"At the beginning of the century, success and prosperity were in the air...."
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*NEW* McCall's Magazine, 1900
(With thanks to Vintagecat for the magazines.)
Fashions from The Delineator, June 1901
*NEW* McCall's Magazine, 1901
Fashion plate from Le Bon Ton, June 1902
Fashions from The Delineator, October 1902
Fashions from The Delineator, May 1903
In those days, the contours of Ceres were more fashionable than those of Venus, and my mother's ripe curves were much admired. To conform to such standards, handkerchiefs padded out some of the bodices of her flatter-chested friends.
Sonia Keppel Edwardian Daughter
New Idea, 1903
(Not the Australian magazine of the same name, but an American magazine published by the "New Idea Pattern Company". The company continued publishing patterns, and its magazine, until the early 1920s.)
"Miss Halstan" - Postcard postmarked 1904
(Margaret Halstan was a professional actress who began her career in 1895 at the Haymarket Theatre, and continued working (in films as well as plays) until the late 1950s. In this publicity picture she is wearing a dress which is fashionable, but not too elaborate by the standards of the day. It illustrates the prevailing lines of the early 1900s perfectly.)
Fashions from The Lady's Realm, 1904
"Taken Oct. 22nd 1904" - E.J. Vanderbilt, Photography & Miniature Painter, Liverpool
(The lady in this photograph looks like the one in the photograph taken by D.G. Thomas Photographic Studio, Wrexham, in 1899 (see my 1890s page). Though she is clearly middle class and well dressed, she lacks the exaggerated forward-thrusted bosom of the fashion plates. The ridge created by her corset can still be seen under her clothes.)
"Maud Jeffries", ca. 1904
(Another postcard of an actress. Though someone has written the date "October 15th 1905" on the bottom of this postcard, the picture probably dates a bit earlier, since Miss Jeffries retired to Australia in 1904.)
Fashion plate from Le Costume Royale, April 1905
(Costume plates, illustrating fashions for home dressmakers.)
"I doubt if there has ever been such a marked contrast between the tailor-made style and the dressy gowns as there is at the present time. The former are trimmed with belts, buttons and collars of leather and suède. Sometimes the entire blouse coats are made of soft tan leather, while, on the other hand, dressy toilettes are adorned with the most fanciful and delicate trimmings, the costliest flowered silks, eyelet embroideries, and the skirts seem to grow fuller and fuller."
The Girl's Own Paper, February 1905
"Two garden party frocks" from The Girl's Own Paper, June 1905.
"Perhaps in time I shall grow accustomed to and even admire the new tight-fitting bodices trimmed in such a way that the bust is thrown very much forward and the waist very much accentuated, but at the present time they are quite an eyesore to me. ... Leg-of-mutton sleeves, with high square shoulders, and alarmingly compressed waists, and lungs also, I am afraid, are the noticeable feature of the latest phases of fashion."
The Girl's Own Paper, February 1905
Postcard, ca. 1905
(Evening fashion, from around the middle of the decade. Only the well-to-do could afford to dress thus.)
Photographs, ca. 1905
(Photographs from around the same era as the postcard above, but the sitters are obviously less well-off. Edwardian fashions were unashamedly luxurious for those who could afford them, but tended to look somewhat dowdy on those with limited budgets.)
Fashions from The Delineator, September 1906
"Miss Winifred Hare", ca. 1906
(Another publicity postcard, probably of a singer, since there is an early Edison recording of her voice. The postcard is postmarked August 23, 1906.)
"Miss Violet Vanbrugh", ca. 1906
"Kitty Gordon" ca. 1907
(Though she looks mature, almost middle-aged on this postcard, Kitty Gordon went on to have a career as an early silent film star - where she was billed as "most magnificently gowned!" This picture of her earlier in her career shows her wearing a type of loose overcoat which was very fashionable in the later 1900s. The postcard is postmarked July 17, 1907.)
*NEW* McCalls 1907
"Two smart costumes and a stylish spring coat" from The New Idea, September 1907
Real photo postcard, postmarked 1907
(One of the women posing for this photograph asks, "What do you think of this Robe, darlings, I do not think much of it." In fact the two young ladies in this photograph are wearing long, loose-fitting duster coats. They were originally designed to protect the clothing of motor-car passengers from the dust and grime of that new-fangled mode of transport.)
Fashions from McCall's, April 1908
(These show the straighter lines and large "merry widow" hats which became fashionable towards the end of the decade.)
Fashion plates from The Delineator, 1909
*NEW* McCalls 1909
Photograph dated "8/8/09"
(A woman photographed in a suburban garden, somewhere in Australia in 1909. Her suit is conventional middle class wear of the time, and is clearly meant to be more practical than ornamental - but oh, that hat!)
Photograph, ca. 1909-1910. "Harold F. Sykes, Broken Hill".
(Two very smart young ladies, posing in their best, newly fashionable long coats.)
"At the beginning of the century success and prosperity were in the air, and the creative side of the industry, as well as its politics, was on the march. Many smart women whose clothes had always been made by private dressmakers or at home began discovering the ready-to-wear, which, as it gained a more fastidious clientele, improved its output, grading the merchandise as cheap, medium, better and high.
For many years blouses and skirts had been made separately by different manufacturers. Now the blouse people took a daring step forward by branching out into dresses. Why this required courage may not a first glance be apparent to the contemporary eye, but it did, since for a while the Gibson girl seemed immortal. Even dresses that looked all of a piece were usually made with separate basques and skirts.
Actually, as I recall the fashions of my youth, I am struck by their extreme impracticality. The high-boned collars, the long swathing skirts, were unbearably hot in summer, and in summer and in winter our dresses, dragging in the streets, were dirty. We women did what we could. We wore removable dust ruffles, and I shall never forget the work required to keep them clean.
I could not dream of affording a maid, so I spent hours, when I got home from the office, washing and starching and ironing my petticoats, only to put them on in the morning to have them soiled again by the time I had walked three blocks.
A lady's aid to cleanliness was an ingenious device - the Floradora Fob, a fob attached to the waist with a clasp to hold at least a fold of one's skirt up off the street. It left our hands free to carry parcels and was considered a great boon.
But if the one-piece dress was a venturesome step, daring as it was, pictorially women's clothes of the early 1900s too a slump. The female shape, frequently considered by males to be made literally out of Biblical clay adjustable to any form, was moulded into a posture that made the upper half of the body appear to be set about six inches in front of the lower. This mystifying callisthenic was achieved by a specially contrived and pinched-in corset; also by a pendulous draping of the bodice, giving even flat-chested women a slanting, slablike silhouette that might have been maternal had it not presented such a united front.
Edna Woolman Chase Always in Vogue
