The History of Fashion

The Earliest Clothing

Thousands of years ago people learned to
make clothing from natural resources as
protection from the weather.
– Animal skins & hair
– Plants
– Grasses
– Tree bark
How do we know? Cave and tomb
drawings and ancient sculptures.

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First Clothes & Fabrics
Simple in structure & design
Varied from region to region
Fragments of textiles date back to 7500 B.C.
Linen cloth was made from flax plants by
Egyptians in 5000 B.C
Thousands of years later inhabitants of
India, Pakistan, and possibly Americans
made fabric of cotton

Fashions of Early Civilizations

People learned to raise animals and grow crops
They refined the arts of spinning, weaving, and
dyeing
They began to cut fabric into garments
Ancient fashion contributors include:
– Egypt
– Minoan
– Greece
– Roman Empire
– China
– Japan

2
Evolution of Fashion
Fashion changed very slowly
People often wore the same style clothing for life
A particular style could continue past a lifetime
Until the 14th century, European clothes were
loose-fitting and draped
Around 1350 people started wearing more fitted
styles
Regional clothing differences became visible as
European settlers came to America

Middle Ages (400 – 1400)

Men
– Knee-length pants called breeches
Women
– Gowns with a fitted bodice, full skirt, and long, full
sleeves.
Embroidery and decorative edging
Wealthy wore silk garments trimmed with fur and
adorned with silver accents
Peasant clothes were limited to certain colors and
fabrics

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1500’s Renaissance (16th Century)
Elaborate designs
Beautiful fabrics
Elegant decorations
Exploration of the New World
– Gold threads woven into fabrics
– Jewels, lace, and furs decorated garments
Wealthier classes set the standard for fashion
Both men and women wore ruffs- stiff, pleated
collars that framed the face-and shoes with
buckles and bows

1600’s (17th Century)

France was the
world’s fashion leader
Lace was an important
decoration
Powdered wigs made
their way in style
Necklines became
lower, hairstyles
became higher, and
beauty marks were
applied to the face.

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Early 1700’s (18th Century)
Colonization followed by the
Revolutionary War.
Men and woman’s fashions were
elaborate and elegant with laces,
ribbons, and colorful silks.
The late 1700’s were influenced by
Greek sculpture.
Common woman began wearing
loose, flowing, muslin dresses based
on Greek garments.
Woman began using purses.
Hairstyles featured soft, ringlet curls.

Early 19th Century

France changed from a monarchy to a
democracy
Social change and the rise of the middle class
meant that many people could afford to buy
new clothes more often.
Women wore gowns with high (empire)
waistlines that developed into more elaborate
dresses with petticoats and crinolines.
Men wore cutaway jackets, trousers, and
matching garments.

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Influences on Fashion History
Trade
– As societies traded goods with each other, they
also exchanged ideas that influenced their
clothing
– Quickened by the practice of barter
Politics & Powers
– The emergence of middle class prompted
royalty and wives of political leaders to become
fashion leaders

Influences on Fashion History

Religion
– Clothing became a statement of religious beliefs
Technology
– Used to change and improve fabrics & clothing
– Industrial Revolution provided power-driven
machines to weave fabric and sew garments
quicker than by hand
– Development of factories created ready-to-wear
garments
– Growth of large dry-goods stores
– Introduction of rayon and other new fibers/fabrics

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1789-1820

James Gillray, “A French Gentleman of the Court of Louis XVI - A French Gentleman of
the Court of Egalite, 1799”, Princeton

Baroque/Rococo vs
NeoClassicism
• Heavy • Light
• Streamlined
• Fussy • Minimal decoration
• Heavily decorated • “masculine” (sober, timeless,
• “feminine” (frivolous, logical, unchanging)
• Simplicity and grace
fashionable, vain) (associated with democracy,
• Conspicuous the rule of order and reason,
and individual
consumption accomplishment
(associated with
corruption and
nepotism)

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The French
Revolution
• The French Revolutionaries were fed up
with Empire, and decided to found a
new Republic, based on the glorious
principles of antiquity.
• 1795 plate taken from an English
translation of a French handbook
depicting the costumes worn by the
governmental branches of the new
French Republic. The dress of the
Council of Ancients, in tribute to "the
glory of Ancient Rome and learned
Athens," consisted of a white toga-like
drapery over a loose-fitting gown.
• Rare Books Department, Boston Public
Library.

New Roman style dress. Figure

87, 1796 (Vol. 2, No. 11) from
Nicholas Heideloff, Gallery of
Fashion. "New Dress, in the
Roman Style, introduced at the
Opera by a foreign Lady of
distinction.”
The colours are accurate for what
we see from Roman wall
paintings. However, most
NeoClassical dress is
predominantly white, following the
misconception about marble
statuary from the ancient world.

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French and English Politics:

• 1789: Estates General convened; Bastille stormed,
Declaration of the Rights of Man
• 1792: French monarchy abolished
• 1793-4: Reign of Terror - executions of aristocrats
• 1795: Directoire - Greco-Roman influence strongest
• 1799: Napoleon stages coup and becomes First
Consul
• 1804: Napoleon crowned Emperor
• 1810-1820: Prince of Wales (noted dissolute dandy) is
Regent for mentally ill father George III

Revolutionary Fashion

• Women Donating Their Jewels to the Patrie, 1791

• Symbolic dress:
– Red, white, and blue colours: tricolor sashes and rosettes
– Red cap of liberty
– Working-class dress: sans-culottes (trousers), carmagnole (dark short
cloth jacket)
• Dangerous to dress like an aristocrat in France: look to England
for more rural-inspired styles

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Aileen Ribeiro, Fashion in the

French Revolution (1988)
• “For most of the eighteenth century there was a
sartorial harmony in the dress of men and women;
they were united in their love of colour, elegant
design, and luxurious materials. One of the results of
the French Revolution was to divide the sexes in
terms of their clothing. Men’s dress becomes plain in
design and sober in colour; it is unadorned with
decoration. It symbolizes gravitas and an indifference
to luxury - essential elements of republican austerity;
its virtual uniformity emphasizes the revolutionary
ideal of equality.”

Jacques-Louis
David, Monsieur
Lavoisier and his
Wife, 1788, MMA

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Men: 1790-1820
• Underdrawers of cotton or linen
• Cotton or linen shirt with high standing collar to mid-
cheek. Front usually pleated or ruffled.
– Cravat or stock (stiffened band that buckles or ties in back)
around collar.
• Suit: coat, waistcoat, and breeches.
– Dress and undress differentiated by use of colour, quality of
fabric, and buttons or accessories.
• Three parts were of different, but either bright or subdued hues.
Wool was generally used, but for formal or court occasions,
velvet or silk were suitable.

‘The Cut of His Coat’

• Coat fronts either curve away to tails, or end in short
waist, with tails at the back. Collars have notch where
collar joins lapel. Either single- or double-breasted
closings.
• Colours: Navy blue, forest green, maroon, grey,
variety of browns (bronze, fawn, etc)
• Waistcoats had a tall standing collar, with about two
inches of the bottom visible underneath coat. Could
be layered for warmth.
• Breeches worn until 1807 (although trousers were
introduced by the sans-culottes in the Fr.Rev.) and
then replaced by high-waisted trousers.

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Court suit, late 18th-

early 19th century French
MMA

Silhouette narrows
significantly, with a more
restrained colour pallette;
decoration is still
abundant.

Sobriety doesn’t come cheap: men’s vests, 1790s,

Bunka Museum

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Dress suit, 1790-

1800, VAM

Expensive fabrics,
exquisite tailoring

Men's ensemble,
ca. 1790 French,
MMA

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Frock coat 1795-

1805 VAM

“The Incroyable”:
Extreme fashion
style developed in
the Directoire
period, featuring
very tight breeches
and very high and
wide collars. These
fops were Royalist
sympathisers, and
would hit
revolutionaries with
their walking canes.

Jacques-Louis David,
M. Seriziat, 1795,
Louvre

Equestrian-inspired
dress, highly tailored
as in England.
Powdered wig still
acceptable for upper
classes.

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Men's Redingote, habit

degage, c. 1796-1798 MMA

Man’s suit, 1795, MMA

High waistline, layering of

costume elements and
exaggerated details.

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Men’s fashion, 1801, Costumes Parisiens

• Left: new top
hat, English
triple-caped
greatcoat,
Hessian boots
• Right:
“Russian” hat
(after
Napoleon’s
bicorne worn
in Russian
campaign,
traditional tail
coat, Hessian
boots

Napoleon’s hat from the Russian campaign,

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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Men’s Fashion 1806, Costumes Parisiens

• Right: Spencer jacket named after Lord Spencer, also worn by women
• Center: early casual trousers, later made popular by the Prince of Wales
• Left: slippers, gloves in pocket, fobs at waist, and very frilly shirt

Red and green formal

men’s velvet suits, 1805-
1810, private collection

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Men’s Fashion 1809, Costumes Parisiens

• At left:
Wellington
boots with
breeches
• At right:
Hessian
boots with
trousers

Men’s Fashion 1810 Costumes Parisiens

Martial
inspiration
from the
Napoleonic
Wars: Double-
breasted coat,
applied braid
on trousers,
military-style
boots

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“Directoire” fashion in
pre-war France:
Pierre Brissaud, “En
Tenue de Parade, robe
d’hiver pour la
promenade”, Gazette du
Bon Ton, February 1914

Day Suit,
1800-1817,
Wool, VAM
(worn by
banker
Thomas
Coutts)

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James Gillray, “Sad Sloppy Weather,” 1808, Princeton

Suit with cotton

trousers 1810-
1820 VAM

“Cossack”
trouser with
gathered waist,
full sleeve
reflects
women’s
fashion

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Garden Dress,
June 1808 Le Beau
Monde, or Literary
and Fashionable
Magazine

Indoor and Outdoor Wear:

• Cloaks replaced by overcoats and greatcoats: very
full, either knee- or full-length, with collars, lapels,
sleeves, and one or two capes at the shoulder.
• Dressing gown or banyan still acceptable for lounging
at home, receiving visitors.
• Shoes with ties replace buckled shoes, have low
heels.
• Boots are at first influenced by English country wear
(turned down at top), then by military (high in front,
scooped back):
– Napoleons, Wellingtons, Bluchers, Cossacks, Hessians…

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Dressing
gown
(banyan)
1780-1820
VAM

Informal
wear for
receiving at
home

Wellington's boots,
c1800-c1850.
Knee-high leather
boots with spurs
and red lining,
formerly belonging
to the Duke of
Wellington. MoL

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'A Contract', 1818.

From Dighton's "City
Characters". MoL

Greatcoats and top

hats of different
shapes

Accessories:
• Tricorne over wig replaced by bicorne (flat
half-moon shaped hat) or top hat over short
cropped hair (or wig) and clean shaven face.
• Gloves were of leather or cotton.
• Decorative canes are used for walking.
• Monocles are fashionable accessory.
• Rings, watch fobs, and decorative tie pins
are acceptable jewelry throughout period.

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James Gillray, “Dreadful Hot Weather,” 1808, Princeton

'Concert Dresses'
from the September
issue of the French
fashion magazine, Le
Beau Monde, 1807.
MoL

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Left: Detail of Les Deux Incroyables, Antoine Charles Horace

Vernet, ink and wash, 1794. Right: "The Exquisite" from Fashion,
Illustrated by George Cruikshank, 1818

The Dandy
• The self as art
• Not excessive, but subtle and luxurious.
• Form-fitting clothes of sober, practical materials.
• Dignity: If heads turned to follow a man along the street, he was
not well-dressed.
• George “Beau” Brummell (1778-1840)
– Friend of Prince Regent until feeling to Continent to escape debts in
1819
– Notorious for exactitude in dress: his clothes did not show a single
wrinkle, his breeches fitted like a second skin, and his mornings could be
used tying a cravat to perfection.
– Claimed he took 5 hours to dress.
• Later, develops into exaggeration and extravagance.

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George Bryan Brummell

• Never flamboyant, but manly and dignified, and strived to be perfect in every
way. He prided himself on never needing scent because he was so clean:
Every day, his toilette began with brushing his teeth, shaving, a thorough
wash and scrub; followed by brushing his body all over with a stiff brush and
finally pursuing any errant remaining hairs with a pair of tweezers.
• Devised a stirrup to go under the foot and stop his pantaloons from
wrinkling, but it is the cravat for which he is most famous. A story recounts
his valet leaving the room with his arms laden with linen cravats: ‘these are
our failures’.
• Invariably dressed in a blue coat tightly buttoned at the waist with the tails
cut above the knee, buff coloured pantaloons and waistcoat, finished with
the whitest of white cravats and Hessian boots of the blackest black whose
shine, it was said, extended to the soles and was maintained with
champagne froth. The only jewelry would be his gleaming buttons and a
simple signet ring.
• He said of himself “I have no talents other than to dress; my genius is in the
wearing of clothes.”

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"Dandies Dressing", 1818 caricature by George Cruikshank

'Lacing a Dandy',
1819. MoL

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Women’s Dress: 1790-1820

• Chemise: cotton or linen with low square neck, cut
straight from neck to knees.
• Drawers: open through crotch, end below knee.
Around 1809 shortly replaced by pantalettes: long
straight white drawers with frills and tucks and lace at
hem.
• Corset or stays: cut straight to push up bosom.
• Petticoat: cut straight, but as skirt widens, so does
petticoat.
• Padded rolls: placed under waist at back to create
forward slant to body.

Indecency!
1799, Isaac
Cruikshank.
LoC.

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James Gillray, “Progress of the Toilet: The Stays,” 1810, Princeton

James Gillray, “Progress of the Toilet: The Wig,” 1810, Princeton

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James Gillray, “Progress of the Toilet: Dress Completed,” 1810, Princeton

1809
French
engraving
titled "La
Fureur des
Corsets"
("The
Corset
Fad"):

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Corsets, KCI

The Oracle, 1800:

My Delia’s heart I find so hard, I would

she were forgotten.
For how can hearts be adamant when all
the breast is cotton?

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Dresses: Silhouette and

Construction
• Tubular, with waist just under bosom after 1794.
• Made of lightweight fabrics like fine silks and cottons.
• Gathered at back to slight fullness, perhaps with pad.
– Train remains until 1812, when hem shortens.
• Robe: Open at front to show underskirt, worn as
evening wear.
• Round gown: closed in front, bib-like closure.
• Tunic dress: has loose shorter overdress overtop.
• Necklines: either low and round or square, or high
ending in ruffle or drawstring.
• Sleeves: either short or long, puffed or straight, or a
combination thereof.

Dress, 1780-90, Manchester City Galleries;

Fashion Plate, 1790

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Shopping in the Palais Royal, 1793 (Les Incroyables et Merveilleuses)

Merveilleuses, the female counterparts to the male Incroyables during the
Directoire, wore long trains, sheer fabrics, and exaggerated jockey-style hats.

James
Gillray,
“Following
the Fashion,”
1794, LoC

Emulation:
“St James
giving the
Ton/ A Soul
without a
Body/
Cheapside
aping the
Mode, a Body
without a
Soul”
Then, as
now, thinness
was a sign of
refinement.

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Decency in Dress

• The clinging, sheer fashions of the day inspired a fevered debate about modesty and
decency.
• In the Mirror of Graces; or the English Lady’s Costume, published in London in 1811,
the author (A Lady of Distinction) advised: “In the morning the arms and bosom must
be completely covered to the throat and wrists. From the dinner-hour to the termination
of the day, the arms, to a graceful height above the elbow, may be bare; and the neck
and shoulders unveiled as far as delicacy will allow.”
• James Gillray, “Lady Godiva’s Rout,” 1796, Princeton

Round gown, ca. 1795

Italian Silk, linen MMA

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Jacques-Louis David,
Mme. Seriziat, 1795,
Louvre

The wife and child of M Seriziat

wear lightweight cotton round
gowns, derived from chemises, a
new casual rustic style
popularized by Marie Antoinette
in the late 1780s. Mme S’s gown
has long tight sleeves and a low
waist, but her ribbon belt lifts it
higher visually. She wears a linen
fichu for modesty, a carryover
from earlier styles, and her mob
cap and straw hat are taken from
peasant styles.

Embroidered cotton
round gown, 1797,
Nationalmuseet,
Denmark

Sleeves shorten, the

waist is raised, and
the fabric is more
sheer.

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James Gillray, “A Lady Putting on Her Cap,” 1795, Princeton

Turbans, feathers, and loose robes become popular, after the
Turkish style.

Evening
gowns from
the Gallery
of Fashion,
1795, MMA

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Man’s striped
coat and
women’s
gowns, 1790s,
MMA

Dress (open robe),

1795 English Silk, cotton
MMA

The full fichu

emphasises the high
bust, while the train
draws attention to the
graceful line of the back.

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Afternoon
dresses, 1795.
Women wearing
elaborate
hairstyles with
ostrich feathers,
and elegant
high-waisted
dresses. From
"The Gallery of
Fashion". MoL

Woman in court dress,

1795. She wears a turban
trimmed with dyed plumes
and jet ornaments. Court
ettiquette demanded
hoops and trains, which
were no longer easily
reconciled with the
highwaisted styles of the
day. Taken from
Heideloff's Gallery of
Fashion. MoL

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Round gown,
ca. 1798 British
White cotton with
polychrome wool
crewel
embroidered trim
MMA

Dress, ca. 1799-

1800 American
Linen, cotton MMA

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Louis-Hippolyte Leroy,
Empress Josephine’s court
gown with train, 1804,
Chateau Malmaison.

Right: Cotton gown

with robe-a
l’anglaise-style back,
1800, Bunka
Museum;
Left: Gown with new
style of construction,
1805, Bunka
Museum

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Baron Francois-
Pascal-Simon
Gerard, Madame
Charles-Maurice
de Talleyrand-
Perigord, ca. 1808
MMA

James Gillray, “The Graces in a High Wind,” 1809, Princeton

A fine figure and modest undergarments were essential for the
clinging styles of the period.

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James Gillray, “Advantages of Wearing Muslin

Dresses,” 1802, Princeton
Dangers of the new fashions

Thmas Rowlandson, “A Doleful Disaster,” 1813, Yale

Dangers of vanity: wigs were no longer commonly worn

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Dress, France (possibly)

This muslin gown is a
typical evening ensemble
of the period 1800-1810.
The embroidered design
of flowers has been
worked in cotton and silver
thread with tiny gold
spangles (sequins). It
resembles fashion plates
and descriptions from the
fashion magazine La Belle
Assemblee of 1807. A new
development in
dressmaking is the
fastening of the gown at
the back rather than the
front. VAM

Evening
dress, ca.
1810 French
White mull with
allover
embroidery
with silver
tinsel MMA

Made to look
like a shawl.
Dresses gain
more
decoration,
and sleeves
begin to puff

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Two
dresses,
ca. 1810
French
White cotton
MMA

Evening
dress,
England 1807-
1811 Machine
made silk net,
embroidered
with chenille
thread, with
silk ribbon,
worn over
white
underdress for
pink effect
VAM

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Cotton print dress,

1810-15, Bunka
Museum

Costumes Parisiens
1809-10,
Robe or Pelisse,
1810, Bunka
Costume Museum
(Japan)

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Evening dress,
1812-14 French
Silk

Net and silk

dress, ca. 1820
British Silk MMA

Dress, 1817,
Nationalmuseet
Denmark

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Dress, 1816-
1821, Muslin
with gold
thread, VAM

'Dress Maker',
1818. From "A
Visit to the
Bazaar" by John
Harris. MoL

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Costumes
Parisiens,
1819,
Robe, 1820,
Bunka
Museum

“Hussar” dress
belonging to
Russian Empress
Maria Feodorovna,
1818, Pavlovsk

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Outerwear:
• Shawls or stoles: square or oblong.
– Inspired by or imported from Kashmir.
• Paisley, Norwich, and other cities made imitations.
– Status symbol, and mark of good breeding to wear one gracefully.
– Popular throughout century.
• Mantle, cloak, or cape: interchangeable terms.
• Spencer: short jacket ending just under bosom, cut with or
without sleeves in a contrasting colour for indoor or outdoor
wear. Named after George, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), who
is said to have worn short jackets without tails in the 1790s.
• Pelisse: full-length coat following fashionable silhouette.
Padded or lined for warmth if made of cotton or silk.

Robe made from

a shawl, 1797,
VAM

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Pelisse, 1809,
Silk, VAM

Pelisse said to have

belonged to Jane
Austen, 1813-15,
Brown silk woven
with gold oak leaves,
symbolic of
England’s victory at
Waterloo, Hampshire
County Council

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Spencer,
1818,Velvet
faced with
satin VAM

Military-inspired
cut-velvet
spencer, 1815,
KCI

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'Linen Draper',
1818. From "A
Visit to the
Bazaar" by
John Harris.
MoL

Shawl embroidered in gold, belonging to

the Empress Josephine, Malmaison

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Hats, Shoes, and Accessories

• Hair dressed in “classical” style, with curls around face
or cropped short a la victime.
– Crops referred to victims of guillotine.
• Turbans, feathers, bonnets, and caps worn overtop,
often for outdoors as well as evening dress.
• Flat laced slippers or ankle boots.
• Gloves made of leather, silk, or net.
• Handbags and purses replace the pocket: reticule.
• Muffs, fans, handkerchiefs, parasols carried in hand.
• Necklaces, earrings, brooches, rings imitate Classical
designs.

Fashion victims

• Theresia Cabarrus (later Tallien) in

la Force prison awaiting the
guillotine, 1794, holding her shorn
hair.
• 1795-96: Fashionable woman in
leopard stole has hair a la victime,
in immitation of the toilette du
condamne.

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Ceinture a la Victime

• Italian, Portrait of a Woman (thought to

be Eliza Bonaparte), 19th century,
National Gallery (London)
• Fashion Plate, Journal des Dames et
des Modes, 1797

Shoes, 1808-18
VAM

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Empress Josephine’s embroidered

slippers, Malmaison

Reticules, 1800-1829 VAM

As women’s dresses grew

narrower, they could no
longer have internal
pockets: the Roman
custom of holding a pouch
in one’s hand was
therefore revived.

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Bonnet 1810
American KCI
Poke bonnets
such as this
one were the
subject of
many
caricatures for
their
exaggerated
shape and
effects on
peripheral
vision.

James Gillray, “Les Invisibles,” 1810, Princeton

A term used for the post-Brummell dandies, who disappeared in their clothes, is here
used as a pun on limited vision restricted by fashionable headgear and haircuts

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Public Promenade
Dress. La Belle
Assemblee, 1819

NeoClassical Dress

• Greco-Roman Revival (with some Etruscan and Egyptian

material for good measure)
– Inspired by 18th century archaeological discoveries and custom of Grand
Tour collecting
– Influenced politics, furniture, landscape design, architecture, and fashion
• James Gillray, “Harmony Before Matrimony,” 1805, Princeton

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Left:
Costume
Parisien:
Morning
Dress,
1801.
Right:
Ancient
Greek
figure, Plate
35 from J.
Moyr Smith,
1882

• Right: Plate 32,

Ancient Greek
figure, in Chiton,
putting on
himation. From
J. Moyr Smith,
1882
• Left:
Ackermann’s
Repository,
1822

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Ackermann's Repository February 1815

Full Dress (designed by Mrs. Bean,
Albemarle Street)
"Pale pink or primrose-coloured crape petticoat
over white satin, ornamented at the feet with a
deep border of tulle, trimmed with blond lace and
pink or primrose-coloured ribband, festooned and
decorated with roses; short full sleeves, composed
of tulle and crape, with a border of French
embroidery; the back drawn nearly to a point,
corresponding to the cape front of the dress, and
trimmed round with blond lace; The waist very
short, and an easy fullness in the petticoat, carried
entirely round. Necklace and drop of pearl;
eardrops and bracelets to correspond. Hair in
irregular curls, confined in the Eastern style,
and blended with flowers. French scarf, fancifully
disposed on the figure. Slippers of pink or
primrose-coloured kid; gloves to correspond."

Black Evening Dress

Ackermann’s Repository, 1817

53
 4/15/18

Walking Dress, 1819,

Ackermann’s Repository

Morning Dress from

Ackermann's
Repository, c. 1819-20.

54
 4/15/18

Ackermann's Repository
September 1813 "Promenade
Dress"
"A white jaconet muslin high dress,
with long sleeves and collar of
needlework; treble flounces of plaited
muslin round the bottom; wrist and
collar confined with a silk cord and
tassel. The hair disposed in the
Eastern style, with a fancy flower in
front or on one side. A Vittoria cloak,
or Pyrennean mantle, of Pomona
green sarsnet, trimmed with Spanish
fringe of a corresponding shade, and
confined in graceful folds on the left
shoulder. A white lace veil thrown over
the headdress. A large Eastern
parasol, the colour of the mantle, with
deep Chinese awning. Roman shoe,
or Spanish slipper, of Pomona green
kid, or jean. Gloves or primrose or
amber-coloured kid."

Mme Recamier (1805) by

Baron Francois-Pascal-
Simon Gerard, Musee
Carnavallet, Paris

55
 4/15/18

• Promenade Dress,
1821, from
Ackermann's The
Repository of Arts,
Literature,
Commerce,
Manufactures,
Fashion and Politics.
• "Green promenade
pelisse of gros de
Naples and a patent
lace ruff with black
satin bonnet ... A
green promenade
pelisse of gros de
Naples with
vandyked epaulettes
and a patent lace
ruff. Black satin
bonnet with full
plume and cerulean
silk under the brim.”

Mme Recamier. (1800) Jacques-

Louis David. Louvre, Paris, France

56
 4/15/18

Madame de Verninac,
nee Henriette Delacroix
(sister of Eugene
Delacroix). (1799)
Jacques-Louis David.
Louvre, Paris, France.

Francois Gerard,
Portrait of
Hortense de
Beauharnais,
1800

57
 4/15/18

Robert Lefèvre,
Portrait of Désirée
Clary (fiancee of
Napoleon Bonaparte,
later Queen of
Sweden), 1807

Portrait of Napoleon on
the Imperial Throne.
(1806) Jean-Auguste-
Dominique Ingres.
Musee de l'Armee, Paris,
France.

58
 4/15/18

Comtesse Daru.
(1810) Jacques-
Louis David, Frick
Collection, New
York

59
 4/15/18

1820-1860

Full Skirts, Thin Waists

William Hazlitt, “On Fashion,”

Edinburgh Magazine, 1818
• “The shape of a head-dress, whether flat or piled (curl on curl) several
stories high by the help of pins and pomatum, the size of a pair of paste
buckles, the quantity of gold-lace on an embroidered waistcoat, the mode of
taking a pinch of snuff, or of pulling out a pocket handkerchief, the lisping
and affected pronunciation of certain words, the saying Me’m for Madam,
Lord Foppington’s Tam and ‘Paun honour, with a regular set of visiting
phrases and insipid sentiments ready sorted for the day, were what formerly
distinguished the mob of fine gentlemen and ladies from the mob of their
inferiors. These marks and appendages of gentility had their day, and were
then discarded for others equally peremptory and unequivocal. […] Our
belles formerly overloaded themselves with dress: of late years, they have
affected to go almost naked, ‘and are, when unadorned, adorned the most.’
The women having left off stays, the men have taken to wear them, if we are
to believe the authentic Memoirs of the Fudge Family. The Niobe head is at
present buried in the poke bonnet, and the French milliners and marchands
des modes have proved themselves an overmatch for the Greek sculptors,
in matters of taste and costume.”

1
 4/15/18

"Waist and
Extravagance", a
satire of the fashions
of c. 1830 by W.
Heath

Historical Context
• 1820: Prince Regent becomes King George IV
• 1830: Godey’s Lady’s Book begins publication: first
American fashion magazine
• 1837: Queen Victoria comes to throne (1840, marries
Prince Albert)
• 1839: Invention of photography
• 1848: Anti-monarchical revolutions across Europe
• 1852: Napoleon’s nephew comes to French Throne
as Napoleon III
• 1858: Charles Frederick Worth opens couture house.
(1860, begins dressing Empress Eugenie, wife of
Napoleon III)

2
 4/15/18

Menswear: terms
• Dress Coat: evolves from 18th c court dress. Tails, horizontal
cut in front (lowers throughout century), stiff velvet collar.
• Morning or Riding Coat: sloping front edges toward tails in
back.
• Frock coat: appears in 1816, derived from military greatcoats:
buttons in front, loose and straight.
• Paletot: appears in 1830s, informal jacket cut loose without
waist seam. Develops into Lounge Jacket in 1850s when it is
given darts and matching trousers and vest.
• Breeches worn for evening wear until 1830s.
• Pantaloons: front flap opening with continuous inside leg
seam, buttons or straps at ankle for tightness. From 1840, only
have central button fly, worn with suspenders.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pelham, 1828, Chapter XLIV

And here, as I am weary of tailors, let me reflect a little upon that divine art of which they are the professors. Alas, for the
instability of all human sciences! A few short months ago, in the first edition of this memorable Work, I laid down rules
for costume, the value of which, Fashion begins already to destroy. The thoughts which I shall now embody, shall be
out of the reach of that great innovator, and applicable not to one age, but to all. To the sagacious reader, who has
already discovered what portions of this work are writ in irony--what in earnest--I fearlessly commit these maxims;
beseeching him to believe, with Sterne,that "every thing is big with jest, and has wit in it, and instruction too, if we can
but find it out!”
MAXIMS.
1. Do not require your dress so much to fit, as to adorn you. Nature is not to be copied, but to be exalted by art. Apelles
blamed Protogenes for being too natural.
2. Never in your dress altogether desert that taste which is general. The world considers eccentricity in great things,
genius; in small things,folly.
3. Always remember that you dress to fascinate others, not yourself.
4. Keep your mind free from all violent affections at the hour of the toilet. A philosophical serenity is perfectly necessary to
success. Helvetius says justly, that our errors arise from our passions.
5. Remember that none but those whose courage is unquestionable, can venture to be effeminate. It was only in the field
that the Lacedemonians were accustomed to use perfumes and curl their hair.
6. Never let the finery of chains and rings seem your own choice; that which naturally belongs to women should appear
only worn for their sake.We dignify foppery, when we invest it with a sentiment.
7. To win the affection of your mistress, appear negligent in your costume--to preserve it, assiduous: the first is a sign of
the passion of love; the second, of its respect.
8. A man must be a profound calculator to be a consummate dresser. One must not dress the same, whether one goes to
a minister or a mistress; an avaricious uncle, or an ostentatious cousin: there is no diplomacy more subtle than that of
dress.
9. Is the great man whom you would conciliate a coxcomb?--go to him in a waistcoat like his own. "Imitation," says the
author of Lacon, "is the sincerest flattery.”
10. The handsome may be shewy in dress, the plain should study to be unexceptionable; just as in great men we look for
something to admire--in ordinary men we ask for nothing to forgive.

3
 4/15/18

Pelham, ctd
11. There is a study of dress for the aged, as well as for the young. Inattention is no less indecorous in one than in
the other; we may distinguish the taste appropriate to each, by the reflection that youth is made to be loved--
age, to be respected.
12. A fool may dress gaudily, but a fool cannot dress well--for to dress well requires judgment; and Rochefaucault
says with truth, "On est quelquefois un sot avec de l'esprit, mais on ne lest jamais avec du jugement.”
13. There may be more pathos in the fall of a collar, or the curl of a lock, than the shallow think for. Should we be
so apt as we are now to compassionate the misfortunes, and to forgive the insincerity of Charles I., if his
pictures had pourtrayed him in a bob wig and a pigtail? Vandyke was a greater sophist than Hume.
14. The most graceful principle of dress is neatness--the most vulgar is preciseness.
15. Dress contains the two codes of morality--private and public. Attention is the duty we owe to others--
cleanliness that which we owe to ourselves.
16. Dress so that it may never be said of you "What a well dressed man!"--but, "What a gentlemanlike man!”
17. Avoid many colours; and seek, by some one prevalent and quiet tint, to sober down the others. Apelles used
only four colours, and always subdued those which were more florid, by a darkening varnish.
18. Nothing is superficial to a deep observer! It is in trifles that the mind betrays itself. "In what part of that letter,"
said a king to the wisest of living diplomatists, "did you discover irresolution?"--"In its ns and gs!" was the
answer.
19. A very benevolent man will never shock the feelings of others, by an excess either of inattention or display;
you may doubt, therefore, the philanthropy both of a sloven and a fop.
20. There is an indifference to please in a stocking down at heel -- but there may be a malevolence in a diamond
ring.
21. Inventions in dressing should resemble Addison's definition of fine writing, and consists of "refinements which
are natural, without being obvious.”
22. He who esteems trifles for themselves, is a trifler--he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from
them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher.

Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, 1833,

Chapter X (“The Dandiacal Body”)
ARTICLES OF FAITH.
1. Coats should have nothing of the triangle about them; at the
same time, wrinkles behind should be carefully avoided.
2. The collar is a very important point: it should be low behind, and
slightly rolled.
3. No license of fashion can allow a man of delicate taste to adopt
the posterial luxuriance of a Hottentot.
4. There is safety in a swallow-tail.
5. The good sense of a gentleman is nowhere more finely
developed than in his rings.
6. It is permitted to mankind, under certain restrictions, to wear
white waistcoats.
7. The trousers must be exceedingly tight across the hips.

4
 4/15/18

Men's dress,
1820, Court
Circular

Men’s costume,
Journal des Dames et
Modes, 1826, U.
Washington

5
 4/15/18

Ensemble with
Cossack
trousers,
1820s-1830s,
VAM

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 30 April,
1834, 'Modes de
Long-champs' - outfits
for the racecourse at
Longchamps in Paris.
NMS

6
 4/15/18

Pleated Linen
Trousers, 1810-
1830, Henry Ford
Historic Dress
Collection.

Morning or afternoon
costumes, 1827, Wiener
Moden U. Wash.

7
 4/15/18

Ensemble with
frock coat,
1830s, VAM

Edouard
Pingret, Portrait
of a Man with a
Pipe, 1828

8
 4/15/18

Ferdinand
Georg
Waldmuller,
Self portrait,
1828, Vienna

Ensemble 1820-1830
VAM

9
 4/15/18

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 31 December,
1836. NMS
The man on the left is
wearing a frock coat lined
with Canadian bison fur.
His companion is
wearing a gold silk
brocade waistcoat.

Frock coat (detail), 1830s, VAM

10
 4/15/18

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 31 July,
1834. The coats are
fitted at the waist and
have high collars with
rolled-back
lapels.The trousers of
the man on the right
are buttoned at the
bottom. NMS

Robert Cornelius,
self portrait 1839
(first daguerreotype
portrait), LoC

11
 4/15/18

Le Petit
Courrier des
Dames, 31
March 1835.
Frock coats
have a well-
defined waist
seam. NMS

Le Petit
Courrier des
Dames,
1836.NMS

12
 4/15/18

Le Petit Courrier
des Dames, 30
April, 1835. The
man on the left
wears a
“sugarloaf” hat.
NMS

Linen Trousers,
1820-40, Henry
Ford Historic
Dress Collection

13
 4/15/18

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 31 May, 1835.
Designed by Bouchez
and engraved by
Damours, the plate's
title is, 'Toilettes de
printemps' - outfits for
spring. NMS

Le Petit
Courrier des
Dames, 31
August,
1836.NMS

14
 4/15/18

Anonymous
daguerreotype
of a young man
holding a quill,
c. 1840

Waistcoat ca.
1839 Woven in
wool, lined in
cotton, hand-
stitched VAM

15
 4/15/18

Le Petit
Courrier des
Dames, 31
July, 1836.
'Hunting and
Walking
Outfits'. NMS

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 31 August,
1835. On the left is
an outfit, or livery, for
a servant. The
gentleman on the
right is dressed for
horseback riding.
NMS

16
 4/15/18

Le Journal des Dames

et des Modes, 1836.
Two gentlemen
dressed for a court
ball; formal wear is
very conservative; the
only way to date these
outfits is by the men’s
hair. NMS

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 30 September,
1835. The plate's title is,
'Costumes d'Automne' -
outfits for autumn. The
men's coats are fitted at
the waist and have high
collars. NMS

17
 4/15/18

Le Petit Courrier des

Dames, 31 October,
1835. Engraved by
Damours, the plate is
entitled, 'Costume
d'Automne' - outfits
for autumn. NMS

Modes de Paris, 1837

18
 4/15/18

Wiener Moden,
1841

Hill & Adamson,

Archibald Butler,
1843, GEH

19
 4/15/18

Hill & Adamson,

Sir George
Harvey (painter),
1843, GEH

Anonymous
daguerreotype
of a man in a
flowered
waistcoat and
Indian-print
dressing gown,
c.1849-51

20
 4/15/18

Dressing gown,
1830s, VAM

Reversible (18th century)

damask dressing gown,
English, 1840-1860
Manchester City Galleries

21
 4/15/18

Hill &
Adamson,
James
Drummond,
1843, GEH

Daguerreotype
of man reading,
Meade
Brothers, New
York, 1845-48,
Daguerrean
Society

22
 4/15/18

Frock coat and

check trousers,
1840-1840,
Nationalmuseet,
Denmark

Unknown fashion
plate, c.1840s

23
 4/15/18

Suit with dress

coat, 1840-53,
VAM

American stovepipe and

porkpie hats, ca 1840-50,
Daguerrean Society

24
 4/15/18

Hill & Adamson,

Reverend
Wallace, 1845,
GEH

Hill & Adamson,

unidentified
couple, 1845,
GEH

25
 4/15/18

Men's fashions, July

1848

Hill & Adamson,

D.O. Hill and W.
B. Johnstone,
1845, GEH

26
 4/15/18

John Martell,
1848.
California State
Library

Men's and children's

fashions, January 1848

27
 4/15/18

"The Lovers: Morning

Recreation", print by
Sarony and Major
(New York), 1850

William Kilburn,
daguerreotype of
a man, London
1852-55,
Daguerrean
Society

28
 4/15/18

Men's fashion, 1856

James E. McClees & Washington L. Germon, Daguereeotype of a

young “swell”, Philadelphia, c 1855, Daguerrean Society

29
 4/15/18

“A Most Alarming Swelling,” Punch Magazine, 1851

(Reprinted Harper’s Magazine)

The Latest Fashion

Charles. Sweet Style of
Trowsers, Gus!”
Gus. "Ya-as! And so
Doosed Comfortable.
They're called Pantaloons
A LA Peg-Top!”
Charles. No! Re-ally!”

Punch (4 July 1857): 8

30
 4/15/18

Men’s Fashion 1857

1859 fashion plate

from the "Gazette
of Fashion",
showing sea
bathing and
bathing machines
in the background

31
 4/15/18

Men's fashion, 1859

Photograph of a
group (artists?),
c.1860

32
 4/15/18

Women’s Wear: General

Characteristics
• 1820s: High-waisted softness of previous decades returns to tailored
control: longer waists and higher, wider hemlines. New techniques of
construction: bust darts. Bodice and skirt cut separately, seamed
together, fasten at back.
• 1830s: Hourglass silhouette, triangles of ankle-length skirt (with applied
decoration at hem) and wide-sleeved bodice meet at belted waist.
Wide-brimmed hats trimmed with ribbons and feathers. Light pastel
colours.
• 1840s: drooping hourglass, waist at natural level, emphasised with v-
shaped bodice, shoulders rounded, flounced skirt reaches floor.
Ringlets still frame face but reach to shoulders. Bonnets also narrow
around face. Deeper colours, use of narrow stripes.
• 1850s: Extreme widening of sleeves and skirts with flounces, pleating,
and trim. After 1856, colour is brighter due to aniline dyes, and skirts
are lighter because of steel crinolines.

Underwear, 1820s-
1830s: Chemise,
corset, and drawers
VAM

33
 4/15/18

Woman's Cotton Petticoat

Underdress, worn by
Mehetable Stoddard
Sumner (Welles), 1784-
1826.
Written in ink on fabric label
sewn at back: "petticoat
1820-1825 Mrs. B. Welles,
Boston”
MFA

Illustration of a woman in
chemise and short corset
from Journal des Dames et
Modes, 1822

34
 4/15/18

Dress 1820-1823
Silk satin, trimmed
with silk satin and silk
bobbin lace VAM

Le Journal des
Dames et des
Modes,1823 NMS

35
 4/15/18

Princess Amalie
Auguste of
Bavaria by
Joseph Stieler,
1823

Illustration from Journal

des Dames et Modes,
1825, Boston Public Library

36
 4/15/18

Pelisse, 1820,
VAM

Day Dress c. 1822

One-piece dress of
white silk organdy with
yellow silk satin stripe;
silk chiffon puffs and
silk satin padding at
hem. KCI

37
 4/15/18

Chalon, A Millinery shop in Paris, 1822

“Newest
Fashions for
July 1828”,
Fashion Plate,
Manchester
City Galleries

38
 4/15/18

Hats, La Belle
Assemblee, 1828

"Newest Fashions
for May 1829,
Morning and
Evening
Dresses", fashion
plate from World
of Fashion

39
 4/15/18

Corded petticoat,
sleeve supporters,
and corset, 1830s
American MMA

Dresses, 1820s-1830s New Brunswick

Museum

40
 4/15/18

Dress ca. 1828

Printed cotton, with
cotton trimming, lined
with linen, hand-sewn
VAM

Cotton print dress

with gigot sleeves
c. 1835, McCord
Museum

41
 4/15/18

1830s dresses,
MMA

Day Dresses, Royal Lady’s Magazine, June 1831

42
 4/15/18

Illustration from Petit

Courrier, 1832, Boston
Public Library

Illustration from Le
Follet, 1832, Boston
Public Library

43
 4/15/18

Evening dress,
1833-35 English
Silk MMA

Shoes 1830s-
1840s Silk satin,
kid leather,
leather, linen
VAM

44
 4/15/18

Carl von Steuben,

Marquise de
Bethisy, 1833,
Musee des Beaux
Arts

Brocade Satin dress,

circa 1835 (from Gazette
des Salons)

45
 4/15/18

Walking dress,
ca. 1835 American
Silk MMA

Dress with removable pelerine, 1835-1838, Bunka Museum

46
 4/15/18

Dresses,
1837 and
1842, MMA

Dress with
bishop sleeves,
1835-45, McCord
Museum

47
 4/15/18

Fashion plate, 'Fashions

for June 1840’,
Museum of Welsh Life

Dorothy Draper,
1840 (earliest
daguerreotype
portrait of a
woman)

48
 4/15/18

Fashion Plate,
1844, Petit
Courrier Des
Dames

Hill & Adamson,

unidentified
woman in a
Bertha, 1845

49
 4/15/18

April 1845 Petit

Courrier Des Dames

Unknown lady,
daguerreotype,
1840s VAM

50
 4/15/18

Hill & Adamson,

Mrs Charles
Finlay, 1845

Cotton print dress, early

1840s, McCord Museum

51
 4/15/18

Illustration from Le
Follet, 1843, Boston
Public Library

1840s
dresses,
MMA

52
 4/15/18

Hill &
Adamson,
Miss
Crampton,
Dublin, 1845,
GEH

Daguerreotype of
Emily Dickinson,
c. 1846-47.
Amherst College.

53
 4/15/18

Cotton dress,
1841-1843
Manchester City
Galleries

T. H. Newcomer Studio, Philadelphia Portrait of Kate

Palmer, circa 1846-1847 Daguerreotype

54
 4/15/18

Silk gown, 1845-

50, McCord
Museum

Illustration from Petit

Courrier, 1846,
Boston Public Library
The backs of the
bonnets have
bavolets, to keep the
sun off the neck.

55
 4/15/18

Hill & Adamson,

Lady Mary
Ruthven, 1843-
47

Hill &
Adamson,
Miss
McCandlish,
1845, GEH

56
 4/15/18

J-A-D Ingres,
Mme Reiset,
1846, Fogg
Museum

Day Dresses. Le Petit

Courrier des Dames, 15
April, 1849. Signed 'Mme
Florensa de Closmenil'.
Madame de Closmenil was
responsible for many fashion
plates in Le Petit Courrier
des Dames. She also
produced plates for Le
Journal des Demoiselles, La
Mode and Le Bon Ton. She
sometimes shortened her
signature to 'Florensa'.

57
 4/15/18

Dresses with
pagoda
sleeves and
prints a la
disposition,
1855, MMA

At-home dress,
ca. 1850 English
Chinese
aubergine silk
damask and
velvet MMA

58
 4/15/18

Silk gown with

basque bodice,
1857, McCord
Museum

Cutaway
view of
crinoline
costume,
Punch
August
1856

59
 4/15/18

1857 photograph of
Princess Metternich, lady-
in-waiting to Empress
Eugenie, “discovered” C.F.
Worth.

Dress, 1858-
1860, V&A

60
 4/15/18

Chemise, drawers, corset,

crinoline (hoop skirt), 1850s,
Nationalmuseet, Denmark

61
 4/15/18

Notice
forbidding the
wearing of
crinolines by
female
factory
hands,
posted in
Courtauld's
Mills, 1860

Bloomer Dress:
• dress made like other fashionable dresses except for its knee-
length skirt worn over matching trousers.
– similar style was worn by Turkish and Syrian women and had been worn
on stage and for masquerade dress. Pantalets were seen on gymnasium
outfits as early as 1830. Trousers were worn by women in sanitariums
and in communal societies.
• Elizabeth Smith Miller adopted the costume for her own
everyday dress and introduced it to her cousin, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, and Stanton’s friend, Amelia Bloomer, editor of The
Lily, a feminist periodical devoted to temperance and women’s
reform. Bloomer began wearing the shortened skirt and
trousers in 1851, the advantages of which she described in a
Lily article. (Bloomer later returned to wearing hoop skirts once
the cage crinoline was invented).

62
 4/15/18

Amelia Bloomer

Illustration for "The New

Costume Polka" by James
Queen (1851)
Opposers of the Bloomer
fashion argued that it was ugly,
immoral (in opposition to
prevailing gender norms) or
unpatriotic (because it was
based on Middle Eastern
styles). Women who wore
Bloomers were lampooned in
the press, and ridiculed on the
streets. The fad died that year,
but dress reform, women’s
emancipation, and female
trousers lived on.

63
 4/15/18

Godey’s Lady’s Book

January 1858
These loose, Turkish-style
trousers worn for exercise
became part of the
archetypal gymnasium suit
or leisure suit. Trousers
became acceptable and
appropriate for hiking, biking,
and many other recreational
activities.

Day dress,
ca. 1857
American
Silk MMA

64
 4/15/18

Silk dress, late 1850s, and interior view, Bunka Museum

• Women’s gowns open with hooks and

eyes at the front, and the bodice and
skirt are often connected with a seam
at the back.

At the Bazaar, or, The

Empty Purse by James
Collinson, 1857, Tate
Gallery

The young woman in

this painting wears
engageantes under the
pagoda sleeves of her
dress, a bonnet with a
veil, and holds a knitted
miser’s purse. The hat
on the stand behind her
is a pokpie in imitation
of men’s styles.

65
 4/15/18

Carte-de-visite
photograph,
1855-60

Godey's Ladies Book, 1859

66
 4/15/18

1860-1890

The Bustle

Historical Context
• 1861: American Civil War begins
• 1863: Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves
within the US
• 1865: President Lincoln assassinated; American Civil
War ends.
• 1867: Dominion of Canada founded
• 1871: Franco-Prussian War
• 1876: Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone
• 1877: Edison invents the phonograph
• 1878: Edison invents the modern lightbulb
• 1886: Statue of Liberty unveiled
• 1888: Kodak introduces box camera with roll film for
amateur photographers: the “Brownie”

1
 4/15/18

Men’s Dress: General

Characteristics:
• Continues much as before in 1850s for rest of century
with few innovations.
– Gradual slimming of silhouette and raising of opening for
jackets and vests.
– Shirt fronts are starched from 1870.
– Sack jacket develops variations:
• Reefer (double breasted)
• Tuxedo or dinner jacket (black with shiny lapels)
– Hair is cut short and parted at the side. Sideburns and
beards popular in 60s, mustaches survive throughout period.
– General aura of sobriety (except for dandies, mashers, etc)
only relieved at home with dressing gowns, smoking
jackets, and smoking caps.

“The Dandy” From The Painter of Modern Life,

1863 By Charles Baudelaire Translated by P.E.
Charvet.

Contrary to what a lot of thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not

even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect
dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic
superiority of his mind. Thus, in his eyes, enamored as he is above all of
distinction, perfection in dress consists in absolute simplicity, which is,
indeed, the best way of being distinguished. What then can this passion be,
which has crystallized into a doctrine, and has formed a number of
outstanding devotees, this unwritten code that has molded so proud a
brotherhood? It is, above all, the burning desire to create a personal form of
originality, within the external limits of social conventions. It is a kind of cult
of the ego which can still survive the pursuit of that form of happiness to be
found in others, in woman for example; which can even survive what are
called illusions. It is the pleasure of causing surprise in others, and the proud
satisfaction of never showing any oneself.

2
 4/15/18

Daguerreotype
of Edward
Brooks,
Massachusetts
Historical
Society, c. 1860

The Gazette of Fashion,

1861 Men's Walking
Costume and Sports
Costume

3
 4/15/18

Anonymous Carte de
Visite, c. 1860

Anonymous CdV,
c.1865

4
 4/15/18

Mr Stephen B.
Maddy, Bristol,
June 1864

CdV, Mr E. Chard,
1870 Phillips & Co.
9 Clare Street,
Bristol.

5
 4/15/18

Quilted dressing
gown, 1850-
1870, VAM

Long Dressing Gown,

Harper’s Bazaar, c.
1868, NYPL

6
 4/15/18

Welch, Margetson & Co. Ltd, Cotton shirt, 1866-1890, VAM

Waistcoat,
1860-70, VAM

7
 4/15/18

Morning coat,
1870-75, VAM

Suit, 1870-1880,
VAM

8
 4/15/18

Engraving
showing four
styles of
fashionable
morning coats for
men, from The
Tailor and Cutter
February 18, 1875

Man’s overcoat
trimmed with 32
wolfskins, 1850-
1890, VAM

9
 4/15/18

Gazette of
Fashion, 1872

Illustration from Les Modes Francaises - Journal des Tailleurs, 1886, Boston Public Library

10
 4/15/18

CdV, Hinchcliffes,
Eagle Studio, 106
Cazneau Street,
Liverpool. Dated:
Spring 1887

Bowler hat on left.

Animated gif from

photo series of a man
with a boater hat,
Edweard Muybridge,
Animal Locomotion,
Vol. 7 (1872-1885)

11
 4/15/18

Women’s Dress: General

Characteristics
• Enthusiastic use of available technology to
expand skirts, embellish dress with trim, and
express colour.
• Skirt fullness moves to back, emphasized
with drapery.
• Hair tends to follow line of dress: widespread
use of false hair to fill out braids, chignons.
• Bonnets move away from face to perch on
top of head; trimmed extravagantly and
frivolously with ribbons, feathers, and
sometimes, whole birds.

1860s dress: Trends

• Skirts have pyramidal shape with
fullness toward back.
– Gored construction, sometimes in one with
dress (princess line)
– Late in decade, waist moved above natural
line, hem rises somewhat.
– Hair gathered at back into heavy bun.

12
 4/15/18

Eugene
Lepoittevin,
Farm Girl At
Her Toilet, c.
1858, Bowes
Museum

Corset loses
shoulder
straps, is cut to
hourglass
curvaceous
silhouette.

Anonymous
photograph, c. 1860-65

Drawers were not

necessarily worn by
everyone.

13
 4/15/18

One of a pair of
stereoscope
views of a
woman in a
corset, c 1865.

Chemise, corset and

crinoline, 1860,
1864, and 1867,
VAM

Crinoline is elliptical.
This example retains
horsehair padding at
bottom.

14
 4/15/18

Sitting in hoopskirts: managing volume

• 1860, photograph of Queen Louise of Denmark

• Ca. 1860, unknown sitters from Alinari archive.

The English Woman’s Domestic

Magazine, June 1862
• Dresses are worn very long behind and are much gored,
even evening dresses are arranged in this manner. As the
mode seems to be to lessen the width of the skirt at the
top, it is absolutely necessary that the material be well
gored to give sufficient width to the bottom… many styles
have been invented by which dresses somewhat passe
may be made quite a la mode. One of the difficulties to
contend with is the narrowness of the skirts of dresses
made some years since, which at the present time are
scarcely of sufficient width to go over a crinoline. To
obviate this difficulty the skirts should have a tablier
inserted in the front or small gores let in between each
seam.

15
 4/15/18

Walking dress,
ca. 1860
American Silk,
mother-of-pearl
MMA

Dress, English
1860-1862
Manchester City
Galleries

16
 4/15/18

Fashion plate,
1861, Petit
Courrier Des
Dames

Dress, c 1865,
McCord Museum

17
 4/15/18

Carte-de-visite of a
woman in a silk
dress, ca 1860,
New Jersey.

Electric blue dress, 1860, Bunka Museum

18
 4/15/18

CdV, ca 1860

Travelling
ensemble, 1862,
VAM

19
 4/15/18

Mantle, 1870-75
French White wool
serge couched with
metallic braid
Opera cloak, 1850s
American Ivory silk
faille embroidered
with gold soutache
braid
Dolman, ca. 1870
American? While silk
poplin and braid
MMA

Illustration from Le
Bon Ton, 1862,
Boston Public
Library

20
 4/15/18

Dress, 1865-68,
Bunka Museum

Dress, 1866, VAM

21
 4/15/18

Dress, 1869,
VAM

Dress with day and evening

bodices, English of French
fabric,1868-1870 Manchester
City Galleries

22
 4/15/18

The Bustle Era: Trends

• Crinoline disappears suddenly around 1868.
– Replaced by the bustle, a half-cage of wire or padding that filled out the
rear of a draped skirt.
• 1870-78: Full bustle created mainly by soft drapery in skirt.
Worn with jacket-style bodice that may have had a long
basque, creating an apron effect in front.
• 1878-83: Sheath-like silhouette: fullness drops to below hips,
skirts trail, and bodices are long and narrow (cuirass). Heavily
decorated, sometimes asymmetrical.
• 1884-90: Rigid shelf-like bustle, with highly tailored, heavily
boned bodices. Sleeve cap fullness appears; skirts often
draped asymmetrically and end above the floor. Upholstered
look.
• New form of dress: tea gown. Could be worn without corset
(popular among dress reformers), loosely fitted and made of
soft materials. Worn at home for informal entertaining (like
dressing gowns or smoking jackets for men).

Bustle dress,
1868-69, VAM

23
 4/15/18

La Mode
Illustree, 1870

Ensemble, 1870,
VAM

24
 4/15/18

The evolution of
the bustle, 1872-
1893, from Le
Mannequin, 1900.

Edouard Manet,
Nana, 1877.
Hamburger
Kunshalle, Hamburg,
Germany.

25
 4/15/18

Chemise,
corset (bustle)
and petticoat,
1870s
Nationalmuseet

Crinolette, 1870,
VAM

26
 4/15/18

Dressing gown,
ca. 1880
Japanese for
Western market
Quilted blue silk

Dressing gown,
late 1880s
Japanese for
Western market
Quilted brown silk
MMA

Sitting in bustles: stowed to the side

• C.1860, photograph of a woman at a piano

• 1872, photograph of Queen Maria Louisa

27
 4/15/18

CdV, 1870-73; Day dress, 1871-73, University of

California at Davis

Dress, 1870-73,
VAM

28
 4/15/18

Ensemble, 1872-5,
VAM

Fashion plate from Godey’s Lady’s Book, March 1875

29
 4/15/18

CdV, ca 1870-75

Dress, 1877, New

Brunswick Museum

30
 4/15/18

CdV, c. 1875-80

Walking suit, 1877-

78, Nationalmuseet,
Denmark

31
 4/15/18

Ivan Kramskoy, Vera

Tretiakova, 1876,
Tretyakov Gallery
(Moscow)

Boots, 1860s-1870s, VAM

32
 4/15/18

Combinations, corset
and bustle, 1883-4,
VAM

Afternoon dress,
1878-1880,
Manchester City
Galleries

33
 4/15/18

John Everett Millais,

Louise Jopling, 1879,
National Portrait
Gallery (London)

Evening
dress,
1877-82
European
Silk MMA

34
 4/15/18

James McNeill Whistler,

Lady Meux, 1881, Frick
Collection (New York)

Tea gown, worn by Annie Cronk

of Oregon, Wisconsin, c. 1881,
Wisconsin Historical Society

35
 4/15/18

Ensemble 1879-
1881 Satin, trimmed
with figured silk,
chenille tassels and
machine-made lace,
lined with silk and
cotton, reinforced
with whalebone
VAM

36
 4/15/18

Miss Cowans,
Montreal, QC, 1881,
Notman & Sandham,
McCord Museum

37
 4/15/18

Evening dress,
ca. 1884-86
American or
European Silk
MMA

John Singer Sargent,

Lady Edith Playfair,
1884, MFA

38
 4/15/18

Dress, 1885,
Nationalmuseet

39
 4/15/18

C.F. Worth, day

dress, 1883-85,
MMA

Tailored
ensemble,
1885, VAM

40
 4/15/18

Photograph of
two women from
Melbourne, c
1886

Women walking (animated gifs from photo

series printed 1887) - Eadweard Muybridge,
Animal Locomotion

41
 4/15/18

Dress, 1888, VAM

Ensemble, 1888-89,
Bunka Museum

42
 4/15/18

1890-1920

Revivals and Reforms

Historical Context
• 1890: Construction of Eiffel Tower completed
• 1895: Lumiere brothers invent moving pictures; Rontgen discovers X-rays
• http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vo7eMiAGO5k&feature=PlayList&p=F3E52E
5E9162CCE1&index=34
• 1901: Queen Victoria dies, Edward VII becomes King.
• 1902: Australia becomes the first country to allow women the vote.
• 1905: first Russian Revolution
• 1907: Lumiere brothers invent the autochrome (colour photograph)
• 1908: Henry Ford introduces the “Model T”
• 1911: Edward VII dies, George V becomes King
• 1912: Titanic sinks
• 1914: WWI begins
• 1917: second and third (Bolshevik) Russian Revolutions
• 1918: WWI ends
• 1920: First radio station begins broadcasting in UK

1
 4/15/18

Men’s Dress: General Characteristics

• Gradual move toward greater informality

and youthfulness.
– Hats become softer: newsboy caps,
fedoras (homburgs) and bowlers worn for
daytime, instead of cylinder hats.
– Facial hair continues as waxed mustache,
but practically disappears by 1920.
– Line of suit narrows, fabrics become softer.

Suits for men, 1891

2
 4/15/18

Morgan and Ball Outfitters, “Fitzwilliam”

detachable collar, 1890-1900

P. Vlako Turner,
Dunstable. Robert
Ryder, July 30th 1896

3
 4/15/18

Advertisements
from the Grands
Magazins du
Louvre, 1895,
Collection Maciet,
Bibliotheque des
Arts Decoratifs

Advertisements from
the Grands Magazins
du Louvre, 1895,
Collection Maciet,
Bibliotheque des Arts
Decoratifs

4
 4/15/18

Boating suit 1890-1900

Cream wool with blue
pinstripe, VAM

Summer suit, c 1900,

Nationalmuseet

5
 4/15/18

Boater
Hat 1890-
1900
Plaited
straw,
with a silk
grosgrain
hatband
VAM

Norfolk jacket 1890-1900

Checked tweed, with sateen
and striped cotton lining and
buttons of horn, VAM

6
 4/15/18

Illustration of a Norfolk
jacket, 1906

Frockcoat and
waistcoat,
James Neal,
Ltd, England,
1906
Manchester City
Galleries

7
 4/15/18

Double-breasted driving coat

1906-1908 Woven
houndstooth check tweed,
lined to the waist with grey
silk, the skirts lined with grey,
black and white striped woven
wool VAM

Thomas of St James, half boots, 1890-1900

8
 4/15/18

James Lock &

Co, silk plush
top hat, 1900-
1910

Morning suit 1910 Brass and Pike

(tailors) London, England VAM

This is a typical example of a

gentleman's morning suit. In the
early years of the 20th century it
would have been worn as everyday
dress by professional and business
gentlemen, as well as for formal
occasions. After WWI it was
gradually superseded by the lounge
suit for everyday wear, but
continued to be worn by older men.

9
 4/15/18

Morning suit, Maison du Petit

Saint-Thomas, Summer 1906

Note the creased trousers.

Journal des Dames et des

Modes, Frock coat for day
wear, 1912

10
 4/15/18

Journal des Dames

et des Modes, Man's
evening wear
tailcoat, 1912

Journal des Dames et des Modes,

Man’s dressing gown, 1913

Trousers begin to be creased and

cuffed.

11
 4/15/18

Journal des Dames et des Modes,

Men's lounge suit, 1913

Journal des Dames et des Modes,

Man's evening wear tailcoat with ruffled
shirt and cape, 1913

12
 4/15/18

Man’s coat, 1913,

Nationalmuseet

Journal des Dames et

des Modes, Overcoat,
1914

13
 4/15/18

Journal des Dames

et des Modes, Man's
frock coat, 1914

Single-breasted lounge
suit, 1918, VAM

14
 4/15/18

Women’s Dress: General characteristics

• A gradual masculinization of the figure, characterized by a move toward
separates dressing and the ubiquitous suit (albeit worn with a skirt)
• The silhouette of the 1890s in some ways echoed the look of the 1830s. The
"leg-o-mutton" sleeves and flared, moderately full skirts were similar.
However, the hour-glass figure with its erect posture, stiffly boned collar
band, and high shoulders suggested a more formidable image. Sleeves
reached their ultimate width in 1895-6, and deflated to a softer silhouette.
• After 1900, the silhouette shifted to the "s" curve of the new corset style, as
a healthier alternative to the hour-glass silhouette, but supported by heavy
corsetry that encouraged a “monobosom” and rounded hips. Soft, gauzy
fabrics combined with lace became the style, and for special occasions,
lightweight white lacy cotton dresses were worn. In about 1905, the waist
began to move up and narrow.
• Between 1911 and 1919, dress forms moved to a narrow, semi-fitted
silhouette reminiscent of the Directoire and Empire period. Hemlines began
to climb from ankle length in 1910 to mid-calf by 1919. Although daywear
was casual, evening wear retained the soft gauziness of the previous period.
Applied decoration, such as heavy beading, ribbons, and cording was
popular, often layered onto lighter fabrics.

“Naughty” stereocards, 1890s:

“Making a beginning - the toilet,” and “Reducing the surplus - ‘Now, Pull Harder!’”

15
 4/15/18

Corset, early
1890s, VAM

Tea gown, ca. 1891

French Pieced panels of
paisley-patterned
woven wool shawl

16
 4/15/18

Dress, 1890-91, New

Brunswick Museum

Peterson’s Magazine, February 1891

17
 4/15/18

John Everett Millais,

Mary Chamberlain,
1891, Birmingham
Museum

Dress, 1892, New

Brunswick Museum

18
 4/15/18

M.A. Connelly, dress,

1892, MFA

Suit, c. 1892-93, McCord

Museum

19
 4/15/18

Photograph of a
lady, 1893

CdV of a woman in a
hat, c 1893

20
 4/15/18

Hats, La Modiste de Paris, November 1893

Anna Dunlevy, afternoon dress,

1894, Cincinnati Museum

21
 4/15/18

Tailor-made walking suit,

c.1894, Nationalmuseet

Getting Active: The Bicycle

• Since the 17th century women had adapted
male garments for riding, and this inclination
was now followed for golf, sailing, country
walking and cycling.
• "Bicycling has done more to emancipate
women than anything else in the world. I stand
and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on
a wheel. It gives women a feeling of freedom
and self-reliance." Susan B. Anthony (1896)

22
 4/15/18

La Nouvelle Mode,
April 1897

The Bicycle
Suit
• 12 January 1895
Punch, p. 23
• Gertrude: “My dear
Jessie, what on earth is
that bicycle suit for?”
• Jessie: “Why to wear, of
course!”
• G: “But you haven’t got
a bicycle!”
• J: “No; but I’ve got a
sewing machine!”

23
 4/15/18

Jacket c. 1895
Tailored, double-
breasted jacket of
brown wool twill;
trimming of black braid
at collar and hem. KCI

Columbia Cycling Outfit c. 1895

American
Blue wool poplin; set of bodice
and bloomers; elastic at bloomer’s
hem. KCI

24
 4/15/18

John Singer Sargent, Mr. and Mrs.

Isaac Newton Phelps-Stokes, 1897,
MMA

Photograph of Alexandra,
Princess of Wales, 1894

25
 4/15/18

Journal Des
Demoiselles
February 1st
1895

Dress, c 1895,
Smithsonian

26
 4/15/18

CdV of a Newfoundland
woman in a coat, c 1894-
96

Dress, 1894-95,
Smithsonian

27
 4/15/18

Unknown fashion plate,

1895, Collection Maciet,
Bibliotheque des Arts
Decoratifs

Dress, 1896,
LACMA

28
 4/15/18

Photograph,
c.1896

Photographs of girls in hats, c. 1896

29
 4/15/18

Dress, 1897, McCord

Museum

Gustav Klimt.
Sonja Knips.
1898. The
Osterreichische
Galerie
Belvedere,
Vienna

30
 4/15/18

La Nouvelle Mode,
February 1897

Photograph of a
woman, c 1898

31
 4/15/18

Spirella corset ad, 1917

Berry, Kelly &

Chadwick,
“Slippers. After
the Opera” 1/2
of stereoscope
card,
Copyrighted
1900, by
William H. Rau

32
 4/15/18

“Naughty” photographs, c. 1900

Changing silhouette,
1901

33
 4/15/18

Corset covers, 1900-

1910 American Cotton
MMA

1906 corset cover and

petticoat advertisement

34
 4/15/18

Corset fitting,
1904

Novelist Elinor Glyn, 1903

35
 4/15/18

Evening gown, 1902

English MMA

“S-bend” corset ad,

1907

36
 4/15/18

Woman modelling a
"corset mystere," lingerie
for theater or for town,
designed by Mme Guillot,
photographed by Cheri-
Rousseau and Glauth,
from cover of French
periodical Les Modes,
1908

Eugene Atget,
Blvd Strasbourg
[corset store],
1912

37
 4/15/18

Dress, 1900, LACMA

Dress, 1901,
Smithsonian

38
 4/15/18

Rosie Boote,
Marchioness of
Headfort, 1901

H&S Pogue Co,

afternoon dress, 1902,
Cincinnati Museum

39
 4/15/18

H&S Pogue Co,

afternoon dress, 1903,
Cincinnati Museum

Journal des
Demoiselles, June
1903

40
 4/15/18

House of Virot, dress,

1903, LACMA

Ladies at the
races at
Chantilly,
Femina, June
15, 1905

41
 4/15/18

Ladies at Ascot, 1905

Thomas P. Anshutz,
A Rose, 1907, MMA

42
 4/15/18

Travelling gown,
1905, VAM

Prokudin-Gorsky, autochrome of a woman, c 1905

43
 4/15/18

Anna Dunlevy, afternoon

dress, 1906-7, Cincinnati
Museum

Unknown fashion plate,

1906, Collection Maciet,
Bibliotheque des Arts
Decoratifs

44
 4/15/18

Anna Dunlevy,
afternoon dress,
1907-8, Cincinnati
Museum

Woman modeling a
pink afternoon dress
designed by Bourniche
and wearing feather
hat and carrying
parasol, photographed
by Felix, from French
periodical Les Modes,
July 1907

45
 4/15/18

Autochrome of a
woman, c. 1906-8

“Chapeaux
pour la Saison,”
Femina, 1908

46
 4/15/18

Mary Pickford in The New

York Hat (1912) dir. by D.W.
Griffith

Photograph, c. 1905

47
 4/15/18

Frances, suit, 1907,

LACMA

House of Virot, late

afternoon dress,
1909, LACMA

48
 4/15/18

Dress, 1910, Bunka

Museum

Autochrome of a
woman in a red
dress, c 1908-10,
GEH

49
 4/15/18

Summer day dress,

1910, VAM

Fashion plate, The

Delineator, 1912

50
 4/15/18

Autochrome of a woman
reading in a garden, 1912, GEH

Day dress ca. 1910

Linen and
embroidered lawn,
trimmed with bands
of embroidered net
VAM

51
 4/15/18

Afternoon dress,
1909-11, LACMA

Femina, March 1,
1911

52
 4/15/18

Valentin Serov. Portrait of

Princess Olga Orlova.
1911. The Russian
Museum, St. Petersburg.

Autochrome of a
woman in a hat, c
1910, GEH

53
 4/15/18

Giovanni Boldini, Rita de Acosta Lydig, 1911, private collection

• Shopaholic: would arrive at the Paris Ritz with a
hairdresser, masseuse, chauffeur, secretary, maid,
and forty Vuitton trunks.
• Younger sister gave the MMA many pieces of her
sister's collection of clothing including several pairs of
her custom-made shoes.
• Owned at least three hundred pairs of shoes,
specially crafted by Pietro Yanturni, the East India
Curator of the Cluny Museum in Paris. If he accepted
the lady as a client, he would make a plaster model
of each foot, on which he would then work and mold
his materials until they were as flexible as the finest
of silk. The shoes he designed for Rita were
fashioned from 11th and 12th century velvets,
brocades of gold- and silver-metal tissue, some
covered with lace appliquee and leather spats that fit
like a silk sock. To house these delicate, expensive
shoes, Rita would collect violins to use their thin, light
wood as shoe trees, and then these would be placed
in trunks of Russian leather made in St. Petersburg,
closed with heavy locks and lined with a rich cream
velvet.
• “A shoe without sex appeal is as barren as a tree
without leaves”

Day suit, 1911-13

English Wool, silk MMA

54
 4/15/18

Journal des Dames et des Modes,

Suit, 1912

Redfern, dress,
1910-12, VAM

55
 4/15/18

Laszlo
Willinger,
models, 1912

Day dress, 1913, VAM

56
 4/15/18

Advertisement for
Robison & Cleaver,
The Lady, 1913

Corsetry, 1916

57
 4/15/18

Antoinette Funk of the

National American
Women Suffrage
Association, 1914. Harris
& Ewing Collection glass
negative.

Autochrome of
three women, c.
1915

58
 4/15/18

Coats, 1912 and 1914,

Nationalmuseet

Photograph of an
actress, c. 1910

59
 4/15/18

Velvet suit, 1910,

Nationalmuseet

1913 Journal des

Dames et des Modes
Velvet outfit trimmed
with opossum,
illustration by Taquoy.

60
 4/15/18

Velvet suit, 1913, Bunka

Museum

Dress, 1916,
Nationalmuseet

61
 4/15/18

McCalls patterns,
October 1916

Mug shot of Elsie Hall, Dulcie Morgan, Jean Taylor, ca. 1916
Central Police Station, Sydney.

62
 4/15/18

Suit, 1917, VAM

The Pittsburgh
Press,
Pennsylvania,
January 9, 1915

63
 4/15/18

McCalls pattern,
October 1916

http://ca.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=hRl-WTdlEKw

"National Style Show models,

Washington, 1914." Harris &
Ewing Collection glass negative

64
 4/15/18

Dress, 1919,
Nationalmuseet

Josephine Kasselman,
afternoon dress, 1918-1920,
Cincinnati Museum

65
 4/15/18

Suit, 1918-1922,
Manchester
Museum

Le Petit Echo de
la Mode, October
1917

66
 4/15/18

1920-1950
Peace, War, and
Back Again

Historical Context
• 1925: The Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris
provides a name for the style of the times: Art Deco.
• 1926: John Logie Baird invents the television
• 1929: Stock markets crash, Great Depression begins
• 1933: Hitler comes to power in Germany
• 1939: WWII begins
• 1945: WWII ends
• 1947: the mobile phone is invented.

1
 4/15/18

World War I, Women, and

Fashion
• As women moved into the work world early in
the 20th century, the need for convenient,
ready-made clothing helped the apparel
industry to grow and gained acceptance for
ready-to-wear.
• World War I accelerated this as women
replaced the men sent overseas to fight.
• Functional working clothes worn by women
created a new look in fashion, one of simple
dressing permitting freedom of movement.
• Coinciding with rising labor costs, it resulted
in the democratization of fashion.

World War I, Women, and

Fashion
• Paul Poiret’s tubular dresses liberated
women from corsets.
• Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel popularized
boyish styles and high fashion pants for
women.
• Jean Patou confirmed young
independent women as the new ideal
with his “flapper” look of 1925.

2
 4/15/18

Retail Expansion in the Early

Twentieth Century
• Early in the 20th century specialty stores
emerged with new retailing approaches
and high fashion merchandise.
• Chain stores became a national
phenomenon, led by J.C. Penney in the
US.
• Housing expansion to the suburbs and
increased car usage continues the
trend.

Effects of the Depression on Fashion

• The worldwide depression, which started in

1929, pushed many Americans to the cinema
to take their minds off the grim economic
realities of the time.
• This resulted in Hollywood’s most glamorous
efforts with slacks for women and sport shirts
for men gaining wide acceptance.
• Gilbert Adrian, the leading Hollywood
designer, was the first American to influence
fashion through film.

3
 4/15/18

Effect of World War II on Fashion

• The occupation of Paris forced
Americans to find their own style
direction.
• Claire McCardell originated the
“American Look” in practical separates
inspired by work and sport clothes
typical of Americans.
• Sportswear dovetailed perfectly with the
move towards mass production of
apparel.

Men’s Dress: General Characteristics

• 1920s: trend toward youthfulness continues,
sportswear becomes popular. Casualness in dress
reflected through soft hats, knitted vests, soft collars.
• 1930s: Widening of shoulders and narrowing of waist
in tailored suits, available in a range of colours.
• 1940s: Wartime restrictions mean that styles of
previous decade are still worn, except as a conscious
rebellion against rationed styles (zoot suits).
Conventional new styles are boxier but looser, to
waste less fabric in construction.

4
 4/15/18

Edouard
Halouze,
illustration for
Les Feuillets
d'Art, 1920

Eduardo
Benito,
“Habilles par
Barclay,”
illustration for
Les Feuillets
d'Art, 1920

5
 4/15/18

Driving coat, 1920s,

Nationalmuseet

Men’s fashion, 1921

Fashion for both men and women

ceased to be regimented by times
of day or class - a new popularity
for youthful sportswear began to
dominate, affecting the ideal
silhouette for both sexes.

6
 4/15/18

“The Long and Short of

It,” 1920s caricature by
John Held, Jr

1920s oversized
fashions gave the
impression of children
wearing their parents’
clothing.

George Gorvel, fashion

plate, Le Gazette du Bon
Ton, 1920

7
 4/15/18

Charles Wallis,
evening suit, 1923,
VAM

Man’s dress coat,

1924, Nationalmuseet

8
 4/15/18

Chicago Woollen Mills 1937 catalog

Early colour
advertising photo of
men’s detachable
collar shirts, 1930s,
NZCP

9
 4/15/18

C.W. Cushman at
Butchart Gardens,
Kodachrome slide,
September 1938,
Indiana University
Archives

Trimmingham suit worn by the

Duke of Windsor (Edward
VIII), 1940, VAM

The Duke was a fashion icon,

and preferred to wear check,
which became known as
“Prince of Wales check”
before he came to the throne
(and later abdicated).

10
 4/15/18

Suit, 1941,
Nationalmuseet

Suit, 1946,
Nationalmuseet

11
 4/15/18

Chris Ruoco
tailors, “Hipster”
suit, late 1940s,
VAM

Women’s Dress: General Characteristics

• 1920s: Geometric silhouette, with flat bosom and low

waist, worn with short hair, reminiscent of young girls
wearing oversized clothes.
• 1930s: Return to femininity with clinging lightweight
drapery and innovative tailoring techniques for those
who can afford it. Trousers become acceptable for
daywear.
• 1940s: Wartime restrictions mean a change in
construction, avoiding unnecessary waste. Military
influence felt in aggressive boxiness of silhouette,
which enthusiastically returns to hyper-feminine,
wasp-waisted historical revivalism after the end of the
war.

12
 4/15/18

“The girls she left

behind her,” Life,
September 25,
1919.
A play on a phrase
traditionally said of
soldiers, this image
illustrates the
radical change in
acceptable
femininity after
WWI.

Bra and girdle, 1920s,

MMA

13
 4/15/18

Spirella
corset ad,
1924

Flapper lingerie, 1923. Film still from unknown film.

14
 4/15/18

• Five foot two, eyes of blue/ But oh!

Diversion: What what those five foot could do/ Has
anybody seen my girl?/ Turned up

is a flapper? nose, turned down hose/ Flapper,

yes sir, one of those/ Has anybody
seen my girl?- Art Landry, 1925
• Word in use in UK in 1912, taken to
mean an impetuous young girl
(under 30).
• Comes to refer to a young woman
who flaunts social norms by her
dress and behaviour.
– Listening and dancing to jazz music,
drinking, smoking, wearing
provocative clothing, engaging in
promiscuous sex, driving fast, cutting
hair short and wearing heavy
makeup were all “symptoms” of the
flapper.
• Washington DC “Krazy Kat” clubhouse, 1921.
National Photo.

“She held some converse with Annette, but of

the guarded character, suitable between
mothers and daughters after a certain age;
directed, in fact, towards elucidating
problems not unconnected with garb. The
future, according to Annette, was dark. Were
skirts to be longer or shorter by the autumn?
If shorter, she herself would pay no attention;
it might be all very well for Fleur, but she had
reached the limit herself - at her age she
would NOT go above the knee. As to the size
of hats, again there was no definite
indication. The most distinguished cocotte in
Paris was said to be in favour of larger hats,
but forces were working in the dark against
her - motoring and Madame de Michel-Ange
“qui est toute pour la vieille cloche.” Fleur
wanted to know whether she had heard
anything fresh about shingling. Annette, who
was not yet shingled, but whose neck for a
long time had trembled on the block,
confessed herself “desesperee.” Everything
now depended on the Basque cap. If women
took to them, shingling would stay; if not, hair
might come in again. In any case the new tint
would be pure gold” - John Galsworthy, Swan
Song, 1928, chapter 18

Songsheet, “Bob Your Hair,” 1920s

15
 4/15/18

Auguste Bonar hair

combs advertisement, Art
Goute Beaute, May 1923

Original caption: “The wrist powder puff is a convenience which is sure to be

appreciated by the fair sex as it makes it so much easier to be sure that the
powder puff is always with you. The wrist watch is fast giving ground under the
impetus of the wrist powder puff.”

16
 4/15/18

Photobooth picture of a girl in a hat, 1923

Over a span of eight years (from 1919 - 1926), Suzanne Lenglen of France won a total
of six Wimbledon women’s singles titles. Lenglen was not only known for her exceptional
athletic ability but also for her style of dress during play. Setting a fashion statement for
the tennis courts, Lenglen was identified with sleeveless shirts and short skirts.

17
 4/15/18

Tennis dress, mid-1920s,

Nationalmuseet

Sports like bicycling and

tennis create demand for
less restrictive women’s
apparel, eventually setting
the stage for acceptance of
pants.

“Attractive sports
outfit from
Debenham and
Freebody, in plain
brown and checked
gold-and-brown
Yaka stockinette,
and the neck of the
trim jumper is
finished with a
petersham ribbon to
tone.”
Elwin Neame, 1920,
LIFE

18
 4/15/18

Sportswear-inspired
Paul Poiret, “Brique”
day dress, 1924, VAM

http://ca.youtube.com/
watch?v=SNlFGqxVzd
M&feature=PlayList&p
=C590AEDD49A20B0
A&index=8

Josephine
Kasselman, Evening
dress, 1918-1920,
Cincinnati Museum

19
 4/15/18

Willetts & Sons, drawing,

1920s, VAM

George Barbier, “Cortege,” Gazette Du Bon Ton, 1924-5

20
 4/15/18

House of
Worth
Evening
dress, 1925
MMA

Theatre cloak, 1925,

Nationalmuseet

21
 4/15/18

Day dress with

Russian-inspired
embroidery, 1925,
VAM

Kilpin Ltd, Cloche

hat, 1920s, VAM

22
 4/15/18

“The Battle for

Bobbed Hair”
Photoplay
Magazine, June,
1924

Joan Crawford, 1927

Crawford portrayed
“flappers” in many of
her early roles: the
young, sexually
liberated, smoking,
dancing female so
totally opposed to the
Edwardian matron.

23
 4/15/18

Natalia
Goncharova for
Myrbor,
avantgarde dress
and coat, 1925,
VAM

Geometric dress, c.
1925, Nationalmuseet

24
 4/15/18

Ruth for Calimala,

angora suit, 1926,
VAM

Model Mrs. Morrison

posing in fashionable
evening clothing. E
O Hopee, 1927, LIFE

25
 4/15/18

Jeanne Lanvin, Evening

dress, 1927, Cincinnati
Museum

“Robe du soir de
Jeanne Lanvin,”
Gazette du Bon
Ton, 1925

26
 4/15/18

Day ensemble, ca. 1927

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel
Silk, wool, metal, MMA

Chanel is credited with

popularizing knitwear for
women, as well as a boyish
“garconne” style. She is also
remembered as the inventor
of the “little black dress,” an
outfit suitable for all
occasions.

Mark Shaw, Coco Chanel in mirrors, 1957

27
 4/15/18

Gabrielle Chanel
Day Ensemble c.
1928
Jacket and skirt in
black wool crepe;
white wool jersey
sweater; black/white
carnation corsage.
KCI

Norma Shearer, 1927

With the growth of

the film industry,
movie stars became
style icons, and many
Hollywood designs
were illustrated and
imitated by the
fashion industry.

“A designer is only as good

as the star who wears her
clothes.” -Edith Head

28
 4/15/18

Liberty & Co, coat,

1928, VAM

Fashion Revue of 1930

Polly Walker displays her sports suit

29
 4/15/18

Illustration
from McCall’s
Magazine,
1925

Mug shot of Fay Watson, March 24 1928, Central Police

Station, Sydney

30
 4/15/18

La Samaritaine,
afternoon dress,
1929, VAM

Beaded evening
dress, 1929,
Nationalmuseet

31
 4/15/18

Dancing shoes,
1920s, VAM

Evening coat,
1920s,
Nationalmuseet
and Willetts &
Sons drawing,
1920s, VAM

32
 4/15/18

Nabob, silk evening

ensemble, 1929,
VAM

Model wearing
“handkerchief” gown
made of gauzy fabric
with hemline of different
lengths. EO Hoppe,
1923, LIFE

33
 4/15/18

Evening dress,
1928
Louiseboulanger
Silk, feathers,
MMA

Cape and Dress, ca.

1931 Jean Patou Ivory
china silk with
multicolored floral print,
MMA

With the 1930s, a new

femininity emerged: still
slim, but with an
emphasis on the bosom
and hips through bias
cut and draped flowing
fabrics.

34
 4/15/18

However, with the

impact of the Great
Depression, not
everyone had access
to such glamour.

Dorothea Lange,
“Mended Stockings,
San Francisco,” 1934.

Woman’s suede shoe, 1930s, NZCP

35
 4/15/18

Silk chiffon dress,

c 1933,
Nationalmuseet

“Chic Fashions for Out-

of-Doors,” Fashion
Service, May 1931

36
 4/15/18

Nicole Groult, day

ensemble, 1934,
VAM

Evening ensemble, 1934

Mariano Fortuny Pale-blue
pleated silk, MMA

Fortuny’s trademark pleating

process has never been
rediscovered.

37
 4/15/18

Belted day dress,

c. 1935,
Nationalmuseet

Sears catalogue,
1934

38
 4/15/18

Elizabeth Hawes, dress,

1935, Cincinnati Museum

Art Goute Beaute

1932

39
 4/15/18

Evening dress, spring/summer

1938 Madeleine Vionnet Rayon,
MMA

Vionnet was one of the

originators of the new bias-cut
styles: her designs originated
not on paper, but from draping
on miniature mannequins. They
emphasize movement and the
figure.

Edward Molyneux,
Evening Dress,
Autumn/Winter 1935
Green velvet one-piece
dress KCI

40
 4/15/18

Charles James,
Evening dress and
coat, 1939, VAM

Edward Steichen,
Evening Dresses,
1930, Vogue, VAM

41
 4/15/18

Beauty pageant contestants at National Rice Festival, Crowley, Louisiana, 1938

Evening gown, 1939

Madeleine Vionnet Pale pink
lame and black silk lace
appliqueed with black silk
velvet, MMA

42
 4/15/18

Evening jacket, 1938 Elsa

Schiaparelli Deep magenta
rayon crepe embroidered with
metallic thread and polychrome
sequins with plastic insect
buttons, MMA

“Schiap,” as she was known,

was friends with many
Surrealist artists such as
Salvador Dali, and often used
unexpected humorous touches
in her designs. She was quoted
as saying, “In difficult times
fashion is always outrageous.”

“Fall Fashion: Plaid

wool dress with
modified dolman
sleeve.” Alfred
Eisenstaedt, 1938,
LIFE

43
 4/15/18

Girdle, 1942,
MMA

Paulette Goddard,
American actress,
illustrating the new
fashion trend of having
her hose blend in color
with her evening
dress. The dress she
wears is gold bugle
beads, designed by
the famous Hollywood
designed, Edith Head.
Her stockings are
gold-colored sheer
crepe lisle. LoC

44
 4/15/18

Crisis stockings, 1940s

Rationed Fashion
• England: The Utility Scheme was introduced by the Board of Trade in 1941 to
ensure that low- and medium-quality consumer goods were produced to the highest
possible standards at 'reasonable' prices. These standards complied with restrictions
and rationing of raw materials. The word 'Utility' was applied to garments made from
Utility cloth, which was defined in terms of minimum weight and fibre content per
yard. Utility clothes were usually identified by a distinctive double crescent CC41
(Civilian Clothing 1941) label. Hardy Amies, Digby Morton, Edward Molyneux, Worth
(London) Ltd., as well as others in the Incorporated Society of London Fashion
Designers, created the prototype Utility designs.
• Canada: The Wartime Prices and Trade Board, a federal program formed just prior
to WWII started controlling prices, supply, distribution of materials, and clothing
styles. Rubber, metal, and silk were needed for the war and no longer available for
use by the clothing industry. Metal zippers were often replaced by buttons, and silk
stockings were now made with artificial silk and called “Victory stockings”. To save
fabric and buttons for uniforms, the government forbade many 'extras' on
manufactured clothing, such as cuffs on pants, any hem in excess of two inches,
double-breasted jackets, flap pockets, and more than nine buttons on a dress.
• US: War Production Board issued Regulation L85 on March 8 1942, specifying
restrictions for every item of women's clothing.
• France: Under Nazi Occupation since 1940, with import and export restrictions,
nearly killing the dress trade there.

45
 4/15/18

“Make Do and Mend” booklet,

UK; Rationed Simplicity dress
pattern, Canada; US dress
rationing illustrated; “The suit
that bought a bond,” 1942

Louise Dahl-Wolf, fashion

photograph, Harper’s
Bazaar, c. 1944

The 1940s brought a new

boxiness to the silhouette,
arising out of military
uniforms, and wartime
rationing of fabric.

46
 4/15/18

“Model showing how

to lace a corset with
arrows pointing at
spots where laces
begin & end now that
elastic & zippers have
"gone to war" as the
WPB's (War
Production Board)
jettisoning of
amenities is put to
consumers.” Nina
Leen, October 1942,
LIFE

October 1942. "Office

employee Annette del
Sur publicizing salvage
campaign in yard of
Douglas Aircraft
Company, Long Beach,
California. The earrings
and hair ornaments are
fashioned from
aluminum turnings."

4x5 Kodachrome
transparency by Alfred
Palmer for the Office of
War Information.

47
 4/15/18

Anni Albers, iconic Necklace, 1940.

Woven jewelry. Made from aluminium
washers and brass grommets.

A mannequin dressed
in a women's suit with
an overcoat and a
pair of gloves,
illustrating one of the
shortages of goods
because of the war.
Nina Leen, 1942,
LIFE

48
 4/15/18

Edward Molyneux,
Rayon “Utility” dress,
1942, VAM

“Utility” cotton housedress,

1940s, VAM

49
 4/15/18

Selfridges “Utility” suit,

1945, VAM

A mannequin
dressed in a men's
suit with an
overcoat and a hat
held by the hand
and arm, illustrating
the shortage of
clothing. Nina
Leen, 1942, LIFE

50
 4/15/18

John Ferrell, June, 1942. "Washington, D.C. Soldier inspecting a couple of "zoot suits" at
the Uline Arena during Woody Herman's Orchestra engagement there.” LoC
Young people rebelled by wearing loose baggy clothing - either too big, or cut with
illegally-obtained fabric to get around rationing restrictions.

US Marine Corps
Women's Reserve
ladies at make-up
counter

Army and Navy women,

as well as those on the
home front, were
encouraged to keep up
appearances for
morale.

51
 4/15/18

Photograph on the
front cover of the
Eaton's department
store Spring and
Summer Catalogue of
1942. Photograph is
taken in front of
Eaton's College Street
store in Toronto,
Canada.

Suit dresses,
Woman’s Day, 1946

52
 4/15/18

New brilliantly colored stockings & shoes. Gjon

Milli, July 1948, LIFE

Dress, 1946,
Nationalmuseet

Europe was not so

quick to recover from
wartime privation.

53
 4/15/18

"Bar" suit and jacket (The New

Look), spring/summer 1947
Christian Dior Haute Couture,
Silk shantung, MMA

The end of the war brought a

return to femininity and a
conspicuous consumption of
fabric as a reaction to the
privation of WWII. The
silhouette revived Victorian
waist-cinching styles.

Christian Dior shirt

dress, 1947,
Nationalmuseet

The simple looking

construction does not
show the complex
understructure of the
new silhouette,
reminiscent of Victorian
styles.

54
 4/15/18

New-Look-style shirt
dress, 1948,
Nationalmuseet

New-Look-style coat,
1947, Nationalmuseet

55
 4/15/18

Jacques Fath,
summer day dress,
1949, VAM

Jacques Fath,
dresses, 1949-50,
VAM

56
 4/15/18

1950-1980
Life in
Technicolor

Historical Context:
• 1950: Korean War begins
• 1952: Queen Elizabeth II comes to the throne
• 1957: Sputnik
• 1960: JFK becomes youngest president; birth
control pill released
• 1961: Berlin Wall
• 1969: Moon landing
• 1973: US legalizes abortion; Vietnam War
ends

1
 4/15/18

Reactionary Postwar Fashion

• Informal suburban sportswear continued
to grow in importance post war.
• France, conversely, returned to prewar
status for women, with feminine ideals
restored via the “New Look.”
• Christian Dior created this look of
longer, fuller skirts, smooth, rounded,
sloping shoulders and tiny fitted waists.

The Youth-Directed 1960s

• With over 50% of the American population,
markets responded to the youth movement.
• British designers developed the “Mod” look
and men’s fashion became more flamboyant.
• Family owned fashion businesses
disappeared, often merging or being
purchased by large, multiproduct
corporations.

2
 4/15/18

Antifashion of the Late 1960s and 1970s

• The Antifashion movement of this period

mirrored the tumultuous social times of the
late 60s.
• Looking poor became fashionable, eventually
spurring an “Ethnic Look.”
• Yves Saint Laurent interpreted this and
emerged as the fashion star of the 70s.
• Physical fitness and labels also became
important, as well as “Dressing for Success.”

Men’s Dress: General Characteristics

• 1950s: Narrow lapels and trousers, greater

coordination between elements of suit; shorts
become acceptable sportswear
• 1960s: innovation in body shaping and
tailoring; emergence of subcultural styles
(mods, rockers, peacocks); ethnic influences
• 1970s: Ethnic influences continue;
emergence of punk style; suits grow wider in
imitation of 1930s cuts.

3
 4/15/18

Suit, 1951, VAM

Men’s fashion 1951,

Lisa Larsen, LIFE

4
 4/15/18

Nat
Farbman,
suits,
1960, LIFE

Suit, 1964, VAM

5
 4/15/18

Suit, 1966, VAM

Suit, 1965,
Nationalmuseet

6
 4/15/18

David Bowie, 1965

D.A. Millings, Beatle suits, 1963, and

photo of The Beatles on the Ed
Sullivan Show, 1964

7
 4/15/18

A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

“They seek him here, they seek him there,
His clothes are loud, but never square.
It will make or break him so he's got to buy
the best,
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of
fashion.
And when he does his little rounds,
'Round the boutiques of London Town,
Eagerly pursuing all the latest fads and
trends,
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of
fashion.”
The Kinks, 1966

http://newsfilm.bufvc.ac.uk/encodings/C01217.mov

Pierre Cardin,
“Cosmos” suit, 1967,
VAM

8
 4/15/18

Mr Fish, suit, 1968, VAM

“The Peacock Revolution”

of the late 60s allowed
men to wear brighter
colours and bolder prints
than before, taking hints
from the homosexual
subculture.

9
 4/15/18

Gilbert Feruch, Nehru

suit, 1968, VAM

The Nehru collar was

inspired by the dress
of the Indian PM of the
same name.

Pierre Cardin-
inspired
“Beatle” suit
with Nehru
collar, 1969,
Nationalmuseet

and

D.A. Millings,
Stu Sutcliffe’s
“Beatle suit”,
1960-62,
Museum of
Liverpool

10
 4/15/18

Suit, 1968, VAM

Experiments with casualness:

zipper fastening, worn without
a tie.

Two hippies at Woodstock, 1969.

The optimism of the 1960s was best illustrated by the hedonism of the Woodstock music
festival. “Hippies”, wearing bell-bottomed jeans, afros, long hair, beads, and face paint,
crowded a New York State field to listen to the music and “drop out.” Many of the biggest
stars of the festival would fall victim to addiction only a few years later.

11
 4/15/18

Sheepskin coat,
1972,
Nationalmuseet

Mr Fish,
caftan,
1973, VAM
and Playboy
spread,
1971

The ultimate
in gender
play and
ethnic
inspiration.

12
 4/15/18

Yves Saint Laurent

“Safari” suit, 1970,
VAM

Exotic inspiration
came from Asia, South
America, India, and
Africa; the unisex look
also became popular.

John Stephen
suit, 1970, VAM

13
 4/15/18

Playboy, April 1971

For men, suits

echoed styles of
the 30s and 40s
with wide lapels,
tailored waists,
and wide-
brimmed fedora
hats.

John Stephen, suit, 1972,

VAM

14
 4/15/18

Men's polyester shirt

and leisure suit, 1970-
1978, Henry Ford
Costume Collection

Career Club ad,

Playboy, 1973

15
 4/15/18

Playboy clothing
spread, 1973

“The Great White

Suit,” Playboy ad,
1973

16
 4/15/18

Suit, 1975,
Nationalmuseet
and
Master John Black
platform boots, 1973,
Bata Shoe Museum

Hard rock outfit,

1970s,
Nationalmuseet

17
 4/15/18

T-shirt, 1975-77 Vivienne

Westwood and Malcolm
McLaren White cotton with
red, blue, and black
silkscreen print, MMA

The anti-establishment
punk music movement of
the mid-1970s influenced a
new fashion for men, taking
inspiration from sexual
subcultures such as
bondage.

Vivienne
Westwood and
Malcolm McLaren
"Bondage" suit,
1976 MMA

18
 4/15/18

Women’s Dress: General Characteristics

• 1950s: Dior’s New Look continues: wasp

waists, full skirts with petticoats; innovation in
cut of clothes by Givenchy, Balmain, and
Balenciaga; stilletto heel invented.
• 1960s: Revival of 20s styles; ethnic
influences felt; experimentation with new
materials, especially plastics.
• 1970s: High hemlines contrast with low ones;
ethnic influence and move toward practical
unisex styles; 30s revival.

Christian Dior, Suit,

1950, Cincinnati
Museum

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John Rawlings, four models, c. 1950

The 1940s to the 1960s were the golden age of fashion photography; both
photographers and models were household names and style icons in their own right.

Underthings: Corselet girdle and Petticoat, c. 1955

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Corsetiere Edith,
corset, 1950s, VAM

Gjon Milli, multiple exposure of a woman in Playtex bra and panty girdle, 1951, LIFE

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Pepsi-Cola: Fashion is
for the Slender (1958)

John Rawlings, Suzy Parker in

Givenchy, Vogue October 15,
1953
Chinese swinging lacquer-print
full skirt, complete with a
layered lace petticoat and
quilted satin jacket.

Fashion, though distributed

through such images to a wide
public, continued to
ostentatiously emphasize
wealth, class, and tradition.

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Horrockses, dress, 1955, VAM

Full-skirted, brightly printed cotton

dresses have become a by-word
for 1950s fashion. Some of the
best examples of this style were
made by Horrockses. Their top-
quality cotton fabrics retained
their brightness and crispness
despite frequent washing. The
bold, lively prints were often
designed by leading artists of the
day. The Horrockses dress
became an universal must-have,
desired by women of all ages and
social backgrounds. They were
also worn by members of the
royal family.

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Horrockses dresses, 1953

and 55, VAM and
anonymous 50s ad

Modern Living:
Henry Clarke,
Model in Yellow
Suit on Striped
Chair, 1958

By the end of the

1950s, a more
geometric slim
line returned to
the silhouette.

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Christobal Balenciaga,
suit, 1956, Henry Ford
Costume Collection

15 Oct 1958
Illustration for a
Star Weekly ad.
Toronto,
Canada.

Two women
walking a Great
Dane in Toronto.
Man on a bench
watches as they
walk by and two
young boys
playing baseball
stop to look.
Library and Archives
Canada

25
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Shoes, Roger Vivier for Christian Dior, 1954-1960, VAM

Swining London: The 1960s Fashion Capital

• “Every decade has its city…
Today it is London, a city
steeped in tradition, seized by
changed, liberated by
affluence -- in a decade
dominated by youth, London
has burst into bloom. It
swings, it is the scene.”
Time, 1966.
• Carnaby Street, Soho, and
Chelsea: “a kind of
permanently running cocktail
party” (Mary Quant)

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Youth Culture
'There was a time
when every girl under
twenty yearned to look
like an experienced,
sophisticated thirty...All
this is in reverse with a
vengeance now.
Suddenly every girl
with a hope of getting
away with it is aiming
not only to look under
voting age but under
the age of consent.'
Mary Quant, Quant on
Quant, 1966.

Jackie Kennedy in
Oleg Cassini, 1961-2

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Henry Clarke, Chunky

Knits, Vogue July 1965

All-year-round combination
of colourful chunky-knitted
sweaters in pink and
lavender (with vivid under-
collars), worn stylishly with
contrasting slim-tapered
slacks. All by Jaeger and
perfect, said Vogue, for
“lounging around at home
or indeed abroad”.

The Miniskirted Look:

• Up until 1966 skirts under 24" long
were classed as 'children’s
clothing'. From 1st January 1966
women’s clothes were assessed for
tax purposes according to bust
size, not length. In fact, the dresses
were becoming so small that on 5th
November 1965 the British
government brought in new
Customs and Excise rules to
prevent women avoiding taxes by
buying children's sizes. The 10%
tax depended on the length of the
clothes before a rethink resulted in
women's clothes being measured
by bust size instead.

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The
Designers:
• The people who
were producing the
clothes were
themselves very
young.
– Barbara Hulanicki
(Biba), b. 1936
– Yves Saint Laurent,
b.1936
– Mary Quant, b.
1934 (opened
boutique at age 21)

Mary Quant,
“Peachy” dress,
1960, VAM

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Mary Quant, “Tutti Frutti”

suit, 1962, VAM

John French,
Jean Shrimpton
in Mary Quant,
1960s, VAM

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Mary Quant, Dress,

1964, and John French,
Jean Shrimpton in Mary
Quant dress, 1964,
VAM

Helen Gurley Brown,

editor-in-chief of
Cosmopolitan
Magazine, 1964. LoC

In the pages of
Cosmopolitan, women
were urged to take
control of their careers
and sexuality. Cosmo
advised using fashion
for self-expression and
liberation.

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Stephen Willats, “Variable Sheets/Optical

Shift”, 1965, PVC, VAM

“The eight coloured panels forming this dress

have zips attached to each side and so can be
fastened together in any combination. Willats
comments that: 'I used PVC as I thought this a
modern, culturally sophisticated material that
reflected the optimism of the mid sixties, and
which embodied the idea of future and
progress. Variable Sheets was to be worn with
a helmet made from vacuum-formed plastic
sheet, which extended the concept of self-
organisation by enabling the wearer to alter a
transparent plastic visor that would turn their
vision of the world red, green, blue, etc. I
thought that the whole outfit when worn would
change the wearer's relationship to people they
came across, and in turn those people's
relationship to the wearer.’”

William Bell, “One Dress Five Ways,” 1963

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Gosta Peterson, mod

minis, Mademoiselle, 1966

The mini skirt, supposedly

invented by Mary Quant in
London, became a symbol
of the 1960s youth cultural
revolution. The slim
silhouette and high
hemlines of mini dresses
recalled the boyish styles
of the 1920s.

Andre Courreges, ensemble

and boots, 1965, VAM

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Twiggy (Lesley Hornby)

“The face of 1966”
(aged 16)
Marshall McLuhan:
“Twiggy is an X-Ray, not
a picture”

Twiggy minidress,
1967,
Nationalmuseet

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Twiggy minidress,
1967-69, VAM

Op Art dress, plastic

raincoat and bubble
umbrella, 1966-67,
Nationalmuseet

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Rico
Puhlmann,
Brigitte
Bauer, Op-Art
Evening,
1965

The Paper
Dress
1966 publicity stunt
by the Scott Paper
Company in
America: Paper
dresses were
offered for sale at
$1.25 each. They
sold more than half
a million during the
next six months

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Ossie Clark and

Celia Birtwell,
paper dress,
1966, VAM

Pierre Cardin,
“Cosmos” outfit,
1967, VAM

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Bill Ray, models

in Pierre Cardin
outfits, 1968,
LIFE

Knitted minidress, 1967,

Nationalmuseet

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Paco Rabanne,
evening dress, 1967,
VAM

Model Donyale
Luna in Rabanne
dress, Sydney
Australia, 1967,
LIFE

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Evening dress, 1966

Emilio Pucci Polychrome
silk jersey.

No 20th century designer

epitomized “psychedelic”
design as much as Pucci.
His vivid prints continue to
be popular.

Henry Clarke,
Simone
D'Aillencourt
in Emilio
Pucci, 1967

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Geoffrey Beene, dress,

1969, Cincinnati Museum

In the UK, designers like

Ossie Clarke, Celia
Birtwell, and Zandra
Rhodes took up the floaty
chiffon dresses printed
with ethnic and floral
motifs that American
Beene does here.

Folkwear outfit,
1970s,
Nationalmuseet

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Hippie patchwork
outfit, 1971,
Nationalmuseet

Countdown, dress,
1970, VAM

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John Dominis, Mini, midi, maxi dresses, c 1970, LIFE

Freshman college girls in minis and hot pants, Memphis, Tennessee, 1973
Cecil Beaton: “Never in the history of fashion has so little material been raised
so high to reveal so much that needs to be covered so badly.”

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Mary Quant, hot pant suit,

and tall platform boots,
1971, Nationalmuseet

Bobs, bell-bottoms,
platforms and
primness:
Mary Quant
(inventor of the mini
skirt), 1972

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Zandra Rhodes,
dress, 1972, LACMA

Pantsuit, spring/summer
1970 Yves Saint Laurent
Cotton, MMA

The slim asexual lines of

the 1960s continued into
the 1970s, now echoing
the 1930s for inspiration
in sportswear.

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Biba, trouser suit, 1974, VAM

'...the classic Biba dolly...was very pretty

and young. She had an upturned nose,
rosy cheeks and a skinny body with long
asparagus legs and tiny feet. She was
square-shouldered and quite flat-
chested. Her head was perched on a
long, swanlike neck. Her face was a
perfect oval, her lids were heavy with
long, spiky lashes. She looked sweet but
was as hard as nails. She did what she
felt like at that moment and had no mum
to influence her judgment.' Barbara
Hulanicki, From A to Biba 1983.

James Galanos, coat

(denim and sable fur),
1972, LACMA

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Halston Shirtwaist
dress, 1972 Lavender
Ultrasuede, MMA

New materials like

polyester and
ultrasuede shaped the
new optimistic, casual
practicality of the 1970s.

Diane Von
Furstenberg, Wrap
dress, ca. 1975
Green-and-white
dotted cotton/rayon
blend jersey, MMA

The wrap dress

continues to be
popular for women
over 30 years later.

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Missoni, evening
dress, winter 1978
silk knit with Lurex

Wendy Dagworthy,
day outfit, 1979, VAM

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1980-
present

Modern Living

Historical Context
• 1980: Ronald Reagan becomes US president.
• 1981: Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer.
• 1986: Chernobyl nuclear disaster
• 1988: George Bush, Sr. becomes US president
• 1989: Berlin Wall falls
• 1991: Soviet Union collapses
• 1992: Bill Clinton becomes US president
• 2001: George W. Bush becomes president;
September 11 terrorist attacks
• 2009: Barack Obama becomes the first black US
president.

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The Acquisitive 1980s

• Fashion evolved into a global phenomenon with
Americans and Europeans greatly increasing
imports.
• Giorgio Armani’s tailored look perfectly fit the
career woman's needs.
• His success in merchandising and licensing also
helped propel Italy to the forefront of
international fashion.
• Japan enjoyed notoriety while France’s couture
industry revived.

The Value-Oriented 1990s

• The international recession of the early 90s
spurred discount and off price store growth.
• The overstoring of the 80s led to massive
store closures.
• Similarly, manufacturers suffered
domestically, particularly textile mills.
• Karl Lagerfeld’s many collections had
profound impact, while Prada and Gucci
became global trendsetters.

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The Twenty-First Century

• The vigorous economy of the new
millennium renewed fashion interest.
• As the economy slowed, collections
focused and buyers became more
conservative.
• In an effort to keep prices down, imports
increased to 90% of apparel sold in the
United States, contributing to the
effective end of domestic apparel
manufacturing.

Men’s Dress: General Characteristics

• 1980s: daywear is increasingly individual and

casual, while business wear becomes
conservative and codified. Italian designers
come to fore; men’s cosmetics begin to be
heavily advertised. Birth of the “New Man.”
• 1990s: Ever-increasing influence of music
and movies, but marketing of men’s fashion
takes back seat to womenswear. Birth of the
“metrosexual.”
• 2000s: your thoughts?

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Punk outfit,
1985,
Nationalmuseet

UK
punks,
1986

4
 4/15/18

Katherine
Hamnett,
ensemble, 1985,
VAM

Outfit, 1980s, VAM

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Corporate Culture: Dress For Success

• Originally published in 1975 and 1977, respectively, new editions were

released in the late 1980s, and enthusiastically taken up by young people
eager to get ahead in the corporate world. Advice like, “To avoid looking like
a gangster, always make sure that your shirt is lighter than your suit, and
your tie darker than your shirt (with some summer exceptions)” were
followed to the letter.

Paul Smith, suit, 1988, VAM.

This design is Paul Smith’s
version of the 1980s iconic
wide-shouldered double-
breasted suit. His suits were
worn by men who aspired to
the “dress-for-success” notion
of the Eighties. His designs
reflect a classic British style
with a twist, often through the
use of colour and pattern.

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Ensemble, 1993, VAM

Casual business attire

created a new clothing
category for men-- allowing
khakis and no ties

Ensemble, 1993,
VAM

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Doc Marten,
boots, 1994,
VAM

Eco-hippie revival:
Outfit, 1990s, VAM

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“Hip-hop” outfit,
1990s, VAM

Outfit, 1990s,
VAM

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“Grunge” outfit,
1990s, VAM

Grunge, 1990s

10
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Ozwald Boateng,
suit, 1996, VAM

Richard James, suit

(worn by Patrick
Cox), 1996, VAM

11
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Patrick Cox, loafers, 1998, VAM

Women’s Dress: General Characteristics

• 1980s: Growing interest in the body, especially
for casual wear. Revival of 1940s styles with
shoulderpads and draped clothing. Exuberant
colour schemes and experimentation with new
materials like Lycra.
• 1990s: Rapid cycling of revivalist styles and
those based on pop culture. Minimalism
redefines body-conscious dressing, leading to
increased interest in changing the body through
newly-available technologies for cosmetics and
surgical procedures.
• 2000s: your thoughts?

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Body-
Consciousness:
Olivia Newton-
John, 1981.

Reebok sneakers, 1991, VAM. As high-status objects intended for female

aerobics instructors, the shoes have soles designed to be seen during the
activity of the wearer. These exemplify the growing trend, begun in the 1980s,
for highly specialised fitness clothing. They are also representative of the
popularity of the aerobics workout.

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Music and
Over-the-
Top
Theatricism:
Madonna,
1985

Prince Charles and Princess Diana visit Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the
White House, November 1985.
Nancy Reagan demonstrates the 1940s big-shoulder revival of the 1980s, while
Princess Diana reflects a more romantic traditional femininity, with her blow-out
hair and soft dress. Diana was a fashion icon until her death.

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Norma Kamali,
three-piece
dress, 1984,
LACMA

Donna Karan, Jumpsuit,

1986, MMA
• When Donna Karan established her own
design house in 1985, she continued an
emphasis on sportswear dressing. Her first
innovation, the “Essentials” line, was a set of
seven wardrobe components based on a
bodysuit that could be layered and
coordinated in various ways. At a time when
women in the professional workforce were
seeking an alternative to designs based on
tailored menswear, Karan’s designs in black
and charcoal gray suggested the
sophisticated urbanity of the professional
woman, while the body-conscious base
components conveyed an alluring femininity.
• “It has the sophistication of a dress and the
simplicity of pants all wrapped into one. To
me, it’s a look that delivers strength, comfort,
and confidence.” - Donna Karan

15
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Evening gown, 1987

Patou by Christian Lacroix
Raspberry silk taffeta,
MMA

Poufed gowns were

paired with poufed
permed hair in the 1980s,
when bigger was better. A
Victorian revival was
underway.

The Unisex Look:

Betty Jackson,
outfit, 1980s-1990s,
VAM

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Working Girls:
Patrick Kelly, three-
piece suit, 1988,
LACMA

Drew Barrymore and Corey Feldman arrive at the 1989 Academy Awards.
Late 1980s and early 1990s fashion was characterized by an eclectic and over
the top sensibility, taking inspiration from history to create a strange
effervescent bricolage.

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The Supermodels:
• Christy Brinkley, Naomi
Campbell, Helena
Christensen, Cindy
Crawford, Linda
Evangelista, Shalom
Harlow, Eva Herzigova,
Heidi Klum, Elle
Macpherson, Kate Moss,
Tatjana Patitz, Claudia
Schiffer, Stephanie
Seymour, and Christy
Turlington.
• British Vogue, January 1990

Evening gown,
spring/summer 1991 Gianni
Versace Couture Polychrome
printed silk with multicolored
rhinestone and glass bead
embroidery, MMA

Versace took inspiration from

Surrealist designers like Elsa
Schiaparelli and joined it with
Andy Warhol’s Pop Art
sensibility to create a look
dependent on spectacle.

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Celebrity Sex
Obsession:
Calvin Klein ad
featuring Mark
Wahlberg and
Kate Moss, 1993

Evening dress and belt,

fall/winter 1996-97 Tom Ford
for Gucci White rayon jersey;
white self-covering with brass
buckle, MMA

A contrasting trend was toward

an stripped-down simplicity,
which many worry has led to an
unrealistic and dangerous
emphasis on thinness.

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Visual Hysteria:
Heroin Chic
and Anorexia

Mario Sorrenti, Kate

Moss for Calvin Klein
Obsession campaign,
1993

Calvin Klein,
bodystocking
and thong,
1994, VAM

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Wonderbra ad featuring Eva Herzigova, 1994, VAM

Buying the perfect self: Stephen Meisel, “Makeover Madness,” Vogue Italia July 2005

21
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Sex and the City:

The Must-Have
Luxury Accessory

Jimmy Choo,
shoes, 1998,
VAM

22
 4/15/18

Manolo Blahnik, shoes, 1996, VAM

Christian Louboutin,
shoes, 1995, VAM.
Known for his
signature red soles,
Louboutin here
incorporated red
hydrangea petals
hand picked and
dried form his own
garden into a Lucite
platform.

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Pop Culture Surveillance

• Television and Internet have led to an explosion in the content available to

people interested in fashion: commerce and celebrity. Websites, reality
television shows, and blogs have complex affiliations to fashion multinational
corporations, with a significant stake in driving consumer desire and opinion.

Superpoop, January 27, 2009

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Fast Fashion
• a contemporary term used by fashion retailers to
express that designs move from catwalk quickly in
order to capture current fashion trends. Fast
fashion clothing collections are based on the most
recent fashion trends presented at Fashion Week
in both the spring and the autumn of every year.
These trends are designed and manufactured
quickly and cheaply to allow the mainstream
consumer to take advantage of current clothing
styles at a lower price. This philosophy of quick
manufacturing at an affordable price is used in
large retailers such as H&M, Zara, and Topshop. It
particularly came to the fore during the vogue for
"boho chic" in the mid-2000s.

Styling and Price Ranges

• Couture/Luxury
– Made to order to fit an
individual client
– $5,000-$50,000
• Designer
– Ready-to-wear from
successful designers
– $1,000-$5,000
• Bridge
– Less expensive
alternatives to designer
fashion
• Donna Karan’s
DKNY, Marc by Marc
Jacobs
• Contemporary:
– Revived category aimed at
style-conscious women who
want more fashion than
misses style provides
– BCBG, Max Studio
• Misses
– More conservative
adaptations or accepted
designer looks
– Liz Claiborn, Lauren/Ralph
Lauren
• Junior
– Young styling for a young
figure
– Resulted from the high
birthrate in 1980s

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 4/15/18

Fashion Adoption Theories

• The Traditional Theory
– Trickle-Down Theory
• Based on the traditional process of copying and
adapting trendsetting fashion from Paris, Milan,
London, and New York designers
• Reverse Adoption Theory
– Trickle-Up Theory/ Bottom-Up Theory
• Designers pay attention to what people are wearing
• Mass Dissemination Theory
– Trickle-Across Theory
• Manufacturers look at celebrities and copy hot new
styles instantly to meet customer demands

Fashion adoption
Covered by Trade Worn by Fashion
Innovation
Publications Leaders

Versions and
Covered in Worn by Fashion
Adaptations at
Magazines Conscious
Lower Prices

Covered in Local Worn by Fashion Cheap Knockoffs-

Newspapers Followers Loses Style and Fit

Innovators/Leaders
People Tire of it Closeout Sales moved onto new
looks

26