Retro style

Retro style is a style that is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the historical past, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. It may also be known as “vintage inspired”.

Definition
The term retro has been in use since the 1960s to describe on the one hand, new artifacts that self-consciously refer to particular modes, motifs, techniques, and materials of the past. But on the other hand, many people use the term to categorize styles that have been created in the past. Retro style refers to new things that display characteristics of the past. Unlike the historicism of the Romantic generations, it is mostly the recent past that retro seeks to recapitulate, focusing on the products, fashions and artistic styles produced since the Industrial Revolution, the successive styles of Modernity. The English word retro derives from the Latin prefix retro, meaning backwards, or in past times.

In France, the word rétro, an abbreviation for rétrospectif, gained cultural currency with reevaluations of Charles de Gaulle and France’s role in World War II. The French mode rétro of the 1970s reappraised in film and novels the conduct of French civilians during the Nazi occupation. The term rétro was soon applied to nostalgic French fashions that recalled the same period.

Shortly thereafter retro was introduced into English by the fashion and culture press, where it suggests a rather cynical revival of older but relatively recent fashions. In Simulacra and Simulation, French theorist Jean Baudrillard describes retro as a demythologization of the past, distancing the present from the big ideas that drove the modern age.

Most commonly retro is used to describe objects and attitudes from the recent past that no longer seem modern. It suggests a fundamental shift in the way we relate to the past. Different from more traditional forms of revivalism, “retro” suggests a half ironic, half longing consideration of the recent past; it has been called an “unsentimental nostalgia”, recalling modern forms that are no longer current. The concept of nostalgia is linked to retro, but the bittersweet desire for things, persons, and situations of the past has an ironic stance in retro style. Retro shows nostalgia with a dose of cynicism and detachment. The desire to capture something from the past and evoke nostalgia is fuelled by dissatisfaction with the present.

Retro can be applied to several things and artifacts, for example, forms of technological obsolescence (such as manual typewriters, cash registers, and bulky hand-held cellphones) and also the resurrection of old computer games and the equipment on which they are played.

Interior design
Interior design magazines often show retro style as an interior decoration of mixed styles and objects from the past, second hand and new. For example, 1970s patterned wallpapers, combined with second-hand furniture from the 1960s and 1950s. The value of old artifact has increased because the object used to be considered old-fashioned and every day. In this case ‘retro’ indicates a value and that is also partly why today’s retailers produce new objects in an old style.

Graphic design, typography, and packaging
In graphic design too, long before the use of the word ‘retro’, referencing to earlier graphic characteristics was done. William Morris can be seen as an example, for i.a. book design he adopted Medieval production and stylistic models in 1891. Furthermore, in the beginning of the twentieth century, Gothic, Baroque and Rococo motifs were used for new products. In typography classicism has always been an influence and throughout the 20th century, early woodcut printing too. The introduction of the technique of photocomposition to typesetting in the 1960s allowed typographers greater flexibility in the selection and arrangement of type styles and sizes. For example, psychedelic typefaces were developed gaining inspiration from Art Nouveau and other cultures. Historicist styles are also used is in the promotion and packaging of food and household products, referring to childhood memories and domestic nostalgic ideals.

Fashion design
The terms “retro fashion” and “vintage fashion” are sometimes used interchangeably and therefore can cause confusion as to what is really meant. The term “retro fashion” (also known as “vintage inspired”) refers to new clothing, shoes, and accessories that are designed to resemble clothing, shoes, and accessories that are at least 13 years old or older. “Vintage fashion” (or “vintage clothing”) refers to the original (old) clothing the new designs are based on. So in simple terms, new clothes that look old are called “retro” and clothes that look old because they are old are called “vintage”.

An example of retro fashion is 1970s and 1980s sportswear; soccer jackets, jerseys, and T-shirts with former logos of the soccer associations are very popular; their designs commonly remember the old days by using lines in the sides and combinations of colors characteristic of those times. A specific case is the 1970 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico. Its logo and font type are used in a variety of retro sports garments. Brands such as Adidas, Puma and Nike have their own divisions specialized in retro products. Some soccer, baseball and basketball clubs also have re-edited their former garments to raise their sales. See also Throwback uniform.

In the early 2010s, there was a revival of pastel and neon colors, stereotypically associated with 1980s and early 1990s fashion (with the 1980s pastel revival itself actually being a rebirth of a 1950s trend). Also in the early 2010s, late 1980’s style high waisted mom jeans made a comeback with female hipsters. Nowadays, 1990s fashion has made a comeback, many of the fabrics and patterns ubiquitous to the decade (such as crushed velvet and floral) are popular now in the 2010s. Dr. Martens, a shoe brand popular in the 1990s has also made a strong comeback in the early 2010s. 2011–12 was the British company’s best selling season of all time.

When an older style of athletic shoe is manufactured again by a shoe company years or decades later it is referred to as a “reissue”.

Retro art
The style now called “retro art” is a genre of pop art which was developed in the 1940s and 1950s, in response to a need for bold, eye-catching graphics that were easy to reproduce on simple presses available at the time in major centres. Retro advertising art has experienced a resurgence in popularity since its style is distinctive from modern computer-generated styling. Contemporary artist Anne Taintor uses retro advertising art as the centerpiece for her ongoing commentary on the modern woman. Specific styling features include analog machine design, vintage television program etc.

Perhaps the most famous example of a retro pop-art character is the more generalized form of the Ward Cleaver-styled J. R. “Bob” Dobbs-esque icon which has been widely played off, copied, and parodied.

Media and culture
The term is used as a fashion term both alone, as well as in compositions such as retro style, retro model or retro design, use. Retro fashions can now be found in almost all areas of cultural production, from everyday objects on clothing and architecture to literature and music.

The somewhat new term is not very precise and encompasses various current phenomena relating to the motivations and modes of recourse, such as ironic citation (see postmodern architecture), nostalgia, camp, style collage, bricolage, sampling (music), steampunk, finding, finding, cultivating and restoring memorabilia, revisiting traditions, processing, etc. Cultural memorabilia and historical shapes and colors of past decades and centuries are recaptured and reworked in different ways.

Retrograde is particularly evident in the increasingly rapid resuscitation of fashions of past decades in all imaginable cultural areas. So, for example, turned the 1950s into the 1980s (with petticoat and pleated trousers), the late 1960s and 1970s in the 1990s as a revival (with corduroy and flares) back. There are also bonds from the 1920s to the 1950s. In the context of historical and eclectic approaches, it comes to stylistic pluralism and style mixtures. In addition to the simultaneous accessibility of different and sometimes seemingly contradictory styles is often the slogan anything goes.

Retro is also a popular term in clothing fashion for the aesthetic use of the formal vocabulary of past eras and genres. The fashion associated with the retro wave is also called a retro look.

Film, music, fashion, and television
The 1970s brought about a 1950s–early 60s revival with American Graffiti, Grease, and Happy Days. This lasted into the 1980s with the rockabilly revival. The 1950s greaser look greatly influenced the punk subculture.

The 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s witnessed a 1960s revival with Hairspray, Grease 2, Mermaids, Matinee, That Thing You Do!, Shag, a revival of the cartoon series The Jetsons with new episodes and a movie, the power pop of the decade being influenced by 1960s pop rock, the garage rock revival (with bands like The Cynics), and 1960s hits covered by various artists. Examples of such covers are “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by Kim Wilde, “Where Did Our Love Go?” and “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell, “Spirit in the Sky” by Doctor and the Medics, “Harlem Shuffle” by The Rolling Stones, “Dancing in the Street” by David Bowie and Mick Jagger, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)” by Cher, and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by Tight Fit.

The 1990s brought a 1970s revival. The films Dazed and Confused, Detroit Rock City, Casino, The Stoned Age, The Brady Bunch Movie and its sequel (both of which were remakes of the popular early ’70s TV show The Brady Bunch), and Boogie Nights (in which the first part of this film took place in the late ’70s) were released, along with a revival of 1970s disco and pop led by artists such as the A*Teens, the Spice Girls, and Jamiroquai; Lenny Kravitz’s “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over” being inspired by Earth, Wind and Fire and Philly soul; a revival of sideburns, bell bottoms, and afro (worn by Kravitz); the debut of the television series That ’70s Show; and 1970s hits covered by various artists. Examples of such covers are “I Can See Clearly Now” by Jimmy Cliff, “Baby I Love Your Way” by Big Mountain, “Turn the Beat Around” by Gloria Estefan, “Wild World” by Mr. Big, “O-o-h Child” by Dino, “Wild Night” by John Mellencamp and Meshell Ndegeocello, “Oh Girl” by Paul Young, “Easy” by Faith No More, “Have You Seen Her” by MC Hammer, “Emotion” by the Bee Gees, “Killing Me Softly with His Song” by Fugees, “Love Rollercoaster” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, and “It Only Takes a Minute” by Take That. Samples of 1970s songs were also used in hip-hop songs in the 1990s (and 2000s), most notably in the 1990s hip-hop genre G-funk and in songs such as “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio.

The late 1990s began the 1980s revival, which grew into the 2000s. The 1980s-themed films Grosse Pointe Blank, The Wedding Singer, Boogie Nights (the second part of this film took place in the early ’80s), and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion were released in the late 1990s. 1980s-themed films such as Wet Hot American Summer were released in the 2000s. This craze also brought about revivals of The Transformers, G.I. Joe, Speed Racer, and Voltron. The post-punk revival coincided with this, as the genre was originally popular (albeit underground) in the 1980s. There also was That ’80s Show and Freaks and Geeks, but both shows were short-lived (despite the latter’s critical acclaim). I Love the ’80s, a part of a series of decade retrospectives, became the most popular of the series and spawned two sequel series.

The 2010s have seen a revival of both the 1980s and 1990s. The television shows The Goldbergs, The Carrie Diaries, GLOW, Stranger Things, Everything Sucks! and Hindsight debuted. The film Everybody Wants Some was released. A trend for 1980s second wave synthpop is growing along with 1990s-style future house and nu-disco songs by such artists as Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, and Bruno Mars. Numerous 1990s television shows and movies have been revived, along with some films from the 1980s such as Footloose, Ghostbusters, Adventures in Babysitting, Dirty Dancing, and The Smurfs. There was also an I Love the ’90s series that was released in the mid-2000s. The Teen Titans Go! episode “40% 40% 20%” has a song titled “The Night Begins to Shine”, which is made in the style of the 1980s. 1980s-influenced songs include “Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon, “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars, “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. Also, new jack swing came back in style in early 2018 with “Finesse” by Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B.

The 2010s have also seen a revival of the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s, overlapping somewhat with the 1990s revivals. Sequels to 2000s films, such as Anchorman 2, Finding Dory, and Monsters University have been released ten years after the original films. Early-to-mid 2000s television series, such as Arrested Development, Invader Zim, Hey Arnold, That’s So Raven, Ben 10, Prison Break, and Samurai Jack have been, or are being, revived. Some believe this a case of the “nostalgia cycle” becoming shorter, as the generation that grew up with this media in their childhoods is now in their early-to-mid 20s.

Retrogaming
Retrogaming is a pastime which is becoming increasingly popular where individuals play video games on vintage computers or vintage game consoles. What constitutes a vintage or retro machine is sometimes open to debate, but typically, most retro gamers are interested in Commodore 64, Amiga 500, Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, SNES, and classic Game Boy games and consoles. Emulation often plays a part in retrogaming if the original hardware is unavailable.

Retro erotica (photography)
Retro erotica is usually photography in the style of pinups or pornography typically dating from the 1970s or earlier. It ranges from hardcore to non-nude pinup style photography, often featuring lingerie such as girdles, bullet bras and garter belts and hosiery with hairstyles, makeup, and props fashioned after those periods. Some aficionados distinguish retro (modern photography in an older style) from vintage (actual period photos or film) while others conflate the two as either retro or vintage. There are a number of websites dedicated to both types.

Aircraft
A handful of airlines have chosen to paint a historical livery on a single selected aircraft in their modern fleet, typically as a marketing device or to commemorate an anniversary.

Explanatory Models
That the children of the 1970s were recognized by the economy as a well-funded target group in the mid-1990s and that the products of their youth – toys, food and television series (Wickie, Fanta-JoJo, Playmobil, Lego, Tom Sawyer, Magic Cube, Barbapapa, TriTop, Brauner Bär, Grünofant, Slime) – rediscovered, can be considered as a possible background. Belletristischen precipitation found this in Florian Illies ‘ book Generation Golf. Philosophers like Jean Baudrillard andPaul Virilio have dealt with the backgrounds.

“While so many generations, and especially the last, have lived at the pace of history, in the euphoric or catastrophic perspective of a revolution, today one has the impression that history has withdrawn, leaving behind a fog of indifference, traversing of streams (?), but emptied of all their references. In this emptiness, the phantasms of a lost story flow together, gathering in it the arsenal of events, ideologies, and retro fashions-not so much because people believe in it, or have any hope in it, but simply to revive time to let in it at leastThere was history in which there was at least violence (and even fascist violence) or at least an employment of life or death. ” (Jean Baudrillard – Kool Killer: History: A Retro-Scenario, 1978, p.

Retro in the sense of cultural recourse can also be interpreted as a new term that in certain epochs recourse to the past was postulated and realized for different reasons. The term Renaissance contains an appeal to the retrograde already in the name. With the reorientation of modernity towards innovation, imitating, taking up, and rediscovering became part of the cultural conception. Imitation was considered an original concern of the premodern art (mimesis).

Retro as Indicator: Discussion about Modernity and Postmodernism
Since the 1970s, stylistic references to earlier genres and epochs have also been interpreted as an indication of the thesis of the onset of postmodernism and thus a departure from modernity or as an opportunity to criticize the deficits of modernity and its belief in progress. Part of the accusation is made that the reprocessing of different epochs brings with it the loss of measure, control and scale. A loss of syntax through repetition can also be accused. The question may also be raised as to whether modernity properly characterizes the twentieth (and twenty-first century) or whether retro-phenomena are more than temporary (and intellectually) limited phases and phenomena of time.

According to these interpretations, retro is incomprehensible without the close connection to the modern age, which has spearheaded the “hunt for the new”, the constant innovation. In this sense, retro can be located as a counterpoint to the main trend of the so-called high culture. If this was questioned, as in Pop Art, there were always retro tendencies to notice. In a world that is rapidly changing and for many seemingly fewer and fewer points of reference, retro-trends may appear as a logical consequence, to which the accusation may be justified to serve only the desire for homely security.

Since the early 1970s, when it became apparent that modernity was in a serious crisis, even within the ranks of progress-believers there were first retro-movements. So z. In the field of architecture. The New York Five, which included Richard Meier, Michael Graves and Peter Eisenman, set themselves the goal of going back the way of modernity to Le Corbusier (1887-1965). Even a seemingly modernist building, such as the ICC in West Berlin built from 1975 to 1979, is more likely to be associated with a kind of retro- futurism with its references to science fiction and its objectivity.

The growth of retro movements since the early 1970s is also linked to the criticism of capitalism, consumption and culture of the ’68 generation, the growing ecological awareness and the fragility of the belief in progress of the economic miracle years (oil crisis). The ecological idea of recycling also supports ideological phenomena, such as the proliferation of second-hand shops or flea markets, and this tendency has also been seen as a sociopolitical progression, while conservative circles have long held on to progressive thinking.

Media society and myth
Today’s world can be understood as a media society in which a flood of information is simultaneously available. It could be assumed that in such a society, the exponential growth of information alone would lead to a general increase in well-founded and differentiated knowledge. This assumption is not confirmed, on the contrary, society tends as the media theorist Marshall McLuhan observed, but the myth and indeed for very practical reasons – a myth is simply less time-consuming for mass society.

The Italian writer Roberto Calasso writes: “… the world is inescapably wrapped in a poisonous cover of parody. Nothing is what it pretends to be. Everything is a quote right at the moment of its publication. “A particularly enlightening example of using and combining different forms of quotation is when Michael Stipe seems to be singing a “Hey Baby” like Elvis Presley in” Man on the Moon”. In reality, however, his singing is a tribute to the Elvis parody of American comedian Andy Kaufmann, who does not parody Elvis Presley, but rather his imitators. It is this reverence thus paying homage to a parody of imitation.

Particularly modern forms of expression, such as cinema and pop music, which developed in close relation to mass society, are full of such overlapping citations. Outstanding representatives of the so-called postmodern cinema are the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino.

Differences between Retro, Vintage and Antiquity:
The framing of garments in the concept of vintage fashion and retro fashion is still quite controversial. This is because often the term vintage fashion is attributed commercially to recent collections, but does not have precise references to styles used in the past.

A combination of authentic items and current reproductions is common to achieve the expected look.

Broadly speaking, we have the following conventions for these terms:

Antiquity is any piece that is at least 100 years old;
Vintage is any piece that is at least 20 years and less than 100 years old, since, from 100 years the piece is already considered antiquity;
Retro is a reproduction of old styles, with current confection. In this concept, both pieces that are faithful and accurate reproductions of the past, as well as the pieces considered inspirations, that is, recreations free of costumes of the past are included. The latter may not be restricted to a single historical period, but contain references of distinct decades in a single item or costume.

Source from Wikipedia