When I looked around me in Paris this winter, I noticed a lot of women wearing coats that are in a “trapeze” shape, which means rather marked waist that is flared downwards. Like an “A-shape” from the waist and down. This particular shape of jackets and coats have been seen for a long time having their roats of the strongly marked waist from the middle of the 1800′s.
Women at this time were not only marking their waists with the choice of clothes, but they were also wearing crinolines. This huge “clip-on” shape that the crinoline became, also affected the outside garment of that time.

The coat was extremely marked in the waist, and below the waist it just fell out as a layer on top of this great wide dress.

This got to be interesting for men to, as we can see various coats from the mid or late 1800′s, where men also had their waist in focus, more or less depending of the exact years.
For example in the 1830′s when the suit with it’s  short front part came, well showing  a firm small waist  (you know the “matador” style) and the backpart became long like a birds wings folded backwards.

BUT, let’s not forget that men’s wear clothing throughout times still had their conservative rules..you had to stay clean and proper, classic, carefully showing what social level you belonged to, as well as looking like a real man!
As a result for this, the big classic straight-cut men overcoat, was (and is) a real classic! This is a trend that we can a lot of now… On men and women, probably even more for next winter. This kind of big coat is intresting to see next to the more feminine one..

Starting from the late 1600′s we could see the famous “trapeze” or flared shape. This triangular like shape became more and more soft, and far less sharp and “edgy”, with the years. At  the late 1700′s the waist was still in the center, but with slightly rounder shapes, instead of the almost
agressive-looking ones before.
In the early 1800′s the lower part of the coat is not flared but goes straight down, giving  the outfit a more masculin look, with it’s new, slim silhouette.
And only 15-20 years later the lower part of the coat got rounder again (for me clearly  more feminine), and not surprisingly this was about the same period as when women started to wear the famous crinolines! Finally in the late 1800′s, still keeping the well-curved waist, the look became more discrete and the lower part almost straight again.

And as for us women, this happend to our silhouette to! The crinoline was no longer a fashion must, and as often in fashion, when one thing goes the opposite comes! The waist was still marked, (until the 1920′s) but the earlier puffy skirt, was now a slim long shape, a bit flared at the bottom. This look went perfectly well with the slimmer look of the men!

So back to the trends of today, and what I’ve seen lately;
The jackets or coats are often long, slightly flared. The most interesting thing about this is that the coats are long and well cut to promote shape, but worn with an attitude that simply says “I don’t care, I just took my jacket on”…
I think this is an example of unisex fashion, inspired of men and womens costume history… Trends are inspired of something that has already happend, and has been reproduced in a new way, with a modern concept, so it fits in a new lifestyle.

Tags: Fashion

Posted on May 2