I am sooooo sleepy and I need to do put up something quickly before I doze off at the keyboard. How about this: the incredible backward men's fashions in Renaissance Italy around 1480 or so?
Both of these Botticelli portraits have the same problem, the heads look they're twisted backwards, Exorcist-style. The faces seems to be looming over the subjects' backs! I used to think that the fault was Botticelli's, that he just couldn't draw a decent male chest to save his life, but I think I was mistaken. I've seen the same problem in other portraits from that era. Apparently backwards fashions were all the rage in those days.
I shouldn't be surprised. In my own time I've seen Ultra-baggy pants, stove-pipe pants, Jogging shorts over long pants, maxi skirts, mini-skirts, girls' shorts with lace trim that looked like underpants, camel-toe jeans, fanny packs over stretch bike-racing pants, formal shapeless grey Frankenstein jackets for men, checkered sneakers, cars designed to look like sneakers, girls' goth outfits complete with metal lunchbox and voodoo doll, big combs left in male afros, gold chains worn with T-shirts, tongue studs, day-glow fishnet T-shirts, mass-market shirts with "BUM" written on them. torpedo bras, no bras, penciled-in eyebrows, bee sting lips....well, it would be a long list. What modern person is entitled to look with disdain on the Italians for wearing backwards clothing?
Both of these Botticelli portraits have the same problem, the heads look they're twisted backwards, Exorcist-style. The faces seems to be looming over the subjects' backs! I used to think that the fault was Botticelli's, that he just couldn't draw a decent male chest to save his life, but I think I was mistaken. I've seen the same problem in other portraits from that era. Apparently backwards fashions were all the rage in those days. 
I shouldn't be surprised. In my own time I've seen Ultra-baggy pants, stove-pipe pants, Jogging shorts over long pants, maxi skirts, mini-skirts, girls' shorts with lace trim that looked like underpants, camel-toe jeans, fanny packs over stretch bike-racing pants, formal shapeless grey Frankenstein jackets for men, checkered sneakers, cars designed to look like sneakers, girls' goth outfits complete with metal lunchbox and voodoo doll, big combs left in male afros, gold chains worn with T-shirts, tongue studs, day-glow fishnet T-shirts, mass-market shirts with "BUM" written on them. torpedo bras, no bras, penciled-in eyebrows, bee sting lips....well, it would be a long list. What modern person is entitled to look with disdain on the Italians for wearing backwards clothing?
It would seem the fashions that have been suffered on you have been so by the late eighties and the following decade. For that, dammit, on the behalf of my poorly tasted peers I am so very sorry.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for the fashions of Clockwork Orange to come true.
I had a BUM t-shirt I got second-hand from a mexican family when I was 8. I wore whatever my mother told me to, sadly. One day the school bus driver took a picture of me walking down the street in it. CREEPY!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, so in Freddie Got Fingered Tom Green was trying to revive Renaissance Italian fashions in the 21st Century. I don't think he succedded. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh well. Fashion Schmashion I say. We definitely need clothes, but I could care less about what type of apperal is in style now.
Hey Eddie, The "backwards clothing" fad was back in the early 1990's too..."Kris Kross will make you jump"...Haha, pathetic! Maybe they were just copying the Italians.
ReplyDeleteok, i pick camel-toe jeans
ReplyDeleteAlright David, let's se a picture. I want to see your lack of fashion.
ReplyDeleteBoth of those portraits are of the same person. This proves that his head WAS on backwards.
ReplyDeleteYou told me a great theory about cartoonists and fasion, I slightly forget exactly waht you said though, do you remember?
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of fashion, I want to put it out there that I might be the most beautifully fashionable male without harming my manliness. Ask me how I do it!
ReplyDeleteI've always felt that style was more important than fashion. Style is timeless while fashion comes and goes.
ReplyDeletehaha! great list of fashion atrocities. and you know that's only a fraction of it.
ReplyDeleteAlright David, let's see a picture. I want to see your lack of fashion
ReplyDeleteKali, have you ever seen a guy in a T-shirt and jeans? That's the only thing I wear all year round. Nothing spectacular at all. And that's the way I likes it.