Nice and Nautical

A perennial summer favourite, the nautical look is back for summer 2010. Navy and white with a few dashes of red, stripes, and plenty of gold hardware and sailing motifs – sailor’s bows and ships’ anchors – encapsulate the look.

But what is really the fascination? Is it really just a cute, playful look that nostalgically reminds us of lovely summers gone past, and hours spent idling away on the boardwalk?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a total sucker for it (I’m wearing red and white stripes right now), but it is rather easy to forget that the origins of this fashionable trend lie in the military, a very serious subject indeed. This appropriation by women of men’s military uniforms has been going on for centuries.

Is it really just a cute, playful look that nostalgically reminds us of lovely summers gone past…?

It was war in fact, that made trousers – and uniforms – became acceptable wear and even fashionable for civilian women. In particular, rationing during the Second World War saw a minimalist, militaristic style influence women’s dress. Women donned trousers and proved that they were capable of doing a man’s work. Yet more than a century earlier during the Napoleonic Wars, French women were adopting the braid and lace of marshals’ costumes in the form of embroideries and epaulettes. The English soon followed in their footsteps. Few – if any – of these women would ever actually see a battlefield, or do a day’s hard work in a munition factory.

Were they honouring the men who went into battle, or did women’s fashion misappropriate the look and belittle the seriousness of war?

It is interesting that while fashion seems to trivialise serious world events or social and cultural issues, it does provide a mirror to these same social and cultural mores. Perhaps by turning a playful eye on these deep matters, fashion does its part to lighten the burden of difficult days. And all that is anything but trivial. 

Thanks to Kriss Szkurlatowski for the background image.