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Go Retro! |
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Using Vintage to Your Advantage |
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by Gail Nelson-Bonebrake |
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Neither of the Nanas is shy about doing fashion her way. There's no right way to dress, after all, and the Nanas mix all kinds of styles to create a look that's modern—and entirely original. Here's a guide to using retro fashion to help you achieve a look all your own—what styles defined the '50s, '60s, and '70s, where to find vintage fashion, how to combine looks, and where to spot style icons (outside Nana, of course)!
1950's
The styles of the '50s—christened the "New Look" by the fashion press—grew out of a desire to shed the cocoon of wartime austerity and blossom into extravagant, even exaggerated, femininity, but also out of an increasing pressure to conform. Wrote fashion designer Anne Fogarty, "The first principle of wife-dressing is Complete Femininity." Bounced out of the workplace and back into the home, many women dressed to fit their ladylike part, in dresses with floaty skirts and tight bodices, fitted sheaths, shirtwaist dresses worthy of a kitchen queen. Office attire consisted of tidy skirt-suits with narrow shoulders and well-defined waists, plus the requisite hats, gloves, and pumps. On the teen scene, every high school had its bobby soxers and its rebels. Nonconformist types could express their disdain clad in all-black, flat shoes, and a beatnik beret, à la Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (see "In Search of a Style Icon," right on page 213 in December 2005 issue of Shojo Beat Magazine) or in a motorcycle jacket and faded blue jeans, in the fashion of James Dean. |
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"Go Retro!" by Gail Nelson-Bonebrake has been edited for shojobeat.com;
the complete article appears in the December 2005 issue of Shojo Beat Magazine. |
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Want more articles like this PLUS six of the most addictive shojo manga from Japan delivered to your doorstep every month—before they hit the newsstands? Click here to subscribe now! |
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