Turn of the Century Fashion Photograph

Costume and style in the decade 1900–1909

Stylish Londoners in front of Harrods, 1909. The abaft skirts which were very tight showing skin and broad-brimmed hats of mid-decade narrower dresses and hats with deep crowns. Men wearable height hats with formal morning dress or bowlers with lounge suits.

Fashion in the menstruum 1900–1909 in the Western earth connected the astringent, long and elegant lines of the late 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced past the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the budgeted abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.

Women's fashion [edit]

General overview [edit]

Young women adopted the tall, strong collars and narrow neckties worn by men
(advertisement for Arrow shirt collars)

John Vocalist Sargent's portrait of Miss Eden shows a fashionable total breast, low neckline, and mass of hair, 1905.

With the reject of the hurry, sleeves began to increment in size and the 1830s silhouette of an hourglass shape became pop again. The fashionable silhouette in the early on 20th century was that of a confident adult female, with full low breast and curvy hips. The "health corset" of this period removed pressure from the belly and created an South-curve silhouette.^[1]

In 1897, the silhouette slimmed and elongated past a considerable amount. Blouses and dresses were total in front and puffed into a "pigeon breast" shape of the early 20th century that looked over the narrow waist, which sloped from dorsum to front and was often accented with a sash or chugalug. Necklines were supported by very high boned collars.^[two]

Skirts brushed the flooring, ofttimes with a train, even for day dresses, in mid-decade. The mode houses of Paris began to bear witness a new silhouette, with a thicker waist, flatter bust, and narrower hips. Past the end of the decade the about fashionable skirts cleared the floor and approached the ankle. The overall silhouette narrowed and straightened, beginning a tendency that would continue into the years leading up to the Great War.

In early 1910, a survey of wealthy loftier school senior students at a private New York City girls' school plant that each spent an average of $556 ($15,443 equally of 2017^{[update] [three]}) annually for article of clothing excluding undergarments, and would accept spent four times that amount with an unlimited budget.^[4]

Sportswear and tailored fashions [edit]

Women moving out of the Victorian era and into the Edwardian era were starting to apparel for a more active lifestyle. The evolving times brought a new fashion tendency known equally the "New Adult female". Active lives required less constricting clothing and required simpler and more streamlined wear. The new woman was highly encouraged by women's suffrage. Women that identified with this mode move were the type of women that were beginning to venture out of maintaining the domestic circle and begin to pursue higher education, role jobs, and participating in active outdoor sports. The new and improved fashions allowed for women to swing a tennis noise, whack a golf brawl, but the ideas of "proper" feminine attire reduced the progress of more practical sportswear.

Tailored suits became more popular for the women that were first to work in white collar jobs. Tailored suits with no frills allowed for women maintaining an office job to seem more than masculine and blend into the male dominated environment. Shortly the number of women attention colleges increased, and the shirtwaist became popular among the boilerplate college daughter. The outfit worn by the typical college girl was a skirt that was usually shorter than current style, and a shirtwaist, which is all-time described as the equivalent of jeans and a T-shirt today.^{[5] [6]}

Paul Poiret's new silhouette of 1908 was a radical departure.

Evelyn Nesbit, in this photograph taken in 1901, has some of her wavy hair swept upwards to the top of her head, with the residuum of her hair flowing by her shoulders in crimper tendrils.

Unfussy, tailored clothes were worn for outdoor activities and traveling. The shirtwaist, a costume with a bodice or waist tailored like a man's shirt with a high collar, was adopted for informal daywear and became the compatible of working women. Wool or tweed adapt (clothing) called tailor-mades or (in French) tailleurs featured ankle-length skirts with matching jackets; ladies of fashion wore them with fob furs and huge hats. Two new styles of headgear which became popular at the plow of the century were the motoring veil for driving and sailor hats worn for tennis matches, bicycling and croquet.^[7]

Rise of haute couture [edit]

This decade marked the full flowering of Parisian haute couture as the arbiter of styles and silhouettes for women of all classes. Designers sent manner models or mannequins to the Longchamp races wearing the latest styles,^[8] and fashion photographs identified the creators of individual gowns.^[9] In 1908, a new silhouette emerged from Callot Soeurs, Vionnet at the business firm of Doucet, and nigh importantly, Paul Poiret.^[x] The styles were variously called Merveilleuse, Directoire, and Empire after the fashions of the turn of the nineteenth century, which they resembled in their narrow skirts and raised waistlines.

The new styles featured form-plumbing equipment gowns with loftier or undefined waists, or ankle-length skirts and long tunic-like jackets, and required a dissimilar "directly 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...!"^[11]

Hats [edit]

Huge, broad-brimmed hats were worn in mid-decade, trimmed with masses of feathers and occasionally complete stuffed birds (hummingbirds for those who could afford them), or decorated with ribbons and bogus flowers. Masses of wavy hair were stylish, swept up to the top of the head (if necessary, over horsehair pads called "rats") and gathered into a knot.^[12] Big hats were worn with evening wearable.

By the end of the decade, hats had smaller drooping brims that shaded the confront and deep crowns, and the overall top-heavy upshot remained.

Footwear [edit]

Shoes were narrow and oftentimes emphasized. They had a pointed toe and a medium height heel. Buttons, patent leather, and laced models of the shoe were too manufactured and readily bachelor. Similarly, in that location were shoes for every occasion; oxfords for a tailored costume, slippers with straps for festive occasions or pumps with pearl buckles, and finally, boots which were often edged in fur to stave off the winter chill when riding in a wagon in the winter.^[13] At the beginning of 1900s shoes notwithstanding maintained the same blueprint of the Victorian era. Shoes were commonly made with seal skin or Moroccan leather. Having boots made of seal skin was about mutual for people in a higher social class. Seal peel boots were known to be extremely durable and could be worn during every season. Boots fabricated from Moroccan leather were more than uncomfortable and strong. World War I caused this opulent era to tone down due to the increased sanctions on the merchandise of leather and other fabrics, and shoes were starting to comprise a fabric topping.^[6]

Way gallery 1900–1906 [edit]

• 

  1 – 1900

• 

  ii – 1901

• 

  3 – 1902

• 

  4 – 1903–04

• 

  five – 1904

• 

  6 – 1905

• 

  seven - c. 1905

• 

  viii – 1906

• 

  9 – 1906

Cartoon in Dial (1911) compares changes in way betwixt 1901 and 1911. "The dowdy voluminous clothes of the earlier date, making the grandmother an old lady and the mother seem apparently, had been replaced past much simpler looser wear producing a sense of release for all three females."^[fourteen]

1. Mrs. Charles Russell wears a sheer patterned dress with fullness at the front waist over a soft sash. This clothes might have been called a tea gown at this fourth dimension (1900).
2. Fashion illustration for Summer 1901 shows sloped waistline, "pouter pigeon" front bodices, high necklines and big hats with ribbons.
3. Photograph of three sisters c. 1902 illustrates the "pouter pigeon" blouse or shirtwaist and trumpet-skirt that was a mainstay of middle-grade article of clothing.
4. Underwear (camisole (or, more than likely, top half of combinations), corset, and trumpet-shaped petticoat) of 1903–04.
5. Fashion plate shows the frothy trained afternoon dress descended from the tea gown, worn with an oversized hat and gloves, 1904.
6. Elizabeth Wharton Drexel wears an off-the-shoulder orangish evening gown with long gloves, 1905.
7. Mrs. John Philip Sousa wears a checked adapt with elbow-length sleeves and long gloves, and carries a muff bag, c. 1905.
8. French apparel of 1906 is trimmed with embroidery or passementerie. The wide-brimmed hat is artsy upwardly on one side. Elbow-length sleeves are worn with gloves.
9. Summer evening fashions of 1906 have brusque or iii-quarter-length sleeves. Some ladies wearable hats, and the gentlemen vesture dinner jackets.

Style gallery 1907–1909 [edit]

• 

  1 – 1907

• 

  ii – 1907

• 

  3 – 1908

• 

  4 – 1908

• 

  5 – 1908

• 

  6 – 1909

• 

  seven – 1909

• 

  eight – 1909

1. Golfing costume of 1907 features a tailored jacket and matching talocrural joint-length brim with patch pockets.
2. 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 frequently goggles, 1907.
3. 1908 portrait by Paul Helleu captures the stylish combination of masses of wavy hair beneath a wide-brimmed hat.
4. Dresses by Paul Poiret indicate the way to a new silhouette, with a high waist and narrow, talocrural joint-length skirts, 1908.
5. Newspaper insert of fashions for 1908 shows dresses of a more bourgeois cut than the latest Paris modes, merely waists are college and the effigy slimmer and more than erect than in the first half of the decade.
6. Bib-forepart apron with pouter-pigeon cut, 1909.
7. High-fashion costume of 1909 has a narrower silhouette. The bodice fits closer to the trunk, although the waist however slopes, and the hat has a deep crown.
8. Dresses of 1909 show the new fitted, higher-waisted silhouette and are worn with huge hats.

Men'southward fashion [edit]

Hugo Reisinger wears a nighttime suit with a white waistcoat and dotted necktie. He carries the fashionable Homburg hat, 1907, painting past Anders Zorn, 1907

The long, lean, and athletic silhouette of the 1890s persisted. Hair was generally worn short. Beards were less pointed than before and moustaches were oftentimes curled.

Coats, waistcoats and trousers [edit]

The sack coat or lounge glaze connected to supercede the apron glaze for most breezy and semi-formal occasions. Three-piece suits consisting of a sack coat with matching waistcoat (U.S. vest) and trousers were worn, every bit were matching glaze and waistcoat with contrasting trousers, or matching glaze and trousers with contrasting waistcoat. Trousers were shorter than before, ofttimes had plough-ups or cuffs, and were creased front and back using the new trouser press.^[15]

Waistcoats fastened high on the chest. The usual mode was single-breasted.

The blazer, a navy blue or brightly colored or striped flannel coat cut like a sack coat with patch pockets and contumely buttons, was worn for sports, sailing, and other casual activities.

The Norfolk jacket remained fashionable for shooting and rugged outdoor pursuits. It was made of sturdy tweed or similar cloth and featured paired box pleats over the chest and back, with a cloth belt. Worn with matching breeches or (U.S. knickerbockers), it became the Norfolk suit, suitable for bicycling or golf with knee-length stockings and depression shoes, or for hunting with sturdy boots or shoes with leather gaiters.

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

The almost formal evening dress remained a nighttime tail coat and trousers with a dark or light waistcoat. Evening article of clothing 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 by and large had a unmarried push. Dinner jackets were advisable formal wear when "dressing for dinner" at domicile or at a men'south club. The dinner jacket was worn with a white shirt and a night necktie.

Knee-length topcoats and calf-length overcoats were worn in wintertime.

Shirts and neckties [edit]

Formal dress shirt collars were turned over or pressed into "wings". Collars were overall very tall and stiffened. Dress shirts had stiff fronts, sometimes busy with shirt studs and buttoned up the dorsum. Striped shirts were popular for breezy occasions.

The usual necktie was a narrow 4-in-hand. Ascot ties were worn with formal twenty-four hour period apparel and white bow ties with evening dress.

Accessories [edit]

Summit hats remained a requirement for upper class formal vesture; soft felt Homburgs or strong bowler hats were worn with lounge or sack suits, and flat straw boaters were worn for casual occasions.

Shoes for men were mostly over the talocrural joint. Toe cap, lace up boots in blackness, greyness, or brown were the about common for everyday wear. Formal occasions called for formal boots with white uppers (spat style) and buttons on the side. In the Edwardian times basic lace upwards oxford shoes were introduced.

Style gallery 1901−1905 [edit]

• 

  1 – 1900

• 

  2 – 1900

• 

  3 - 1901

• 

  iv - c. 1902

• 

  5 – 1903

• 

  6 - 1903

• 

  vii – 1904

• 

  8 – 1904

• 

  9 – 1905

1. Antoni Wodzicki wears a fur-collared overcoat and a Homburg, 1900.
2. Fashion illustration of a topcoat (left, worn with a top hat and morning apparel) and overcoat (right, worn with business dress and Homburg), December 1900.
3. Style plate from the Sartorial Arts Journal shows a three-push suite with patch pockets (left) and a golfing costume consisting of a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers (right), 1901.
4. Staffmembers of the Tuskegee Establish wear coats with loftier front openings and contrasting trousers, many striped, c. 1902.
5. Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt by John Vocalist Sargent in a formal frock coat, 1903.
6. Caricature of a fitting at Charvet in 1903.
7. Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt in a vividly patterned tie, calorie-free waistcoat, and dark coat, 1904. The very brusk hairstyle is typical of the flow.
8. Formal apron glaze, 1904.
9. Two Irishmen in San Francisco wearing bowler hats, 1905.

Mode gallery 1906-1909 [edit]

• 

  1 – 1906

• 

  2 - 1906

• 

  3 – 1907

• 

  4 – 1907

• 

  5 - c. 1907

• 

  6 - 1907

• 

  7 – 1909

1. Men's formal daywear consists of a cutaway morn glaze, high-buttoned waistcoat, and creased fly-front trousers worn with a high-collared shirt, top chapeau, and gloves, 1906.
2. Photo William Randolph Hearst wears a coat with a very high closure, a stiff collar, and a tie with a stickpin, 1906.
3. John Vocalist Sargent wears a gray formal coat and a winged-collar shirt, 1907.
4. Wilfrid Laurier, the Prime Government minister of Canada and his wife, 1907
5. Photo of William Howard Taft in a 3-piece conform, c. 1907.
6. British formal apparel: David Lloyd George (left) and Winston Churchill wearable frock coats and pinnacle hats, 1907.
7. Irish gaelic immigrants in Kansas City, Missouri, 1909. The homo second from the left is wearing a flat cap.

Children's fashion [edit]

Girls' style for this time period imitated older women of the same period. Girls wore dresses of knee length, with trimmings at the hem such as lace and embroidery similar to women's lingerie dresses. Normally, black shoes or push button up / lace up boots and woolen stockings went with the dress likewise equally kidskin or crochet gloves. Their hair was generally worn long and curly with decorations of ribbon. For play, bloomers and woolen jerseys were acceptable.^[16]

A new endeavour was made to pattern garments that are more suitable for playing by designing girls' dresses with brusk sleeves.^[17] Exterior, button up boots would have been worn or lace upwards boots also shoes with spats would accept been worn in the wintertime spats worn over shoes created the await of wearing a long boot. Kid leather gloves would take been worn to comprehend the hands or lace gloves in the summer. Bonnets were being replaced past hats by the terminate of the Victorian era so girls would take worn a hat when out.

Immature boys plant condolement in Russian style blouses.^[17]

Fashionable clothing for boys included sailor suits, consisting of a shirt with a sailor collar and trousers or knickerbockers. For automobiling, boys wore a duster with knickerbockers, a apartment cap, and goggles.^[18]

• 

  Even tiny girls were dressed in big hats, 1900

• 

  Two French boys wearing knickerbockers, 1900

• 

  Girls' fashions for August 1901

• 

  Modest male child in a crewman conform, 1909

• 

  Olga Nikolaevna of Russia 1904

• 

  Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna in Darmstadt, Hesse, 1903

• 

  School children from the Rainy River District, 1900s.

Working clothes [edit]

• 

  Aprons, from a 1909 catalogue

• 

  Housemaid ironing, 1908

• 

  Woman in a kitchen in the Rainy River Commune, ca. 1905.

See also [edit]

• Belle Époque
• Charvet Identify Vendôme
• Edwardian era
• History of mode design

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Fashion, Abrams, 1979
2. ^ Vintagefashionguild.org
3. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use equally a Deflator of Money Values in the Economic system of the U.s.: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antique Gild. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Apply as a Deflator of Coin Values in the Economy of the U.s. (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Depository financial institution of Minneapolis. "Consumer Cost Index (gauge) 1800–". Retrieved 1 January 2020.
4. ^ Weed, Inis H. (24 April 1910). "What It Costs A Immature Girl To Be Well Dressed". The New York Times . Retrieved 26 January 2011.
5. ^ Development of Women'southward Fashion During the Progressive Era Examined in DAR Museum Exhibition. (16 July 2014). Retrieved 17 April 2017
6. ^ ^{a b} Tierney, T. (2017). Appropriation, articulation and authentication in acid house: The evolution of women's fashion throughout the early years of the acid house civilization. Fashion, Style, & Popular Culture, 4(two), 179. doi:10.1386/fspc.4.2.179_1
7. ^ Fashion in History
8. ^ Laver: Concise History of Costume and Fashion
9. ^ Steele, Valerie: Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Oxford Academy Printing, 1988, ISBN 0-19-504465-7
10. ^ Steele, Valerie: The Corset, Yale University Press, 2001
11. ^ Quoted in Steele, The Corset', p. 146
12. ^ Ashelford, Jane: The Fine art of Dress.
13. ^ Payne, Blanche: History of Costume from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century, Harper & Row, 1965. No ISBN for this edition; ASIN B0006BMNFS
14. ^ Donald Read, Edwardian England 1901-15: club and politics (1972) pp. 257–58.
15. ^ Laver, Curtailed History of Costume and Fashion
16. ^ Stevenson, Pauline. Edwardian Way. London: Ian Allan LTD., 1980.
17. ^ ^{a b} "Children'southward Costume History 1900–1910" Archived 2 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Fashion-era.com. 28 April 2008
18. ^ Children's Fashions, 1860–1912: 1065 Costume Designs from "La Style Illustrée". New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1994.

References [edit]

• Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion 2: Englishwomen'due south Dresses and Their Structure C.1860–1940, Wace 1966, Macmillan 1972. Revised metric edition, Drama Books 1977. ISBN 0-89676-027-viii
• Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Wearing apparel: Clothing and Lodge 1500–1914, Abrams, 1996. ISBN 0-8109-6317-5
• Laver, James: The Concise History of Costume and Way, Abrams, 1979.
• Nunn, Joan: Fashion in Costume, 1200–2000, 2d edition, A & C Black (Publishers) Ltd; Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000. (Excerpts online at The Victorian Spider web)
• Steele, Valerie: Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, Oxford Academy Press, 1988, ISBN 0-nineteen-504465-seven
• Steele, Valerie: The Corset, Yale University Press, 2001

External links [edit]

• Media related to 1900s fashion at Wikimedia Eatables
• "1900s - 20th Century Way Drawing and Analogy". Fashion, Jewellery & Accessories. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on xix November 2010. Retrieved iii April 2011.
• 1900s Mode Plates of men, women, and children's fashion from The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art Libraries
• 1900s era Henri Bendel Fashion Sketch Collection at the Brooklyn Museum

Surviving clothing [edit]

• Lingerie dresses at Kent Country University
• 1900-1910 Fashions in the Staten Island Historical Society Online Collections Database

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