Twenties Nostalgia

Twenties Nostalgia

EXHIBITIONEXTRASABOUT
Intro Twenties Nostalgia Dreams and Discontent Obsession with Youth Music Mania Cultural Appropriation Mode and Modernity
Timeline Curator Walkthrough Jazz and Twenties Black Glamour One Hour Dress Vintage Style, not Vintage Values The Plus Pattern Project Educational Material
Student Bios Credits Process
Twenties Nostalgia
“… it is literally true that a woman dressed in the clothes of the late 'twenties could walk about the streets today without exciting comment,” wrote James Laver in his book, Women's Dress in the Jazz Age (Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1964). Searching for a style to suit the 1960s, fashion designers looked back to the 1920s. Already in 1960, American fashion designers James Galanos and Norman Norell introduced dresses with waistlines at the hip. Paris couturiers Marc Bohan for Dior and Pierre Cardin joined the revival by 1961. Life magazine attributed this resurgence to the award-winning French documentary about the 1920s, Les Années Folles (1960). Fashion designers were also inspired by 1920s art. In 1960, Norman Norell released a collection inspired by a 1921 portrait by Dutch-French painter Kees van Dongen. Then in 1965, Yves Saint Laurent showed designs inspired by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
1929 Piet Modrian Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow painting
Piet Mondrian painting
Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow
Oil on canvas,
17.72 x 17.72 in (45 x 45 cm),
1929
Yves Saint Laurent dress
Multicolor wool jersey,
Fall 1965,
France
Yves Saint Laurent released his “Mondrian” collection in fall 1965. Reflecting on the collection in 2004 he said, “I knew when I solicited the oeuvre of Mondrian that I had before me a true discovery. But I never suspected that, so many years later, the Mondrian dress would carry such great importance.”
Leather and plastic boots
c. 1966,
USA
The work of Piet Mondrian from the 1920s was very influential to 1960s design. Although Yves Saint Laurent’s “Mondrian” collection is the most well-known, many designers of the 1960s were inspired by the artist both before and after Saint Laurent’s collection was released. These boots from the MFIT collection are an example from 1966.
Molyneux evening dress
Blue chiffon with sequins and satin-lined organza,
1926-1927,
France
Norell evening dress
Wool crepe,
c. 1965,
USA
In July 1965, Norman Norell showed dresses that were virtual copies of 1920s designs by the couturiers Gabrielle Chanel and Edward Molyneux. Norell was reviving styles from the first decade of his career. Models walked the runway styled with short hair, smokey eyes, red lips, and rouged knees.
1928 Fashion Plate depicting the back of a woman wearing a green lace sleeveless dress with a low V-shaped back, high-low hemline and long train
Cheney Brothers fashion plate
“Woman in Green Lace Princess Dress,”
1928,
USA
Givenchy dress
Silk chiffon,
c. 1960s,
France
The clear similarities between this 1928 illustration and 1960s Givenchy dress validate art historian James Laver’s claim that a woman dressed in fashions from the late 1920s would still be in vogue in 1964. The designs share similar silhouettes and fabric, and both place visual emphasis on the flatness of the back.
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