Christian Dior A Classic Fashion Paradigm of the 21st Century - Coursework Example

The essay "Christian Dior A Classic Fashion Paradigm of the 21st Century" talks about Christian Dior and his role in the context of fashion. Archaeologists have also retrieved garments from tombs along the Nile River valley. A dress from about 3000 BC, excavated in AD 1912, was rediscovered in 1977 among a bunch of dirty linen rags in a museum in London, England. It later went on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, also in London. Perhaps the world's oldest fully preserved garment, this dress consists of a skirt attached to a pleated bodice (fitted upper part) with a V-shaped neckline and long sleeves.

Two other ancient Egyptian dresses survive from about 2400 BC. A Greek style in dress became fashionable in France shortly after the French Revolution (1789-1799), because the style was thought to express the democratic ideals for which that revolution was fought. Clothing reformers later in the 19th century admired ancient Grecian dress because they thought it represented timeless beauty, the opposite of complicated and rapidly changing fashions of their time. Aspects of Roman clothing also have had an enormous appeal to the Western imagination.

The modern Western bride has also inherited elements from ancient Roman wedding attire, such as the bridal veil and the wedding ring. Clothing in West Africa shows the influence of Islamic styles imported from North Africa, especially in the extent to which it covers the body. Women usually wear a long wrapped skirt, a loose blouse, and a head wrap. Many of the skirts are made of printed cloth. (Steele, 2007) Asia can be roughly divided into Chinese and Indian spheres of influence. Chinese clothing styles have influenced the clothing of neighboring countries, including Japan and Korea; Indian clothing styles have influenced the clothing of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Thailand.

(Steele, 2007) Although the kimono- a T-shaped garment with wide sleeves that was tied with a sash-remained essentially unchanged as the basic article of clothing for Japanese women for centuries, colors and patterns changed according to the current fashion, as did the way of wearing kimonos. Social conventions also influenced kimono styles. A kimono with a brightly colored flower pattern and long dangling sleeves was, and is still, regarded as suitable only for a young, unmarried woman.

(Steele, 2007) In the early 20th century, traditional clothing began to give way to styles that combined elements of Asian and Western dress. For example, in the 1920s Chinese women began wearing the qi pao (or in Cantonese, the cheongsam), a new slim dress with a high collar and a slit skirt that combined Chinese, Manchu, and Western styles. After a Communist government led by Mao Zedong took control in China in 1949, Chinese people increasingly had to wear the so-called Mao suit, a jacket and trousers of heavy, dark blue cotton.

The outfit, which resembled a uniform, was worn by Mao. After Mao died in 1976, the Chinese began again to choose their own styles of dress, and interest revived in the traditional clothing of China's many ethnic minorities. (Steele, 2007) The sari, a long piece of fabric, is made of cotton or silk, often elaborately decorated with dyed, woven, or embroidered patterns is worn in India. It is wrapped around the body and worn with a short, fitted bodice. There are many styles of wrapping saris, and various styles are associated with