La Belle Epoque La Belle Epoque Fashion
Shapeshifting fashion
The period of around the 1870s to 1910s was one of relative peace and prosperity in Western Europe and has oft been referred to as La Belle Époque - "the beautiful era." Due in role to the industrialisation of textile manufacturing, female fashions during this time changed more rapidly and dramatically than had ever been seen before. This is particularly obvious when we look at the wildly different shapes the female grade was expected to metamorphosize into from one decade to the adjacent.Two superb recent gifts to the collection, a wedding gown from 1896, and a 1911 court presentation ensemble, epitomise the drastically different silhouettes the age produced, and bear witness but how belle the beautiful era could indeed be.
Ever decreasing circles
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Hustle bustle
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Keeping warm
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The shelf bustle
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The hourglass
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Leg of mutton sleeves
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The 'South' bend
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The new figure
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From curves to classical lines
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The 'Delphos' dress
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The 'Hobble' dress
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Material and form
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Fit for a queen
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Ever decreasing circles
The late 1860s to early 1870s was an important transitional period for women's fashion. The bell-like shape created past the hooped crinoline of previous decades was gently deflating, and the emphasis started to shift towards enhancing the posterior. This was the kickoff of the infamous bustle!
Fifty-fifty though this dress hints at a new silhouette in fashion, it is likewise very reminiscent of the 18th century with its depression square neckline, three quarter length sleeves and liberal lace trimmings.
Hustle bustle
Bustles were padded or wire structures that were worn tied around the dorsum waist. Their effect was to lift and thrust the back of skirts outwards. In the early on 1880s bustles were relatively modest, just would shortly become more than exaggerated before disappearing almost entirely past the end of the decade.
The longline bodice of this wearing apparel fits sveltely in a clean line at the front, and the draped panniers over the hips make the waist appear very slender. This long line bodice was chosen a 'curaiss' bodice, equally it appeared similar to armour.
This dress has several of the most fashionable features of the 1880s including extensive employ of pleating, including box pleats and rows of knife pleats around the lesser of the skirt.
Details inspired by menswear and military uniforms were also very popular. The forepart and back of the skirt both characteristic military mode braiding and knotting.
Keeping warm
Dolmans were fashionable from the mid to late 1880s, and were designed to be worn over dresses with big bustles. Their total sleeves and one-half-length cut meant that they were less cumbersome than coats, and could hands exist worn over bulky gowns. This dolman is made from heavy wool, velvet and gold thread - ideal for autumn and winter months.
The shelf bustle
Dress with dinner bodice and detachable railroad train. 1885 circaSilk with metallic iridescent beading and lace trim. Unknown maker. Irish. Donated 1984 by Mrs J.Due east. Off-white. BELUM.T2260
The mid to tardily 1880s were the last and well-nigh exaggerated stage of the bustle phenomenon. This style was often referred to as the "shelf bustle" as it stuck straight out from the small of the wearer'southward back at a 90 caste angle.
At that place is also a hook-on railroad train, which made the outfit more formal for evening article of clothing.
This ensemble was part of the trousseau of a Donegal woman. The back brim has in-built hoops which give a bustle shape, and a separate wire bustle, tied on at the waist, would also have been worn. It has two matching bodices, i a dinner bodice, with elbow length sleeves and low foursquare neck, the other a day bodice with long sleeves and high cervix.
The bustle trend died down by the belatedly 1880s, to the relief of some.
Hourglass
Day wearing apparel. 1890s. Watered silk with Composition lace. Irvine and Co., Londonderry Ltd. Irish. Purchased 1996. BELUM.T4017
As the bustle began to disappear from manner at the end of the 1880s, the shape of the skirt changed again. It became wider at the bottom hem, whilst on the top half of the body, the shoulders gradually ballooned. The overall effect was to create a silhouette like to 2 triangles balanced on top of each other with the narrowest points meeting.
Embellishments, such as the sequin beading and Limerick lace details that decorate the bodice of this ensemble, migrated towards the upper half of the body, allowing the line of the skirt to remain simple and sweeping.
Leg of mutton sleeves
Quarter Mourning Dress. 1893-1894. Silk with lace collar and cuffs. Jays of London. English. Purchased in 1985. BELUM.T2611
The wide sleeves of this dress are an example of the "gigot" or leg-of-mutton style sleeve that was popular during the 1890s. The exaggerated shoulder line was enhanced by the tightness of the lower half of the fitted sleeves. The volume at the upper half of the torso is echoed by the width of the skirt at the bottom, making an already corseted waist announced wasp-like by comparison.
The 'Southward' curve
A swan similar silhouette developed towards the end of the nineteenth century and lasted until the early 1910s – the 'S' bend. This graceful shape was achieved by a new corset that caused the wearer to tilt her hips backwards, arching the back and pushing the breast forward.
Even the very superlative of the spine was reshaped during this era equally the high-necked bodices were now stiffened with whalebone to go on the caput back and the chin out.
Despite the control and constriction beneath the surface, the overall effect was flowing and feminine. This was further enhanced by the use of lite, airy fabrics such as the soft pink silk trimmed with lace seen here.
The new effigy
During the early on 1900s skirts were cut long and directly in front and flowing at the back, both for day and evening wear. Dress reformists, all the same, campaigned for clothes trains to be abolished, believing them to exist partially responsible for the spread of dirt, grit, and therefore, disease.
The bodice of this dress has rectangular neck insert that accentuates the fashionably low hanging "mono-bust" effect caused by the 'S' bend corset.
From curves to classical lines
The S-curve corset remained until under-bust, hip-length styles emerged around 1908, smoothing and streamlining the lower abdomen and hips in accordance with the resurgence of the "Empire line" silhouette and classical Greek trends in mode.
The raised waist of this satin evening gown is in the Empire style, modelled after dress of the Empire menstruation in France (1804-1814). Empire fashion was itself based on the dress of ancient Greece, in which women'southward unstructured garments were banded under the bust with an adjustable cord. In this Liberty & Co. evening gown, the criss-cross bands hint at this characteristic of ancient dress.
The 'Delphos' dress
In 1909 the creative person and manner designer Mariano Fortuny registered the invention of his 'Delphos' dress in Paris. The Delphos is a column of finely pleated fabric that draws its shape from the Greek chiton. Like the aboriginal chiton, the Fortuny Delphos could be either stitched or buttoned forth the shoulder line.
This design proved very popular within advanced artistic circles when it get-go appeared, but simply as "calm" habiliment. It would not be until the 1920s that women would venture out in public in Fortuny'due south daringly unstructured gowns.
The 'Hobble' clothes
This day apparel has the narrowed skirts which developed into the narrow 'hobble' style first introduced in 1910. The hobble brim was so named because it was cutting very closely to the ankles and in its most stylish class made walking hard. A silk insertion at the hem of this apparel aids freedom of motion. The French knots seen this otherwise plain dress were extremely popular at the fourth dimension and are seen on many contemporary dresses.
Material and grade
2 recent donations to the collection, this wedding dress and a court apparel ensemble, illustrate perfectly the huge change in the fashionable female person silhouette between the 1890s to the 1910s. What is more extraordinary is that they both belonged to the same woman at different periods in her life.
Even though the way in the 1890s was for highly embellished bodices with lots of trimmings, the principal decorative element of this ensemble is the securely folded pleats around the waistline. The effect is to simply allow the quality of the cloth to speak for itself. This level of care for the material is not surprising as the bride, Elizabeth Balfour Clark, was a fabric heiress whose family endemic the international 'Coats and Clark' thread manufacturing company.
Fit for a queen
This Brussels lace and Irish gaelic crochet dress with split train is ane of two ensembles recently gifted to the collection that once belonged to Elizabeth Balfour Clark. She wore it when she was presented to Queen Alexandra during the last viceregal upshot held in Dublin Castle in 1911.
In dissimilarity to the stiff silk satin used to make her wedding apparel of 1896 displayed nearby, the combination of flowing lace and crochet fabrics used in this dress creates a soft yet clinging texture that helps to achieve a swan like silhouette.
The dress has a maker's marker reading "Madame Duboc By Special Appointment to HM Queen Alexandra". Madame Léonie Duboc was one of the most sought after and high-quality couturières of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ranked amongst Doeuillet, Maison Laferrier and Worth, and regularly patronised past royalty.
The remarkable cream silk railroad train attaches at the shoulders of the dress and may also have been made past Madame Duboc. Information technology measures iii.five metres long and over 2 metres broad, which was in line with courtroom presentation dress protocol at the time.
A delicate layer of net overlays the train, which is busy with elaborate beading and floral motifs. The swirling patterns of the bead work are reminiscent of the Art Nouveau move which gloried in convoluted patterns inspired past the natural globe.
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