20th Century Styles and Trends

HOW FASHION BECAME FASHIONABLE 1900

The Invention of haute couture
1900 La Belle Époque (French for
"Beautiful Era") was a period in
France (1871-1914) - characterized
by optimism, peace in France &
Europe, new technology and
scientific discoveries. The peace
and prosperity in Paris allowed the
arts to flourish, and many master-
pieces of literature, music, theater,
and visual art ained recognition.
The debut of French Haute Couture marked in the year 1900 at the
Paris Exposition Unverselle (world Exhibition)

The Eiffel Tower built in 1889 as the

entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair
& has become a global cultural icon of
France.
A select group of fashion houses including Worth & Doucet present
their collections at the World Exhibition which received huge international
press coverage.

Charles Frederick Worth Jacque Doucet

13 October 1825 – 10 March 1895) (1853–1929) was a
was an English fashion designer who French fashion designer
founded the House of Worth, one of the and art collector
foremost fashion houses of the 19th and early
20th centuries.
Fashion Icons of the period - Actresses who clothed by Worth & Doucet

Sarah Bernhardt, French Actress Eleonora Duse. Italian Actress

Born 23 October 1844 Born 3 October 1858
Paris has been the fashion capital
of the world since 18th C and
would continue to dominate until
the mid 20th C.
The world’s very first departments
stores in Paris (1850) also contrib-
uted to the spread of French fash-
ion - fashion came to be enjoyed
by a larger segment of the popula-
tion – trends began to reach even
the lower classes.
Le Bon Marché
Founded in 1838 and revamped
almost completely by Aristide
Boucicaut in 1852, it was one of
the first modern department
stores. It has been a member of
the International Association of
Department Stores from 1986 to
2011. Now the property of
LVMH
During the 19th C - women’s fash-
ion was characterized by the con-
stantly changing silhouettes, while
men’s clothing retained its basic
form & changed only in minor de-
tails

However, men’s fashion was domi-

nated by the English – advanced
wool industry, superior textile ma-
chinery & more refined tailoring
techniques
Meanwhile In the United States,
the American Civil War ended in
1865 - the Gilded Age in the US
was similarly a period of enormous
growth as the US became the
leader of industrialization, ahead
of Britain – cost of steel production
reduced, more railways being
built, telephone was patented by
Alexander Graham Bell.
French fashion was increasingly
copied and it needed particular
protection.

The Parisian Tailor’s union (Cham-

bre Syndicale le la Couture Parisi-
enne) was founded in 1910 to pro-
tect copyright.

Charles Frederick Worth’s Studio.

 Couturiers – the keepers of the standards of haute couture…

A couturier was above the ranks of

gifted tailors and had to have qual-
ities of the creator, artiste, PR
genius, entertainer, self-promoter
and stage director all in one.
Post-Impressionsm –
Henri Rousseau, Paul Gauguin

Pointillism –
Georges Seurat, Paul Signac

Fauvism –
Henri Matisse, André Derain

Expressionism –
Egon Schiele , Georges Henri
Rouault

Art Nouveau –
Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt
Charles Frederick Worth
The English Man who found French Haute Couture

Arrives in Paris at age 20 after 7 years of

apprenticeship in London textile industry.
In 1858 found his own fashion house with
Swedish business partner Boberg, in Rue
de la Paix and later becomes the sole in
charge of the business.

Devices cloth labels with his embroidered

signature. Launches a new collection every
year and introduces the concept of
change in fashion to promote sales
Worth understood how to combine English
tailoring techniques with French flair.
Patronized by Empress Eugénie of France.
Clothes many famous muses including the Empress Sisi
of Austria
empress Sisi of Austria, and the actress Nellie Melba

Sarah Bernhardt and singer Nellie Melba.

However his design line was far less revolu-
tionary and he did very little to the existing
mode of crinoline & bustle.

Upon his death his sons Gaston and

Empress Eugenie of France, Worth dress,
Jean-Philippe took over the business. Winterhalter portrait.
Jacques Doucet
• Born in Paris in 1853 to a prosperous family who owned a thriving
lingerie and linens business (Doucet Lingerie) in Rue de la Paix.

• In 1871, Doucet opened a salon selling ladies' apparel.

An enthusiastic collector of eighteenth-century furniture and art objects.

• Designs dresses and costumes for actresses of the time such as Cecile
Sorel, Rejane and Sarah Bernhardt.

• Known for his use of pastel colors, sinuous curving lines and lace
ruffles, embroidery and appliques(ornamental needlework)

Gabrielle
Réjane,
French
Actress

Sarah Bernhardt,
Cecile Sorel, French Actress
French Comic Actress
Ballgown by Jacques Doucet, 1898-1902 France
• Trained as a dressmaker and later opened her own
fashion house in 1891. Jean Paquin
• Identifies her self as a fashion designer rather than
a seamstress.
• Organizes fashion parades and sends her models
to operas and races to promote and to show off her
new designs.
• Was given the honor to head the fashion area at
the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 where Paquin
shocks the crowd with sophisticated presentation
with life-size wax mannequins, dressed in finest
laces & silks.
• Known for her Eighteenth century-inspired pastel
and dazzling silver and gold evening dresses and
tailored day dresses.
• In 1907, she created a kimono-style cape and
reinvented the suit with a pleated skirt that made it
practical to wear even when traveling.
• Opens a branch of her famous house of Paquin in New York that special-
ized in furs.
• she invented the fashion cruise, taking her creations to the main cities of
Latin America; making the House of Paquin the first fashion house to have
foreign branches in London, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and New York.
• She was the first to take her collection on tour to major cities in the
United States.
• Paquin is known as the first woman besides the renowned Rose Bertin,
to achieve success in the French Fashion industry on the same level as
great dressmakers like Worth.

Rose Bertin,
the dressmaker to
Queen Marie Antoinette.
La Belle Époque woman -
a product of man’s imagination

The world of couture was and still is

dominated by men.

They believed that female body

should be cinched and padded out
to correspond with the ideal
hour-glass figure; vulnerable and
fragile in the middle, generously
rounded above and bellow.

In profile, the line of the body

resembled an S, the corset and
bustle modulating the sharpness of
its curves.
• High, narrow, banded collars made of stiff lace
forced the head upright.
• Heavy ostrich plume decorated hat was used to
counterweight the back bustle, was worn on slightly
forward and pinned up hair which balanced the sil-
houette.
• The slender top half was cinched in by
whale-boned corsets.
• Large leg-o mutton sleeves puffed out at the shoul-
ders and fitted snugly from elbow to wrist.
• The bell-shaped long skirt was loose around hips ,
gathered at the back with ruffles and folds and a
train.
• Matching ankle boots or shoes were pointed with
heels; were worn with stockings.
• Narrow gloves covered the hands and long gloves
that covered upper arms were worn with low cut
dresses.
Charles Dana Gibson and
the Gibson Girl

The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as
portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year
period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. The artist
saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls".

Charles Dana Gibson,

was an American illustrator. He was best
known for his creation of the Gibson Girl,
an iconic representation of the beautiful and
independent Euro-American woman at the turn
of the 20th century.
Italian Actress Mata Hari was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was
convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I.
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (28 January
1873 – 3 August 1954), known monony-
mously as Colette, was a French author
and woman of letters. She was also
known as a mime, actress, and journal-
ist.
Mariano Fortuny

Mariano Fortuny (11 May 1871 – 3 May 1949) was

a Spanish fashion designer who opened his
couture house in 1906 and continued until 1946.
 Paul
Poiret

Paul Poiret (20 April 1879 – 30 April 1944, Paris, France)was a French fashion designer, a master
couturier during the first two decades of the 20th century. He was the founder of his namesake
haute couture house. His contributions to his field have been likened to Picasso's legacy in
20th-century art
2-tone pumps
was a French fashion designer. Vionnet trained
in London before returning to France
to establish her first fashion house in Paris in 1912.