in-the-mirror-shots online.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of the Bikini

Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of Fashion Media appeared first on EcoSalon.

An image from Stella McCartney’s eco-friendly sunglasses campaign for spring/summer 2012. Each pair is made with at least 50% natural and renewable materials.

Dark glasses, shades, even sun specs – but please, never “Sunnies” – sunglasses are an accessory par excellence, arguably the best we have in our fashion repertoires for communicating a sense of intrigue and mystery. Voyeuristic – I can see you but you can’t see me – they afford their wearer’s anonymity and a distinct power advantage by drawing the shades on the windows to our souls. In short, they’re the ultimate cool tool.

Carole Lombard in 1937 in early Bausch & Lomb Aviators developed to protect the eyes of pilots at high altitude. Around this time, Edwin Land lent his polarizing technology to produce glasses that significantly reduced glare. Aviators are the first sunglass style to be released for sale to the general public.

Sunglasses are older than you think. A form of eye protection from the sun was thought to have been in use as far back as prehistoric times, Inuit people wore flattened walrus ivory “glasses,” looking through narrow slits to block harmful reflected rays of the sun. Roman Emperor Nero was said to use polished emeralds to protect his eyes while he was watching gladiator fights and ancient documents describe the use of quartz crystal sunglasses by judges in 12^th century Chinese courts to conceal their facial expressions while questioning witnesses.

Audrey Hepburn as the irresistible Holly Golightly in “Breakfast At Tiffany’s,” wearing Ray Ban Wayfarers, first released in 1952. Revolutionary for their trapezoidal design, they were the first to employ plastic only frames, and meant a break a way from metal framed glasses of the past.

Sunglasses ability to conceal and disguise has long made them a celebrity favorite. Beyond avoiding recognition by the fans, actors were in fact early adopters of sunglasses as cover ups. In the silent movie making era, red eyes were a common hazard due to the powerful arc lamps that were needed due to the extremely slow speed film stocks used. Long after improvements in film quality and the introduction of ultraviolet filters eliminated this problem, celebrities continu to make sunglasses an inseparable part of high fashion.

Olivia Newton John in the 1970s wearing round, wire rimmed sunglasses, popularly known as tea-shades. They first became popular in the 1960s, inspired by the legendary musician John Lennon. These circular shades achieved an iconic status in those days and a look set to become the latest trend in hot sunglass shapes today.

From oversized sunglasses popularized by Jackie O, to streamlined and subtle aviators, there’s a pair just right for every face. While trends for certain styles are pretty irresistible – cat eyes, anyone? – Taking your face shape into account is crucial to finding the perfect pair, because just like clothes, it’s not the price but the fit that’s important. And as to the question of whether you should wear your sunglasses at night? If you have to ask, you probably shouldn’t.

Molly Ringwald in a typical 80s style pair of glasses. Colored lenses, heart shaped frames and shutter shades gained fame in this period in large part through the music videos of Simple Minds and Animotion.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis in the original “Jackie O’s.” Onassis admitted that sunglasses gave her the opportunity to watch people.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of the Bikini

Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress

Now & Then: The History of Shapewear

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of Hiding Behind Sunglasses appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fashion has had a change of heart on the denim on denim rule. Seen here on Hanneli Mustaparta.

Remember the rule about not wearing denim with denim? Ever since multiple shades of denim were seen on designer’s Spring 2010 runways the trend has been slowly filtering down to the street – making the former “no” a definite “yes.” It’s not just about jeans either; denim jackets, vests, overalls and borrowed-from-the-boys button-ups are appearing in this distinctly blue-themed season. Why, even the “Mom” jean is back.

We’ve since discovered Marilyn was a lot more alternative than we first realized.

The popular twill weave was originally called serge, and came from Nîmes, France. Denim was originally called serge de Nîmes, it was then soon shortened to denim.

Denim Wearers at Woodstock 1969

Sturdy, easy-to-care-for and super comfortable in modern Lycra mixes to fit ever curve, denim is such a huge part of all of our wardrobes now it’s hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t. Surprisingly, this is a relatively recent development. Despite its undistributed role as the ultimate symbol of American style dating back to the Californian Gold Rush; it wasn’t until the 1980s, that denim emerged as fashion clothing and mainstream sales really exploded.

Debbie Harry in 1978, an early pioneer of the denim on denim trend

Prior to that, denim was the choice of society’s minorities. In the 1950s denim was popular with the newly emerged teenager. Worn by young movie stars like James Dean in the 1955 movie Rebel Without A Cause, students were banned from wearing denim in some U.S. schools. In the 60s and 70s, jeans were worn by tuned-in hippies and peace protesters, fringe fashion groups quite apart from the industry’s influential designer houses and runways.

Denim went mainstream by the 1980s.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of the Bikini

Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress

Now & Then: The History of Shapewear

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of Denim appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fashion eccentrics like the late Anna Piaggi flouted the rules of conventional fashion.

“Good taste is the worst vice ever invented,” Dame Edith Sitwell famously declared. We can only wonder what the unconventional poet would’ve made of today’s fashion magazines, and their endless style guides proffering hints, tips, dos, dont’s and – of course – “must-have” buys.

We know that mass-produced fashion is destroying the planet, but it might well be destroying style too. Touted as democratic; what fast fashion has really delivered is so much sameness, it’s stifling.

Our taste for copycat style came into sharp relief earlier this month with the news that Italian fashion editor, Anna Piaggi, had died. The photos that accompanied the style icon’s obituaries showed her talent for unbridled, imaginative outfits but most strikingly, the confidence of an original woman who truly lived the life she envisioned – reminding us just how dreary wanting to look merely “pretty” really is.

So if you’re interested in developing a look beyond the inspiration of fashion magazines and the boring, bland and safe choices of their film star cover girls, take a look at some of fashion’s favorite style anarchists now and then. As the late Alexander McQueen declared, ‘”Fashion needs eccentrics, of course, but so does the world. God, the world would be boring without them.”

Marchesa Casati

Once quoted saying, “I want to be a living work of art,” Luisa, Marquise Casati Stampa di Soncino was an Italian heiress in early 20th century Europe. Known as the first female dandy, she was muse to and patronized some of the biggest artists of her time. Even now her outrageous and flamboyant style still manages to inspire designers to this day, including Lagerfeld, Tom Ford and John Galliano.

Diana Vreeland

Described by her mother as an “ugly little monster,” legendary Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland highlighted her so-called flaws and defined her motto, “elegance is refusal.” Scraping her blue-black hair into a severe knot to spotlight her unconventional profile, her garishly rouged cheeks and scarlet fingernails became her signature. “You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody,” she said.

Isabella Blow

Style icon and international magazine editor, Blow was credited for discovering and nurturing fashion talents such as Alexander McQueen, Sophie Dahl, Hussein Chalayan and milliner Philip Treacy. Treacy’s muse, she was rarely photographed without one of his extravagant and flamboyant headpieces. Suffering with depression throughout her life, she tragically committed suicide in 2007.

Anna Piaggi, with milliner Stephen Jones

With a wave of blue hair curled over one eye, vivid lipstick and a bright dash of rouge on each cheek, fashion journalist Anna Piaggi was a front row regular who was said to be “the world’s last great authority on frocks” – of which she owned more than 2,800. London’s V&A Museum dedicated an entire exhibition to her remarkable career in fashion journalism. Muse to milliner Stephen Jones, who released a statement upon her recent death describing Piaggi as “a talisman for all those around the world who believe that fashion is a way of life and that freedom of expression should manifest itself in what we wear.”

Lynn Yaegar

Instantly recognizable by her bright red hair, doll-like face and painted-on cupid-bow lips, Yaegar is a contributing fashion editor and writer to Vogue. She is a former fashion reporter for The Village Voice, having worked for the paper for 30 years. Known for her love of vintage clothing, she is a rare original on today’s style scene.

Daphne Guinness

Heiress of the Guinness family and muse to photographers Steven Klein and David LaChapelle, Daphne Guinness has an intensely cultivated sense of dress and her rejection of style status quo makes her one of today’s most enigmatic style icons. “I truly hate the word [eccentric]…I’m actually very grounded…Also, eccentrics are almost asexual, and that is not something you can say of me, by any means…What drives me now is the idea of something being against the world. I’m an artist, I suppose.”

The post Now & Then: The Fashion Eccentrics appeared first on EcoSalon.

“It was an itsy bitsy, teenie weenie, yellow polka dot bikini”: Once so shocking, the song’s 1960s protagonist was “afraid to come out of the water.”

In 1946 in Paris, a fashion designer named Louis Reald unveiled his two-piece bathing suit to the public. He named it the “bikini” because he believed the sight of women wearing such skimpy attire would cause men the same sort of devastation that the Bikini Atoll had suffered four days earlier when an atomic bomb was detonated on it. These days it’s women who wake up with a bang each summer at the sound of the word, “Bikini.” Modern day hyphenates like bikini-body, bikini-bootcamp and most definitely, bikini-wax certainly add to the impact.

Micheline Bernardini photographed wearing the first bikini. Designed by Louis Reald to be “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit,” it was designed to fit in the matchbox Bernardini is holding.

Conceived to be small enough to fit into a matchbox, the new navel revealing design was considered so scandalous that none of the Parisian models would dare to wear his design. Reard could only find nude dancer Micheline Bernardini to model his design for the press.

In the early 1940s pin-ups like Rita Hayworth wore two-pieces but covered their navels.

Midriff baring swimsuits had preceded the bikini with far less sensation. By the early 1940s film stars like Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner were all photographed wearing two-piece swimsuits consisting of a structured halter-top and bottom, but it was the revelation of the female bellybutton that was truly controversial.

Favored by Queen Victoria, bathing huts in 1900 protected female bathers’ modesty.

When you consider that only 50 years earlier, women wanting to take a dip at the beach were reliant on a contraption called a bathing machine, it may put the hoopla of 1946 in some perspective. In existence as early as 1750, bathing huts – small wooden huts on wheels inside which women changed inside and were then wheeled into the water to descend a small ladder in the back – prevented women from the immodesty of running across the open sand in her bathing suit.

Brigitte Bardot photographed on the French Riviera helped to encourage the trend for bikinis in the 1950s. 

The bikini grew in popularity in France throughout the 1950s, helped along by Brigitte Bardot’s steamy roles in 1952 with The Girl in the Bikini and in 1956 with And God Created Woman. The rest of the world remained immune to its charms, bikinis were banned in Belgium, Italy, Spain and Australia and from worldwide beauty pageants after the first Miss World Contest in London in 1951, and it was even declared sinful by the Vatican.

It remained off limits in the States until wholesome girl-next-door Annette Funicello in 1960s beach party movies like Bikini Beach and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini helped make the bikini more popular to the masses. The first Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition in 1964 sealed the deal with Babette March in a white bikini.

Actress Ursula Andress, playing Honey Rider in the James Bond film Dr. No, memorably strode out of tropical Caribbean waters wearing a homemade bikini shocking American theater goers in 1962.

 The 1980s saw the introduction of the string bikini as seen on Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress

Now & Then: The History of Shapewear

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of the Bikini appeared first on EcoSalon.

The white wedding dress is still the most popular choice of even the most modern of brides.

The focal point of every wedding – even the most casual – is the dress.

Most feminists manage to turn a blind eye to the entrenched patriarchy behind most wedding rites. Even after decades of changing attitudes, the traditional long white gown symbolizing virginity is still the most popular choice of modern brides, by far. While early Roman brides wore white robes as a tribute to Hymen, the god of marriage and fertility, the white wedding dress is in fact a relatively recent phenomenon.

For medieval brides blue was the color of purity, not white. The wedded couple would wear blue ribbons, which evolved into our “something blue” tradition today. For centuries afterwards, brides wore bright colored wedding dresses to symbolize their happiness. Depending on their status and position, they’d incorporate expensive fabrics like fur, velvet or silk. White was considered the traditional color of mourning and therefore the last choice for a wedding dress.

The wedding dress responsible for the prevailing Western trend for long, white wedding dresses.

All that changed in 1840 when Queen Victoria wore a white satin and lace gown at her wedding to Prince Albert. The official wedding portrait was published around the world and her elaborate full-skirted fairytale white wedding gown became the first choice of Western brides, then and now, looking to be “princess for a day.”

Yoko Ono wore a white mini dress with a sun hat, over-sized sunglasses and white knee-highs for her 1969 wedding to John Lennon.

Traditional white dress fever dipped during the depression in the 1930s, when women settled for their “best dress” to get married.  Wartime brides in 1the 1940s got married in their uniforms or scraped enough fabric rations together to sew a simple dress.  The impact of Grace Kelly’s “Wedding of the Century” to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, and her highly influential MGM designed gown made of ivory peau de soie, some with a fitted bodice and Brussels lace embroidered sleeves, inspired a return to the full-skirted romantic looks of the Victorian age by women in the prosperous post-war era.

Bianca Jagger’s gender bending wedding pantsuit was both chic and shocking in 1971.

The counter culture 1960s and 1970s ushered in an age of unorthodox wedding dresses, notably minidresses worn by such celebs as Mia Farrow at her 1966 wedding to Frank Sinatra and Yoko Ono at her 1969 wedding to John Lennon. When Priscilla Bealieu wed Elvis at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, the commercial wedding industry – and its tendency towards cheese – was born. Her big bouffant veil and babydoll-style dress perfectly matched the glitz of the wedding setting. When Bianca Jagger wed Mick in St. Tropez in 1971 wearing a large floppy hat and a white pant suit with – outrageously – nothing underneath, it seemed as if wedding attire would never be the same again.

Princess Diana’s fairytale dress reignited a trend for big wedding dresses that lasted throughout the 1980s.

And yet, in 1982, Lady Diana Spencer’s wedding to Prince Charles showcased another fairy-tale bride complete with a grand white Victorian-styled dress. Puff-sleeved with a fitted bodice and full-skirted of ivory taffeta, it inspired a generation of meringue-like frocks and royal wedding recreations across the U.S.

Carolyn Bessette’s sleek and sexy Narciso Rodriguez wedding gown.

The nineties saw a return to sleeker, less complicated styles. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, the “it” girl of the  1990s embodied the simple yet classy look in the Narciso Rodriguez bias-cut silk sheath she wore in 1996 for her wedding to John F. Kennedy Jr..

Rocker Gwen Stefani’s unique pink and white dress showed classic with-a-twist wedding style.

In 2002, No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani embraced a classic style with a unique twist in her custom-made silk faille wedding dress Galliano for Dior gown with a fuchsia dip-dyed skirt.  The dress garnered accolades among critics and brides-to-be alike, making various best celebrity wedding dresses of all time lists. Stefani donated the wedding gown to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2011, cementing its place in wedding dress history.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of Shapewear.

Now & Then: The History of the Sneaker.

Now & Then: The History of the Statement Outfit.

Now & Then: The History of Flared Pants

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Platform Shoe

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress appeared first on EcoSalon.

While some suggest they’re a symbol of female oppression, our current fondness for Spanx illustrates women continue to seek to contour and enhance their figures with shapewear.

Until the discovery last week of a 600-year-old bra unearthed in an Austrian castle, costume historians had thought the modern day bra had evolved from centuries of restrictive corsets. The four linen bras found were decorated with lace suggesting that like now, women in the middle ages appreciated bras, both for support and their ability to attract attention by enhancing the shape of their breasts. Women’s undergarments have long been underneath the ever-changing fashion silhouette. In this week’s Now & Then, we look at the evolving contours of the female body and the shapewear responsible for creating it.

A 600-year-old bra unearthed in an Austrian castle last week.

Bras as we know them today begin in the 1920’s. The “boyish” silhouette of the flapper era were achieved by  stiff bandeaus that held the bust in and down by means of a clip attached to a light corset. Larger breasted women tried products like the popular Symington Side Lacer, which when laced at both sides pulled and helped to flatten women’s chests.

Actress Gloria Grahame in a typical sweater girl pose of the 1950’s.

By the 1950’s, women looking to emulate the uplifted look of film stars like Lana Turner and Jane Russell bought longline stitched cone bras that gave the pointed, conical shape favored by the sweater girls of the 50s. The introduction of nylon around this time revolutionized the bra by making them lighter, prettier and easier to wash.

Manufacturers in the 70s starting offering underwear in a range of colors and prints.

As clothing styles loosened up in the casual ages of 60s and 70s fashion, seamless underwear was essential to wear under knits for the popular no-bra natural look. Manufacturers began introducing prints and patterns to underwear fabric and bras could also be purchased in flesh tones. By the end of the decade, sequins and Day-Glo colors could be found, and simple stretchy “Boob Tubes” that supported disco era fashions became popular.

Underwear in the 80s embraced the erotic in lacy teddies and satin french knickers.

Breast support took a back seat in the 80’s, with underwear enjoying one of it’s most sexually-charged periods. The influence of high glamour soaps like Dallas and Dynasty, combined with a new body consciousness as a result of the keep-fit craze and the increasing popularity of separates ushered in a decade of erotic and highly feminine silk, satin and lace trimmed lingerie styles. All-in-one bodysuits and teddies were worn with matching high cut French knickers. When women began revealing the edge of a lace trimmed camisole beneath the popular power suits, the underwear as outerwear trend was born.

The wonder bra and its notorious advertising campaign in the 1990’s.

The 90s was the decade of the wonder bra. Technological advances in lingerie construction, and the influence of amazonian supermodels created a trend for cleavage enhanced fashions. Women lined up for the bestselling wonder bra, a plunge bra with detachable inserts that truly delivered on its name.

In 2000, Spanx was officially launched by Sara Blakely, an entrepreneur in search of a smaller butt, flatter abs and shapelier thighs. Tapping into a huge market of women looking for the same thing – $250 million a year is spent on Spanx products alone – and everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow, Tina Fey and Oprah embrace Blakely’s 21st century girdle alternative. Modern women clearly have no intention of abandoning their shapewear.

Beyonce showing off one of her Spanx seamless bodysuits.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: the History of the Sneaker.

Now & Then: The History of the Statement Outfit.

Now & Then: The History of Flared Pants

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Platform Shoe

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History of Shapewear appeared first on EcoSalon.

Isabel Marant’s trending hidden wedge sneakers add a new twist to the most American of footwear styles.

 “All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, you better run, better run, outrun my gun.” If “Pumped Up Kicks” became that song perpetually stuck in your head last year, prepare yourself. Because the about-to hit-the-masses-in-a-big-way sneaker wedge is sure to be accompanied by a glut of fashion stories invoking the lyrics of the Foster the People’s hit.

Adding some leg-lengthening glamor to a high top sneaker was the genius idea of designer Isabel Marant, who debuted her Bekket and Willow models last year. Before long celebrities like Anne Hathaway, Dakota Fanning and model Miranda Kerr were wearing them, and Beyoncé even wore a pair in her Love on Top video. Starting at a whopping $760, the styles are already sold out. Retailers were hot on the trail quickly creating replicas of the shoes.

In the 1950’s, James Dean – seen here in Jack Purcell sneakers – the Rebel Without a Cause star inspired rebellious teenagers to wear the sports shoe with their jeans rolled up as street wear.

Fashion’s talent to keep a basic style perpetually trending has never enjoyed more success than in the field of sneakers. When you consider that the original rubber soled “plimsols” was first conceptualized as early as the 18^th century and we’re still begging for the latest style 200 years later, it’s testament to their inherent appeal – and the endorsement campaigns they’re famous for.

Baby’s out of the corner and discovered Ked’s were perfect for Dirty Dancing in.

Known as sneakers because they were so quiet, a person wearing them could “sneak up” on you, the first mass-made brand was Keds made by the U.S. Rubber Company in 1917. By 1923, an Indiana hoops star named Chuck Taylor endorsed some basketball shoes, and the Chuck Taylor All-Stars went on to become the most famous athletic shoe in history and set a precedent for high profile celebrity promotions.

Grunge King, Kurt Cobain
 wore his in concert in the 1990’s.

Following in Chuck Taylor’s footsteps, Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan I’s hit the shelves in 1985. Despite being fined every time he wore them while playing with the NBA (only white shoes were allowed on court) the shoes are widely considered the most famous sneaker ever made. Nine years after Jordan’s retirement, the Air Jordan’s remain Nike’s top selling signature basketball shoe.

President Obama clearly happy about Spike Lee’s gift of a custom pair of Air Jordan Spizikes that were made bearing the presidential seal.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of the Statement Outfit.

Now & Then: The History of Flared Pants

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Platform Shoe

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

The post Now & Then: The History Of the Sneaker appeared first on EcoSalon.

In the late 1990s, the Fendi Baguette bag started a fashion frenzy.

Part of documenting fashion is acknowledging the desire and anxiety certain items induce. If ever there was an object designed to seduce us, it was the “It-bag.” As the original “It” girl, Clara Bow demonstrated at the beginning of the 20^th century, the quality of “It” is both absolute attraction and elusiveness. If that sounds like a euphemism for sex appeal, Sigmund Freud – in his work deciphering the language of dreams – considered handbags to represent female genitalia.

To most devotees, these expensive and easily recognizable designer signatures convey a right-time-right-place sense of status that is the source of their appeal. With that in mind, its hardly surprising that the lust for “It-bags” directly corresponds to periods of economic boom. The most recent era of handbag hots began in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the average American women reportedly bought more than four statement piece purses annually.

Who could forget the impact of Sex And The City’s Carrie Bradshaw and her Fendi baguette? Recently reissued to coincide with the launch of a new book Fendi Baguette, the bag – available in over 1,000 versions – quickly started a fashion frenzy. According to the show’s star, Sarah Jessica Parker, Fendi was “the first important design house to loan us items,” and the introduction of the baguette allowed the fashion loving character to develop into the style icon she became. “It really opened the floodgates and influenced the storyline – especially Carrie’s habit of spending more money on fashion than her home.”

In 1956, a photo of Grace Kelly, who had become the new Princess of Monaco, carrying the Hermès Sac à dépêches bag to shield her pregnant belly made the “Kelly” bag hugely popular.

But this isn’t a recent phenomenon. In 1935 Hermès created a top-handled leather bag called a Sac à dépêches as part of their leather goods range. When Princess Grace wanted to cover her baby bump with her Hermès bag – these were the days when star’s pregnancies were not a career boosting media opportunity – the photos were splashed all over the world and made it onto the cover of Life magazine. Hermès quickly renamed it the Kelly bag, and it became hugely popular.

The “Birkin” bag was born when Hermès chief executive was seated next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London, he watched as her straw basket overturned spilling its contents onto the floor.

Another Hermès design, the Haut à Courroies was created for free-spirited Jane Birkin. Known for toting a straw basket because she was unable to find a weekend bag large enough to suit her needs. The “Birkin” subsequently became and remains one of the most desirable and widely recognized handbags in the world.

She can’t have heard the “It-bag” trend is over… Victoria Beckham is said to own 100 Hermès Birkin bags thought to be worth more than $2 million.

By 2008 the “It Bag” was no longer in fashion. While there will always be some who can afford bags known eponymously – Birkin, Paddington, Motorcycle and the Alexa  – the rest of us know that the real beauty of fashion is mysterious and deeply personal, our accessory’s determining us individuals rather than part of the crowd.

In 2007 Actress Angelina Jolie, and her daughter Zahara were photographed carrying matching Valentino purses – was this image responsible for the end of the “It-bag” trend?

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of Flared Pants

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of Shorts

Now & Then: Met Ball’s Most Memorable Dresses

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Platform Shoe

Now & Then: The History of Fitness Wear

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of the Cocktail Dress

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

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