Millennium era

The Edverdian period 1895 to 1914 La Belle poque 1910 Art Nouveau Arts and crafts movement

The long stylised flowers and flowing embroidered borders with trails of organic forms of Art Nouveau are all reflected in the clothes of the Edwardian Hostess. Their skirts belled out and flowed like blossoming opening floral forms. The embellishment captured the graceful Art Nouveau forms. In the 1890s the tailored suit was thought both masculine and unladylike, a description usually used for a fairly plain garment. Describing female clothes as masculine was intended to be derogatory. By the 1890s and until 1910 the gored skirt also looked more tailored and matched the jacket style which followed the changing silhouette of the time.

Oriental and Russian influence. Womanin center of photo has a Dolman or Charmeuse Coat. .

Automobile introduced. Required clothes to shield occupants from dust, bugs and rain.

The size of the sleeves was highlighted by the comparison of the tiny sashed or belted waist against the simple gored skirt that flared out all round to balance the massive sleeve heads. By 1895 the leg of mutton sleeves swelled to gigantic proportions .

Hostess beauties of the 1890s- Mary Moore

La Belle Epoque - Women's Fashions of the 1900s: The bustle disappeared from day dresses and the new day skirt style was flared smoothly over the hips and then gradually widened at the hemline.

Hostess beauties of the 1890s. - Grace Palotta

The fashionable silhouette in the early 1900s was that of a mature woman, with full low bust and curvy hips. The "health corset" of this period removed pressure from the abdomen and created an S-curve silhouette.

During this time it was still usual to make dresses in two pieces. The bodice was heavily boned and was almost like a mini corset itself worn over the S-bend corset. At the front of the bodice, pouches of cascading lace or gathered fabric gave emphasis to the low bust line. The S-Bend corset and pouter pigeon effect blouses and dresses were full in front and puffed

"pouter-pigeon look over the narrow waist,

Silhouette The popular figure was termed the "Grecian bend", made up of the pigeon-breasted bosom, tiny corseted waist, and full, swayback hips. High, boned collars were worn in daytime with long sleeves, while some evening gowns were extremely low-necked with a band or ribbon for a sleeve. Wide picture hats were worn through the decade; all skirts swept the floor.

High neck blouse 1906

High necks were usual by day, By night exceptionally low sweetheart, square and round necklines allowed women to wear quantities of fine jewellery. No cleavage was visible as the bust was suppressed into a monobosom.

monobosom.

Summer 1901 shows sloped waistline, "pouter pigeon" front bodices, high necklines and large hats with ribbons,

1902 illustrates the "pouter pigeon" blouse or shirtwaist and trumpet-skirt that was a mainstay of middle-class clothing.

The Gibson Girl

This particular image was a cartoon character drawn by the American artist Charles Dana Gibson. For twenty years between 1890 and 1910 he satirised society with his image of 'The New Woman' who was competitive, sporty and emancipated as well as beautiful. Her clothes were fashionable in both America and Britain and set a fashion for skirts worn with embroidered blouses.

John Singer Sargent's portrait of Miss Eden shows the fashionable full bosom, low neckline, and masses of hair associated with the Gibson Girl, 1905.

shows the frothy trained day-dress descended from the tea gown, worn with an oversized hat and gloves, 1904

Summer evening fashions of 1906 have short or three-quarter-length sleeves. Some ladies wear hats, and the gentlemen wear dinner jackets.

The pink tailor made shown has a short jacket. The second green jacket is a longer line jacket that continued in popularity, but became straighter and less waisted toward the end of the Edwardian era.

Golfing costume of 1907 features a tailored jacket and matching anklelength skirt with patch pockets,

Motoring required voluminous coats or dusters to keep clothes clean and wearers warm in open automobiles. They were worn with fashionable hats wrapped in veils, gloves, and often goggles

Young women adopted the tall, stiff collars and narrow neckties worn by men. Advertisement for Arrow shirt collars, 1907.

After 1907 the wasp waist became less acute and corsets became straighter, achieved a long slim silhouette. The corset started just above the waist and fitted well down the thighs. They often had elastic gusset inserts which were supposed to increase comfort level

The new slimmer silhouette showing long slim line corsets of 1909 and 1916, both worn with simple bust bodices

Bib-front apron with pouter-pigeon cut, 1909

Evening gowns of 1909 show the new fitted, higher-waisted silhouette and are worn with huge hats.

Beautiful embellished ornate blouses took on a new importance and were worn by every class. Home dressmakers did their best to emulate the fussy couture blouses and they used fine pin tucks, fine embroidery, appliqu, insertions of lace, faggoting, pleats and lace trim to get good effects.

Rise of haute couture

In 1908, a new silhouette emerged from Callot Soeurs, Vionnet at the house of Doucet, and most importantly, Paul Poiret.
The styles were variously called Merveilleuse, Dirctoire, and Empire after the fashions of the turn of the ninteenth century, which they resembled in their narrow skirts and raised waistlines.

Paul Poiret's new silhouette of 1908 was a radical departure. Gowns by Paul Poiret point the way to a new silhouette, with a high waist and narrow, ankle-length skirts, 1908.

Around 1908, the fashion houses of Paris began to show a new silhouette, with a thicker waist, flatter bust, and narrower hips. By the end of the decade the most fashionable skirts cleared the floor and approached the ankle. The overall silhouette narrowed and straightened, beginning a trend that would continue into the years leading up to the Great War.

fashions for 1908 shows dresses of a more conservative cut than the latest Paris modes, but waists are higher and the figure slimmer and more erect than in the first half of the decade.

High-fashion costume of 1909 has a narrower silhouette. The bodice fits closer to the body, although the waist still slopes, and the hat has a deep crown.
The new styles featured formfitting gowns with high or undefined waists, or ankle-length skirts and long tunic-like jackets, and required a different "straight line" corset. The Paris correspondent for Vogue described this new look as "straighter and straighter ... less bust, less hips, and more waist...how slim, how graceful, how elegant...!"[

Fashionable Londoners in front of Harrods, 1909. The trailing skirts and broadbrimmed hats of mid-decade are giving way to narrower gowns and hats with deep crowns. Men wear top hats with formal morning dress or bowlers with lounge suits.

Accessories
Gloves Washable kid gloves were always worn with outdoor garments both winter and summer. Fancy gloves were also made in suede and silk and covered with fine embroidery. Parasols were still used as decorative accessories and in summer they dripped with lace and added to the overall fussy prettiness. Handbags were not fashionable in the era, but small decorative delicate bags with a dainty strap that hung from the wrist were sometimes used..

Fur muffs and stoles were important fashion accessories in this period.

Incredible Edwardian Hats

Coiffure

1910-1919

Fashion in the years 1910-1919 is characterized by a rich and exotic opulence in the first half of the decade in contrast with the somber practicality of garments worn during the Great War. Men's trousers were worn cuffed to ankle-length and creased. Skirts rose from floor length to well above the ankle, women began to bob their hair, and the stage was set for the radical new fashions associated with the Jazz Age of the 1920s

Oriental opulence: During the early years of the 1910s the fashionable silhouette became much more lithe, fluid and soft than in the 1900s 1911 evening gown

Coat of sable illustrated in Journal des Dames et des Modes, 1912

First World War Era

This is the era between 1914 and 1918. It is a period of great change internationally in Europe in particular. It is a time of female emancipation when skirts first shortened to show calves and more practical clothing emerged as women did war work.

Simple day costume (jacket or tunic and long, narrow skirt) of 1914 is shown with a huge fur muff, feathered hat, and high-heeled shoes. The extravagances of the Parisian couturiers came in a variety of shapes, but the most popular silhouette throughout the decade was the tunic over a long underskirt. Early in the period, waistlines were high (just below the bust), echoing the Empire or Dirctoire styles of the early 19th century. Full, hip length "lampshade" tunics were worn over narrow, draped skirts.

By 1914, skirts were widest at the hips and very narrow at the ankle. These hobble skirts made long strides impossible.

The belt at hip-height is very fashionforward, signaling a trend that would gain wide acceptance after the Great War.

Tunics became longer and underskirts fuller and shorter.

By 1916 women were wearing a calf-length dress over an ankle-length underskirt.

Waistlines were loose and softly defined.

They gradually dropped to near the natural waist by mid-decade, where they were to remain through the war years.

French fashions from 1915-16 still feature raised waists, but skirts are fuller and hats (peter pan)are smaller than in the early years of the decade

Lampshade dress in the "uglies" mode

"Uglies", "Handkerchief frocks", a mixture of odd fabrics and unusual hem lengths. Many dresses of this period are disintegrating due to the fragile materials, weight of trims, and the practice of adding salt to the silk to make it feel heavier.

Post-war summer day dresses show the barrel shape and lowered waists that would characterize the styles of the early 1920s. Vogue, late June, 1919.

Men's fashion
The sack coat or lounge coat continued to replace the frock coat for most informal and semi-formal occasions. Three-piece suits consisting of a sack coat with matching waistcoat (U.S. vest) and trousers were worn, as were matching coat and waistcoat with contrasting trousers, or matching coat and trousers with contrasting waistcoat. Trousers were ankle length with turn-ups or cuffs, and were creased front and back using a trouser press. Waistcoats fastened lower on the chest, and were collarless. The blazer, a navy blue or brightly-colored or striped flannel coat cut like a sack coat with patch pockets and brass buttons, was worn for sports, sailing, and other casual activities. The most formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers with a dark or light waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with a winged collar. The less formal dinner jacket or tuxedo, which featured a shawl collar with silk or satin facings, now generally had a single button. Dinner jackets, worn with a white shirt and a dark tie, were gaining acceptance outside of the home.

The cutaway morning coat was still worn for formal day occasions in Europe and major cities elsewhere, with striped trousers.

Men's formal daywear consists of a cutaway morning coat, highbuttoned waistcoat, and creased fly-front trousers worn with a highcollared shirt, top hat, and gloves, 1906.

Fashion illustration of a topcoat (left, worn with a top hat and morning dress) and overcoat (right, worn with business dress and Homburg), December 1900.

Writer Henry James wears a checked, single-breasted waistcoat or vest with a prominent watch chain, a wingcollared shirt, and a bow tie. Portrait by Sargent, 1913.

Coats, waistcoats, and trousers

 Knee-length topcoats and calflength overcoats were worn in winter. Fur coats were worn in the coldest climates.
1914 show's man's overcoat worn with a Homburg hat and gaiters or spats. Note anklelength creased 0r pressed trousers with cuffs.

Jaunty American style of the later teens featured stiff, rounded shirt collars, straw boaters, and pressed trousers. Note the V-shaped arrangemnet of buttons on the waistcoat or vest. Chicago, c. 1915-1920

Arts and Crafts Movement

The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international design movement that originated in England and flourished between 1880 and 1910, continuing its influence up to the 1930s Instigated by the artist and writer William Morris (18341896) in the 1860s and inspired by the writings of John Ruskin (18191900), it had its earliest and fullest development in the British Isles but spread to Europe and North America as a reaction against the impoverished state of the decorative arts and the conditions under which they were produced By 1860 a vocal minority had become profoundly disturbed by the level to which style, craftsmanship, and public taste had sunk in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and its mass-produced and banal decorative arts

 The movement advocated truth to materials and traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. It also proposed economic and social reform and has been seen as essentially anti-industrial The central figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement was William Morris (18341896). In 1861 Morris and his friends founded a company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., which, under the supervision of the partners, designed and made decorative objects for the home, including wallpaper, textiles, furniture and stained glass.

Red House, Bexleyheath, London (1859), designed for Morris by architect Philip Webb, exemplifies the early Arts and Crafts style, with its wellproportioned solid forms, deep porches, steep roof, pointed window arches, brick fireplaces and wooden fittings.

Artichoke" wallpaper, by John Henry Dearle for William Morris & Co., circa 1897 (Victoria and Albert Museum).

 The Arts and Crafts Movement started as a search for authentic design and decoration and a reaction against the styles that had developed out of machine-production. The Arts and Crafts style was in part a reaction against the style of many of the things shown in the Great Exhibition of 1851, which were ornate, artificial and ignored the qualities of the materials used.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Arts and Crafts ideals had influenced architecture, painting, sculpture, graphics, illustration, book making and photography, domestic design and the decorative arts, including furniture and woodwork, stained glass, leatherwork, lace making, embroidery, rug making and weaving, jewelry and metalwork, enameling and ceramics

La Belle Epoque
Art Nouveau was a decorative art form which followed on from the Arts and Crafts Movement. It spread throughout Europe and was a dominant art form in 1900 at the Paris Exhibition. It primarily covered interiors, architecture, jewellery and furniture design. But its importance filtered through into fashion and fabrics. The French called the era from 1895 to 1914 La Belle poque. It was an epoch of beautiful clothes and the peak of luxury living for a select few - the very rich and the very privileged through birth.

Art nouveau design features and elements

is an international movement and style of art, architecture and applied artespecially the decorative artsthat peaked in popularity at the turn of the 20th century (18901905). The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art". The movement was strongly influenced by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha Art Nouveau's fifteen-year peak was most strongly felt throughout Europefrom Glasgow to Moscow to Madridbut its influence was global

 The origins of Art Nouveau are found in the resistance of William Morris to the cluttered compositions and the revival tendencies of the Victorian era and his theoretical approaches that helped initiate the Arts and crafts movement Maison de l'Art Nouveau (House of New Art) was the name of the gallery opened in 1895 by the German art dealer Samuel Bing in Paris that marked his exclusive focus on modern art

The book-cover by Arthur Mackmurdo for Wren's City Churches (1883) is often cited as the first realisation of Art Nouveau

Charactersics: Although Art Nouveau took on distinctly localised tendencies as its geographic spread some general characteristics are indicative of the form.

A description published in Pan magazine of Hermann Obrist's wall-hanging Cyclamen (1894) described it as "sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip", which became well known during the early spread of Art Nouveau.

Subsequently, not only did the work itself become better known as The Whiplash, but the term "whiplash" is frequently applied to the characteristic curves employed by Art Nouveau artists. Such decorative "whiplash" motifs, formed by dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm, are found throughout the architecture, painting, sculpture, and other forms of Art Nouveau design.

The primary thematic visual elements of Art Nouveau are flowers, roots and buds, as well as spider webs, peacock feathers and locusts, featured on everything from wallpaper to fabrics and furniture. .

By Maurice PillardVerneuil (1869-1942).

Serpentine curving lines and complex patterns, taken from nature, were to be seen on painted and carved surfaces

Silver, pewter, iridescent glass and exotic woods as well as semi-precious stones were the materials most often used on interior surfaces and furnishings.

Colors were tastefully subdued browns, greens and mustard, supplemented by purple, gold, lilac and robins egg blue.

Paecock dress by Oscar Wildi Salome(1892).

 Art Nouveau is seen primarily as the bridge from stuffy classicism to modernism.

Key words
derby (bowler) hat, Peter Pan hat. Chesterfield coat , Trench Coat mono - bosom look, Pigeon - pouter." ladies suits for the work hobble dress Lingerie or tea dress s-curve barrel silhouette "Uglies", "Handkerchief frocks",