Modern Fashion, Female Costumes, Lingerie and Big Girls Dressing Up!

The world of fashion has always been linked to drama, the theatre and role playing. But today, more than ever before, we girls are no longer putting on clothes simply for comfort or protection.

What we are doing is dressing up to change ourselves into new characters to act in the play that is our life story. This literally, dramatic change in the way we choose and wear clothes is vitally important. This knowledge helps us to make better choices when we shop.

The first clothing was made of animal skins and woven blankets. By the time Jane Austin was writing in the 1700s, outer clothes such as cloaks were still heavy and plain in order to keep the wearer warm and keep the mud at bay.

Today clothes are much more elaborate with far more emphasis on style rather than protection or warmth. Fashion designs are increasingly imaginative and fanciful, associating the wearer with other times and places.

If you don’t agree with me, think about the various fashion trends at the moment. Doesn’t the Aviator look hark back to Amelia Earhart, female adventure and daring in past decades?

What about Capes? Can you remember granny knitting you that lovely multicoloured cape that you just couldn’t take off so you even slept in it? No wonder younger women are loving capes this year. It takes them back to childhood dressing up.

Killer heels make us feel taller, slimmer and more assertive as do the latest fabulous ‘above the knee’ boots.

Modern lingerie and the trench coat hark back to the Femme Fatale of the Film Noir era. A quick look at any lingerie website reveals that most of the garments on offer are retro.

From conical bras to corsets and basques, seamed stockings and suspenders, long and flowing silk nightdresses, split to the thigh.

And what about Baby Doll night dresses that harking back to Carroll Baker in a film of the same name?

Even more surprising are the amount and variety of costumes on offer on lingerie websites.

Most uniforms are pretty tacky and clearly not intended to wear on the high street (although some girls do!) and are only really suitable for bedroom dramas, ideally with a cast of two!

To save your blushes I've depicted a relatively tasteful Cleopatra costume to the right.

The flimsy garments I'm talking about represent worthy occupations such as airline pilots, police officers, fire women, maids and nurses and also innocent nursery rhyme characters such as Snow White and Red Riding Hood.

The one thing they all have in common is suspiciously short skirts, plunging necklines and easy fastenings.

Certainly you wouldn’t want to fight a real fire in one of these (the garment would burst into flame before you’d got the hose out) and you would not be welcome in any serious hospital in your blood pressure raising, hot nurse attire!

Linked to this urge to bring fantasy and dressing up to the bedroom, is the way Halloween, once the prerogative of children, is increasingly being adopted for adult parties. today, adults are dressing up in character costumes at every opportunity.

The growth of Cosplay in Japan is another variation of this modern trend. Hen Nights or Bachelorette Parties and even clubbing clothes also reflect the urge to dress up as someone else.

Our increasing love of makeup also echos stage and screen with the latest products being advertised as ‘the makeup of the stars’.

You may not have noticed yet, but we are now obsessed with masks. Masked Balls and Masked Proms are increasing in popularity as are flamboyant street carnivals for festivals such as Mardi Gras.

The mask is the ultimate expression of dressing up. The expression ‘two faced’ sums up neatly the putting on of a mask in order to be transformed into a new persona.

Finally, for those who really want to escape the Real World completely then we have Cyberspace and Virtual Worlds.

From Face book and Twitter to World of War craft and Second Life, we are all playing someone else via a keyboard and a screen.

So why the dressing up, escapism thing?

Why have we never been so keen to imagine we are someone else?

Although technology has vastly improved our lives and given us greater access to travel and to experience other cultures, many of the certainties of the past have gone.

Assumptions about marriage, relationships and families are no longer valid and more of us are living alone. Financial security has also disappeared and been replaced with debt. Everything today is uncertain and social change is continuing to accelerate.

Life in the western world today is tough so we use the income we have and the increasing diversity of clothes and looks available, to retreat into a world of imagination and fantasy.

What we are doing is escaping from the reality of recession, economic downturn, public spending cuts, health and education cost rises and job layoffs.

We therefore cover the dull reality and uncertainties of daily life with plays and dramas where we act out the characters. We become heroic, adventurous, romantic and amorous. No wonder we love historical dramas and even our workplace becomes a stage.

You can see this element of make believe in modern fashion that takes classic designs, such as capes, military jackets or trench coats from the past and adapts them for today’s woman to wear on the high street and the office.

To quote William Shakespeare in As You Like It;

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players;

Or to quote Lisa Minnelli, “Life is a cabaret oh chum, come to the cabaret.”

Understanding this actually helps us to grasp why we choose the clothes we do. But play acting and dressing up are actually good for us. It is a great way to relieve stress and add colour and meaning to our often drab, daily routine.

So come on and embrace the actor within. Put on the grease paint and the costumes (make sure you can afford them!) and let the curtain rise on the play that is your life. Join the Cabaret, the Carnival and the Masquerade.

Whether you have chosen to play the Adventurer, the Femme Fatale, a Jane Austin heroine or the Seductive Lover, get dressed up and throw yourself wholeheartedly into your latest role.

Disclaimer: If you do buy a tacky costume from a lingerie website then don't expect to fight a real fire in it and don't even think about flying a plane or visiting a hospital!

Lights. Camera. Action. The stage is yours!