EDWARDIAN PERIOD AND WORLD WAR I (1900-1920)

100 years of history in 2 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxC5a7Qrstk

Watch the video, pick one of the events mentioned in it about which you no nothing or very little and find out
more. Be ready to say something about your chosen event at the exam.

BRITAIN

 King Edward VII - Edwardian period (1901-1910)

- emphasis on social life and fashion rather than family life and Victorian morality

 1901 – the Commonwealth of Australia is created (decolonisation starts)

Important events in the period before WWI:
• 1901 – Kodak Brownie – the first photographic camera introduced to the masses
• 1903 – the Wright brothers invent, build, and fly the world’s first successful airplane
• 1903 – The Great Train Robbery - American silent short Western film, the first narrative film
• 1903 – Marie Skłodowska Curie becomes the first woman to win the Nobel prize (physics)
• 1905 – Albert Einstein’s “Miracle Year” (he published 5 papers that revolutionized science)
• 1909 – Condé Nast buys the American magazine Vogue
• 1911 – Edward Steichen makes first modern fashion photographs of Poiret’s gowns (pictures below)
• 1912 – the sinking of the Titanic
• 1913 – Condé Nast started publishing Vanity Fair
 ART
- 20th century marks the beginning of Modern Art
- many art movements developed in the first 20 years, the most important being fauvism (Matisse), cubism
(Picasso), and expressionism (Kandinsky)
- 1915 – Kazimir Malevich, the most prominent member of Suprematism, creates the most abstract painting
to day - “Black Square”

FASHION DESIGNERS
Paul Poiret (po’re) – Le Magnifique
• 1903 – leaves the House of Worth and opens his own fashion house
- theatrical, colourful style which reflect the age in which he worked
- made extravagant window displays, traveled abroad with models, and is the first French designer to
sell perfume
a) kimono coat

b) hobble skirt (pictures 1, 2, 4 below), peg-top skirt (picture 2 below), lampshade tunic (pictures 3 and 4
below)

c) harem trousers as part of style sultane (a set of designs inspired by the Middle East) – pictures 1 and 2
below
d) later work: dress from 1923 (picture 3 below), 1925 (picture 4 below), 1925 (picture 5 below)
Mariano Fortuny (fur’tunj)
• painter and textile designer known for his signature heat pleating technique
• Greek style and non-European cultures as inspiration
• never part of the popular fashion market in the sense of Poiret, but catered to avant-garde women
• famous for the Delphos gown (pictures 1-4 below), named after a classical Greek statue, the
Charioteer of Delphi (picture 5 below)

Lucile (Lucy, lady Duff-Gordon)

• the first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim
• the first global couture brand with shops in London, Paris, New York and Chicago
• organized the first catwalk show which was then called the “mannequin parade”
• trained first professional models
 • first to have a monthly column in the Harper’s Bazaar
• first to create a mail-order fashion line for Sears
• survived the sinking of the Titanic
a) evening gowns
- she designed luxuriously layered and draped garments in soft fabrics of blended pastel colors, often
accentuated with sprays of hand-made silk flowers

Design a garment (m/f) inspired by the description above (make sure to include all the elements mentioned).
Send it by email.

b) lingerie (‘lan ,ž ‘ri) – she was a pioneer in developing alluring lingerie, making lingerie fashionable, and
made less restrictive corsets
WOMEN’S FASHION (1900-1909)
 underwear:
- still worn: chemise, petticoat, drawers but they
are highly decorative with a lot of frills, ruffles,
lace and bows
- bust supporter is now called the brassiere
(bra’zir)
- corsets are used to create the s-shape
silhouette

 daywear:
- skirts and shirtwaists (either very decorative or made to resemble a man’s shirts well as tailor-mades are
typical garments for a woman during the day (pictures 1-3 below)
  day dresses:
- all dresses are one-piece dresses (either bodice and skirt sewn together or princess line)
- a dress would have a high-neck collar, full bodice, small waist, trumpet shaped skirt, and fitted sleeves with
frills and decoration, though various sleeve types were worn (pictures 1-4 above)
- popular types of dresses were also:
a) lingerie dress - a pure white summer dress trimmed with lace, hand-embroidery and ruffles resembling
underwear (picture 1 below)
b) tea gown – a loosely fitted dress worn without a corset for informal entertaining at home (picture 2 below)
 first ready-to-wear maternity dresses - looked like regular dresses (picture 3 below)

 evening gowns:
- bodice is fitted or gathered in front to create a pigeon breast silhouette (pictures 3 and 4 below), skirt is
trumpet shaped with a train, sleeves are fitted, highly decorated with frills, ruffles, and lace

Look back into the periods we covered so far and find what silhouettes had specific names. Write the names
on a piece of paper and then return to it a few days later. Sketch each silhouette and compare to the ones in
the handouts. If they match, you have the right visual representation in your memory. The next step is to
describe each silhouette in words. If you choose to learn about silhouettes this way, send me your materials by
email.

WOMEN’S FASHION (1909-1914)

• Empire revival – a brief period during which straighter silhouette with a higher waistline returned to
fashion (pictures under the dictionary entry for revival)
• most fashionable garments are:
a) hobble skirt: a skirt with such a narrow hem that it limits the wearer’s walk (read more about it in
the dictionary section) – picture in the first row below
b) peg-top skirt: a skirt which is wide at the hips and narrow at the hem (the wideness was achieved
by large pleats or folds of carefully tailored at the top of the skirt) – pictures in the second row (1
and 2 from the period, 3-5 later periods)
c) harem skirt: a different name for harem trousers which were basically Turkish trousers popularized
by Poiret (third row of pictures)
Why is this period very convenient for describing the word trend?

WOMEN’S FASHION (WWI – 1920)

 most fashionable garments were tailor-mades
 notice the relaxed silhouette and shorter hemline
What do you think brough on such silhouette? Why are the hemlines the shortest they’ve been since robe a la
polonaise?

 pullover sweaters became very popular for leisure time and playing sports

 dresses: transitional period from wartime styles to the 1920s Describe how.
MEN’S FASHION (1900-1920)
• professionals and businessmen wear suits
• all men on formal social occasions wear suits
• in informal occasions and during leisure time trousers, jackets, and shirts are worn which are not
parts of a suit but individual garments
• lounge coat becomes the standard suit jacket
• after the war, morning coat is limited to the upper classes
• dark colours for evening, lighter colours and patterns for day are introduced
- new garments –
a) trench coat - a coat made of waterproof, heavy-duty cotton gabardine (more information in the trench coat
entry in the dictionary – mandatory reading) – first row of pictures below
b) knickerbockers (knickers) - knee-length, baggy trousers used in various sports that were also popular as
young boys’ winter trousers until they entered puberty when they were allowed to wear long trousers (more
information in the dictionary entry) - second row of pictures below

c) blazer - a navy blue/brightly coloured/striped flannel coat cut like a sack coat with patch pockets and brass
buttons, worn for sports, sailing, and other casual activities (pictures 1 and 2 below)
d) jodphurs - tight-fitting trousers that reach to the ankle, where they end in a snug cuff, and are worn primarily
for horse riding (picture 4 below)
- originally, jodhpurs were tight-fitting from just below the knee to the ankle, and were flared at the hip to
allow ease for sitting in the saddle (picture 3 below)
Find all the garments in this study material that represent the influence of the military on fashion. Explain.

DICTIONARY
to acclaim (javno odobravanje) - to praise somebody or something publicly
alluring (privlačan, primamljiv) – attractive and exciting in a mysterious way
brassiere/bra (grudnjak) – a piece of woman’s underwear that supports the breast
the Commonwealth (Commonwealth) - a unique political association of 53 member states, nearly all of them
former territories of the British Empire. It dates back to the first half of the 20th century with the
decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories
Condé Nast - a New York City-born publisher who launched his magazine empire Condé Nast Inc. in 1909 with
the purchase of Vogue, which was first created in 1892 as a New York weekly journal of society and fashion
news. The company currently holds 19 brands including Vogue, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and
its artistic director is Anna Wintour.
cubism (kubizam) - an avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and
inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture in the 1910s and 1920s. It has been
considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. In Cubist artwork, objects are analysed,
broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from a single viewpoint, the
artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. The
movement was started by Pablo Picasso (pictures 1 and 2 below) and Georges Braque. (pictures 3 and 4
below)
dart (ušitak) - a small fold, becoming narrower towards one end, that is sewn into a piece of clothing to make
it fit better

decolonisation (dekolonizacija) – the process of dismantling colonial empires which were established before
WWI throughout the world.
Delphos gown (-) - a shift dress made of finely pleated silk weighed down by glass beads that held its shape
and flowed on the body first created in 1907 by Mariano Fortuny and his wife Henriette Negrin. The pleating
that Fortuny used was all done by hand and no one has been able to recreate pleating that is as fine as his or
has held its shape like his dresses have for many years. The dress continued to be made until 1950.
Edwardian period (1900-1910) – a period in British history that covers the short reign of King Edward VII and is
sometimes extended in both directions to capture long-term trends from the 1890s to the First World War.
Edward Steichen – American photographer (picture 2 above) whose photos of gowns for the magazine Art et
Décoration in 1911 are regarded as the first modern fashion photographs ever published. From 1923 to 1938,
Steichen was a photographer for the Condé Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair while also working for
many advertising agencies (pictures 3 and 4 above). Steichen was regarded as the best known and highest
paid photographer in the world.
expressionism (ekspresionizam) - a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in
Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical characteristic is to present the world solely from a
subjective perspective, changing it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.
Expressionist artists wanted to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. The
most prominent artist is Wassily Kandinsky.
fauvism (fovizam) - is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early twentieth-century
modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the realistic values of
Impressionism. Fauvism as a style began around 1904 and continued beyond 1910, but the movement as such
lasted only a few years, 1905–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were André
Derain (picture 3 below) and Henri Matisse (pictures 1 and 2 below).

frills (gusti volančići) - a long, narrow strip of cloth with folds along one side that is sewn along the edge of a
piece of clothing or material for decoration.
harem trousers (dimije) - baggy, long trousers tied at the ankle. The original so-called 'harem trousers/skirts'
were introduced to Western fashion by designers such as Paul Poiret in 1911. Before that, they were briefly
popular in the Crinoline period as part of the Bloomer costume.
Harper’s Bazaar - an American women's fashion magazine, first published in 1867. It considers itself to be the
style resource for "women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture".
high-neck collar (visoki okovratnik) - a collar that covers all or most of the neck, popular among women in
Edwardian times but worn in various styles even today

hobble skirt (-) At a 1908 Wright Brothers demonstration in Le Mans, France, Mrs. Hart O. Berg asked for a
ride and became the first American woman to fly as a passenger in an airplane, soaring for two minutes and
seven seconds. She tied a rope securely around her skirt at her ankles to keep it from blowing in the wind
during the flight. According to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, a French fashion designer was inspired
by the way Mrs. Berg walked away from the aircraft with her skirt still tied and created the hobble skirt based
on her ingenuity. Paul Poiret is thought to have witnessed this event and have been inspired by it
consequently claiming credit for its invention. The other theory is that he was inspired by geishas and their
particular way of walking in traditional clothing.
kimono coat (-) – a loose-fitting coat that is inspired by the Japanese kimono and designed specifically for an
uncorseted figure. Paul Poiret made his name by designing them at the beginning of the 20 th century.
knickerbockers/knickers (-) - by 1831 "Knickerbocker" had become a local word for an imagined old Dutch-
descended New York aristocracy, their old-fashioned ways, their long-stemmed pipes, and knee-breeches long
after the fashion had turned to trousers. The name was given to a New York baseball club and later basketball
club now known as New York Knicks. This type of knee-length, baggy trousers was used in various sports but
became popular as young boys’ winter trousers until they entered puberty when they were allowed to wear
long trousers. This tradition was held until the end of WWI. In Britain, knickers refer to women’s underpants.
lampshade tunic (-) – a type of tunic worn over a narrow skirt that was fashionable in the 1910s.
lingerie (žensko, intimno rublje) - a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly
brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The specific choice of the word is often motivated by an
intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashionable or both. Lingerie as a word was first used to
refer to underwear and bras in 1922. Informal usage suggests visually appealing or even erotic clothing.
Although most lingerie is designed to be worn by women, some manufacturers now design lingerie for men.
Mariano Fortuny – a Spanish fashion designer best known for his Delphos gown. He was a painter and textile
designer. His wife Henriette Negrin was an experienced dressmaker and helped him construct many of his
designs. He was inspired by the light, airy clothing of Greek women that clung to the body and accentuated
the natural curves and shape of a woman’s body. He also manufactured his own dyes and pigments for his
fabrics using ancient methods. With these dyes he began printing on velvets and silks and dyed them using a
press that he invented with wooden blocks onto which he engraved the pattern. His dresses are seen as fine
works of art today and many survive, still pleated, in museums and personal collections
Paul Poiret - a leading French fashion designer, a master couturier during the first two decades of the 20th
century. He founded his namesake fashion house in 1903. His contributions to his field have been likened to
Picasso's legacy in 20th-century art. Though perhaps best known for freeing women from corsets and for
claiming authorship of the hobble skirt, harem pants, and "lampshade" tunic, Poiret's major contribution to
fashion was his development of the dressmaking technique known as draping, a departure from the tailoring
and pattern-making of the past. Poiret was influenced by antique and regional dress, and favoured clothing cut
along straight lines and constructed of rectangular motifs. The structural simplicity of his clothing represented
a "pivotal moment in the emergence of modernism".
pigeon breast silhouette (-) – a silhouette which consists of a natural waistline and bodices that are fuller in
front.

pullover/sweater (pulover) - a piece of clothing, typically with long sleeves, made of knitted or crocheted
material that covers the upper part of the body and is pulled over one’s head.
revival (obnjavljanje, ponovni procvat) – the process of becoming more active or popular again
shift dress (kratka haljina bez rukava ravnog kroja) - a dress in which the cloth falls straight from the shoulders
and has darts around the bust. It gained popularity during the western flapper movement in the 1920s. It
made a comeback in the 1960s.
s-shaped silhouette (-) – popular in the beginning of the 20th century and the result of a straight-fronted corset
that started lower on the bustline than the corsets had a few years previously. The shape of the corset allowed
the bosom to hang low in front while the hips were pushed backwards creating an s shape.
Suprematism (Suprematizam) - an art movement focused on basic geometric forms, such as circles, squares,
lines, and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colors. It was founded by Kazimir Malevich in Russia, and
announced in Malevich's 1915 Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10 exhibition. The
term suprematism refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of pure artistic feeling" rather than on
visual depiction of objects.

tea dress/gown (-) - a newer, lighter, free fitting form of house dress worn at the time of afternoon tea —
roughly 3 to 6pm. From 1870s, it was a formal house gown suitable for entertaining guests in one’s home. It
need not be as formal as a dinner gown but formal enough to be seen among one’s peers. It was often an
expression of a woman’s artistic abilities where the dress coordinated with her parlour room décor. By the
Edwardian era, tea gowns were a regular part of a woman’s wardrobe outside of her home, too. Tea time
became more flexible, as well, as the location changed to outside porches and gardens.
trench coat (trenčkot) - It generally has a removable insulated lining, raglan sleeves, and the classic versions
come in various lengths ranging from just above the ankles to above the knee. It was originally an item of
clothing for Army officers (developed before the war but adapted for use in the trenches of the First World
War, hence its name) and shows this influence in its styling. The traditional colour of a trench coat was khaki,
although newer versions come in many colours.
The History of the Trench Coat https://www.vogue.fr/fashion/article/vogue-encyclopaedia-the-history-of-the-
trench-coat

Vanity Fair - a magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United
States. The first version of Vanity Fair was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in 1983 and
currently includes five international editions of the magazine.
Vogue - a fashion and lifestyle magazine covering many topics including fashion, beauty, culture, living, and
runway. Vogue began as a weekly newspaper in 1892 in the United States, before becoming a monthly
publication years later. It was purchased by Conde Nast in 1909 and by 1911, the Vogue brand had achieved a
reputation that it continues to maintain, targeting an elite audience.