Mix-n-Match

Playing with styles, mixing and combining different clothes and accessories from different eras and cultures, has been a hugely successful trend since the seventeenth century.

Bloomers

The fun of variety runs through the world of fashion, and you can often express your personality best with a mix of different styles.The taste for mix and match started at the end of the seventeenth century when exotic Chinese silks printed with birds, leaves and flowers were imported in Europe. Bringing together the flamboyance of the Baroque and fabrics with Eastern cuts, the fashion of the time created a cultural fusion between the two worlds. With the French Revolution, exoticism lost its hold – but it returned into fashion with Elizabeth Smith Miller and her “bloomer” movement. In her magazine The Lily, she promoted a new way of dressing, pairing knee-length dresses and belts with wide Oriental trousers and boots.

Teddy Boys

The style was criticized by contemporaries, and Amelia Jenks Bloomer – one of its main exponents – abandoned it in 1853. The idea of combining different cultures was taken up some decades later by Paul Poiret. Influenced by Diaghilev’s ballet, he brought together the Japanese kimono and the shapes of the Greek tunic and the kaftan, combining strong colours like orange, plum and black with the pastel shades of the Belle Époque. Later, in the 20s,Coco Chanel created the idea of “simple luxury” and by mixing basic pieces like cardigans, white sweaters and skirts above the knee, defended a straightforward take on luxury. Thanks to collaborations between artists like Jean Cocteau and Dalí with designers like Elsa Schiaparelli, Surrealism created a way of dressing freely, and in a way that was ironic and fun. After World War II, the Teddy Boys in Britain reinterpreted the American look, rock ‘n’ roll and the Edwardian era. They mixed jackets, velvet shirts, skinny pants, narrow ties and Slim Jim shoes, expressing their opposition to the values of the 50s. In the 70s, punk appeared as an anti-conformist movement that ran against the reigning ideology of the time.

It paired necklaces with ripped clothes, completing the look with shaved heads, Mohicans and piercings. Its main driving-forces were Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, who opened a punk shop in London’s King’s Road. During the 80s, cultural diversity and contact with African and Asian cultures party influenced ways of dressing. According to the work of the sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky, the continual need for reinvention has created sub-cultures in our hyper-modern age which use mix and match to bring individuals together in shared ideologies or lifestyles. One current designer who combines contrasting elements is John Galliano. As German designer Lutz, who is fascinated by blending different styles, said in Fashion Now 2: “I take things that are basic, integral parts of everyday life, and mix  them all together so in turn they stay familiar but at the same time become something completely different.”