Category: FASHION

Trends now and then

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: T-shirts – Week 2

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stupid t

misery loves company

Chances are that if someone has said it and someone else laughed, it’s probably been printed on a t-shirt. With over 2 billion of the little suckers being churned out a year,  everything from the sacred to the profane has became graphic fodder. From Buddha and Obama to Cookie Monster and Death’s Heads, alma maters, slogans and superheroes, corny catchphrases to the downright rude, anything in fact, can and probably has been screen-printed onto that otherwise innocuous garment.

Across the Bored will admit to breaking up at some of the funnier ones but certainly wouldn’t be caught dead wearing clothing with a message having a big enough problem already with those who do not understand when we “use our words”. Putting our ideas on our chests would seem to be inviting trouble, after all, one has to actually be willing to hold forth if a topic is brought up in the first place. Some say that the most popular print ever, one that has achieved an iconic pop-culture status, probably started the trend towards text abbreviation and is produced to this day, was derived from the longest running and successful marketing campaigns of 1977:
“I♥︎NY”  – well yes we do, but we’d look idiotic wearing that to the grocery store considering how much trouble our own politicians are stirring up on a daily basis… Is there a happy medium? Probably. Is it age specific to the wearer? Maybe it should be but as with most things, it is a matter of choice most of us being old enough not to be told what to wear. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge theme this fortnight – T-shirts – clearly illustrates how the message can sometimes become easier to digest depending on where we see it.

“Do you have any favourite t-shirts?” – White or bright, graphic or plain, with a strong statement or silly message, baby Ts or oversized gangsta…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: T-shirts

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BreX tshirt

wearing history

Long before the term fashionista was coined, Across the Bored reserved some articles of clothing for very specific occasions. That crew-neck number with the short, short sleeves and neon palm trees splashed across the front? Definitely non-public work-out wear. The grease-stained grey baby with the ragged hem? Saturday washing the car outfit number one. The one-size fits all Betty Boop blowing kisses sent by Mom? Bedtime for baby… Nowadays, with a decidedly different emphasis on comfort in the career department and a shifted view on what’s stylishly acceptable, that white supersoft, silk-thin pima v-neck is just the ticket. Add really good jewellery and a fab pair of shoes and this kind of simple top becomes an elegant option that no one will question.

The earliest record of this cotton coverup dates back to just after the Spanish-American War; what originally started out as part of the regulation uniform for the US Navy in 1913 has now become a billion dollar business. The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge guesses that (apart from undergarments and perhaps jeans) – T-Shirts – are probably the most popular piece of clothing now worn by man.

“Do you have any favourite t-shirts?” – White or bright, graphic or plain, with a strong statement or silly message, baby Ts or oversized gangsta…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Shoes

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shoesblame the grandmothers

When we were very young one grandmother was known for squeezing her tootsies into too tight pumps – size 6 was just not dainty enough in her estimation. In her cupboard among black patent stilettos and dyed to match satin was a pair of clear plastic peep-toe sandals encrusted with rhinestones on the vamp and running up the lucite heel – an exotic object of desire that, to our 4 year old eyes, were fit for a princess. We would slip our tiny toes into the fronts and balance carefully, yearning for the day that they would fit like a glove and carry us across the dance floor in a dream. They taught us the importance of weight distribution (a skill that would come in handy many years later while running for the bus) and in some ways sowed the seeds of a life-long predilection for the embellished.

Our other grandmother had not been blessed with small feet. Her size 11s were the source for many a sailboat joke and fit much better on our forearms or as transportation for our Barbies – deep in our hearts we knew that we would never fit in any of them. There was an upside however in that she had a whole galaxy of choice on the sale racks; all the best brands were marked down to bargain-basement prices for lack of clientele and she would smile ever so slightly as she tried on pair after pair with great success. Lesson number 2: Never pay retail – expensive footwear is much more comfortable at 70% off.

The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge has more than a passing interest in what we protect our appendages with. From cavemen to astronauts, we put them on last and (usually) take them off first –  Shoes – love them or leave them, most people (and even some pets) wear them.

“What do your shoes say about you?” – Are they practical and sturdy, coquette with a heel,the pair that won’t be thrown out or a baby’s first, memories of your own or being put into someone else’s, wellies, waders, golfers with spikes, mountaineers, runners, ugly ones no one likes…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
  3. Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
  4. The Challenge will be open for 14 days (there will be a reminder post at the 7 day mark) after which I will post another.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
  4. Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
  5. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

 

F is also for Friday: 1980s Fashion Illustration

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antonio lopez

we were young – heartache to heartache we stood
antonio lopez for missoni

In another lifetime every living breathing minute was devoted to fashion, art and the pursuit of activities that were somehow design related – it was the 1980s and everyone we knew, or at least the ones we admitted into the sphere filled with such rarified air one walked at least a foot above the ground, was oh-so-cool and doing something big, bold, shocking and usually public.  It was the beginning of the glorification of brands, of celebrities becoming the poster children for trends and the public developing an unsatiable appetite for the latest thing that has brought our credit-dependent economy to where it flails about bloated and helpless today.

We’ve had some discussions recently with the Ghost and Miss Z about how much of what they see, hear, wear and take for granted comes out of the 80s – not to say that this was the most fabulous era, for many of us there are great chunks of it missing from our memories, but it was one in which extremely creative people thrived and produced and influenced others without the bonus of readily available internet. Sometimes it is hard to imagine that we ever got so much done…

Print media was huge and we spent more than our fair share on glossy publications from Europe and the States to feed our cravings. Loaded with enough inspiration for a hundred lifetimes, these magazines also made us fall in love with those who were capturing the essence of the era. Antonio  Lopez, a prolific artist with an unfortunately brief but meteoric career, was one such object of adulation: he changed the way the world saw art, design  and clothing as inextricably intertwined and some say, singlehandedly revived the art of fashion illustration.

More on the work of Antonio Lopez next week.

This was Thursday: 1968 Compare and Contrast

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boy trap

adding fuel to now’s fire and no doubt making betty friedan’s hair stand on end
1968 Wonder bread ad

The boys on Madison Avenue were having a field day in 1968: not only were social mores changing and a whole new demographic of consumer coming up through the ranks but the field of advertising itself was quickly learning to capitalize on the trends. Women’s liberation was in its infancy despite how many of the gender felt but stereotypes in the media were still commonplace – in a paradox of epic proportions one can almost hear mothers across the nation calling out to their daughters to take some sandwiches along to the protest  – ” Be brave, stay away from the police and make sure Bobby gets one of those ham ‘n’cheese!” Promoting old products in a modern light was, to make a bad pun, the bread and butter of the business but one couldn’t help but wonder the manner in which some of the agencies ‘borrowed” wholesale from the earlier success of groundbreakers in the fields of music and art.

1968 his ad

cool guys in charge in slacks their wives and mothers bought
1968 h.i.s. AD

Industry could hear the sound of cash flowing into their coffers with the right campaign – someone in the PR department of Campbell’s did and took back the can Andy Warhol had made iconic with its very own beach-bag mail-in offer. Now everyone could own a piece of pop art or look like the latest pop star all the girls were giddy over.

Not much has changed, except for the legal concept of Intellectual Property…

Read more about 1968:

NOW
Wonder Bread
1968
1968 JukeBox

This was Thursday: 1967 Sweet and Simple

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sweet enough to bring home to your parents

There is no doubt that 1967 was a year revolving around youth – while one segment of the population was getting down and dirty in the psychedelic Summer of Love causing conservative parents no end of grief and consternation, there was another even younger demographic that was swooning over the rise of cute and wholesome boy bands like The Monkees. Outselling both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at their peak in this year, the group’s popularity was indicative that some audiences weren’t ready to make the leap into the great roiling unknown and craved their escapism in easy to handle, prettily packaged doses.  There was some temporary relief to be gleaned from such innocent girl or boy “next door” images being put out by the media – many mothers preferred their adolescents idolize a “Lesley and Davy” over a “Janis and Jimi” any day of the week…

vogue twiggytwiggy in pop couture shot by Avedon – 1967

Twiggy was an iconic example of this trend, her aloof, waif-like look took the fashion world by storm – in a quick rise to international Supermodel stardom and with a host of magazine covers, products and accompanying endorsements, she proved to girls around the globe that anyone could become the brand.

 Read more about 1967:

The Monkees
Twiggy
1967
1967 JukeBox

This was Thursday: 1966 Metal Mode

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rabanne was “not so much a couturier but a metalworker” – coco chanel

Paco Rabanne, enfant terrible of French fashion in the 60s, was one of the first to use black models – here Donyale Luna, the first African American to appear on the cover of British Vogue, was photographed by Richard Avedon wearing one of Rabanne’s controversial metal and plastic link creations.

Anyone in a dress that radical would have needed this as an accessory…

1966 Shelby Superformance 427 SC Cobra1966 Shelby Superformance 427 SC Cobra

For more on 1966 visit:

Richard Avedon
Paco Rabanne
Shelby Cobra
1966