About Fashion Design: 1900's - 1930's Haute Couture Fashion

When we talk about fashion design, we must realise that prior to the time of Charles Frederick Worth, the 'father' of haute couture fashion in the 19th century, largely unknown people were the creators of fashion apparel. They were mainly known then as dressmakers and tailors.

These dressmakers were the ones who inspired style, and they sewed the highly fashionable and elaborately made garments worn at the royal courts.

Being the first real haute couture fashion designer, he opened 'The House of Worth' in 1858, a boutique that dominated Parisian fashion through the second half of the nineteenth century.

About the end of the 19th century, the horizons of the fashion design industry had generally broadened due to the more mobile and independent lifestyle many wealthy women were beginning to adopt, and the practical clothes that were demanded.

Know About Fashion Design Of The 1900's

By the beginning of the 20th century, many haute couture fashion houses hired artists to sketch and paint designs for dresses, gowns and other garments.

These images replaced sample garments previously made in the sewing workrooms of the previous century and were presented to clients who in turn made the orders if they liked the designs of the sketches.

The fashionable outfits worn by the stylish women were strikingly similar to those worn in the heyday of the fashion pioneer Charles Frederick Worth, famous for his haute couture fashion.

The 1900s fashion and style couture magazines began to include sketches and sepia photographs, thus becoming quite influential than in the past. This had a profound effect on public taste.

It's 1910 and the fashionable silhouette is the order. We see softness in haute couture fashion styles. More lithe than in the previous years, dresses can now be worn without any help from the maids. That was a problem that had to be contended with in the 19th century.

The 1st female couturier Jeanne Paquin, a French fashion designer (b 1869 1936), organised the first real fashion show. She designed gowns of quiet sophistication that appealed to women of refined taste, with clients such as the queens of Belgium, Portugal, and Spain.

The days of necessity of dress style was brought upon by the 1st World War because more women had to go out to work. So the clothes demanded were better suited to their new activities. Simple felt hats and turbans replaced the popular headgears of the 1900's fashion era.

Darker and muted colours became the norm because of the increasing number of dead sons, brothers, fathers and husbands, and the general conditions of the times.

By mid decade 1915, the fashionable skirts rose above the ankles, and then further up to mid-calf. At this period, the golden age of French haute couture fashion was one of great change and rapid reformation.

At this time couture clothing began to find new clients in the ranks of film actresses, heiresses and the wives and daughters of wealthy industrialists.

The first world war changed how women were perceived in society because constraints were removed and women experimented more with fashion.

A radical change in haute couture fashion emerged soon after the war. Dresses with long trains gave way to above the knee dresses and pinafores. Showing the knee was the height of fashion. Bouffant coiffures gave way to short bobs, and there was no more need for corsets because women clothing tended towards a 'boyish figure' style.

When we speak about fashion design in the 1920s the flapper dress was the most popular and spoken of. Also referred to as the Charleston, these dresses became popular between 1926 to 1928.

Although, at first, many couturiers were reluctant to adopt the new style, they embraced them whole-heartedly from around the mid-twenties.

Flat chested and waist-less silhouette cuts emerged and aggressive dressing down was mitigated by feather boas, embroidery, and showy accessories.

It is also during this decade that sheer stockings become fashionable. Up to this time, legs had been covered by thick unattractive woollen stockings.

The effects of the great depression sets in slowly by the beginning of the 30's, and fashion stepped down to be more compromising. There had to be a balance between preserving feminism, and re-discovering subtle elegance and sophistication.

Haute Couture fashion became more romantic. Waistlines were restored and the hems started to drop. The bust re-appears and the backless evening attire, and soft slim fitting day dresses, become appreciated.

The female body, slim, toned and athletic, become the vogue, as outdoor activities increased. This new found athleticism stimulated designers and couturiers to begin the manufacture of sportswear, which in essence, was another term for ready-to-wear in the 30's.

In the 1940's because of the war years, thinking about haute couture fashion was being frivolous and was therefore frowned upon.

You had to make do with whatever you had available when it came to fashionable clothes.

And because it was wartimes, uniforms were seen all over the place.

This continued even after the end of the 2nd World War in 1945…………..Read more about fashion design of the 40's to the 60's.

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