Many stray thoughts cross my mind everyday, seemingly random but coalescing into my world view, like the separate dots of a Pointillism painting shaping up to a landscape. One of these is how well-dressed people were in the past comparative to the current age.
I go this observation from watching a lot of Nazi-era documentaries on Netflix - binging on these on some weekends. For no reason other than I am somewhat interested in World War II history and that Netflix is so rife with material on this era. On film, non-dignitary citizens were dressed smartly by today's standards. They wore clothing which evince structure and design, there was attempt at embellishment even in the garments of ordinary folk.
I have seen a very short footage of street scenes in New York in the
1900s. People had carriage - they walked with straight backs and with
their shoulders back. They wore hats and suits on a normal day. Why has it all seemingly
gone downhill from there?
Fashion evolved at breakneck speed from the 1940s. The trend is towards slouchiness, which is synonymous with sloppiness. Slouchy clothes that serve as enabler of slouchy posture and slouchy attitudes.
I have a theory for this.
If you knew that you may die suddenly, abruptly and young, would you treasure each day more? And part of treasuring life is to look ones best. You would take the pains to dress well today if it is plausible for tomorrow not to come. It would make sense to put on your best dress frequently if you were aware that the average lifespan was a constraint on this frequency.
Of course, this is just one of many reasons why fashion has gone casual. Modernisation, mass production of clothing and participation of women in the workforce are forces that make casual clothing a staple in busy lives. No one can afford to dress fussily on a daily basis when there are no ready pairs of hands at home to prepare, launder and maintain these clothes. But I still believe that the sensitivity to death was a determinant of how people dressed and affected attitudes about clothes.
I visited Versailles Palace once. The museum guide described how Marie Antoinette fled through one of the passageways of the palace. In my mind, vivid images of a opulently dressed woman in incredibly exquisite, intricately crafted clothes escaping through the halls with absurdly decorative shoes on her feet. If you were a queen, all the more you would consciously choose to be fabulously appareled everyday, for who knows, you could be captured by your enemies and executed summarily any day. So adorn yourself in resplendence while the good times last.
There was a scene in the first Hunger Games, when Katniss put on what was apparently her best dress to attend the ceremony to pick the Hunger Games gladiator. When striking the gladiator lottery is akin to a death sentence, one should be dressed in ones coffin-best.
We live in a world where cheap clothes, fit and ready for the landfill, abound. Everything is made of depressing material like nylon, polyester, acylic and rayon. It is increasingly hard to find even a full cotton dress. Few consumers seek out natural fibres like wool and linen - the plasticky sheen and texture of man-made, petroleum-derived fabric is widely and unquestioningly accepted. Clothing made of silk have become a specialty item. Even if silk has never been common in mankind's history, our prosperity relative to our ancestors should rightfully make it more accessible for us. Yet, it remains a niche item that few modern consumers have a keen sense of appreciation for. For the average modern consumer, every piece of garment is meant to buy-and-throw-away, so fabric can be flimsy and the workmanship can be poor. Nothing needs to last because fashion changes rapidly and demands wardrobes to be renewed constantly.
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My Frugal Philosophy
More than 15 years ago, as a young girl, I went to local fashion shop Bysi and bought a cute little top with a heart-shaped neckline and drawstring embellishment at the chest. It was cotton, and it lasted till today. About one or two years later, I bought another cute little top from Bysi that had a pinched-waist, which was similarly made of cotton. Both are cherished possessions and still-active serving members of my wardrobe.
Recently, I visited Bysi at Bugis Junction, inspected a few tags. The few tags that I examine all say 100% polyester.
It is better to have fewer pieces of clothings of higher quality, than to have more at lesser quality. No wonder it has been easy for me to stop buying clothing over the past 8 months - everything that I came across in the retail scene has been disappointing.
So no, I am not a fan of local darlings like Love, Bonito. I simply dislike the sensation of polyester against my skin, is it such a crime?
It seems like when we aim for quality, we will ultimately end up saving money. We buy less, and the fewer things we own last longer. This is interesting food for thought.
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