1930-1939 The return of Elegance

The Wall Street Crash brought bankruptcies and mass unemployment. 

In 1932 over 10 million people had no food or wages in America, 

in Germany was 6 million people and in England 3 million. 

There were 10.000 unemployed in the French fashion houses. 

Those who managed to rescue their fortune did not show it off, 

at least not publicly. Everything from dress to interior

 design was discriminating taste and value but as 

society photographer Cecil Beaton noted

'No more showing off as in the 1920s, all that had been cancelled'.

Art Deco and Cubism had fostered a preference for geometric lines, 

while revolutionary architects such as Le Corbusier and influential 

designers such as Jean-Michel Frank brought home decor up to 

date and awakened a sense for the functional.

Women needed to have figure to complement the 

dress because the new bias cut dresses

were becoming a staple.

 Women had a great range of clothes: tailored suit which came 

just below the knee or slim cut

dress with wide shoulder and a belted waist.

 

The evening wear was either a bias cut style dress or style 

bodice from 1900 with Belle Epoque

- style bodices, bustles and sweeping skirts.

 The shoulders grew larger in 1933 and changed into

 the 'leg of mutton' and butterfly sleeves.

The sleek black tailored evening suit was the most

modern choice.

 

The look of the decade

 In 1930 the ideal of beauty was quite straightforward.

Women should be slim but in a feminine rather than boyish way.

- Sporty, suntanned, natural and well groomed. 

Women found out that the real  beauty comes from within, and so she set 

great store by living close to nature, with healthy food and plenty of outdoor activity... 

(If possible without any clothes on at all).

Germaine Monteil - one of the greatest 

women in the world of cosmetics. In 1930 she pointed out 

the importance of skin care, nutrition and physical fitness to 

the complexion addition to good make up.


World War II 1939

 

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The look of the decade

Carla and Eleanor - famous G sisters from Berlin.

The bobbed hair cut, eyebrow  were rigorously plucked and pencilled in as black lines with turned down ends. Brunettes used black and brown shadow, blondes preferred green or blue.  They used kohl to make large almond-shaped eyes of unfathomable depth.

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1920-1929

Jazz and the Charleston

- Bobbed hairs cuts and red lips, free love and cigarettes, birth control and short skirts... And the end of it all the Great Depression.

 'Flapper Girl'

 A young woman, especially one in the 1920s, who showed disdain for conventional dress and behavior." That is, conventional in the 1920s. The style came around after the first world war, and women were tired of trying to conform to society's idea of normal - women were gaining more independence (e.g. being given the right to vote).

 Young Men

Young men were drank cocktails, wore casual clothes - sports clothing was suddenly a big fashion statement. Men who had money - had fast cars.

Hollywood

 Women Young women strived to emulate the looks of movie stars 

Theda Bara                   Pola Negri

 

Together launched a fashion for eye make-up

Menswear 

 Oxford bags - grey flannel trousers. 

Teamed with casual blazers to form basic lounge suits.

Gigolos

The gentleman's  English look was called 'Gigolos'.

Dark young men with a South American Background and slicked back hair. Pressed trousers and immaculate tails.

Tea V Cocktails

 The cocktail dresses began to appear in the Pairs collection - young girls favoured cocktails over the tea...

 Curves Banished

Fashion for a boyish figure - the end of the corset.

Mass Market Production

The new style of dressing became available to everyone!

Fashion had make a step forward into classless world.

Exposure

Women wore a sleeveless sweater on the tennis courts designed by  Jean Patou. Women made a connection between fashion and sport.


The little black dress

Black - Christian Lacroix

Channel produced feminine little black dress which became famous and wardrobe essential.

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The look of the decade

During the course of this decade women managed to personify three different ideal types: the little girl, the self-sacrificing Madonna and the exotic vamp.

 Lillian Gish 'Sweet little girl'.

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1910-1919

Ballets Russes

Ballets Russes ("Russian Ballet") -created in 1909 by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, originally housed in the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, then in Monte Carlo. Worked for Diaghilev's death in 1929. Stars of the team were: Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Mathilde Krzesińska.

Inthe repertoire the group was based on the synthesis of the arts: classical dance, painting (set design), poetry / novel (libretto). Changes introduced: choreographers - Mikhail Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky then (creator of ballets choreographed to "Afternoon of a Faun", "Games") and his sister, Bronislaw (ballet "The Wedding"), set designers - Leon Bakst ("Scheherazade," "Afternoon of a Faun" , "The Spirit of the Rose"), Alexander Benois ("Pavilion of Armida"), Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso ("cocked hat").

1911 New Silhouette

 The tea dress start to be a evening dress. - Empire line – straight vertical lines, high waist.

Poiret became very famous and the most exiting couturier the First World War.

Between 1900 and 1914 many women adapted Piorets “hobble skirt”

This slim silhouette was complimented by oversized hats

 

 

 

 World War I 

 

World War I - an armed conflict lasting from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 (in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century called the great war) between the Entente, which included the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Serbia, Japan, Italy (since 1915) , United States (since 1917) and the Central Powers: Austria-Hungary and Germany, supported by Turkey and Bulgaria.

The effects of war began to effect high society

People no longer made financial outlay for luxury couture

Many male couturiers signed up for service

Leaving women in charge.

 Fashionable clothes were still created and sold but it did not seem right to appear in the on the street. A skirt and pullover seemed more appropriate.

Channel did very well with her jersey suits which suited the times perfectly. After the Deauvielle she opened a boutique in Biarritz and refuges from Paris who arrived at the seaside resorts 'with nothing', queued for the modest new outfits, which were worn without any jewellery or decoration...

 After the War

Women didn't wanted to give up their freedom which the war had forced on them. Morals had changed and so had clothes: both had become looser. 

 

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Idols of the decade

Sarah Bernhardt

Isadora Duncan

Mata Hari

Eleonora Duse

Claire Waldoff

Elsie De Wolfe

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Victorian / Edwardian

 VICTORIAN ERA

The history of United Kingdom under the reign of QueenVictoria Hanover. The Queen was in power in the years 1837-1901. It was one of the longest uninterrupted reign of one monarch periods in modern history.

There was stability in the country and growing prosperity, and the United Kingdom became the largest world power. George Stephenson's locomotive and the steam engine by James Watt is a symbol of contemporary Britain. There was the famous strict morality, proclaiming the need to hide or even suffocate the feelings, which protested against such Charles Dickens. Victorians force many social conventions to which they had to adapt. The ideal woman is a model Victorian "angel in the house" - a woman both beautiful and resourceful, hard-working, responsible, being the guardian of home heat and morality. There was a fallen woman model  devoid of a sense of morality. This is a woman who has lost in the scandal of the flesh (in the era of highly developed Victorian prostitution).

 EDWARDIAN

After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 , Edward been the leader of a fashionable elite  that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of Continetal Europe.

The Edwardian period is sometimes extended beyond Edward's death in 1910 to include the years up to the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the start of World War I in 1914, the end of hostilities with Germany in 1918, or the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

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