The new Romantic Period emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United Kingdom.
It was a youth movement deeply interwined with new wave and synth pop music and a reaction to and progression of the punk movement. It was characterized by shifting gender roles, radical sexual politics, rapid technological change and growing club scene. Very important for the development of the movement was growing popularity of mass media and arrival of MTV - Music Television.
The New Romantic Fashion often referenced historical clothing from 18th and 19th century, such as frilled shirts or frock coats, evoking the elgance of Romantic era. Garmens were crafted from ellegant and luxurious materials like velvet, satin, lace and had embelishments in the form of bows, ruffles and embroidery giving looks a theatrical feeling. The ruffled shirts and elvated tailoring were the reminiscence of Georgian and Victorian era.
Fantasy was a crucial element of New Romantic fashion. As the movement blurred traditional gender boundaries as well as the line between dream and reality, it embraced make up, elaborate hairstyles and creations that denied gender norms and conventional way of dressing. Unlike punk, the New Romantic fashion was not as uniformal and focused on the individual expression. Musicians like David Bowie or Adam Ant became icons of this period, drawing inspirations from various sources such as science fiction, romantic literature or mythology in order to create eccentric and otherworldy personas.
One of the most influential fashion brands of the New Romantic Period was Kahn and Bell, set up in Birmingham in 1976 by a fashion designer Patti Bell and her business partner Jane Kahn. The brand quickly got a wide recognition in the United KIngdom and started dressing and styling a lot of british musicians and designing clothes for the bands such as Duran Duran or Schock. The brands theatrical influence drew inspirations from African, Egyptan and Far Eastern art and it combined elements of futurism and fantasy. It had a huge contribution to the community and provided free expression for the youth, no matter of their sexuality or background.
Another designer shaping the new romantic aesthetic was Viviene Westwood, especially her 1981 Autumn Winter Pirate collection. It romanticised history, gaining inspirations from 17th and 18th century costumes in order to portray pirates and historical rebels. The collection included things such as buccaneer trousers, oversized shirts or draped sashes and the garments were crafted with a use of different luxurious materials like satin, voile, velvet, wool and silk. The designs were wore by artist such as Adam Ant or the band Bow Wow Wow. This collaboration between fashion and music helped the new romantic aesthetic get through into the mainstream conciousness. The collection perfectly redifined and reinterpreted historical clothing, giving it a contemporary feeling and creating new vivid identities, which was the very essence of the new romantics. Westwoods contribution to New Romantic fashion was crucial, it embraced ideas of self expression by blending what is historical and contemporary as well embodying the fantasy.
Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Romantic
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/13/steve-strange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGlsCT4lAM0&ab_channel=BBCArchive
https://fashion-era.com/fashion-history/1980s/new-romantic-fashion
https://www.viviennewestwood.com/en-de/contentsearch/?fdid=the-story-so-far
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgr38ww0dyo
