subject: How Did Tutus Reach Main Stream Fashion? [print this page] How Did Tutus Reach Main Stream Fashion? How Did Tutus Reach Main Stream Fashion?
Louis XIV's need for skilled and athletic dancers actually started the creation of the tutu. In the sixteen hundreds when ballet was developing as a sophisticated dance style the heavy outfits restricted the women's movements, but they were required as traditions of the time dictated. As ballet developed, women needed to quickly and easily move their legs to perform the new techniques devised by Louis XIV. In order to move in the long and heavy dresses, women would lift up their skirts on stage to kick their ankles during a ballet production. They would also spin their skirts to perform certain parts of the play. The women would always have to be very careful, because a slight move of the dress the wrong way would lead to someone seeing just a little bit too much. Often, dancers were burdened with such elaborate dresses they struggled to move and perform the ballet pieces properly. It could be suggested that Marie Camargo is the mother of the tutu. She was the first woman who dared to challenge the traditions of the time and shorten her skirt length so she could more easily move around the stage. Other women followed this challenge. Marie Taglioni was the Italian ballerina who invented the Romantic tutu style. Ballerina Marie Salle a rival of Marie Taglioni was also very influential in the development of the tutu as she was the first to shed her petticoats for a simpler dress outfit during dancing. Ballet dress became lighter weight and easier for the women to dance in while still being modest. In order for the dancers to preserve their modesty while kicking her legs, Maillot, an opera designer, invented the first ever tights. The tutu has since become shorter in length over time, and has gone through dozens of different style changes. The powder puff tutu was developed as a collaboration between the designer Barbara Karinska and George Balanchine when he wanted a less stiff and wide classical style tutu. The designers of the Bauhaus such as Oskar Schlemmer designed tutus using plastic and metal in their tutus. Today, the tradition of the ballet dancer's tutu is still changing, just as it did all those years ago. There is one thing that remains the same, however: as long as there is ballet, there will always be the need for the tutu. But more than that, the ballet tutu has reached the catwalks and runways of the greatest fashion houses such as Chanel and entered mainstream fashion. Celebrities such as Madonna and Katie Price can be seen wearing a tutu at the most prestigious occasions. The tutu is here to stay.
