Busting Social Conventions: Lingerie and diversity strike a pose
The second of a two-part interview with fashion curator Catherine Ormen
Earlier this month we spoke with fashion curator and
author Catherine Ormen about the history of fashion and lingerie. We continue
the second part of that interview with a look at how radical social changes had
an impact on the lingerie we wear and a woman’s sense of self.
LF (Lingerie Française): How do you see lingerie trends unfolding now and into the future?
CO: I think there’s a movement, spurred on by the Internet, that is increasingly about embracing individuality. The 80’s were tyrannical about beauty. When the 90’s came around, things started to ease up. You didn’t have to be perfect, toned, and look like everyone else. People started to become more health-conscious. I also think that people became more accepting of diversity and multiculturalism. Everyone suddenly had the right to be beautiful. Beauty came from within. It was less a purely outer thing. The culture was less tyrannical.
As we evolve toward celebrating individuality and diversity, brands are responding to this as well. They are designing for different needs and different body types. I think this shift toward individuality and diversity is going to become even more pronounced.
LF: On a personal note, what influenced when you were young that cultivated this interest in fashion and lingerie?
CO: Fashion is very difficult to study. In France, fashion has been such a dominant tradition since Louis XIV that it’s hard for us to step outside ourselves and view it with perspective. But fashion needs to be viewed in a larger context, since it is really a reflection of changes in society.
My personal interests were rooted in the study of art. I also like to study people and understand their relationships to themselves and their environments as an expression of history. For example: During the French Revolution, women dressed in very simple white dresses, without corsets or petticoats. They also didn’t wear wigs or make-up. And during that era, they wore all white because they loved cotton.
Cotton came from England at that time. It was the fruit of the economic boom of England and, to some extent, in America. And French women adored that cotton – it was a passion that corresponded with the discovery of bleach, the opening of windows in architecture, and a new sense of hygiene and cleanliness. People started taking baths again. They discovered vitamins. All of this was reaction against l’Ancien Regime. It happened progressively, but it was the end of an old world and the beginning of a new one.
LF: If you had a time machine and could revisit any time period, where would you go?
CO: I would probably go back to 1900.
LF: Why?
CO: Because I think in 1900, we finally came to the end of an era when women were completely dominated; when their bodies were totally domesticated to respond to social needs, which revolved around appearance. For example, when women wore corsets -- with their waists bound up, their butts pushed back into bustles, all enveloped in very heavy, contrained and fragile clothes -- you realize the extent to which they were a like trophy wives of the fifties. Women started wearing things under their corsets - a cache-corset with lace and so forth – as a way to better seduce their husbands. Because at that time, women often got married by obligation and under family pressure. They didn’t really have free choice. Back then you wore lingerie to seduce your husband so that he didn’t run off with a mistress and abandon you financially. Even the advertisments of the era were clear about this: Use lingerie to seduce your husband.
But eventually women changed: They started playing sports and riding bikes, which they couldn’t do in traditional corsets. They needed shorter and less constraining corsets. Eventually the bra was developed., and little by little, by the time WW2 came around, the corset was over. Women wore bras and underwear. This was hugely liberated, and it corresponded to an overall sense of social liberation as well.
This was a huge change- more dramatic than we can possibly imagine. And these changes will continue to unfold as our culture and our society changes. Lingerie will always be a reflection of these changes and a window into a woman’s sense of self. It was this way from the very beginning and it will continue to be the case into the unforeseen future.
LF (Lingerie Française): How do you see lingerie trends unfolding now and into the future?
CO: I think there’s a movement, spurred on by the Internet, that is increasingly about embracing individuality. The 80’s were tyrannical about beauty. When the 90’s came around, things started to ease up. You didn’t have to be perfect, toned, and look like everyone else. People started to become more health-conscious. I also think that people became more accepting of diversity and multiculturalism. Everyone suddenly had the right to be beautiful. Beauty came from within. It was less a purely outer thing. The culture was less tyrannical.
" WE FINALLY CAME TO THE END OF AN ERA WHEN WOMEN WERE COMPLETELY DOMINATED – WHEN THEIR BODIES WERE TOTALLY DOMESTICATED TO RESPOND TO SOCIAL NEEDS".
As we evolve toward celebrating individuality and diversity, brands are responding to this as well. They are designing for different needs and different body types. I think this shift toward individuality and diversity is going to become even more pronounced.
LF: On a personal note, what influenced when you were young that cultivated this interest in fashion and lingerie?
CO: Fashion is very difficult to study. In France, fashion has been such a dominant tradition since Louis XIV that it’s hard for us to step outside ourselves and view it with perspective. But fashion needs to be viewed in a larger context, since it is really a reflection of changes in society.
My personal interests were rooted in the study of art. I also like to study people and understand their relationships to themselves and their environments as an expression of history. For example: During the French Revolution, women dressed in very simple white dresses, without corsets or petticoats. They also didn’t wear wigs or make-up. And during that era, they wore all white because they loved cotton.
Cotton came from England at that time. It was the fruit of the economic boom of England and, to some extent, in America. And French women adored that cotton – it was a passion that corresponded with the discovery of bleach, the opening of windows in architecture, and a new sense of hygiene and cleanliness. People started taking baths again. They discovered vitamins. All of this was reaction against l’Ancien Regime. It happened progressively, but it was the end of an old world and the beginning of a new one.
LF: If you had a time machine and could revisit any time period, where would you go?
CO: I would probably go back to 1900.
LF: Why?
CO: Because I think in 1900, we finally came to the end of an era when women were completely dominated; when their bodies were totally domesticated to respond to social needs, which revolved around appearance. For example, when women wore corsets -- with their waists bound up, their butts pushed back into bustles, all enveloped in very heavy, contrained and fragile clothes -- you realize the extent to which they were a like trophy wives of the fifties. Women started wearing things under their corsets - a cache-corset with lace and so forth – as a way to better seduce their husbands. Because at that time, women often got married by obligation and under family pressure. They didn’t really have free choice. Back then you wore lingerie to seduce your husband so that he didn’t run off with a mistress and abandon you financially. Even the advertisments of the era were clear about this: Use lingerie to seduce your husband.
But eventually women changed: They started playing sports and riding bikes, which they couldn’t do in traditional corsets. They needed shorter and less constraining corsets. Eventually the bra was developed., and little by little, by the time WW2 came around, the corset was over. Women wore bras and underwear. This was hugely liberated, and it corresponded to an overall sense of social liberation as well.
This was a huge change- more dramatic than we can possibly imagine. And these changes will continue to unfold as our culture and our society changes. Lingerie will always be a reflection of these changes and a window into a woman’s sense of self. It was this way from the very beginning and it will continue to be the case into the unforeseen future.
August 10, 2015
