Why minimalism is a timeless trend in fashion

Less is more. Minimalism style can be called a starting point, a blank sheet to which designers return to moments of prosperity or crisis to rethink themselves and invent a new fashion. 

The term "minimalism" was born in the bowels of the art movement, which appeared in New York in the 1960s.  Then a group of artists, among whom were Donald Judd, John McCracken and Agnes Martin, rejected traditional representations in painting and sculpture and decided to adhere to a new style that requires maximum brevity. Judd described him as "a simple expression of a complex thought."

Actually, this also applies to the aesthetics that exist in fashion, in the context of which minimalism focuses more on form and fabric than on the function of clothing. Designers were looking for an opportunity to rethink the purpose of the women's wardrobe, and modernity required the shortening of skirts and the simplification of silhouette and meanings.

Coco Chanel, who in France began to dress woman's in light knit suits and trousers, wanted to get rid of all that was superfluous, give freedom to movement, and therefore life. Fashion followed the woman’s desire to be not a decorative element, but a full member of society.  

In creating functional clothing in which a woman could move, live, travel, and most importantly work, the desire for minimalism played an important role. This trend has been evident throughout the 20th century. Between the outbursts of feminism in the 1950s and 1980s, we see a return to super-feminine style and open sexuality, but a new wave of avant-garde designers have rejected these years, rejecting any decoration and gender inequality. 

Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo became the first adherents of "laconic" philosophy in the late 1980s.  Minimalism began to turn into conceptual aesthetics.

Now the minimalists of the nineties can be conditionally divided into two camps - theorists and formalists. The main minimalist was also Martin Margela, who became famous for its clear deconstruction and transformation methods, in which volumes are reinvented.

One more minimalist, Ann Demeulemeester made her debut in 1987 with monochrome collections, but first showed them in Paris only in 1992. Her minimalism was experimental, destructive, she cut and collected clothes, playing with fabrics.

Helmut Lang was another driving force of minimalism. He emphasized structured forms, almost absolute in their simplicity. 

We cannot ignore the formalist Jill Sander, for whom minimalism was not so much an academic practice as an attempt to create purely functional clothes.

Now designers try to use the best artistic and functional aspects of the past to create a new, clean, perfect product. And it is precisely this combination of past success with a modern worldview that takes the aesthetics of minimalism beyond fast fashion and instant consumption.

The heyday and reign of minimalism ended by the end of the decade, yet it never left the cultural consciousness.