THE ANCIENT WORLD
Prehistory - 600CE
" We live not according to reason, but according to fashion."
-- Seneca, Roman Philosopher, 1st century CE
the ancient world is a jigsaw of images and objects that historians are trying to piece together.
Paintings, sculpture, clues as to how people lived and dressed.
Many of the early civilizations reached impressive levels of developments.
Sophisticated technologies and craft skills coexisted in different corners of the world, as the still do today, and influenced each other as cultures met through war, exploration, and commercial exchange.
Clothing and accessories - including protective armor and talismanic jewelry - were often produced to extremely high standards.
Fine linen was woven on the banks of the Nile in Egypt; the Greeks and Romans created fantastic wool tapestries; and the Etruscans crafted ornate, tooled metalwork.
Starting points
Many shapes styles in dress date back thousands of years, having necessity, function, and the materials available as theirstarting points.
For example, connecting two pieces of material to form a garment may once have meant no more than using a simple fastening such crude beginnings wonderful pieces of embroidery evolved, providing decoration and reinforcement at the same time.
Embroidery on traditional dress from, say, eastern Europe or southwest China is often concentrated around the neck, hem, shoulders, and wrist - the areas that are most visible and most subject to wear and tear.
Cycle of fashion
If the clothes people wore in the distant past often look remarkably modern and familiar, this is because of the way styles are continually revived and reinterpreted through cycles of history and waves of fashion.
Modern designers have borrowed again and again from the styles - and style icons - of the past.
Numerous examples can be listed of fashions that have had their day and gone, only to reappear with a new spin:
The elegant draperies of classical Greek and Roman goddesses;
Ancient Egypt's massive jewelry and the kohl-eyed, black-bobbed "Cleopatra look";
Chinese and Japanese silks and sashes;
exotic Middle Eastern asymmetry and A-line cut garments;
geometric, antrropomorphic patterns from pre-Columbian civilizations.
From couture house to main-street store, the modern fashion world owes much to the past.
--《The definitive history of costume and style》
远古 - 公元600年
远古世界图像一直是历史学家们想要串联的起来的拼图。
绘画，雕塑，细节都透露着当时人们起居与穿衣的线索。
许多古老文明的发展至今任然有着令人叹为观止的高度。
精密的技术与手工技巧在世界的各个角落共同发展，直到今天，这些影响仍旧像文化一样通过战争，探索和全球商业互相兑换。
服饰与配件 - 包括护身盔甲与辟邪首饰 - 经常需要非常高标准的制作工艺。
细麻布在埃及尼罗河流域被纺织出来；希腊与罗马人创造了一种非常华美的羊毛挂毯；而伊特鲁里亚人则制作美妙绝伦的压花金属制品。
起始点
服饰潮流往前追溯几千年，必要性，功能性与可用面料是人们一开始的追求目标。
例如，将两块面料拼接在一起做一件长袍可能不如拿一块刺绣工艺的原始面料固定在身上打个结，同时提供装饰与加固的作用。
刺绣服饰传统来自东欧或中国西北地区，这些地区经常用刺绣来制作颈部，下摆，肩部和腕部装饰 - 而这些区域通常是视觉中心，也是最容易磨损的区域。
潮流的循环
如果在遥远过去的人们，着装看起来摩登并且似曾相识，那是因为款式总是会被重新拿来定义，而历史的潮流又总是在不断循环与周期性更新的。
现代设计师们会一次又一次将过去的款式，过去的潮流人物拿来重新定义。
数不清的例子见证了时尚的到来和离开，直到新的一轮周期出现：
古希腊与罗马女神的优雅下垂长袍；
古埃及的大量珠宝，科尔黑眼线，还有克利奥帕特拉的黑色波波头；
中国与日本的丝绸与腰带；
中东地区不对称与斜裁服饰；
前哥伦比亚文明的几何与拟人化图腾。
无论精品店还是主要大街的百货公司，时尚都非常尊重过去。
