Deadly Israeli airstrikes pound Gaza as Doha talks raise hopes for ceasefire    Egypt accelerates coastal protection projects amid rising climate threats    Egypt's PM calls Israeli war on Gaza 'most dangerous crisis' at BRICS summit    Egypt's FinMin urges BRICS to support debt sustainability    Egypt's gold prices up on July 6th    Venezuela vows to uphold sovereignty on 214th independence anniversary    ADIB Egypt publishes second sustainability report for 2024    Egypt, Saudi FMs discuss Gaza truce, Iran-Israel tensions    Over 215,000 projects funded under Mashrouak, exceeding EGP 33bn in May: Minister    Egypt, Norway hold informal talks ahead of global plastic treaty negotiations    Greco-Roman tombs with hieroglyphic inscriptions discovered in Aswan    UN conference cites Egypt's 'NWFE' programme as model for development finance    Global tour for Korean 'K-Comics' launches in Cairo with 'Hellbound' exhibition    China's factory output expands in June '25    Philip Morris Misr announces new price list effective 1 July    Egypt teams up with private sector to boost university rankings    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Three ancient rock-cut tombs discovered in Aswan    Egypt condemns deadly terrorist attack in Niger    Egypt's FM, China's Wang discuss Iran-Israel escalation    Egypt's EHA, Schneider Electric sign MoU on sustainable infrastructure    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Grand Egyptian Museum opening delayed to Q4    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Egypt's EDA joins high-level Africa-Europe medicines regulatory talks    Egypt's Irrigation Minister urges scientific cooperation to tackle water scarcity    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    Egypt's Democratic Generation Party Evaluates 84 Candidates Ahead of Parliamentary Vote    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Cabinet approves establishment of national medical tourism council to boost healthcare sector    Egypt's PM follows up on Julius Nyerere dam project in Tanzania    Egypt's FM inspects Julius Nyerere Dam project in Tanzania    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



The way we wear
Published in Ahram Online on 06 - 07 - 2021

To say that Covid-19 has changed our lives is an understatement.
This pandemic has disrupted our lives to an unprecedented level in the last 100 years. Not since the 1920s have we experienced such drastic differences, such as those that followed the flu pandemic and the two world wars.
The change is likely to have a long-term impact on our behaviour, spending, priorities, lifestyles, and relationships, long after we see the end of it.
For one thing, our day-long shopping sprees are over. We have shifted from French perfumes, to hand-wash, soaps, sanitisers and such, which have already seen a spike of 300 per cent since 2019.
Even the clothes we wear will be different, or are already different. Wash and wear articles are far more desirable nowadays. All we need are self-cleaning clothes, and that may not be too far-fetched.
Let us pause for a moment and ponder on clothes. The have always been in the forefront of change following major global events. After World War I, the flu pandemic and the Russian Revolution, in came the 1920s roaring, with short, sexy dresses, loud music and jazz and Charleston steps, akin to a cleansing of a dismal past.
There was a time when everyone dressed in a similar way. The affluent upper classes were distinctly superior to the poorer, lower classes. Today, the class distinction has been rather blurred and everyone can follow fashion. Cheaper versions of the opulent designer runways are immediately reproduced to fit your pocket- book. The socio-economic difference may be apparent only in fit and fabric.
Besides, only a small minority dress in high-fashion runway styles. However, most of us choose to be fashionable.
Fashion, however, has taken a sharp turn, not only since Covid-19, but since the 1950s, when a casual trend took over. Some historians credit Steve Jobs for re-defining office-wear and the elevation of the casual style. The man/or woman, in the grey-flannel suit with starched shirt and tie is almost obsolete.
Despite the requirement of a dress-code of some kind, be it office or college, the trend has gradually moved to comfort and ease. We seek a middle-ground that retains our own style and individuality.
Why do we dress anyway? Do not smirk, it is a legitimate question that has plagued historians.
Since pre-historic times people in almost all societies have worn some kind of clothing. Different theories have been advanced as to why humans dress. One of the earliest is the modest/shame or fig theory, since the snake had Eve eat the fruit, and Eve had Adam bite it.
Perhaps that is why many theologians believe the fruit was the fig not the apple.
Other theories, with a non-religious view, is function. We dress to protect our bodies from the elements. Although in some societies people have worn little or no clothing, yet they have decorated their bodies with paint, tattoos, (still do) and other ornamentations, thereby conveying a message of who they are. We are obsessed with how we look.
No doubt what you wear is a form of statement, indicating some information about you, your individual personality, your economic standard, even where you are headed, a wedding, an opera or a business meeting.
In the aftermath of World War II more casual outfits became commonplace as women overtook men's jobs. In 1948, a dashing young French designer, Christian Dior, introduced the "New Look". Women went nuts over the longer skirts and the high waistlines. The war years had deprived them of such fastidious femininity, but it did not stick. Within two years women stopped buying them. They were not about to go back to cumbersome clothes.
Remember the little house-dress stay-home Moms used to wear? They were flung away in favour of shorts and pants, and that is when women really started to wear pants, copying Katherine Hepburn and Coco Chanel. Designers took notice and the pant-suit was born.
Following street trends, designers reproduced them with some refinement and rich fabrics. With denim there was little they could do. Americans made it popular globally. Designers took it from there, producing 300 styles of blue jeans, adding jackets, skirts, vests, shirts, even purses and sneakers, in that fabric that Americans love so much.
Denim, before it was blue, was milled in Genoa, Italy, which French weavers called Genes. Levi Strass arrived in San Francisco and realised that miners needed sturdier trousers. In the early 1860s he replaced canvas with the fabric milled in Nimes, France, "serge de Nimes" became denim in America, and until the young picked it up as their uniform, it was strictly a miner's attire.
A cool Italian journalist predicted in the 1930s that in 100 years we would all dress in uniforms. We are almost there. T-shirts and Jeans, (tattered and torn) are the dress of the young, and some adults are picking up the habit.
Back to Covid-19, fashion's flux is just beginning. Imprisoned in our leggings we can now lounge in bell-bottom pants and snazzy sweat suits. That old little house dress is embellished to a lounger dress fit for tea on the terrace. Designers are quick to oblige for as long as our restricted social activities last.
Of course there are always the classics that have stood the test of time — with minor changes to keep up with the trends.
Casual is the new chic, at least for now.
"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

*A version of this article appears in print in the 8 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly


Clic here to read the story from its source.