NEW DELHI: The universal nostalgia that we revel in as an antidote to an uncertain future, manifests itself in a vibrant mash-up with a 1970s and 1980s focus for fashion in Autumn-Winter 2018-19. Whether designers are looking back in order to challenge the world we live in or reclaiming their heady teenage days, it all plays into a wider search for meaning.
For some of us, our teen years had their share of traumatic moments, but the magic of nostalgia means that we can reconstruct them with a positive ending. In fashion, that could mean adding a witty layer of postmodern irony or applying a pair of rose-tinted glasses.
Oriole Cullen, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s curator for modern fashion has this to opine, “A lot of contemporary designers use imagery as a source of inspiration. We are very much an image-based culture, and I think it’s inevitable that designers would be inspired by former fashion.”
Nostalgia in fashion is not a new phenomenon. We can sit far back in the history of fashion, back to the early 19th century, which was a period of rapid industry and change, and see nostalgia for a preindustrial past, based on romantic notions of chivalry. Although nearly impossible to analyse each era’s influence on modern-day design, curators of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Museum at FIT concur that the 19th century is perhaps the era richest in references. From the drape of a sleeve to the placement of a specific embroidery, the 1800s, were the true genesis of modern fashion as we know it today.
Fashion academician, Bani Jha from NIFT, Delhi noted that while trends today are often attributed to the 70s or 80s, these recent decades are rooted in design innovations that stretch back to the 19th century. “The gigot sleeves of the 1830s we again saw in the 1980s, which we are today seeing at Saint Laurent and Marc Jacobs, with these full upper sleeves,” she says, adding, “The 1860s are another decade of frequent reference when skirts reached a full circumference with a narrow waist, something that Dior referenced in the New Look as a nostalgia for pre-war times.”
The 1880s are another era of very strong silhouettes, where the extreme bustle has served as a reference for designers including Schiaparelli, Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, according to her.
Another fashion academician, the former fashion director of NIFT, Delhi, Asha Baxi says, “Fifty years ago, designers had all the time to drape mannequins to figure out new shapes and configurations. Not anymore. For retailers, nostalgia is easy to turn to,” she added.
Nostalgia is more visible in Indian fashion, particularly traditional Indian wear. Since artisanal craft plays a huge part in design and construction of ethnic styles, the crafts come in to play. Rohit Bal in 90s experimented with a skimpy choli influenced by the epic Kamasutra. Art and craft from the Mughal era are indulged in by designers. In 2015 Tarun Tahiliani dedicated a collection to miniature Mughal paintings, while Padmavat has brought back costumes worn by Rani Padmavati.
Designer Rahul Mishra reminisces about the sparrow that’s now rarely seen, and uses the motif of the bird in his garments. No matter where fashion goes from here, it will always find its roots in the past. Perhaps, it’s a smart way to stay securely connected.