Costume historian Maryana Skuratovskaya: is it possible not to follow fashion and still look stylish

Style and fashion are not always synonymous, and books, theaters, museums and cinema can help us create harmonious images in clothes. Costume historian Mariana Skuratovskaya told Boris Vedensky, how to develop an impeccable style and whether it is possible to predict what will become fashionable in the future. Lifehacker took notes of the conversation.

Is it true that dressing stylishly is an innate skill and you don’t need to learn this

There are people who do not want to spend time studying fashion trends, but at the same time they want to dress stylishly. They are inspired by others - those who say: I take the first thing in the closet and always look great.

To create a style, you need a sample

Yes, it is not necessary to follow the latest trends in order to be able to create an interesting image. But to be stylish without paying attention to the world around you, without trying to understand what you like about it and what seems aesthetic, is impossible.

To do this, you need to select imagethat inspires you. You can, for example, try to embody the dandy style of the early 20th century and adapt it to our reality. To do this, you first need to study exactly how young people dressed then. This means that you will have to look at photographs and paintings of that time, watch movies about the events of the beginning of the last century.

This will give you an idea of ​​what silhouette and details will help you recreate the look you want. And then you can complement the costume with modern accessories. For example, a silk tie or thin scarf. Such a mix of fashion trends of the last century and the present will become your style.

You can not follow how your peers dress now. But carefully study how people of the same age did it 100 years ago.

Style is impossible without vision

If a person says that he never followed fashion trends and was not interested in them at all, but always sticks to his style and looks great, he may be right. But do not think that the ability to choose clothes is given to him from birth. Nothing like this.

Yes, a person could never be interested in fashion. But he watched good films as a child, read excellent bookswent to museums and theaters. So gradually, step by step, he developed observation. And now he can choose clothes intuitively. At the same time, it seems to him that things are selected and combined naturally, as if by themselves.

If a person sits in a dark room all his life, does not see the world, does not create his own ideas about beauty and harmony, he will never be able to dress stylishly. He will simply put on the first things that come across and will not even think about whether he looks good.

Why style and relevance in clothes are different concepts and what to choose from them

Relevance is the fashion of today. A stylish look is one that can be created on the basis of both new trends and elements of clothing from the past.

Modern fashion for every day is very comfortable. It's easy to wear a long dress with a hood or wrap yourself in a voluminous down jacket. It is comfortable to live in such things. Therefore, for many, relevance is more important than style.

But even in universal clothes that seem to be created according to a single standard, you can be stylish. For example, add unexpected accessories and add notes to your look. vintage. Or use the familiarity and choose from new and relevant not only comfortable, but also stylish things.

If we talk about costumes, today there is not much difference between expensive things and cheaper ones. They are sewn on similar patterns, but from different materials. The industry takes the ideas that top fashion houses come up with and turns them into popular trends.

The difference is that expensive clothes are sewn, for example, from pure cashmere. And in fabrics for cheap analogues, its content is less. Or maybe they are made from modest wool with the addition of acrylic. Sometimes only a trained eye can discern how expensively a person is dressed.

Relevance and style can be combined. The main thing is to learn it.

Is it possible to predict fashion and dress in the trends of tomorrow

Today it is very difficult to buy things in stores that will become fashionable, for example, in two years. But predicting trends in the near future is quite realistic. There are a lot of fresh ideas in fashion. They form both microtrends that quickly pass and are forgotten, and macrotrends that last for years.

For example, now in fashion oversize. Comfort is key in this style. It manifests itself not only in the fact that you can wrap yourself in a cocoon and hide your body from prying eyes. In spacious clothes it is easier to move, it does not constrain movements at all.

Such things allow you to relax and allow yourself more freedom. Therefore, oversize is a macro trend, and it will definitely remain with us in two years. Well, to understand what thing is worth choosing for you, the same observation will allow.

However, the opposite trend is also emerging. People began to get tired of hoodies. Many want to show their body, emphasize the figure. Therefore, those who buy tight-fitting things today will also look modern in a couple. By the way, it is the people who wear tights today who are developing this trend. Thanks to them, he will not disappear.

What will win in the end - convenience or beauty

For several centuries, fashion has been developing in the direction of simplification. A lot of costume details disappear, giving way to comfortable silhouettes. This trend became particularly strong in the 20th century and continues today. The value of expensive things. which are designed to emphasize wealth and high position, all the time falls.

Yes, many people still strive to demonstrate their status with the help of clothes, but this is no longer a mass phenomenon. Steve Jobs has always looked very democratic. Modern billionaires support this trend - we are unlikely to immediately remember what Elon Musk is wearing.

Today, the fashion of the past seems very uncomfortable to us. It’s hard for us to imagine how people fastened a lot of hooks every day or dealt with lacing. For us, style is becoming more and more about comfort. If this trend continues, the people of the next centuries will find clothes that seem ideal to us strange and uncomfortable.