Trend: New proportions

Before you - the updated format of the heading "Trend". Here, as before, we pay attention to trends that somehow affect our appearance every six months, but we reflect on them in the context of more significant trends - trends. In the next trend, we are talking about the undying desire of designers to play with human proportions and things that can make a silhouette stretched, voluminous, futuristic, or simply strange.

Recently, the fashion industry has been a bit feverish: creative directors are changing one after another, chief editors come and go, designers show something fetish, then tenderness, and also - they play with human proportions in every possible way. High shoulders and voluminous sleeves are returning: this season they have Celine, Louis Vuitton and Stella McCartney, in the future - Jean Paul Gaultier, Maison Martin Margiela and Rodarte. Skirts that increase the hips, are becoming more and more magnificent. If in the spring-summer season, preference is given to multi-layered pleating, like in Chalayan, then in the next one Giles skirts will be equally popular, reminiscent of, say, Katrina Van Tassel from Sleepy Hollow or Emily Hamilton from Raven. For the time being, the over-waisted waistline returns to the background: in summer, these are short shorts with bright prints, like those of Dolce & Gabbana and Erdem, and in the next season wide trousers with high waists Haider Ackermann and Yves Saint Laurent.

From left to right: Comme des Garçons FW 1990; body Thierry Mugler; A.F. Vandevorst FW 2009; Calvin Klein archive; Uma Thurman in the film "Pulp Fiction"; backstage of the Thierry Mugler Haute Couture SS 1998; shot from French Vogue in September 1998

"For centuries, women rarely wore clothes that emphasized the real contours of their bodies," said journalist and blogger Anna Battista in one of her lectures. One cannot but agree with her: the designers changed the proportions of the female body depending on the historical realities. Take, for example, monumental dresses made of tight corsets and heavy skirts, which the girls did not take off until the beginning of the 20th century, and hide any hints of femininity in dresses of the Art Deco era. The former meant social stiffness and oppression, and the latter signified total freedom.

In the 1930s, fashion designers return to feminine forms: the emphasis is again on a wide bust and waist. Despite this, Elsa Schiaparelli dresses Marlene Dietrich in a man's suit, and sews a jacket with wide shoulders. The forties that have turned into the most tragic war in history can be explored using the latest Burberry collections and the Miu Miu FW 2011 collections - these are coats, fitted jackets and high-shouldered blouses, intercepted by a belt. The effect is enhanced by Christian Dior and his New Look. In recent seasons, the Dior proportions have recreated and continue to recreate a significant part of designers: from Mark Jacobs to Miuccia Prada.

Of course, the generation of designers of the eighties and nineties changed more radically than all the proportions. Thierry Mugler shackled models into iron corsets, with the result that the chest and hips became twice as wide, and the waist doubled. Claude Montana, who was famous for jackets with enlarged sleeves, made a considerable contribution to the fashion on broad shoulders: it seems that in recent seasons, designers have been quoting him. Unusually proportions changed by the creator of Comme des Garcons Rey Kawakubo. An idea of her experiments is given by the FW 2010 collection, in which volumetric inserts almost from foam rubber give the body shape. The New York Times author Katy Khorin, who called that CDG collection an inversion of the intestines, noted that Kawakubo showed something similar twenty years ago.

From left to right: Hanne Gabi Odiele in Balenciaga; Celine FW 2012; Erdem SS 2012; backstage of the show of Ulyana Sergeenko; Jil Sander FW 2012; shooting from AnOther; Jason Wu SS 2012

New proportions in the trends of the coming seasons

High shoulders and sleeves

In two seasons, the shoulder girdle has noticeably increased: the shoulder line has become high and rounded, the sleeves that continue it have become much wider. The combination of high round shoulders and volumetric sleeves is in the collections of Hakaan, Lanvin and Vivienne Westwood. The wide rounded sleeves in the collections are an order of magnitude larger: they, among other things, were demonstrated by Kirill Gasilin, Acne and Proenza Schouler. Sharp shoulders, the memory of which is still warm from the moment of general insanity on Balmain, have receded into the background. True, if you like them very much, you can take the example of Lady Gaga and turn to the surgeon: because of the love for the Mugler brand, the singer inserted herself shoulder implants.

High waist

It is no secret that shorts or high-waisted pants are one of the main ways to make legs even a little longer. Designers seeking to transform the proportions raise the waistline higher and higher: according to Balenciaga, Jil Sander and Yves Saint Laurent, next season the pants should be under the breast itself. Another option - shorts with a slightly less high waist - is found in the spring-summer collections of Carven, Giambattista Valli and Versace.

Surround fur

We have repeatedly talked about the popularity of ugly fur: on the vast majority of shows, from Alberta Ferretti to Maison Martin Margiela, the models were like a wet Chewbacca. Neat and incredibly voluminous coats from the collections of the next autumn are sewn mainly from Mongolian sheep fur. They can be almost neon, like Blumarine and Versus, multi-colored, like Meadham Kirchhoff and Moschino Cheap & Chic, as well as natural, like Michael Kors and Viktor & Rolf.

Bouffant skirts

Voluminous midi skirts of past seasons were a tribute to Dior's New Look, the era of the sixties and the TV series Mad Men. Now, regardless of the length (almost mini or already familiar midi) puffy skirts remind more of the Victorian era. Alexander McQueen emphasizes this similarity with open shoulders and flared sleeves, and in Oscar de la Renta with tiaras. The skirts are also shaped with feathering: this is what Bottage Veneta, Chanel and Gucci do. More casual choices are shown by Lanvin, whose little black dress is reminiscent of the form of a dancer, and McQ, who showed tight dome-like skirts like those that Mary Katranza is famous for.

Overcoat

More recently, only the creative director of Balenciaga, Nicolas Ghesquières, was not indifferent to the ovoid coat. But now they promise to be the main omen of the next fall: this form was shown by both Alyona Akhmadullina and Chloe. Coats follow, wide at the shoulders and tapering to the bottom, like those of Pedro Lorenzo and Rick Owens. Classic flared coats - the main find of the latest collection of Raf Simons for Jil Sander - also did not go unnoticed by designers.

New proportions in the images from the movie

If you think about the appearance of new (or rather, well forgotten old) proportions in the cinema, girls in close corsets and lush skirts of Tim Burton and, say, "Vain Search for Susan" with Madonna in the lead role will pop up. These examples once again show that the proportions that come together for the coming seasons, originate in different eras, but above all, of course, in the 1980s.

It is believed that the series "Dynasty", showing the confrontation of wealthy families from Denver, introduced the fashion on high shoulders. It is difficult to doubt: they are really there in each frame.

In The Business Girl, Tess McGill, performed by Melanie Griffith, climbs up the career ladder in jackets and leather jackets with voluminous sleeves.

In the most famous scenes from the film “Deadly Attraction,” high-school girlfriends wear blazers with accented large shoulders, which are complemented by shirts with massive brooches and pleated skirts.

The already mentioned Anna Battista used the images of Rachel from the film “Blade Runner” by Ridley Scott to illustrate her lecture on changing female proportions: the journalist was probably attracted by wide-shouldered jackets and voluminous fur coats.

"Liquid sky" of the USSR-born Glory Tsukerman is a film remarkable for every detail. His main character, a punk girl, lives in a strange, fantasy world, constantly abused and unable to find her happiness. Stylization appropriate: the characters wear futuristic costumes of the most unimaginable shapes and sizes.

The costumes of the Hunger Games emphasized the absurdity of the rich and free people of the future with the help of colorful costumes of exaggerated forms, and the heroic Katniss appeared in a red dress on one shoulder with a voluminous bottom and a leather jacket with sculpted shoulders.

Julia Us Interview Editor

I would like to emphasize that the hypertrophied elements in clothing now have a generally rounded soft shape. These are not signs of deconstruction: on the contrary, all such things have very clear features for visual perception. This is some logical change of sharp architecture, which has swept through the collections several seasons ago. Recalling how enthusiastically young designers tried to learn from large brands are the technically challenging sharp shoulders and volumetric geometry on the hips (now, by the way, replaced by soft waves of basques), I will assume that this trend can also have a positive effect on them.

Anastasia SartanCEO and co-owner of Trends Brands

Things that visually increase shoulders and hips, or create an emphasis on the waist, help create an hourglass silhouette that symbolizes a feminine figure. You can propagandize androgynous style as much as you like, but fans of classical femininity will always be. Women want not to fight with men, but to be loved by them. At Dolce & Gabbana, this trend is most pronounced, it is really an image of, say, an appetizing girl, but aesthetically closer to me is Jil Sander. I believe that it is better to go swimming and not to deceive anyone with fake shoulders, but to build up your own, which will still be useful in this difficult life.