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By the early 1930s, the "drape cut" or "London
Drape" suit championed by Frederick Scholte, tailor to the Prince of Wales, was taking the world of men's fashion
by storm. The new suit was softer and more flexible in construction than the suits of the previous generation; extra fabric
in the shoulder and armscye, light padding, a slightly nipped waist, and fuller sleeves tapered at the wrist resulted in a
cut with flattering folds or drapes front and back that enhanced a man's figure. The straight leg wide-trousers (the standard
size was 23 inches at the cuff) that men had worn in the 1920s also became tapered at the bottom for the first time around
1935. The new suit was adopted enthusiastically by Hollywood stars including Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, and Gary Cooper, who
became the new fashion trend setters after the Prince's abdication and exile. By the early 1940s, Hollywood tailors had
exaggerated the drape to the point of caricature, outfitting film noir mobsters and private eyes in suits with heavily padded
chests, enormous shoulders, and wide flowing trousers. Musicians and other fashion experimenters adopted the most extreme
form of the drape, the zoot suit, with very high waists, pegged trousers, and long coats.
Roberto Capucci (born December 2, 1930) is an Italian
fashion designer, known for his extravagant and ingeniously constructed outfits.
Known as "the Givenchy of
Rome" Capucci was born in Rome in 1929. He studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Rome. His first job was with
the designer Emilio Schuberth. In 1950, he established his own fashion house. Creating unusual, sculpted dresses in original
materials, Capucci bewitched the fashion world and has, since his debut, been featured in shows representing most talented
and renowned designers. He opened a couture salon in Paris in 1962, but later returned to Rome, re-establishing himself in
the via Gregoriana.
He withdrew from the formal fashion world in 1980, preferring to present a single collection
each year in a different city. He did this from 1982–1996.
He has also designed uniforms for the staff of
Jet Airways, India's biggest airline
Mae West
Prior to World War II, New York fashion designers made the trek across the Atlantic Ocean to attend the flamboyant and opulent French fashion shows
each year. They then returned to the United States and copied the latest Parisian haute couture designs. Once the Germans
occupied Paris and the United States stationed battleships in the Atlantic Ocean, the New York designers were cut off from
Paris haute couture. In their attempts to design new fashions for the United States market, they concentrated on sportswear.
This led to the United States emerging as the sportswear capital of the world.
In 1941, war good manufacturing
took center stage. The government confiscated all stock of natural fabrics, forcing domestic manufacturers to concentrate
on substituting other fibers for domestic garments. The industry geared up rayon production. Nylon stockings disappeared in
1943.
During 1942, the War Production Board
began severely restricting the amount of yardage used in garments. On March 8, 1942 the War Production Board issued regulation
L - 85, which regulated every aspect of clothing. Stanley Marcus was the apparel consultant to the War Production Board. At
this time he took the stand that it was the designers patriotic duty to design fashions which would remain stylish through
multiple seasons.
Through the mid-1930s, the natural waistline was often
accompanied by emphasis on an empire line. Short bolero jackets, capelets, and dresses cut with fitted midriffs or seams below
the bust increased the focus on breadth at the shoulder. By the late '30s, emphasis was moving to the back, with halter
necklines and high-necked but backless evening gowns with sleeves.Evening dresses with matching jackets were worn to the theatre,
nighclubs, and elegant restaurants.
Skirts remained at mid-calf length for day, but the end of the 1930s Paris
designers were showing fuller skirts reaching just below the knee; this practical length (without the wasteful fullness) would
remain in style for day dresses through the war years.
Other notable fashion trends in this period include the
introduction of the ensemble (matching dresses or skirts and coats) and the handkerchief skirt, which had many panels, insets,
pleats or gathers. The clutch coat was fashionable in this period as well; it had to be held shut as there was no fastening.
By 1945, adolescents began wearing loose, poncho-like sweaters called sloppy joes. Full, gathered skirts, known as the dirndl
skirt, became popular around 1945.
The flapper dress of the 1920s gave way to the glamorous, sensuous look of the 1930s. The big-band swing era provided a perfect backdrop for dresses that
clung to the body above the hips and draped in graceful folds below. Hemlines fell and the backless evening gown gained immense
popularity. In 1930 the fashion writer for the chic magazine New Orleanian recommended a twenty-five-dollar metallic-cloth dress with Grecian
lines as "very apropos for the young matron" at a Carnival ball. During the decade, Hollywood began to influence
fashion. Joan Crawford's 1932 role in Letty Lynton helped narrow hips. During World War II, the War Production Board sought
to conserve fabric. Its L-85 order prohibited full skirts and knife pleats, while another order limited the use of lace and
embroidery. Despite these restrictions, American designers came into their own due to loss of communication with the French
during the Nazi occupation.
Throughout the 1930s and early '40s, a second
influence vied with the Paris couturiers as a wellspring for new fashion ideas: the American cinema. Paris designers such
as Schiaparelli and Lucien Lelong acknowledged the impact of film costumes on their work. LeLong said "We, the couturiers,
can no longer live without the cinema anymore than the cinema can live without us. We corroborate each others' instinct.
Throughout the 1930s and early '40s, a second influence vied with the Paris couturiers as a wellspring for new fashion ideas: the American cinema. Paris designers
such as Schiaparelli and Lucien Lelong acknowledged the impact of film costumes on their work. LeLong said "We, the couturiers,
can no longer live without the cinema anymore than the cinema can live without us. We corroborate each others' instinct.
The 1890s leg-o-mutton sleeves designed by Walter Plunkett for Irene Dunne in 1931's Cimarron helped to launch
the broad-shouldered look,and Adrian's little velvet hat worn tipped over one eye by Greta Garbo in Romance (1930) became
the "Empress Eugenie hat ... Universally copied in a wide price range, it influenced how women wore their hats for the
rest of the decade." Movie costumes were covered not only in film fan magazines, but in influential fashion magazines
such as Women's Wear Daily, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue.
Adrian's puff-sleeved gown for Joan Crawford
Letty Lynton was copied by Macy's in 1932 and sold over 500,000 copies nationwide. The most influential film of all was
1939's Gone with the Wind. Plunkett's "barbecue dress" for Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara was the most
widely copied dress after the Duchess of Windsor's wedding costume, and Vogue credited the "Scarlett O'Hara"
look with bringing full skirts worn over crinolines back into wedding fashion after a decade of sleek, figure-hugging styles.
The lighthearted, forward-looking attitude and fashions
of the late 1920s lingered through most of 1930, but by the end of that year the effects of the Great Depression began to
affect the public, and a more conservative approach to fashion displaced that of the 1920s. For women, skirts became longer
and the waist-line was returned up to its normal position in an attempt to bring back the traditional "feminine"
look. Other aspects of fashion from the 1920s took longer to phase out. Cloche hats remained popular until about 1933 while short hair remained popular for many women
until late in the 1930s.
Jean Patou, who had first raised hemlines to 18"
off the floor with his "flapper" dresses of 1924, had begun lowering them again in 1927, using Vionnet's handkerchief
hemline to disguise the change. By 1930, longer skirts and natural waists were shown everywhere.
But it is Schiaparelli
who is credited with "changing the outline of fashion from soft to hard, from vague to definite." She introduced
the zipper, synthetic fabrics, simple suits with bold color accents, tailored evening dresses with matching jackets, wide
shoulders, and the color shocking pink to the fashion world. By 1933, the trend toward wide shoulders and narrow waists had
eclipsed the emphasis on the hips of the later 1920s. Wide shoulders would remain a staple of fashion until after the war.
Gloves were "enormously important" in
this period.Evening gowns were accompanied by elbow length gloves, and day costumes were worn with short or opera-length gloves
of fabric or leather.
Manufacturers and retailers introduced coordinating ensembles of hat, gloves and shoes,
or gloves and scarf, or hat and bag, often in striking colors.For spring 1936, Chicago's Marshall Field's department
store offered a black hat by Lilly Daché trimmed with an antelope leather bow in "Pernod green, apple blossom
pink, mimosa yellow or carnation blush" and suggested a handbag to match the bow.
Garter belt is a woman's undergarment consisting
of an elastic piece of cloth worn around the waist to which garters are attached to hold up stockings. In British English
they are also known as suspender belts.
The garter belt was the vintage precursor to pantyhose (tights in British
English). A return to retro styled garter belts and stockings has become especially popular due to the ultra feminine iconization
of pin up girls of the past. Once a forgotten and overlooked undergarment from the past, the popularity of garter belts and
matching stockings have made a terrific comeback with most modern department stores selling a wide assortment.
Glamour, conservativeness and femininity were the defining
words of 1930s female fashions. Whereas a youth culture had sprung up and taken firm hold throughout the fashion world during
the roaring 1920s, the stock market crash in October 1929 reverberated in every aspect of society, so that by 1930, the Great
Depression had settled in and everyone wanted adults in charge. Thus, women’s clothes went from loose tops and dresses
that ended at the knees to form-fitting garments that fell to the mid-calf for day wear and to the floor for evening gowns.
A conservative, traditional look was desired by both men and women.
This is not to say that all youthfulness was
stripped from women’s clothing. Some fashions of the 1930s woman were almost oppressively girlish, with giant ruffles
and bows at the neck and shoulders. Peter Pan collars were seen on a lot of day wear, even for adult women. And although the
hard times demanded a lot of practicality, there were still many fussy, absurd hats and winter coats that didn’t fasten
up the front. On the other side, suits and even trousers were becoming more popular as more women entered the workforce and
everyone had less time for frivolity.
Austerity also affected men's civilian clothes
during the war years. The British "Utility Suit" and American "Victory Suit" were both made of wool-synthetic
blend yarns, without pleats, cuffs (turn-ups), sleeve buttons or patch pockets; jackets were shorter, trousers were narrower,
and double-breasted suits were made without vests (waistcoats). Men who were not in unform could, of course, continue to wear
pre-war suits they already owned, and many did so.
A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed
pegged trousers (called tramas) and a long coat (called the carlango) with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Often zoot
suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (called a tapa or tanda) and pointy, French-style shoes (called calcos). A young
Malcolm X described the zoot suit as: "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like
a lunatic's cell." Zoot suits usually featured a key chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back
to a side pocket.
Zoot suits were for special occasions such as a dance or a birthday party. The amount of material
and tailoring required made them luxury items. Many young people wore a more moderate version of the "extra-bagged"
pants or styled their hair in the signature "duck tail".
The oversized suit was an extravagant personal style
and a declaration of freedom and auto-determination; although many people still consider it a "rebellious garment to
the era."
During the early years of the 1910s the fashionable
silhouette became much more lithe, fluid and soft than in the 1900s. When the mohohuiBallets Russes performed Scheherazade
in Paris in 1910, a craze for Orientalism ensued. The couturier Paul Poiret was one of the first designers to translate this
vogue into the fashion world. Poiret's clients were at once transformed into harem girls in flowing pantaloons, turbans,
and vivid colors and geishas in exotic kimono. Paul Poiret also devised the first outfit which women could put on without
the help of a maid. The Art Deco movement began to emerge at this time and its influence was evident in the designs of many
couturiers of the time. Simple felt hats, turbans, and clouds of tulle replaced the styles of headgear popular in the 1900s.
It is also notable that the first real fashion shows were organized during this period in time, by the first female couturier,
Jeanne Paquin, who was also the first Parisian couturier to open foreign branches in London, Buenos Aires, and Madrid.
Two of the most influential fashion kjreflected light. His distinguished customers never lost a taste for his fluid lines
and flimsy, diaphanous materials. While obeying imperatives that left little to the imagination of the couturier, Doucet was
nonetheless a designer of immense taste and discrimination, a role many have tried since, but rarely with Doucet's level
of success.
Daniel Cook's thought-provoking examination
of the children's clothing industry in the United States sheds new light on the development of children's consumer
culture in the twentieth century. Focusing on the years between 1917, when the children's wear industry launched its first
trade journal, and the end of the baby boom in the early 1960s, Cook demonstrates how children's wear became increasingly
age segmented as merchants and manufacturers began designing goods and retail spaces with children's needs and desires
in mind. Cook identifies the 1930s as the major turning point when merchants, manufacturers, and advertisers of children's
wear recognized children rather than mothers as their primary consumer target. This shift, Cook argues, marked the emergence
of a new marketing perspective--what Cook provocatively terms "pediocularity"--that viewed "the world through
children's eyes" instead of a mother's eyes
Cook provides an informative account of how children's
wear merchandising became increasingly segmented and child focused. Before World War I merchandising of children's wear
was rather limited. Only one factory specialized in children's clothes before 1890, and mass merchandisers often stocked
children's clothing with adult clothing in various departments throughout the store. Clothing, in other words, was organized
by type rather than age. As publisher of the trade journal Infants' Department, George Earnshaw played a pivotal role
in pressing retailers to devote floor space and specially trained salesclerks to children's departments. This strategy
first gained traction in infants' departments, which courted the loyalty of mothers by hosting talks about infant care
and staging baby contests during the U.S. Children's Bureau's "Baby Week" campaigns. By the late 1920s,
department stores and chains like Sears and Montgomery Ward began including children's departments that catered to school-age
boys and girls. Most strikingly, in the 1930s children's clothing departments were divided and subdivided into a range
of gender and age groupings.
Cook highlights a variety of factors that made manufacturers more attentive to the
child's point of view in the 1930s. Faced with shrinking markets in the Depression, merchants and manufacturers likely
saw greater age segmentation as an opportunity to expand demand. By recognizing that children possessed personal desires and
stressing the importance of personality development, childrearing advice also helped legitimize the practice of giving children
a greater say in their own clothing. In translating such advice, women's magazines encouraged parents to consider children's
preferences and concerns about fitting in with their peers when selecting clothing. They also suggested that allowing children
to choose their clothing helped children learn good taste. Children's popular culture also advanced child-focused merchandising.
Child stars like Jane Withers, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney all either had their own clothing lines or endorsed children's
wear. Cook in particular credits Shirley Temple, whose own stage dresses and retail line of clothing had a toddler "look,"
for helping to make the toddler-size style range for girls a viable new merchandising category.
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Fashion of the 1930s was directly influenced by the Wall
Street Crash of October 24, 1929 and the subsequent Depression. The Autumn, 1930 Sears Catalogue admonished, "Thrift
is the spirit of the day. Reckless spending is a thing of the past." The focus turned away from new clothing for every
season and moved to reusing and remaking the clothes one already owned. The beginning of the decade saw women sewing more.
Clothing was mended and patched before being replaced. It was also during this time that the practice of changing clothes
several times each day fell out of style. (Before this time, many people had different outfits for morning, afternoon, and
evening).
A new passion for hiking, sports, sunbathing, and even nudism, invites briefer sportswear. Bathing suits
are slashed and backless, made of linen and lastex yarn. Bare midriffs are everywhere in the late 30's. Womens gloves
usually matched their shoes and handbags. Hats were worn at an angle. Pill boxes became popular along with brimmed hats. Towards
the end of the decade, turbans emerged. Fashionable hats range from the pillbox toque, trimmed turban, and Basque beret.
Women of the 30's were quite pale since a suntan was seen as lower class. Rouge, lipstick, and eye shadow were
used to brighten their faces, and women used artificial eyelashes that took two hours to apply in a salon. Women's hair
was fairly short and generally styled in finger-waves or soft curls with hardly any body.
Sportswear has been called America's main contribution
to the history of fashion design. The term became popular in the 1920s to describe relaxed, casual wear typically worn for
spectator sports. Since the 1930s the term is used to describe both day and evening fashions of varying degrees of formality
that demonstrate this relaxed approach whilst remaining appropriate wear for many business or social occasions.
Sportswear
originally described clothing made specifically for sport. One of the first couturiers to specialise in this was John Redfern
who in the 1870s began designing tailored garments for increasingly active women who rode, played tennis, went yachting, and
did archery. Redfern's clothes, although intended for specific sporting pursuits, were adopted as everyday wear by his
clients, making him probably the first sportswear designer.
Some early 20th century Paris designers such as Gabrielle
Chanel created haute couture designs that could be considered sportswear, though were not exclusively sportswear designers.
Chanel promoted her own active, financially independent lifestyle through her relaxed jersey suits and uncluttered dresses.
Other designers offering high end sportswear for resort wear included Jean Patou and Elsa Schiaparelli. In contrast to the
flexibility of American sportswear, these expensive couture garments were prescribed to be worn in very specific circumstances.
The precursors of true sportswear emerged in New York before the Second World War. 1930s designers such as Clare Potter
and Claire McCardell were among the first American designers to gain name recognition through their innovative clothing designs.
Richard Martin described these designers as aiming to produce clothes demonstrating "problem-solving ingenuity and realistic
lifestyle applications". McCardell has been called America's greatest sportswear designer. Her simple, practical
clothes suited the relaxed American dress code, neither formal nor informal, that became established during the 1930s and
1940s. Sportswear uses elements of sporty informal or casual wear such as Clare Potter's innovative evening sweater and
evening skirt draped like a side saddle riding habit.
Lauren Bacall
When people felt the negative
impact of the Great Depression, designers stopped experimenting because of the lessened demand for clothes.
Trends in women fashion though emphasized a romantic, womanly silhouette. The waist was brought back to its proper position, with hemlines being
dropped. Fashion emphasized on the bust, while backless evening gowns became the norm. The female body was modified to a more
contemporary tone, while having athletic bodies became a trend. The popularity of having slim and toned down bodies resulted
into couturiers to manufacture what is now known as the sportswear. While the concept of "ready-to-wear" was unknown
then, boutiques were already making clothes known as being "for sport." In the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli with Madeleine Vionnet rose to prominence. Both were known for their innovative designs
while not shattering the fundamentals of fashion. Schiaparelli became popular with her black knitted white bow. She became
known for her exciting designs since then. Some of her noteworthy creations were the desk suit complemented with drawers for
pockets, and the shoe-shaped hat. She also made silk dresses colored with flies. Vionet on the other hand got her inspiration in designing clothes from ancient statues. She created classical gowns
that more often than not seemed taken out of a Greek frieze. She also manufactured dresses that suited the body less the unwarranted
accessories, in turn creating a flowing and stylish line. By the time she retired at the end of the decade, Vionnet had enjoyed
a reputation among fashion industry movers.
The decade of the 1930s saw dramatic changes in
mens fashion. It began with the great Wall Street Crash of October 24, 1929. By 1931, eight million people were out of work in the United States. Less or no work meant little or no money to spend on clothing.
The garment industry witnessed shrinking budgets, and going-out-of-business sales were prevalent. The Edwardian tradition
of successive clothing changes throughout the day finally died. Tailors responded to the change in consumer circumstances
by offering more moderately priced styles.
In the early part of the
decade, mens suits were modified to create the image of a large torso. Shoulders were squared using wadding or shoulder pads
and sleeves were tapered to the wrist. Peaked lapels framed the v-shaped chest and added additional breadth to the wide shoulders.
This period also was a rise in the popularity of the double-breasted
suit, the precursor of the modern business suit. Masculine elegance demanded jackets with long, broad lapels, two, four, six
or even eight buttons, square shoulders and ventless tails. Generous-cut, long trousers completed the look. These suits appeared
in charcoal, steel or speckled gray, slate, navy and midnight blue.
Dark
fabrics were enhanced by herringbone and stippled vertical and diagonal stripes. In winter, brown cheviot was popular. In
spring, accents of white, red or blue silk fibers were woven into soft wool. The striped suit became a standard element in
a mans wardrobe at this time. Single, double, chalk, wide and narrow stripes were all in demand.
Wartime austerity lead to restrictions on the number
of new clothes that people bought and the amount of fabric that clothing manufacturers could use. Women working on war service
adopted trousers as a practical necessity. The nylon stocking was introduced in the US in 1940, to huge success, but later
withdrawn as all supplies were needed for military uses such as parachutes. When nylon stockings reappeared in the shops there
were "nylon riots" as customers fought over the first deliveries
In Britain, clothing was strictly rationed,
with a system of "points", and the Board of Trade issued regulations for "Utility Clothes" in 1941, and
in America the War Production Board issued its Regulation L85 on March 8, 1942, specifying restrictions for every item of
women's clothing. Easily laddered stockings were a particular concern in Britain; women were forced to either paint them
on (including the back seam) or to join the WRNS, who continued to issue them, in a cunning aid to recruitment. Later in the
war, American soldiers became a source of the new nylon stockings.
The primary influence on the fashionable shape of
the 1930s was the bias-cut dress introduced by Madame Madeleine Vionnet. Dress construction and fabric emphasized the female
shape, creating a streamlined effect in keeping with the general aesthetic of the period. Fabrics were draped to create soft
necklines and deep backs. Evening clothes became more distinct from day wear; long gowns for women and tuxedos or tails for
men were common attire for night clubs. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were paragons of style. As American designers such
as Hattie Carnegie and Adele Simpson gained prominence during World War II, the silhouette became more curvaceous with a closely
fitted bodice and waist.
The lighthearted, forward-looking attitude and fashions
of the late 1920s lingered through most of 1930, but by the end of that year the effects of the Great Depression began to
affect the public, and a more conservative approach to fashion displaced that of the 1920s. For women, skirts became longer
and the waist-line was returned up to its normal position in an attempt to bring back the traditional "feminine"
look. Other aspects of fashion from the 1920s took longer to phase out. Cloche hats remained popular until about 1933 while
short hair remained popular for many women until late in the 1930s.
Through the mid-1930s, the natural waistline was
often accompanied by emphasis on an empire line. Short bolero jackets, capelets, and dresses cut with fitted midriffs or seams
below the bust increased the focus on breadth at the shoulder. By the late '30s, emphasis was moving to the back, with
halter necklines and high-necked but backless evening gowns with sleeves. Evening dresses with matching jackets were worn
to the theatre, nighclubs, and elegant restaurants.
Skirts remained at mid-calf length for day, but the end of
the 1930s Paris designers were showing fuller skirts reaching just below the knee; this practical length (without the wasteful
fullness) would remain in style for day dresses through the war years.
Short hair remained fashionable in the early 1930s,
but gradually hair was worn longer in soft or hard curls. Most hairstyles were smooth at the crown to accommodate a hat, with
curls framing the face and at the ends. By the early 1940s, shoulder length curls or page-boy cuts were most popular. Hair
was also worn up with the curled ends piled on top of the head. Through the mid '40s, hair was worn high over the forehead in a puff or in rolls, in a pompadour.
Knotted hair cauls or hairnets, called
snoods, of velvet or chenille yarn, were one of the historic revivals seen through out the period.
Hats were worn for
most occasions, almost always tipped to one side and decorated with bits of net veiling, feathers, ribbons, or brooches.
The popularity of stockings increases and decreases
with fashion. It was formerly made of woven cloth but now of knitted wool, silk, cotton or nylon (see hosiery). The word stock
used to refer to the bottom "stump" part of the body, and by analogy the word was used to refer to the one-piece
covering of the lower trunk and limbs essentially tights consisting of the upper-stocks (later to be worn separately as knee
breeches) and nether-stocks (later to be worn separately as stockings).
Half-stockings, covering the foot and
part of the calf only, are commonly called socks. This word is an adaptation of Latin soccus, a slipper or light shoe. It
was the shoe worn by the actors in Roman comedy and so was used symbolically of comedy, as buskin, the high boot, was of tragedy.
Pierre Balmain opened his own salon in 1945. It
was in a series of collections named 'Jolie Madame' that he experienced his greatest success, from 1952 onwards. Balmain's
vision of the elegantly-dressed woman was particularly Parisian and was typified by the tailored glamour of the New Look,
with its ample bust, narrow waist, and full skirts, by mastery of cut and imaginative assemblies of fabrics in subtle color
combinations. His sophisticated clientèle was equally at home with luxurious elegance, simple tailoring, and a more
natural look. Along with his haute couture work, the talented businessman pioneered a ready-to-wear range called Florilege
and also launched a number of highly successful perfumes.
Menswear was also influenced by movies and its actors.
"During the 1930s men also began to discard their undershirts supposedly because Clark Gable took off his shirt in a
movie and only his bare chest was visible. Warm shirts in large plaids, and early in the 30s the single breasted jacket was
the male look. Later in the decade, double breasted jackets became popular yet again and the front of the man's jacket
was higher
The outfits worn by the fashionable women of the
'Belle Époque' (as this era was called by the French) were strikingly similar to those worn in the heyday of
the fashion pioneer Charles Worth. By the end of the nineteenth century, the horizons of the fashion industry had generally
broadened, partly due to the more mobile and independent lifestyle many well-off women were beginning to adopt and the practical
clothes they demanded. However, the fashions of the La Belle Époque still retained the elaborate, upholstered, hourglass-shaped
style of the 1800s. As of yet, no fashionable lady would (or could) dress or undress herself without the assistance of a third
party. The constant need for radical change, which is now essential for the survival of fashion within the present system,
was still literally unthinkable.
Conspicuous waste and conspicuous consumption defined the fashions of the decade
and the outfits of the couturiers of the time were incredibly extravagant, elaborate, ornate, and painstakingly made. The
curvaceous S-Bend silhouette dominated fashion up until around 1908. The S-Bend corset was very tightly laced at the waist
and so forced the hips back and the drooping mono bosom was thrust forward in a pouter pigeon effect creating an S shape.
Toward the end of the decade the fashionable silhouette gradually became somewhat more straight and slim, partly due to Paul
Poiret's high-waisted, shorter-skirted Directoire line of clothes.
The Maison Redfern was the first fashion
house to offer women a tailored suit based directly on its male counterpart and the extremely practical and soberly elegant
garment soon became an indispensable part of the wardrobe of any well-dressed woman. Another indispensable part of the outfit
of the well-dressed woman was the designer hat. Fashionable hats at the time were either tiny little confections that perched
on top of the head, or large and wide brimmed, trimmed with ribbons, flowers, and even feathers. Parasols were still used
as decorative accessories and in the summer they dripped with lace and added to the overall elaborate prettiness
An umbrella or parasol (sometimes colloquially, gamp,
brolly, umbrellery, or bumbershoot) is a canopy designed to protect against precipitation or sunlight. The term parasol usually
refers to an item designed to protect from the sun, and umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain. Often
the difference is the material; some parasols are not waterproof. Parasols are often meant to be fixed to one point and often
used with patio tables or other outdoor furniture, or for shelter from the sun. Umbrellas are almost exclusively hand-held
portable devices; however, parasols can also be hand-held. Umbrellas can be held as fashion statements in the twenty first
century for some men and women and are sometimes seen as simple accessories that complete an outfit.
The word umbrella
is from the Latin word umbra, which in turn derives from the Ancient Greek ómbros (όμβρος).
Its meaning is shade or shadow. Brolly is a slang word for umbrella, used often in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. Bumbershoot
is a fanciful Americanism from the late 19th century
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