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| Empress Eugénie With Her Ladies in Waiting by Franz Xavier Winterhalter, 1855 | Street style via wethepeoplestyle.com |
The more I study fashion the more the following becomes abundantly clear: fashion is cyclical.
Every season we see references to the past, both near and far, and reiterations of the same clothes over and over again. Consider fall's continued love affair with
the bohemian styles of the 1970s or the Shakespearian influences at the
Valentino Spring 2015 couture show; modern fashion is simply a way to make the styles of the past relevant once again.
This is the purpose of
Monarchy of Style: to bridge the gap between the trends of history with the styles of today. From inventive new clothing shapes to some of the first widespread trendsetting movements, historical ladies with power had large influence over the fashion world in the same way that celebrities and fashion bloggers influence our fashion choices today.
Fashion may seem trivial and frivolous in today's busy world, but those who know better understand that fashion plays an integral part in any society, past or present. We all wear clothes every day, and even when we don't feel as if we are consciously putting effort into choosing what we wear, we are all playing a part in the world of fashion (if you're not convinced,
this scene from
The Devil Wears Prada tells you everything you need to know).
Even if you don't work in the industry, chances are you've flipped through a fashion magazine or questioned a celebrity's interesting outfit. In the same way that we love our best and worst dressed lists and seeing what our favorite celebrities will wear next, people of the past paid a lot of attention to what the celebrities of
their day wore—and by celebrity, I mean royalty. The Kardashians may be the queens of television and celebrity style today, but not too long ago it was real queens and princesses who were the public figures of the day, and they were the ones who were being judged by the Fashion Police.
Marie Antoinette's ostentatious ensembles created civil outcry; Queen Elizabeth I inspired a whole generation of women to pluck their foreheads high and stay indoors to avoid the harsh rays of the sun (ugh, take me back to the days when being pale was in style); Cleopatra may be the reason why we are all still trying to perfect the flawless cateye look. Talk about fashion icons—these women had true power over fashion, and they used this power to their advantage.
Monarchy of Style is a blog that explores the relationship between these influential royal figures and the clothes they wore; how they dressed, how they influenced others with their fashion, and how others perceived them. For these women of power, fashion was perhaps their biggest tool, and we can all learn something about how these women used fashion to influence others and project their own self-image.
The next time you post an #OutfitOfTheDay picture on Instagram or stand before your closet deciding what to wear, think about what the Monarchs of Style would do. Don't just wear clothes; use them. They're one of the most powerful weapons we all have.
