The document is a presentation about the evolution of fashion from the 1920s to present day. It summarizes key fashion trends, iconic figures, and influences from each decade. A survey found that most girls believe fashion says something about a person, while most boys think it somewhat does. Of different decades, 1950s-1970s fashion has the biggest influence on students at McMaster University today. Photos and information came from various blogs, websites, and publications about fashion history.

1. 0748186.
The Evolution of
Fashion.

2. Description to “The Evolution of
Fashion”…
My presentation will be about the evolution of fashion from the 1920’s to the present, by focusing
on emerging trends and their fashion icon counter parts. Through following the evolution of
fashion we can see how new trends emerged, how some trends quickly disappeared, and
observe the ones that surprise us by coming back all over again.
As the presentation continues, each slide will introduce you to a different era of fashion,
complete with photographs, text and information that will better your understanding of what
certain items of clothing represented to the individual wearing it and to those around them.
Fashion is much more than clothing, it is a physical representation of who we are and what we
like as an individual.
“…Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
- Coco Chanel

3. 1920s-1940s
The 1920s brought fashion into the modern era.
Referred to as the “Roaring Twenties”, women
began to wear skirts and dresses that were
comfortable rather than constricting. And men
dressed in more casual suits rather than the formal
wear that was the norm. The most defining style of
the 20s was the Flapper. Flappers were women
who dressed in short skirts, had a bobbed haircut,
smoked, and showed their discontent with the
mainstream society. Actress Norm Talmadge (right
above) was know as your prototypical Flapper.
Here we see her wearing a Flapper Dress, showing
her arms, wearing heels which was also a new
style to emerge in the 20s.
1930s known as the “Stylish Thirties” was the
return of a more contemporary lady like look whose
main stylistic feature for this period was the
emphasis on the shoulders. The 1940s continued
this look while experimenting with more synthetic
fibers, the introduction of nylons and the use of the
zipper. Bathing suits were also a huge trend as
traveling became part of North Americans Lifestyle.
Fashion icons included actors Fred Astaire and
Lauren Bacall (right below).

4. 1950s-1970sThe 1950s was the “Glamour Decade”. The
designs of Christian Dior was largely influential to
the style of the period as his designs came after
the war and emphasized women’s figures
something that hadn’t been done in a while.
Fashion trends of the 50s included the ever
famous Audrey Hepburn little black dress, shaped
fitted jackets, A line skirts to emphasize a women’s
waist, as well as hairstyles which included the
beehive and the classic tight curls.Icons included,
Marilyn Monroe, Brigette Bardot, Carey Grant. With
the rise of new music and Italian inspired mod
fashion the 1960s was a time for change in the
fashion world. Tons of trends emerged included
the mini skirt, bare legs instead of stockings, usage
of lace, and hats for both women and men. Major
fashion icon was skinny model Twiggy.
With the Hippie movement in the late 60s and
traveling into the early 1970s, fashion became a
large statement of an individual. With the summer
of love, light airy fabrics, tie die and baby doll tops
were huge trends. Late 70s again was influenced
through music. Disco fashion was introduced with
high platforms, flashy colours and tight clothing for
both women and fashion. Icons of this era were
Farrah Fawcett, and John Travolta.

6. 1980s- Present.The 1980s were full of emerging trends that came
and went. From big shoulder pads to even larger
hair, the 80s were all about making a large
statement. Accessorizing also became a huge
trend in the 80s. From earrings, to hair pins, to
fishnet stockings accessories were what made the
outfit, especially it was flashy and bold in colour. A
major icon was of course Madonna, whose fashion
style was copied by thousands.
From the 1990’s to the present, we see new trends
forming but we also see a huge comeback of many
of styles from the previous fashion decades. Rock
music of the 90s had an influence in style including
the creation of the ‘grunge’ and ‘emo’ scene. New
trends also include dark denim jeans especially the
famous skinny jeans, high fashion gym wear like
Lululemon, the flat shoe and the scarf or pashmina
that goes with every outfit not just your out door
wear. However the present has definitely become a
collection of trends from previous decades. Ray
ban sunglasses, Audrey Hepburn’s tiny black
dress, 80s accessories, hippie inspired bohemian
dresses, the 1950’s hairstyle and so many more.

7. Past inspired fashion

8. Does fashion say a lot about who
you are as an individual?
As discussed before, many different styles
represented different social meanings to
those around them. What you choose to
wear and how you choose to present
yourself can say a lot about you. Or does
it? I decided to ask 20 girls and 20 boys
what they thought about whether or not
fashion says a lot about an individual?
As you can see form the results on the
chart, the majority of girls said yes, and the
majority of the boys said sort of. These
results show us that girls put more
importance on what they are wearing
because of the belief that it displays a
message about you. Where boys seemed
to be unaware or undecided on whether or
not fashion has that much effect on
surrounding people and what they perceive
of you based on your outfit.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Yes No Sort of
Boys
Girls

9. Which fashion decade influences
your style the most?
As one of the previous collages showed us,
past styles continues to influence our
fashion sense today. Fashion icons of the
present such as Jennifer Lopez, Scarlett
Johansson and Ed Westwick complete their
outfits with past inspired trends.
I though it would be interesting to see of the
fashion eras I explored, which one has the
most influence on the students at McMaster
University. After asking several students the
pie chart shows that while most students
seem to be influenced by the most recent
decades, a large number of students take
ideas for their own style from the time era
between 1950- 1970s.
No matter whether students were born to
even experience a certain decade, the
trends of the past re appear and affects
what they pick to wear and how they look.
Style therefore lives on forever. And today
we are creating fashion trends that will
appear on the generations to come.
1920-
1940s
1950s-
1970s
1980s-
2007

10. Citations…
Photos Courtesy of… Information from…
Blog.lib.umn.ed www.Wikipedia.org
www.sarasattic.co.uk www.fashion-era.com
www.thefashionspot.com www.thinkexist.com
www.time.com
www.vintagestyles.com
www.vogue.com
www.gossipgirlnews.com
www.fashionmuseum.co.uk
www.retrowow.co.uk
www.thefashionpolice.net
www.liketotally80s.com
www.people.com
www.geocities.com