This month Europeana Fashion’s Tumblr explores the use of gold and silver in fashion history through a curation of selected items from Europeana Fashion’s collection!

Gold and silver are two colours and materials which are present in fashion and costume history since their very beginning and thus their use, values and meaning have evolved in time. Europeana Fashion’s curation focuses on the techniques designers and couturiers use to feature gold and silver in their creations from the 20th century to nowadays. These techniques are different and they reflect the various new references these colours got in mainstream culture. In contemporary fashion, in fact, they not only represent the splendour of the old ages, but they are also attributed more unconventional meaning. Gold, for instance, has become synonym with hip-hop culture, while silver has become a modern, sidereal colour.

Boots designed by Paco Rabanne, 1965 ca. Collection MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda, all rights reserved.

The curation therefore features the creations of different designers and couturiers, from Mariano Fortuny and Paul Poiret, for whom gold bore the fascination of the Orient, to Pierre d’Alby, Courrèges and Paco Rabanne, who preferred silver for their space inspired suits and dresses, and the masters of the Eighties, who made these colours celebrative synonyms of excess.

Moreover, the curation includes the Nineties’ and the contemporary designers which eventually challenged gold and silver, bringing these colours cultural references to their extremes. Visit every day Europeana Fashion’s Tumblr to find a new picture and browse Europeana Fashion’s collection to find more gold and silver items!