ESSAY 1

ESSAY 1- FASHION OVER THE LAST ONE HUNDRED YEARS
When people began to wear clothes, new styles and designs were created. The early 20th century
saw a significant change in men and women's fashion from the days when clothing was mainly
constructed from plants, animal skins, and bones. Styles that were more cozy and pricey started
to appear because of societal changes, the effects of World War 1 on society, and the influence
of key fashion icons. Some fashion houses became well known, such as Coco Chanel in the
1920s and Gucci, an Italian design house founded by Guccio in 1921 and famed for its high-end
leather items.
Top hats, stiff collars, and fitted suits dominated menswear throughout the 20th century.
However, in the 1900s, comfortable clothing was promoted by the manner of art that emphasized
simplicity and efficiency. Practical innovations like trench coats and wristwatches that later
became a part of everyday clothing were introduced during World War 1. Bowler hats, wide
clothing, and chunky shoes became increasingly popular because of celebrities like Charlie
Chaplin.
In addition, models contributed much to fashion sense. When discussing the facial expressions of
models, Daniel Harris writes, "Two images from Vogue encapsulated the entire history of facial
expressions of models. During the last 100 years, a dour society matron sits rigidly upright in an
oval frame surrounded by a decorative border known to contemporaries as "spinach."1 Because
of this, the appearance of models and their facial expressions revealed a lot about the clothing
they were wearing.
On the women’s side, the influence of the suffrage movement and changing gender roles led to
practical clothing. The famous “flapper” was a dress designed in a straight way, sleeveless, often
low cuts and short about knee-length had dropped waistlines and short hemlines with a less sense
of traditional feminity. And pants like bell bottoms were introduced in the late 1960s and 1970s I
would say are my favorite because if up to date we still see some of these fashions coming back.
Coco Chanel also contributed a lot to the fashion industry during that time when it introduced
modernized women’s wardrobe with the little black dresses, the tweed, and others.
In Rwanda, there are some hairstyles that I find unique and love called the” amasunzu”. This
hairstyle was introduced by King Mutara 11 around the 1930s and was largely adopted and some
youths still practice it today. The traditional wear has been the “mushana” over the years
although it has been more modernized with different fabrics such as silk, cotton, stones, and
nylon. Rwanda is a developing country, there are not many manufacturing industries. Steven
Hagghlade notes that “Within textile clothing, consumers spend nearly half their budget on print
clothes. High-income rural consumers and most urban dwellers prefer to purchase cloth and then
have it sewn into shirts, pants, or dresses at a local tailor shop. But many, particularly in rural
1
Daniel Harris, “Some Reflections on the Facial Expressions of Fashion Models: 100 Years of Vogue,” Salmagundi,
1993, 128–40, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40548641.
areas, purchase cloth to wear as wraps which require very little tailoring”2. To fit into the modern
culture tailors have come up with “made in Rwanda attires that are normally designed with the
African material called “kitengi” with different designs normally zig zag and add it on shirts, t-
shirts, bags wallets and sometimes shoes to Africanize them. These can be worn by any age
group, and are on the list of some fashions I love that is why I give them credit for creativity
because they are exceptionally beautiful!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2
Steven Iatggtlade, “A REVIEW of RWANDA’S TEXTILE CLOTHING SUBSELTOR,” 1989,
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABC137.pdf.
Harris, Daniel. “Some Reflections on the Facial Expressions of Fashion Models: 100 Years of
Vogue.” Salmagundi, 1993, 128–40. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40548641.
Iatggtlade, Steven. “A REVIEW of RWANDA’S TEXTILE CLOTHING SUBSELTOR,” 1989.
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABC137.pdf.

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ESSAY 1- FASHION OVER THE LAST ONE HUNDRED YEARS

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