Five Women Who Revolutionized Fashion

Five Women Who Revolutionized Fashion

If you wear short hair, message T-shirts or short skirts, it’s because of their golden hands and hardened steel character. “Femmes Fatales”, which takes place at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague, is the first exhibition in the history of fashion devoted entirely to creators, from Coco Chanel to Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior. The opportunity to unravel the links between mode and girl power.

  1. Gabrielle Chanel, Exit the Woman’s Corseted

Short hair? That’s her. The little black dress? Her again. He was also the tailor in tweed or jersey, and more broadly, the fact of wearing trousers or leaving a tan to his skin (in the spreading of sunscreen)… Born in 1883, at a time when men still ruled the roost on the seam, Gabrielle Chanel also called ” Coco Chanel “, raised in an orphanage has broken all the rules. She will be among the first to turn away from wearing the corset, the garment that has encased the breasts of women for five centuries. Embodying Parisian elegance, the fashion designer at rue Cambon has imagined a good part of our contemporary dressing room, from the Mariner to the ballerina shoe.

  1. Mary Quant, The Mini Skirt on Orbit

Before Mr. Courrèges, there’s Miss Mary Quant! The British were the first to popularize the short skirt in the 1960s. The “mini-skirt” owes its name to the designer’s favorite car: the Austin Mini 1000. “The real goal of fashion is to create fashionable clothes that are accessible to everyone,” Quant said. In his Bazaar Shops in West London, his dresses from col Claudine (iconic), his mini-shorts (hot pants that make scandal), his PVC clothes… the Ba-ba of the famous Swinging London style!

  1. Vivienne Westwood, Punk and Activist

She’s called ” the fashion freak.” In the 1970s, Vivienne Westwood dynamited codes by provoking a rock, rebel and baroque style: nails, chains and sexy stitches… ” VW ” is the great priestess of punk! Today, at the age of 77, her message remains militant: “I want people who wear my clothes to feel strong, powerful. “Politically committed from the beginning, the dresser of the “no future” actively mobilizes for several causes, including the defense of the environment (see her site that summarizes her philosophy).

  1. Rei Kawakubo

Born in 1942 in Tokyo, Rei Kawakubo broke the conventions of fashion, continually rebelling against the status quo. Her brand “Comme des garçons”, founded in 1969 after studying philosophy, is in her image. Grey, black, white, a little red: the Japanese stylist gives in minimalism, the conceptual. She undoes the lines, deconstructs the beauty and puts forward an asexual look from the podium. Often fiercely attacked after his parades, Rei Kawakubo has established himself as a reference since the 1980s.

  1. Maria Grazia Chiuri

Spring 2017. With 673 women’s marches taking place around the world, designer Maria Grazia Chiuri has her first collection of models paraded by Dior with a New-Look jacket and a T-shirt: “We Should All Be Feminists “. The sentence is borrowed from the writer and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. On the podiums, the demands are on! The first T-shirts with political slogans appeared in the 1980s. Katharine Hamnett, who in 1984 was received by Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street for Fashion Week, showed up with a “committed” T-shirt against nuclear missiles.