Linear and Painterly in the fashion cycle

I have always studied fine art throughout school, and in sixth form and college i studied textiles and fashion. I have noticed lots of similarities and cross overs in all of these areas, however the Linear and Painterly concept within fashion is one that i have found the most interesting and relevant to me, and one that i have started to subconsciously notice.

Fashion is much more closely linked to art than i ever thought. Much like fashion art, styles of art follow trends.I personally consider fashion and fashion design to be an art form, which means that the two main styles that split art works, also apples to fashion.

Painterly is the word used to describe the painting style and process of the 'gradual depreciation of line or massing of values while losing the edges of objects'. I personally see the Painterly style as being a more detailed maybe romantic, colorful or decitant style of painting.

 

 

An example of the Painterly style first being seen in fashion, was in the 1600's. The extravagant fabrics, bright colors, multiple textures, ruffles and jewels, where used to depict wealth and status, and fit into the definition of painterly.

Linear is used to describe the painting style that is ' relating to the characteristics of a work of art in which forms and rhythms are defined chiefly in terms of line, or

having the form of or resembling a line'. I see Linear as basically being a more structured style of art, having more clear lines, restrictions and accuracy. Linear is typically seen as a more modern style.

 

An example of a bold linear style in fashion was in the 1960's...

What i find most interesting about these two styles and fashion, is the clear cycle that it follows. Since as long as people remember, fashion has followed a clear painterly and then gradually back to linear they back to painterly, over and over again...











I think that an interesting thing i picked up on when looking at the changing back and forth of the fashion trends, was that the changes have sped up considerably. Decades ago it would take more gradual changes for people to move from painterly to linear styles (or the other way), however as time progressed the changes became faster and more dramatic. It is almost as if we buy so much into one of the two styles that we over do it, and almost have a complete purge. The best example i could see of this was in the 80's and 90's. The 80's was so painterly, more was more in every way, however when the 90's hit everyone seemed to strip right back, and minimalism was the only way.


Although there seems to be more variety in fashion and personal style than ever, and individuality is such a hot topic and trend within fashion, overall we are defiantly in a painterly era. This year was the year for the most frills, bows, patterns, colours and even feathers! than ever seen before on the runways. I am excited to see where this phase of the trend takes us, and wait for the inevitable sudden shift to minimal.