Chanel introduction to trousers in the 1920s

Chanel introduction to trousers in the 1920s

Introduction

The 1920s women’s fashion was considered as free-spirited, the modernist regime belonging to the roaring twenties as well as the jazz era. This symbolized freedom and independence experienced by women. The fashion trends were also characterized by short, low waist dresses, trousers, bob hairstyles, casual outfits mixed with different colours (Casely-Hayfor, 2015). Stockings, the silk garments as evening outfit, and scarfs were a part of the 1920s fashion trends.

On the other hand, the 1920 fashion comprised of garments that offered a sense of freedom of mobility whereby loose fittings characterized them. They also allowed the implementation of camisole, also known as a chemise. This article will discuss the fashion trend introduced by Chanel that is trousers and the reason behind it. The camisole is loose underwear that acted on behalf of a tight corset found in the Victoria years.

The pants were also baggy, which enabled women to move freely. Coco Chanel was among the renowned fashion designers in the 1920s, including Jeanne Lanyon, Sonia, Victor Stiebel, and Florrie Westwood. A majority of art engagements were much swayed in the 1920s fashion trends. The engagements included impressionism, Art Deco and surrealism with sound colors shaped in geometry. Moreover, the art engagements conveyed a contemporary look on women. The look was used to dress prominent movie actresses and was also used in Hollywood films (Casely-Hayfor, 2015). The new looks changed how women looked and also how they were viewed in society. Chanel introduced the trouser outfits at a time when fashion was booming in the united states.

The main objective of Chanel’s fashion trend

Coco Chanel was also known as Bonheur Chanel, was undoubtedly the fashion trend queen in the 1920s. She, among other prominent designers, introduced remarkable outfits for both men and women. Chanel was a French fashion designer who succeeded in changing the current fashion to a looser gear. She was one of the first designers to change outfits to loose-fitting, especially for women. One of the striking looks of the 1920 fashion trend was the flapper trouser outfit, which adopted a neutral appearance. She made an outfit that was fit for both men and women to wear. Some of Coco’s most notable fashion trends comprised of sailor trousers, the little black dress and quilted handbags that still exist in the modern market for sale.

The 1920s fashion trend was affected by the existing culture, especially Chanel trends. The emergence of the Jazz era from New Orleans town and Louis Armstrong music became a flapper anthem. The white and black culture, specifically in the united states, whereby alcohol was declared illegal, was also applied. The flapper anthem was applied pertinently throughout the 1920s as well as the word Roaring twenties (Arvanitidou & Gasouka, 2013). The discovery of movies and the increasing inspiration of Hollywood, together with the increase of marketing in the fashion industry, encouraged the invention of new fashion trends. This also encouraged Chanel to introduce her fashion trends due to the rise of marketing in the industry.

Coco Chanel introduced the trousers through the inspiration of men outfits that is sailor suits. She would transform them into something close to chic, which was also classy—this encouraged the majority of the women to go for such a look. Chanel mostly used manly materials such as jersey disregarding the 1920s corset, making to design garments with a fresh-faced charisma (Arvanitidou & Gasouka, 2013). She also used a row of nuggets as her mark to sustain elegance in women, which the majority of them anticipated.  This style eventually became famous in the united states as individuals watched her different designs in theatre actions and Hollywood movies. Chanel style inspired multiple women to adopt different types of fashion trends in her country as it encouraged them to express their freedom.

Coco Chanel introduced trousers for women to free them from restricting corsets and long skirts fashion trends that were prevalent in the Belle Epoch. The Belle period was also known as the era from 1871upto the 1st world war that happened in 1914. She wanted women to convey elegance as well as move without restrictions. During the same age, another designer named Christian Dior came up with a new look that comprised of restrained waists and long skirts, which was against Chanel’s trend. Dior wanted women to celebrate ultra-femininity through the restricted waist outfits. In response to that, Chanel stated that Dior did not dress women but instead decorated them (Koda & Bolton, 2005). Coco Chanel encouraged the mingling and merging of various classes that shared a shared sense of freedom. The fusion, in the long run, aided the fight of suffrage.

World war 1 broke out in 1914, whereby the majority of the women who provided the labour in the public sector wore skirts. The skirts did not offer the comfort they desired and restricted them in terms of movement. Chanel introduced the trousers which were adopted by women working manually. The women mostly wore the pants with overalls in their working areas. Coco developed an interest in trousers and started wearing them way before she introduced them. At one point, she used to borrow her boyfriend’s trouser suits and wore them while running her errands (Cattani Colucci & Ferriani, 2016). She started designing the trousers outfits meant for women during sports and other engagements. Eventually, her trousers became the trend and women began wearing them and did not view them as a practical outfit.

During the early 1900s, pants were only considered as men outfits, which discouraged women from wearing them even with their proper fitting. Chanel helped multiple women express their freedom by designing trousers. During world war one, women were forced to wear trousers while performing their duties in conventional men jobs. Coco Chanel, on the other hand, did not wear the trousers as a fashion trend at the beginning but wore them to cover herself. She had the tendency of wearing the sailors’ pants in the society beach resort located in Deauville. Coco did so to portray her act of diffidence.

Due to such factors, the sailor pant style spread rapidly, whereby some enthusiasts tried to emulate her style of dressing. However, at the end of it, all Chanel started regretting how careless she became by dressing in such pants. She also through it was appalling that women above 70 percent decided to wear the pants in dinners and evening events. The yatchy pants cannot be compared to any tie of pants worn in the contemporary world (Koda & Bolton, 2005). Coco designed them in a way that was loose to allow movements. The first design represented a wide-ranging legged pant that looked similar to a skirt.

The slack was also identical to a pajama due to the type of fabric used, such as silk. The outfit was particularly elegant, stylish and comfortable for sailing or preferably a beach day. This is where the word yachting khakis originated from. The pant could be paired with a corresponding jacket and would collectively make a great swimsuit cover due to the pajama similarity. However, Chanel usually wore the pants with a well-knitted cardigan which was eventually emulated by other women. Chanel thought that trousers could help women enjoy the same freedom men enjoyed. She wanted to free women from tight skirts and corsets that were holding them back.

The fact that women could also put on the pants one leg after the other was prohibited in the 1920s.Such a concept was only restricted to men or individuals with the XY genetic material. Chanel decided to give women freedom as well as their bodies which were soaked in sweat because of the corsets they wore (Cattani Colucci & Ferriani, 2016). There was no other appropriate way to ride on a horse rather than wearing trousers. She also called it feminism as she took the pants from a man riding a horse and wore them. This encouraged women to get back their bodies and adopt the fashion trend of trousers everywhere they went. Among the many designers of the early 1900, Coco made a significant contribution in making women stronger by making them wear whatever they feel comfortable in. This makes Chanel one of the leading designers of history.

References

Arvanitidou, Z., & Gasouka, M. (2013). Construction of gender through fashion and dressing. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(11), 111.

Casely-Hayfor, A. (2015). Ten ways Coco Chanel changed fashion. Hunger

Cattani, G., Colucci, M., & Ferriani, S. (2016). Chanel’s creative trajectory in the field of fashion: The optimal network structuration strategy. In Multidisciplinary contributions to the science of creative thinking (pp. 117-132). Springer, Singapore.

Koda, H., & Bolton, A. (2005). Chanel. Metropolitan Museum of Art.