Don't Like the Olsen Twins' Fashion? Click Here
Posted Dec. 12, 2008 at 3:43 pm by Erika Hobart
I adore fashion. I hate fashion writing. I especially hate magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar that hail celebrities like the Olsen twins "fashion forward" with their weird head scarves and caked on makeup. See above photo. Seriously. Any woman in her right mind knows that dark lips AND dark eyes are a no-no. You pick one or the other.
The problem with these magazines (besides the fact that they're always wrong) are that they take fashion way too seriously. It's rare to find a writer who makes their living writing about fashion while being entirely aware what a trivial matter it really is.
That's why I'm totally loving Kate Hahn's Forgotten Fashion: An Illustrated Faux History of Outrageous Trends and Their Ultimate Demise (TOW Books, $12.99). The book, which contains illustrations by Project Runway's Andrae Gonzalo, provides a historical timeline of fashion trends—alongside bullshit context that mock the pretentiousness so many fashion books contain.
Below are two of my favorite bits:
1943: The fidelity cardigan. Hahn claims that women whose boyfriends were away at war began to wear drab, poorly fitted sweaters to hide their figures and thus, make it easier to remain faithful. If a woman strayed regardless, she would mail one of her cardigan buttons to her soldier sweetheart. These buttons were dubbed "heartbreak bullets" and loaded into the soldiers' guns to shoot enemies.
1998: Emotionally distressed jeans. Apparently, we have a study by a group of UPenn psychology grad students to thank for this fashion craze. Said psych majors instructed students sent to mental health counseling to take out their anxiety on denim instead of themselves for a week. Those students came back at the week's end reporting that they felt better about themselves. Their ripped creations were sold for $5,000 a pair and psychology department split the profits.
...If only there was a chapter on the evolution of Mary Kate's "boho chic" look. Regardless, it's a pretty entertaining read and your fashionista friends should get a kick out of it. Unless, you know, they're the Anna Wintour type.
Topics: Books & Authors and Fashion
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Cover Story: Critical Mass
