The punk period features fashions that expressed anger against society and included brightly coloured hair, ripped clothes and studded belts.
The New Romantics was a youth fashion movement,
developed in 1960s in London. It is strongly associated with music, which was inspired by historical periods, especially the English Romantic Movement. Fashions had a dramatic, flamboyant look with luscious fabrics, loose shirts with frills and short shirt collars, unfolded,
with top buttons unfastened and using monotone colours. Power dressing is a stylish and perhaps expensive way of dressing (usually for business, the professions or politics) which is intended to give the impression that the person wearing the clothes is assertive and competent, through the use of structured shapes, shoulder pads, smart fabrics, high heels and clean cut styling
in the form of work uniform. Whether wearing particular styles of clothing empowers the wearer or whether newly-empowered people simply wear clothes that reflect their achievements is an open question.
Miami Vice was a classic 1980s TV crime drama about two detectives who go undercover to fight drug traffickers. The series – and the 2006 film – was
noted for its strong use of music and visual effects; it has been rebroadcast around the world. During the five years of making this TV series the producers explicitly sought the advice of designers
(eg Gianni Versace, Hugo Boss) in order to display the latest European fashion trends, with the result that Miami Vice had a
significant influence on 1980s men’s fashion in the USA and elsewhere, and even on the 2000s revival (it was called “retro” or “retrospective style”). The clothing
style of the TV detectives, Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs, had pastel coloured T-shirts and suits, no socks,
sunglasses, and an unshaven appearance of a small amount of beard stubble.
Heavy metal music is a kind of rock music that developed in the UK and USA in the late 1960s and early
1970s, characterized by loudness, speed, distorted amplified sounds and extended guitar solos. Converse is a company which has produced basketball shoes since 1917, especially the Chuck Taylor All Stars trainers (often abbreviated to “Chucks” or “Cons”), named after the basketball player who contributed to the design and was the company’s best salesman.
Nike is a leading supplier of sportswear and equipment. This
American company started making Nike shoes in 1971. They are named after the Greek winged goddess of victory.
The stock market indexes show the performance of the stock market, typically reflecting the rise and fall of
the shares of large companies, eg the FTSE (also “footsie”) is an index of the top 100 companies listed on the
London stock exchange and the Nikkei 225 is an index of the stock market in Tokyo.
Language points
1 No history of fashion in the years 1960 to 2010 can overlook or underestimate two constant
factors: the ubiquitous jeans and ... (para 1) The word ubiquitous means present everywhere. Thus the
ubiquitous jeans means that jeans can be found everywhere.
2 Exactly why women should want to expose more or less of their legs during periods of economic
boom and bust remains a mystery.
An economic boom is a sudden increase in trade, business activity and development in a particular
area or region; an economic bust is a business failure or bankruptcy because of lack of money.
The expression economic boom and bust describes cycles in which a boom period of growth, high
production and rising prices is followed by economic decline, contraction and unemployment before a new cycle.
3 Whenever the economic outlook is unsettled ... (para 2) The economic outlook is unsettled means the economy is
unstable, that is, the economy has problems and is likely to change suddenly, making people uncertain about what may happen in the future. 4 It was given greater respectability when the great French
designer, Courrèges, developed it into an item of high fashion. (para 4)
For a while the miniskirt was controversial and not respectable because it showed a large extent of the wearer’s legs, but when Courrèges developed it in Paris fashion shows, this gave approval and support, because the miniskirt could be considered an item of high fashion (having high status from a Paris fashion house).
5 ... but the predominant colours became olive green and oatmeal. (para 10)
Predominant colours refer to the most common colours or those which seem more important or powerful.
6 ... which were described by one commentator as “the prim and proper look is in …” (para 11)
A fashion is in when it is a new or current style, or out when it is out-of-date.
7 During the whole period, fashion styles have ranged widely, and have usually been sparked off by
a desire to identify people as belonging to a particular sub-culture. (para 14)
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