New Fashions

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Introduction:

During this age of post feminism European Fashion designers are pushing the envelope by introducing topless fashion designs on the leading fashion run ways in Paris, Milian, Madrid, and others. Moreover, there is an opposite movement in the retros in which the thing is to out do the designers of the 40s and 50s.

This is in reaction of a growing shift in the nightlife in key Europan cities in which women are finding safer environments from which to find personal release, and topless is gowing. In Paris, Berlin, Bonn, Caan, and Madrid free open tops of early 2004 have given way to mild see through topless causuals personally crafted. Moreover, increasingly at more and more plush parities given by the Euro Dollar - New Rich, the topless look is growing. All reflect both growing safety women are now experiencing, and the implications and self-realization of ones own rights personal taste and social fantasies. European designers who are trying the catch up are still unknown. Increasingly, the binding of bra staps, and the constant irritations felt in sudden body turns during social dancing, especially in the new moves provided by the Hip Hop culture is suddenly loss by the freedom now being opted for.

In one email, Rene Litz from Caan commented " That women covering their tops are really not natural for a womyn's body. It was a condition impossed by males who feared women assuming power during the early development of European civiliations which only sought her sexual exploitation. She has always questioned in her life ..Why the part that produced milk for innocent children? ."

With this in mind, a really discussion needs to be look at and properly reacted to. The key factor of which is a result of the social movements developed by every University and College activist feminist group who push the Take Back the Night Campaigns both and off their respected campus. Especially at the Unversity of Rochester's Feminst's Coalitions, in which the success of this campaign during the 1970s triggered topless yearly demonstrations in downtown Rochester to promote legislation in Albany to allow women who so chose can go topless-which was subsequently passed. There is a proposal for a parade now being discussed.

The one time increasing incidents of sexual assaults and rape closely and academically examined in depth during the 70s and 80s have made a dramatic down turn since the late 90s. Howover, though similar trends ocurred in Eruope, Anmerican women did not respond in the same manner as did the Europeans. All of which caused the need to fully examine this aspect, especially the casual anxieties involved, in as much as style and fashions are outward expressions of the social and cultural conditions which exist in ones time and era.

The website Fashions Trendsetters / Trend Setters was specifically developed and put together to gain wider attention, and this forum is where the answers should be examined. I once trought of developing my own forum, but instead I found this one which already existed. Now I am actively promoting this forum through my Night Life ( NightLife ), RMC Internet Network.

What should be looked at from my point of view is simple this.

Is the American nightlife coming up to par with the early feminist aspirations which created The Take Back The Night campaigns of the 70s ?

As per the course Introduction to Womyn Studies, State University College at Buffalo, the resolve that a womyn's breast is not a sex object, why we still have this puritanical point of view while Europe in increasingly rejecting this ?

What are the clear implications to creative style features in American fashions once some of the base issues become clearer? And more impportantly, which American city is going to take the first step ?

All the while this is going on why are retros assuming a permenant and at times growing marketing nitches? Seeming'ly only in America.

Lastly, in the past advant of AID's destroying the leadership of American fashions during the 1980 - 1990, quess who is filling in the void, and where did they get their initial experiences ? Victoria Secret ? Wicked Fashions ?

With the once dominate Europeans now being over-shaddowed by Asian dominance, especially from Tokyo, and the growing power of MySpace.com and other groups related groups and blogs, we are on the verge of new era of fashion who are smiliarly looking at these issues. Post feminism is developing more diversity in lifestyles at the sametime. They plus other monitored internet groups, especially those sponsored by MSN, and Yahoo for free clearly indicates a growing shift to what the Europeans are doing. In addition. in every advocate rape and sexual program nation wide, " What a women wears is not any grounds for violation, or any question concerning her integrity, but is solely her own right to do so." Anti - Rape Task Force, State University of New York at Buffalio, University of Buffalo. These two elements are converging and is it how and when which the more serious discussions should be focused. Also, and reports which are trace'able concerning this topic should likewise be added.

Mr. Roger M. Christian

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From my various Internet groups. Note:  At first the emailed article, or point which is being made, will be first posted in its entirity, and then, later, edited to make it shorter.

I suppose that a deeper question underlying this exchange is that of the 'eroticization' of the (uncovered) female breast. Going by the exquisite descriptions of Sanskrit poetry, they were certainly coveted by male attention. Yet, as Radha underlines, they were largely exposed (not just by the peasant women...) all across the subcontinent (and not just in 'primitive' Kerala). How does one reconcile these two realities in the context of prosaic everyday commerce? I suspect that it's not so different from from the ubiquitous (even more exaggerated? ) American experience of ogling at (and gratuitously commenting on...) covered breasts and buttocks (nitambinî... ), and yet being able to chat professionally (and diplomatically. ..) with women co-workers around the office water-cooler (under the cloud of  being sued for sexual harassment.. .). Thanks for the vivid and fine ethnography. ..should really submit a Ph.D. on the folklore and mores of the Malabar coast! Regards, Sunthar P.S. I'd request anyone wishing to carry this discussion further to (re-) read our earlier dialogue on "The Politics of the female body" P.P.S. I'm forwarding this post to our Jerusalem-Benares forum, because the observation on Jewish women might be of interest to Nathan and Ellen. From: Radhakrishna Warrier Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 10:22 AM To: Abhinavagupta@ yahoogroups. com Subject: Re: History of Indian clothing << Were there any rules/regulations with regard to Muslim/Syrian Christian women and chatta? >> I am not aware of any.  The Syrian Christian ladies wore their 'mundu' in a peculiar fashion with one end forming a fan behind.  This big beautiful fan - vis'aRi or "hand fan" - adorned (the equally beautiful) behinds of the ladies. << If the queen had no qualms receiving the Dutchman topless, what could be a reason to cover up while going outside the home? >> The covering up of the upper body, such as tying the mula kaccha (breast cloth) and draping the uttareeyam around the upper body was a form of formal dress and not primarily intended to cover any perceived nakedness.  In informal settings the upper body was not thought necessary to be scrupulously covered.  The Dutch traveler perhaps was not considered a very important person for the queen to be in formal attire while giving audience to him.  In fact, ordinary Europeans were not given undue importance in those times, unlike a century later when the British consolidated their power in India. Going to the temple, going to attend festivals, making social visits etc were thought to be sufficiently important occasions to deserve a formal dress and hence the `covering up' while going outside home. << Did this covering up while going outside develop after interaction with the Europeans? >> Definitely not.  Long before the arrival of Europeans, Hindu 'upper' caste women used to tie the breast cloth and wear the uttareeyam while going outside their homes.  This formal attire is described in folk songs (such as `VaDakkan PaaTTu', "the northern song" of north Kerala) and folk tales. << Were the Jewish women in Kerala also going topless?>> There were two kinds of Jews in Kerala – the `black' Jews and the `white' Jews.  The black Jews came to Kerala well over a thousand years ago. Perhaps they arrived in the first few centuries of the Common Era or even before.  The black Jews became indistinguishable from the local population in appearance and dress.  So, it may be surmised that they went 'topless' like the other women of Kerala before the arrival of the Europeans.  The `white' Jews, on the contrary arrived much later, perhaps in the 13th to 16th century CE timeframe, primarily from European countries.  They did not fully `indigenize' although they seem to have adopted Malayalam as their mother tongue.  They are somewhat distinguishable from the local population although they are not as `white' as an average European.  These white Jews might not have fully adopted the local dress. << Could toplessness have been an intermediary phenomenon (temporary insanity or sanity) given that there is no reference (or is there?) to topless women in the Tamil literature? I can't imagine Kannagi topless :( >> It could not have been an intermediary phenomenon.  And definitely not 'insanity' in a humid tropical land at a time when there were no electric fans to provide artificial breeze on an almost continuous basis.  I am not aware whether the old Tamil literature provides any detailed description of the dress of the womenfolk (or menfolk) of the time or whether they categorically state that women covered the upper body in informal situations.  I have read that the poets (pANan, Sanskrit 'kavi') who sang eulogies in the courts of ancient Tamil kings were usually accompanied by their wives who went almost naked.  These wives danced in the courts scantily clad, perhaps performing the modern equivalent of strip tease but practically with nothing much to strip as they were almost naked to begin with. Do the classics say anything about KaNNaki removing any piece of clothing from her upper body to pull her left breast out when describing her twisting it and plucking it out of her chest to throw it on the ground?  I have no difficulty at all in imagining Kannaki bare breasted in informal or even formal settings.   In my own not so long lifetime, I have seen men working in the fields of Tamil Nadu wearing nothing but a 'kONakam' (a narrow strip of a loin cloth that just covers the genitals) and women wearing no stitched upper garment but just a sari one end of which is supposed to go up and cover the upper torso but practically leaving a good portion of the upper body exposed.  It is a very sensible way of dressing, especially when working in the hot plains of India.  Elsewhere in India too, it seems to me that the most popular `dress' of women was a single piece of cloth (call it `sari' or `chela' or whatever) that was wound around the lower body and one end of it then thrown over the upper body to supposedly cover the breasts. Whether it did cover the breasts in informal situations is a big question.  If we go by old sculptures, the breast was hardly ever covered.  Stitched garments were not unknown, but they were most likely 'exotic' or at the most very formal attire not widely adopted by the common woman and generally not for informal situations even for `fashionable' ladies of the time.  I think it was only after the arrival of Muslims that stitched garments became significantly popular among India's womenfolk. I have to make a disclaimer now.  I have no references to cite on anything that I say.  It is all guess work (which I would like to think of as based on intelligent and insightful analysis :-)), based on my own observations and what I have read and understood.  I am no expert on the subject of ancient clothing.  I am no historian either and things ancient do not fall in my primary area of research (i.e., that which I do to make a living).  But nevertheless, I am interested in and indeed fascinated by things bygone. Thanks and regards, Radhakrishna Warrier [In response to Kavi's post (Feb 4, 2007) at http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Abhinavagu pta/message/ 4080 ]

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