Ways Done in the Past - Fashion Trends
Was that photo in the background Van Kleef Aquarium, Singapore or winter in Britain in the 1950s?The winter fashion in 1957 was out of place in Singapore over 50-year ago.
Van Kleef Aquarium, a popular tourists place of interest located at River Valley Road in 1957 has been replaced by Underwater World Singapore, situated on Sentosa Island of Singapore, a unique and well-known oceanarium showcasing some 2500 marine life from 250 species from around the regions and is extremely popular with all our visitors for providing fun, leisure and educational experiences.
Underwater World Singapore was opened in 1991, with over 30 million visitors now.
"What do you know anything about fashion?", my senior citizen friends asked me.
I have to frankly admit that I know nothing about fashion, but I did try to follow fashion trends ways done in the past when I was in my 20s. I was then wearing "drain pipe-tight pants" and keeps Elvis Presley hairstyle and some other fanciful fashion to keep up with the times.
After awhile, I realised that Elvis Presley's hairstyle looks attractive, no doubt - on his head...but the same hairstyle on my head looked weird!
I have never been a fashion-conscious guy since the "mata cheng teh khor" ("policeman wears shorts' in Hokkien) days.
I have poor taste for fashion and always keeps to simple hairstyle and clothings since my National Service days.
It doesn't matter now that I love my "botak" look!
I need consolation to refrain from feelings and thoughts of jealousy or envy about other people with a crowning glory and a whole head of hair. I was born with lots of hair on my head when I was young too. At one time I thought to myself that it is better to have grey hair than hairless...
Fashion and fashion trends mainly refers to anything which is popular in a culture at any given time. It is inclusive of areas such as; style of dress, cuisine, literature, art, architecture, fashion trends and many other popular factors. Fashion trends often change rapidly, and "fashion" is often used to describe the latest version of these trends.
The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are used to illustrate whether or not someone or something fits in with the current fashion trend or even a certain type of popular mode of expression. The term "fashion" is often used in a positively as a synonym for style, glamour and beauty. However the term "fashion" can have negative connotations of fads and trends, and materialism. Popular fashion trend centres include New York, London, Milan and Paris.
Singaporeans, young and old, guys or gals are the most fashionable people in the world. They are no longer "suaku" or out-of-fashion from top to toe. The toe-nail designs and color are the most fashionable when we look around everywhere in Singapore.
With courtesy of David Teo Boon Hwee's "Anecdotes and muses about the photographic life" blog on "When Fashion Stops Traffic" blog posted on March 18, 2012 at Orchard Road, the "Happening Street" of Singapore.
Next, my blogger friend Jerome Lim's blog here of the similar topic with camera lens aimed at another different creative angles to share and enjoy the latest fashion news.
Thank you, Jerome. I have taken the liberty to link to your related blog to share with everyone here. Your professional photos with high-quality standard are suitable for publication in the international fashion magazines.
With the courtesy and acknowledgement of National Archives of Singapore with thanks to show everyone the old photos related to this blog topic.
Fashion Trends in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s
Tailors' Exhibition & Men's Fashion Show at Victoria Memorial Hall c 1967.
Hats, Hairstyles, Shoes & fashion accessories
Siput Sarawak (mother of well-known singer Anita Sarawak) c 1953.Anita Sarawak was her ever effervescent self here .
To a practical businessman interested in making money and economic sense, fashion is good business, fashion makes everyone to be beautiful and happy!
In the 1970s, long hair was frowned upon during the sex, drugs and rock & rollers, "Hippies - people with flowers in their hair", and the "Peace and Flower Power Movement" in the US. Rock and Roll was at its peak, with Woodstock. This kind of western negative influence as a fashion trend which the government was concerned with long hair for men was seen as dope consuming, trouble making, rebellious rockers.
Fortunately, it was a passing fashion trend which the Hippie movement died down in the United States and many parts of the world.
Optional Reading:
The excerpted project page for coordinating the rewrite of the article Taste (sociology). Related casual discussion about practical issues...heavy theory stuff for anybody interested in reading. Please skip this optional section on fashion trends.
There's a link between fashion and taste. Fashion can be seen as a mechanism which defines what good taste is. Things which are in fashion are usually considered as beautiful or good, but being in fashion can also have a negative meaning. It can mean something that fades away and changes constantly without actually ever being able to define what's beautiful or stylish because every new fashion is different from its predecessor.
Goods have been representations of status and for example in the 15th century england attitude towards goods was that the older goods families had, the higher social status the family had. Only old and respected families possessed items that were inherited through generations. During the cultural change that occurred, the social value of an item was begin to be defined by items novelty instead of patina (the age of the item). Only rich families had money to buy new goods. Novelty was no longer seen as a mark of commonness.
This want for novelty is something that is essential in fashion. Fashion is always something new, something that's never been seen before. If it stays still, it becomes a tradition and tradition is always seen as vulgar. Fashion satisfies the consumers demand for novelty over and over again. Even though, in reality, it often just repeats and varies old styles and models. Fashion regulates things that could just as well be otherwise.
Usual concept of fashion in sociology is that fashions are always class fashions. The usual model of fashion is that it has origin in the upper level of society from which they descend the social ladder. What was new in the hands of upper classes loses it's high status and descends to the hands of lower classes. Therefore fashion also unites members of social class and at the same time distinguish them from others. It can be seen as a product of class distinction.
Pierre Bourdieu's attempt was to show how individual tastes, and lifestyles in general, are connected to different positions in the social structure. In addition to social hierarchy of consumers, there exists also a hierarchy for cultural practices and goods. And what Bourdieu claims is that between these two hierarchies, there is a structural association.
According to Bourdieu, an individual taste is a product of upbringing and education, and, therefore, associated with class background. By assessing relationships between forms of capital (cultural and economical) and social practices, he identified different class fractions in 1960's and 1970's France, each distinct in their tastes.
Working class ("taste of necessity")
Cultural elite (high total volume of capital, higher cultural than economic capital)
Economic elite (high total volume of capital, higher economic capital than cultural capital)
Middle classes: ("taste of cultural goodwill")
Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1 Comments:
I'm not a fan of today's fashion. It seems that the less it covers, and the more titillating it is, the better it is, leaving nothing to the imagination. We enter a age of vulgarity and anything goes culture. No wonder, I always prefer to watch beautiful ladies dressed in the beautiful costumes of the bygone golden age of dressing, thousands of years ago.
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