Modernist and Postmodernist Fashion Designers Essay

Modernist and Postmodernist Fashion Designers - Essay Example The essay "Modernist and Postmodernist Fashion Designers" discusses the designers and fashion in the context of Modernism and Postmodernism. The word 'modern' from which 'modernism' seems to be coined, generically refer to anything that is contemporaneous; in this sense, all art can be said to be modern as at when it was made. However, as an art historical term, modernism refers to a period dating from around the 1860s through the 1970s and is therefore used to identify the style, ideology and forms of art produced during this period. According to Klages (2003), modernism can be described as the movement in visual arts, music, literature, fashion and drama, which rejected the old Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed, and what it should mean. During the later half of the 20th century, it became gradually apparent to many that the worldview fostered through Modernism is flawed, corrupt, and oppressive. A couple of events, including both World Wars, further heightened this perception. The perceived failure of modernism, as a movement and ideology, gave birth to the new period now referred to as Postmodernism, an ideology that has only emerged as an area of academic study since the mid-1980s. However, the term postmodernism is used in a number of confusing of ways; there is a problem with assigning a definite or useful definition to the term, most definitions are hopelessly vague and often inconsistent with each other. For some, postmodernism means anti-modern. while for others it is merely a revision of modernist premises (Burke, 2005; Witcombe, 2000). The stance of those who see postmodernism as anti-modernism is a basic rejection of the major tenets of modernism; that is, a rejection of the doctrine of the supremacy of reason, the notion of truth, the belief in the perfectibility of man, and the idea that we could create a better, if not perfect, society. This stance has been labelled 'deconstructive