時尚的歷史，1930s

Hello, my name is John Knight and I run a lovely fashion shop called Vintage 2 Versace. Now my passion, obviously, is fashion and I love to talk about the history of fashion. So I'm going to present to you the history of fashion through the 20th century. This is episode 3, the 1930s. The 1920s was too exuberant, too bright, too explosive, not to burn itself out. And it was replaced in the 1930s by the more refined and terribly sophisticated Art Deco period. In this period, the highlights were, for example, Noel Coward and his witty, imaginative plays. Gertrude Lawrence, the actress, with her high-pitched voice singing wonderful, forlorn love songs. The whole essence of the Art Deco period was smooth sophistication, speed, design and elegance. And the dresses, too, fell into this category. And it replaced the frenetic 20s styles, the above-the-knee, the daring, with a much longer, softer look. The materials were silk and new materials had been invented, such as rayon. And these materials draped the figure beautifully. Let's have a look at a typical 1930s gown, worn here by Elsa again. Hello, Elsa. This is lovely. And I've put with the gown one of the essential accessories that was used throughout the 30s and 40s, fur. This is an ostrich feather tippet that covers the shoulders and it accompanies and enhances the look of the typical 1930s dress. So here we have a plain front dress with a very nice detail around the bust, just to emphasize a little the top of the dress and make it not too plain. The material is bias cut, which means that it clings to the front and gives a flat-fronted look. Very, very elegant indeed. If you turn around, the material, again bias cut, falls beautifully around the waist, over the bottom and right down to the ankle level. There's quite a little bit of material involved, but always it will hang elegantly, it will move sensuously and fluid-like with any figure. Turn around and back again. I quite like the ostrich cape here. If we undo it and take it off, you'll see just how elegant the top of the dress is. It would be an evening dress. I don't think you can say much more other than extreme elegance and sophistication with this dress. Thank you very much, Elsa. Let's have a look at another example, and we'll ask Laura to show this dark blue version. And in this instance, we've put a little cape, which is ermine, and it is fringed with black monkey skin. Very unusual and very typical of the 1930s. The dress itself, and you can see quite clearly here, the way the various panels have been put together. In order to mould themselves to the waist, to give the flattest profile possible. And at the same time, catch the eye, so that you have quite an abundance here of material. Because some of it is bias cut, it gives a different hue. You can see the different colours there. We turn around. Again, very similar to Elsa's dress. But the panelling comes round here and down to the bottom. And I think it's really a very unusual style. But very feminine. And I think it's very befitting of a nice tall young lady like Laura here. Turn around, Laura. We take the tippet off. Just small straps holding the dress beautifully. Sculpting the waist and over the hips. Very, very elegant dress. So these are very typical of the 1930s. The social craze at the time was ballroom dancing. Remember, Hollywood was promoting Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. They swept around the dance floor. And fashion wanted to recreate that lovely sweeping fluid style. And I think these dresses exemplify that. So after the frenetic 20s and before the awful period of the Second World War, we have the Art Deco period, the Age of Elegance. Thank you. Thank you for listening and looking at this episode of The History of Fashion. And this is just a reminder to let you know that we can bring this event with my models and our dresses and myself to tell the story at an event or an occasion. Or if you're an organization and you organize shows, we'd be delighted to come and be your guest and do The History of Fashion for you.