Fashion from 1900-1910

The Edwardian Era started in 1901 bringing sophistication or La Belle Époque as the French called it. It was the time of luxury and privileged living for the rich and fashion designers often produced classy and glamorous designs. Although the 20^th century introduced a new individual freedom in fashion, the first ten years were more influenced by the 1770, where women would wear daily clothes we would only see at costumed events today.

Great events happened in the 1900, the first narrative film ‘The Great Train Robbery’ was released in 1903 and San Francisco was hit by an earthquake in 1906. During these times fashion was mainly blossoming in Paris, as creative art was discovering a new period. Tailored suites were recognized by the 1900, which was found to be suitable for all purposes as it was comfortable to move in. on the other hand men were not as impressed with the suite as they thought it was challenging their power in society and women started to hint for independence for the future which was also objected by men.

Gored skirts were also fashionable as they looked more tailored, matching them with jackets, women started to feel more comfortable in their everyday clothes as well as sophisticated in the elongated trumpet bell shaped skirts. Light coloured skirts were made for evening events while everyday skirts were made of heavy tweeds material. Loose leather topcoats were also in trend and women wore them on a countryside drive in the newly invented motor cars, because they prevented/reduced the cold weather.

Although new creations surfaced the fashion industry, women were still forced to ware corsets, which made them uncomfortable and ill, but they still had to ware them as their bodies were deformed. On the other hand men’s fashion didn’t change much in the first ten years of the century, their suites were mainly dull, except the fabrics used were light weighted compared to the heavy, breathtaking materials used before.

Ballet Russes

Ballet Russes was found by Serge Diaghilev in the 1909 at the Theatre du Châtelet Diaghilev was a Russian impresario who had already succeeded in Russian art, music and opera in Paris in 1908. Ballet Russes always changed and created new creative form of choreography, music, stars and costumes. Luminous choreographers like, Fokin, Nijinsky, Massine and Balanchine, choreographed and trained dancers in St. Petersburg, in order to live up to the high expectation the Parisian audienc3 demanded.

 However, Fokin’s first choreography was in 1907, his “graduation performance” idea was the premier of Ballet Russes, which was performed at the Mariinsky Theater  Collaborating with Benois’ libretto, which he created in 1903 and Nikolai Tcherepnin’s composed music, rising interest in ballet amongst the public. Fokin was the choreographer for the Ballet Russes from 1909-1914, he was known to stage complex and fresh routines, such as Pavillon d'Armide, Daphnis et Chloe, and Le Coq d'Or.  Vaslav Nijinsky, a dancer and a student of Fokin later became the choreographer of Diaghilev’s Ballet School. Although his significant three ballets never failed to impress, he was fired for his lack of commitment. He was hired again in 1916 and only created his last ballet ’Till Eulenspiegel’

After the death of Diaghilev in 1929, the company was claimed and owned by Colonel Wassily de Basil and René Bum. Although the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo was kept its reputation while having Balanchine and Massine as choreographers, Basil and Blum’s constant arguments led to them ending their partnership in 1938. De Basil found another company and called it Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, while Blum renamed the company calling it the Original Ballet Russes.

 The combination of new choreography, music and art for each production productions were sensational and Ballet Russes was becoming hugely popular around the world. As Ballet Russes was inflectional among people and creative art, the public’s attention started to focus on composers and artists. Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo began to tour around the United States after the World War II started. Although the company was successful dancers started to retire or leave, either to open their own dancing studios in America or to works as a choreographer for a company as new Ballet schools started emerging in America.

Ballet Russes is still one of the most influential dancing today as it shows each artist’s ability and creativity individually as well as a team                                                                                                                 

Ballet Russes introduced new daring costumes to the fashion world, resulting mixed reviews from the public as some of the audience thought it was inventive and unique, while others thought it to be inappropriate. Diaghilev was known to include glamorous, eye-catching and exciting new fashionable costumes in every Ballet Russes performance. At the time of Ballet Russes, people were still getting used to the new inventions of fashion, such as Chanel’s Little Black dress and the corset which was brought back to fashion. However, Léon Bakst’s flashy and fleshy costumes didn’t change the minds of the uprising designers at the time.

As Ballet Russes always introduced new creative costumes, they set a new normality to fashion of shocking and unexpected styles. As Ballet Russes introduced comfortable and relaxing costumes, Coco Chanel related to Ballet Russes in many of her collections. Chanel once stated that she “have always attempted to give women a feeling of becoming at ease with their time.” As well as being influenced by Ballet Russes, Chanel also designed costumes for four of their productions from 1924-1929, she also helped Diaghiev stage his ballet in1919. Coco Chanel showed her appreciation for the influential work of Ballet Russes; Chanel released a perfume called ‘Cuir de Russie’, which was inspired by the scented leather of Cossack boots. Also Chanel has a lipstick known as Ballet Russe. 

Paul Poiret was also influenced by Ballet Russes, he believed in creating unique ideas for fashion and Ballet Russes supported his opinion upon fashion. Poiret thought of fashion as creative and glamorous, yet practical and comfortable for women. One of Ballet Russes’ productions in 1910 encouraged Poiret to let his imagination take control of his new collection. Ballet Russes continued to inspire many other designers at the time for the creativity the company brought to the fashion industry during the 1900 and until today.      

KING OF FASHION: Paul Poiret

Paul Poiret born in 1979 was a French fashion designer during the early twentieth century; he set a new standard of artistic significance to his fashion by introducing the free-flowing dresses and replacing tight corsets with brassieres.

Poiret was born in Paris and lived with his parents and three sisters in an apartment above the shop, his father worked as a cloth merchant. Paul’s family had an interest in art and decorate their home with affordable art works. The family also owned a country house in Billancourt, where Poiret spent his time pressing petals from the garden, construction fountains and gathering bits of metals and junk for his antique collection. When Poiret was 12 his family moved to Rue des Halles in Paris and there he attended Ecole Massillon. However Paul was sent to a boarding school when his sisters contracted scarlet fever in order to avoid the illness.

Poiret started showing an interest in fashion as he was often seen scanning through magazines and catalogs, he also was known to enjoying and attending theatre and art exhibits. However at the age of 18 Paul graduated and was sent to an umbrella maker by his father, he still continued to pursue his fashion interest by drawing designs and sewing them using the small wooden mannequin his sister gave him.

Poiret’s first fashion job came when a friend persuaded him to take his designs to the Maison Raundnizt Soeurs to a woman called Mademoiselle Choruit. She was impressed with Poiret’s work and bought 12 of his designs. Poiret then started to gain clients and visited a variety of dress houses. Later in 1896 a designer named Doucet offered Paul a full time job which he accepted. When Poiret told his family the news, his father was in disbelieve and Paul had to take him to Doucet’s studio to convince his father.

Poiret blossomed during his time at the Maison Doucet; his first design was a red cloak which sold 400 copies and customers demanded it in different colours. At Doucet’s, Poiret created new designs every week, which were displayed by ladies at the horse races on Sundays. He also designed costumes for a variety of theatrical productions.

People started to recognize his name and his designs which encouraged him to venture out into Parisian society, while doing so Poiret met Madame Potiphar; with home he began a love affair. Also Paul’s relationship with his father hit a difficult patch and became tense as a result of Poiret starting to experience independence. His relations with Doucet suffered as similar tension as a result of professional impetuosity, this led to Poiret Maison Doucet, but his relationship with Doucet improved after a while.

Following Poiret leaving the Maison Doucet, he joined the army and spent the next year doing military services. Not enjoying the time he spent there, Poiret returned to Paris to do what he loved and enjoyed most. In his autobiography ‘King of Fashion’ Poiret explained “the study of what pleased me: feminine elegance”.

After returning to Paris, Poiret accepted a job offer at the Maison Worth (ran by two brothers, Gaston and Jean Worth), which gave him the opportunity to design dresses for the general public, instead the high-society ladies of Paris. Poiret’s new simple Designed dresses freed women’s bodies from tightened forms and featured a classical high waste-line style, tubular shape and long skirts. The very small designs colours’ were plain and bold, which were becoming popular at the time. The Worth brothers had different opinions on Poiret’s work, as Gaston was pleased with the profit Poiret’s designs brought, while Jean was less impressed with the lowering standard he noticed Poiret bringing upon the Maison Worth. While working for the Worth brothers Poiret presented some of his designs to the princess of Russia, who wasn’t impressed with them. Lacking the ability to please the high-society clients and loving working for the general public, Poiret left the Maison Worth and started working on his own.

With some financial help from his mother, Poiret opened a shop at No.5, Rue Auber in Paris. Poiret gained the attention of by-passers by displaying modest, complex and colourful designs on his shop’s window display. While his shop became popular, Poiret perfected the design that the princess rejected and gradually it became very popular. In his autobiography he called the cloak “Confucius” and quoted “every woman bought at least one.” He also stated that the design was the beginning of the Asian influence in fashion.

Poiret was not a fan of the corset and he introduced the brassiere, allowing women more comfort and freedom. However in contrast of his thoughts on corsets, Poiret created the popular tight skirt. Eventually Poiret’s business grew bigger and the shop was too small to fit his new ideas and collections, therefore Poiret moved into a house of Rue Pasquier. Although Poiret raised many eyebrows regarding his choice of his business’s practices, however the criticism never affected Poiret’s growing reputation.

Poiret stated in his autobiography “People have been good enough to say that I have exercised a powerful influence over my age, and that I have inspired the whole of my generation. I dare not make the pretension that this is true …” however he thought of his creative work to be inspired by artists, he says It was in my inspiration of artists, in my dressing of theatrical pieces, in my assimilation of and response to new needs, that I served the public of my day." Poiret continued to reinstate that the artist as an important and creative force in fashion through his career. Poiret worked with Paul Iribe, they produced les Robes de Paul Poiret, recontees par Paul Iribe, with Iribe creating drawings of Poiret’s dress collection. Two years later Paul Poiret also produced a similar album with Georges Lepape titled Paul Poiret vues par Georges Lepape. Both productions were extremely successful, which led to Poiret to helping artists developing their talent and increase exposure amongst the public, this increased the popularity of fashion illustrations and literature.

Poiret also mentioned how hard he had to work in order for his collections to be well known, he says "I did not wait for my success to grow by itself. I worked like a demon to increase it, and everything that could stimulate it seemed good to me." Poiret toured around Europe with nine models to promote his designs, which gained him recognition around the main capitals in Europe.

Poiret established a school of decorative art in 1912 as he expanded his interest in painting art; he named the school Martine which was later used for the Maison Martine founded by Poiret. The school gave Parisian women the opportunity to learn about different designs and to be creative with their designs as there was a non-structured curriculum and no criticism. The school also caught the eye of artists, such as Raoul Dufy and Poiret’s friendship with Dufy struck up quickly. Poiret later sponsored Dufy’s artistic activities, leading him to experiment the world of art exhibition in 1924. However Poiret’s experience was unsuccessful and he didn’t pursue it further.

Poiret’s career ended temporarily when he was called into the military service during the World War I. he then travelled to Morocco after he was released from service in1917 to deal with the aftermath of his experience in the war. By the time Poiret returned to Paris to continue his dressmaking business, he had discovered his interest in perfumery and interior decoration.

Poiret also developed a passion of organizing parties since he was a child. Poiret’s parties were sophisticated and well attended as they fulfilled all the aspects of entertainment, including dancers, orchestras, a party was said to featuring a python, monkey merchant, a garden full of wild animals. Some parties were attended in the “Oasis” a theatre Poiret created in his garden and others were based on themes. Poiret also planned parties and balls for other people. Paul Poiret died in 1944, spending his last years pursuing in his love of painting.

Fashion from 1910-1920

Those ten years people went through dark times, in 1912 the titanic ship sank and two years later the First World War began. Luxury lives didn’t matter much as people only cared about staying safe, women started rebelling trends that made them uncomfortable or deformed their body shape. Therefore corsets were thrown away as women welcomed hobble skirts. Paul Poiret was the designer of the decade and he was strongly influenced by eastern colours and designs, he created a line of eastern jewelled slippers which became common.

During the war years women took men’s factory jobs in order to keep them running as men went off to fight. This resulting in women enjoying their independence and wanting to freedom, therefore fashion produced practical wear for women,. Introducing shorter dresses and creating more practical shoes, such as ‘spectator boots’ which became popular at the time, cut steel buckles were added to women’s shoes for decoration as well as other accessories.

As the war drew to an end, the first Sneaker was designed in 1917 which became popular since it was the first shoe that didn’t make noise when walking. Also women were seen in sportswear more often because they were comfortable and easy to move in. also men’s clothing changed radically, as the frock coats and double breasted jackets were thrown away and the ‘dandy look’ was in trend. 

Madeleine Vionnet

Madeleine Vionnet was born in 1876 in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, Loiret. As she was born in a poor family Vionnet worked as a seamstress at the age of eleven. After her brief marriage failed, she left her husband and worked as a hospital seamstress in London as well as working for Kate Reily. However Vionnet returned to Paris and trained for well known fashion associates, such as fashion house Callot Soeurs and Jacques Doucet.

Vionnet employed over 1,100 seamstresses in The House of Vionnet, which she found in 1912. The House of Vionnet was the first house to make ready to wear designs. In 1920’s Vionnet created her signature trademark The Bias Cut, allowing fabrics to cling onto women’s bodies and move with the wearer. Creating body-fitted looks helped transform women’s clothing making her famous in the fashion industry.

Vionnet was influenced by the modern dances of Isadora Duncan, creating corsets, padding, stiffening and any simple, accentuating designs for curvy female figures. Madeleine once said “when a woman smiles, then her dress should smile too.” Vionnet also created garments that floated freely around a woman’s body rather than deforming its shape as she was also inspired by ancient Greek art.   

Vionnet simple designs apparently involved a long process, including cutting, draping then pinning fabric designs onto small-sized dolls. Vionnet then would recreate them in chiffon, silk or Moroccan crepe onto actual size models. However Vionnet used materials that were not common by other well known fashion designers in the 1920s and 30s, such as crepe de chine, gabardine and satin. Vionnet was also know to order wider fabrics than necessary in order to create her designs (especially dresses) that clung to and moved with the wearer, including handkerchief dress, cowl neck and halter top.

In 1930s Vionnet created luxurious and sensual designs worn by stars, such as Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Later in the 1930s Vionnet started to mentor later designers passing on her signature movement, elegance and appreciation of the natural women figures. Vionnet expressed her dislike for the world of fashion and personal publicity as she believed “Insofar as one can talk of a Vionnet school, it comes mostly from my having been an enemy of fashion. There is something superficial and volatile about the seasonal and elusive whims of fashion which offends my sense of beauty.”

Madeleine Vionnet died in 1975. However, Vionnet’ bias cut has made her one of influential designers of the 20th century. Vionnet has been an inspiration in many well-known designers such as John Galliano, Issey Miyak and Halston……etc

 

Fashion from 1920-1930

In the 1920s three important women’s fashion magazines were established, Vogue, The Queen and Harper’s Bazaar. The magazines provided mass introduction of trendy styles and fashions. Waistlines also became loose with full flared skirts accompanied by jackets that were tightened at the waist with belts. During the 1923 waistlines were dropping between the waist and hips as baggy trends continued to emerge. It wasn’t until 1924 that the waistline dropped to the hip.

In 1925 designers introduced dresses without a waistline and towards the end of the decade straight bodices and collars were popular amongst women, as well as knife-pleated skirts. In the 1928 fashion launched new styles; with rising hemline to the knee and making more fitted dresses which were the 1930 graceful fashion styles.

During the 1920s garments were mainly fastened with buttons and the closer-fitted flapper-styled dresses were secured with an incessant flab, they were regularly applied to the left side seam of the garment. Also designers often used hooks, snaps, buttons, however zips were not used on garments until later years in the decade.

Fabrics such as cotton and wool were regularly used as they were easily found, on the other hand silk was one of the most desired fabric, but as it was supplied limitedly it made it expensive and with people dealing with the economic problems the war caused, most women weren’t interested in expensive clothes. Therefore designers started to use artificial silk, which at the time was called ‘rayon’ and it was used to make stockings which became popular in the 1920s.

The Life of Coco Chanel

Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in 1883 has become the biggest name in the fashion industry later in 1920. She was born in the workhouse in the Loire Valley where her mother worked. However Coco later claimed that she was born in1893 making herself ten years younger, she also asserted that her birth place was Auvergne.

Chanel stated that her mother died when she was only six leaving her father with five children which he quickly abandoned to the care of various relatives. Coco was sent to the orphanage of the Catholic monastery of Aubazine, where she was taught the trade of a seamstress. Gabrielle learnt how to sew during school vacations that were spent with relatives in the capital of Moulins, she sewed with more thrive than the nuns could teach her. Chanel left the orphanage when she was eighteen and worked for a local tailor.

It was thought that Coco lied about her life in order to reduce the shame that poverty, illegitimacy and orphan-hood granted the unfortunate in the France during the nineteenth-century. Chanel claimed that she was six when her mother died instead of twelve, as well as stating that her father sailed to America after the death of mother and that she was sent to live with two cold-hearted unmarried aunts. Gabrielle has taken on the name Coco while working as a singer in cafes and concert halls from 1905-1908, it was the nickname given to her by the soldiers who watched her.

Chanel became the mistress of a rich military officer and then a wealthy English Industrialist after she moved to Deauville during the World War1. She opened a millinery shop in Paris in 1910 as the two men introduced her to some women of society and her hats became popular, she then expanded her business as she had two boutiques in both Deauville and Biarritz.

Maison Chanel was recognized by the 1920s (it remains to this day), Coco also became a fashion icon as she was considered having an edgy modern style for her bob haircut and tan. Also during the 1920s Coco Chanel was the first designer to introduce loose women’s clothing using jersey, (normally used for men’s underwear) as she created loosened styles for women, which became popular for the post-war generation of women as they ignored the tight lacing corsets and they became old-fashioned.

Coco Chanel launched Chanel No.5 in 1922, the fragrance that is still very popular today. Pierre Wertheimer became Coco’s business partner two years after the launce (taking 70% of the perfume business) and reportedly her lover. The fragrance company is now controlled by the Wertheimers. Later in 1925 was Chanel’s successful year by launching the cardigan jacket and the little black dress making both items impartial in every Chanel collection until this day.

Chanel nursed the injured soldiers during the World War II, which led to her affair with a Nazi officer. After the war ended the affair drew unwanted publicity attention for Chanel and she escaped to Switzerland. Coco ended this self-imposed exile when she returned to Paris in 1954, expanding her signature styles by experimenting with Christian Dior’s feminine New Look. Coco Chanel’s new collection won the press in Europe and was popular in the United States as she introduced the pea jacket and bell-bottoms for women and her effortlessly stylish boxy cardigan suits, which became popular among the Hollywood stars such as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.

Chanel also designed costumes Cinema, such as ’La Regle de Jeu’ and theatre, including ‘Antigone’ (1923) and ‘Oedipus Rex’ (1937).

Coco kept working until her death at the age of 88 in 1971, dedicating her life to fashion and spending her last moments the style that become a part of her life.

Katharine Hepburn played the role of Chanel in a Broadway musical based on the life of Coco Chanel in 1969.