Greek and Roman Antiquity

The most lasting fashions have been those with shapes that——– a. emphasize the slim figure. b. accentuate high fashion silhouettes c. retain the natural contour of the body d. emphasize style and draw attention to the wearer. The correct answer is a. The history of costumes tends to favor answer a. and in minority c. Throughout the Greek and Roman Antiquity, as a healthy and slim body was assimilated to a healthy mind, the fashion have been favorable to those garments which flow naturally around the slim body, in suggestive drapes, while the Romans would add a belt to accentuate the waste line and thus the athletic stance of the person.

During the middle ages, the Elizabethan and Victorian ages until today, fashions varied from natural waist dresses to laced corsets to create a slim figure, while the men’s costumes, like that of the Sun King’s epoque (Louis the 14th) were made to give a longiline and delicate figure, on shoes with heals and high hoses and tights, as well as body-centered coats. All to emphasize the slim figure. It took to the beginning of the 20th century for the feminine figure to be freed from corsets, but not from the tyranny of the slim long figure cannon.

As skirt became shorter – up to the mini skirt, the legs and waste line had to adapt also. The sixties would prefer the slim child-like figures and until these days the models have elongated slender allures, as a constant of fashion preferences. Slim figures have always been the phantasm of all fashions, despite all its stylistic variations.

Resources (read, not quoted): http://www. victoriana. com/lady/palmer. html http://www. vintagevixen. com/fashionhistory. asp

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