Western fashion history 1890s

Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines, tall collars, and the rise of sportswear. It was an era of great dress reforms led by the invention of the drop-frame safety bicycle, which allowed women the opportunity to ride bicycles more comfortably, and therefore, created the need for appropriate clothing.

Europe has years of excess (1890-1914); this becomes la belle époque(the beautiful era). It is the time of the beau monde. They are carefree years and there is a sunny optimism, wealth and decadence. Rich people earn a great deal in a short period of time through the industrial revolution and retire to the countryside for sumptuous feasts and exclusive dinners. A society lady is expected to dress up several times a day, from sober richness or a walking dress to an impressive evening attire. In this time many fashion houses in Paris are founded. The British court is bursting with luxury thanks to the Indian colony.

In 1890, the woman’s waist was tightened with a short corset and an hourglass model was created. The skirt is bell-shaped and the balloon-shaped sleeves are used high. In 1895 a loose skirt with high-cut blouse or jacket with head sleeves appears. From 1900 women wear a long ‘health corset’, which provided an S-line. The ribs are no longer crushed, but the skeleton is distorted. Some women wear health-care clothing: shapeless ‘bag-style’ dresses without a corset.

The man’s clothing still consists of shirt, jacket, trousers and vest. On official occasions, a tuxedo or (skirt) costume is worn. But more and more the man is dressed in casual informal clothing, such as the suit jacket. The board is high and the man wears a bow tie or tie. The hair is short with a big mustache. On the head a top hat, the homburg (bowler hat), or a grooming hat. At the feet mainly lace-up shoes. For men too, sports clothing is fashionable: striped blazers, shirts, knee trousers and knee socks, and flat straw hats. For driving a thick jacket with goggles and cap.

Women’s fashions
Fashionable women’s clothing styles shed some of the extravagances of previous decades (so that skirts were neither crinolined as in the 1850s, nor protrudingly bustled in back as in the late 1860s and mid-1880s, nor tight as in the late 1870s), but corseting continued unmitigated, or even slightly increased in severity. Early 1890s dresses consisted of a tight bodice with the skirt gathered at the waist and falling more naturally over the hips and undergarments than in previous years.

The mid-1890s introduced leg o’mutton sleeves, which grew in size each year until they disappeared in about 1906. During the same period of the mid-1890s, skirts took on an A-line silhouette that was almost bell-like. The late 1890s returned to the tighter sleeves often with small puffs or ruffles capping the shoulder but fitted to the wrist. Skirts took on a trumpet shape, fitting more closely over the hip and flaring just above the knee. Corsets in the 1890s helped define the hourglass figure as immortalized by artist Charles Dana Gibson. In the very late 1890s, the corset elongated, giving the women a slight S-bend silhouette that would be popular well into the Edwardian era.

The hat is the capeline adorned with feathers or ribbons.
The coat is worn very long, crossed with a double row of buttons on a jacket- fitted jacket with puffed sleeves at the top and tightened by long gloves at the bottom.
The satin often decorated with velvet and sequins are on the way.
The bodice is gathered on the bust or with a plastron and the sleeves are puffy.
The braceletand velvet necklace or assorted ribbons are the essential accessories; necklaces of this kind are called choker.
In front of the boom of the bicycle, other elements of the suit appear: the short pants and gathered at the knees, it is worn with leggings or stockings and a bodice with a scoop neck and puffed sleeves. It is possible to add a short skirt on the pants or even a skirt. The whole with a jacket-jacket floating wide-lapel worn with or without a fluffy tie which already foreshadows the tailor.

Dress
By 1890, the crinoline and bustle was fully abandoned, and skirts flared away naturally from the wearer’s tiny waist. It evolved into a bell shape, and were made to fit tighter around the hip area. Necklines were high, while sleeves of bodices initially peaked at the shoulders, but increased in size during 1894. Although the large sleeves required cushions to secure them in place, it narrowed down towards the end of the decade. Women thus adopted the style of the tailored jacket, which improved their posture and confidence, while reflecting the standards of early female liberation.

Sportswear and tailored fashions
Changing attitudes about acceptable activities for women also made sportswear popular for women, with such notable examples as the bicycling dress and the tennis dress.

Unfussy, tailored clothes, adapted from the earlier theme of men’s tailoring and simplicity of form, were worn for outdoor activities and traveling. The shirtwaist, a costume with a bodice or waist tailored like a man’s shirt with a high collar, was adopted for informal daywear and became the uniform of working women. Walking suits featured ankle-length skirts with matching jackets. The notion of “rational dress” for women’s health was a widely discussed topic in 1891, which led to the development of sports dress. This included ample skirts with a belted blouse for hockey. In addition, cycling became very popular and led to the development of “cycling costumes”, which were shorter skirts or “bloomers” which were Turkish trouser style outfits. By the 1890s, women bicyclists increasingly wore bloomers in public and in the company of men as well as other women. Bloomers seem to have been more commonly worn in Paris than in England or the United States and became quite popular and fashionable. In the United States, bloomers were more intended for exercise than fashion. The rise of American women’s college sports in the 1890s created a need for more unencumbered movement than exercise skirts would allow. By the end of the decade, most colleges that admitted women had women’s basketball teams, all outfitted in bloomers. Across the nation’s campuses, baggy bloomers were paired with blouses to create the first women’s gym uniforms.

The rainy daisy was a style of walking or sports skirt introduced during this decade, allegedly named after Daisy Miller, but also named for its practicality in wet weather, as the shorter hemlines did not soak up puddles of water. They were particularly useful for cycling, walking or sporting pursuits as the shorter hems were less likely to catch in the bicycle mechanisms or underfoot, and enabled freer movement.

Swimwear was also developed, usually made of navy blue wool with a long tunic over full knickers.

Afternoon dresses typical of the time period had high necks, wasp waists, puffed sleeves and bell-shaped skirts. Evening gowns had a squared decolletage, a wasp-waist cut and skirts with long trains.

Influence of aesthetic dress
The 1890s in both Europe and North America saw growing acceptance of artistic or aesthetic dress as mainstream fashion influenced by the philosophies of John Ruskin and William Morris. This was especially seen in the adoption of the uncorseted tea gown for at-home wear. In the United States during this period, Dress, the Jenness Miller Magazine (1887–1898), reported that tea gowns were being worn outside the home for the first time in fashionable summer resorts.

Hairstyles and headgear
Hairstyles at the start of the decade were simply a carry-over from the 1880s styles that included curled or frizzled bangs over the forehead as well as hair swept to the top of the head, but after 1892, hairstyles became increasingly influenced by the Gibson Girl. By the mid-1890s, hair had become looser and wavier and bangs gradually faded from high fashion. By the end of the decade, hair was often worn in a large mass with a bun at the top of the head, a style that would be predominant during the first decade of the 20th century.

Shoes
High tab front shoes with a large buckle had made a comeback in the 1870s and were again revived in the 1890s. This popular style of shoe had a few names such as “Cromwell,” “Colonial,” and “Molière”. At this time materials such as suede, leather, lace and metal were used to fashion the shoe and decorate it. Suede was new to the market in 1890 and was available in a few pale shades.

Athletic wear
The shift toward functional fashion also affected women’s athletic wear. Women in Paris began wearing bloomers when bicycling as early as 1893, while in England lower bicycle frames accommodated the dresses that women continued to wear for bicycling. Long floor length dresses gradually gave way to shorter hemlines and a more casual style of athletic clothing. Similarly, bathing suits also became shorter and less covered — yet another example of the beginnings of a shift in dress toward greater freedom and functionality.

Style gallery

1-1895

2-1892

3 – 1893

4 – 1897

5 – 1898

1.Standing woman in a white dress with leg o’mutton sleeves. By René Schützenberger, 1895.
2.Praskovia Tchaokovskaia wears a high-necked afternoon dress with puffed elbow-length sleeves and a fabric belt or sash, Russia, 1890–92.
3.City or traveling suit has full upper sleeves and back fullness in the skirt.
4.Catherine Vlasto wears a white dress with puffed elbow-length sleeves and ribbon bows. Her hair is parted in the center and poufed casually at her temples, 1897.
5.Dress of 1898 shows a short, wide puff at the shoulder over a long, tight sleeve.

Men’s fashion
The overall silhouette of the 1890s was long, lean, and athletic. Hair was generally worn short, often with a pointed beard and generous moustache.

Coats, jackets, and trousers
By the 1890s, the sack coat (UK lounge coat) was fast replacing the frock coat for most informal and semi-formal occasions. Three-piece suits (“ditto suits”) consisting of a sack coat with matching waistcoat (U.S. vest) and trousers were worn, as were matching coat and waistcoat with contrasting trousers. Contrasting waistcoats were popular, and could be made with or without collars and lapels. The usual style was single-breasted.

The blazer, a navy blue or brightly colored or striped flannel coat cut like a sack coat with patch pockets and brass buttons, was worn for sports, sailing, and other casual activities.

The Norfolk jacket remained fashionable for shooting and rugged outdoor pursuits. It was made of sturdy tweed or similar fabric and featured paired box pleats over the chest and back, with a fabric belt. Worn with matching breeches (or U.S. knickerbockers), it became the Norfolk suit, suitable for bicycling or golf with knee-length stockings and low shoes, or for hunting with sturdy boots or shoes with leather gaiters.

The cutaway morning coat was still worn for formal day occasions in Europe and major cities elsewhere.

The most formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers with a dark or light waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with a winged collar.

The less formal dinner jacket or tuxedo, which featured a shawl collar with silk or satin facings, now generally had a single button. Dinner jackets were appropriate formal wear when “dressing for dinner” at home or at a men’s club. The dinner jacket was worn with a white shirt and a dark tie.

Knee-length topcoats, often with contrasting velvet or fur collars, and calf-length overcoats were worn in winter.

Shirts and neckties
Shirt collars were turned over or pressed into “wings”, and became taller through the decade. Dress shirts had stiff fronts, sometimes decorated with shirt studs and buttoned up the back. Striped shirts were popular for informal occasions.

The usual necktie was a four-in-hand or an Ascot tie, made up as a neckband with wide wings attached and worn with a stickpin, but the 1890s also saw the return of the bow tie (in various proportions) for day dress.

Accessories
As earlier in the century, top hats remained a requirement for upper class formal wear; bowlers and soft felt hats in a variety of shapes were worn for more casual occasions, and flat straw boaters were worn for yachting and at the seashore.

Style gallery

1-1890

2 –  1890

3 – 1895

4 – 1896

5 – 1898

1.Early 1890s fashion includes gray coat with covered buttons and matching waistcoat, dark trousers, short turnover shirt collar, and floppy bow tie. The short hair and pointed beard are typical. Portrait of Paul Wayland Bartlett by Pearce, 1890
2.Painter John Singer Sargent in formal evening dress, 1890.
3.Frederick Law Olmsted wears a tan topcoat over a gray suit, 1895.
4.George du Maurier wears a double-breasted waistcoat with a shawl collar under his sack coat, with grey trousers. He wears square-toed shoes with spats, 1896.
5.Country clothes: James Tissot wears breeches and high boots with a reddish collared waistcoat and a brown coat. Even with this casual outdoor costume, he wears a tie, 1898.

Children’s fashion

1-1892

2-1896

3-1897

4-1897

1.Girl with jump rope, 1892
2.Girls, 1896
3.Girls’ fashions, 1897
4.Girls, 1897

Working clothes

1-1891

2-1892

3-1894

4-1894

1.Cowboys in Texas, 1891
2.Maid, 1892
3.Townswoman and fisherwoman, 1894
4.Rector and drinker, 1894

Source from Wikipedia