1900s in Western fashion

Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles.

A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.

The fashion houses of Paris began to show a new silhouette, with a thicker waist, flatter bust, and narrower hips.

Those that identified with this fashion movement were the type of women that were starting to venture out of maintaining the domestic circle and beginning to pursue higher education, office jobs, and participating in active outdoor sports.

The new and improved fashions allowed for women to swing a tennis racket, whack a golf ball, but the ideas of "proper" feminine attire reduced the progress of more practical sportswear.

Tailored suits with no frills allowed for women maintaining an office job to seem more masculine and blend into the male-dominated environment.

The outfit worn by the typical college girl was a skirt that was usually shorter than current fashion, and a shirtwaist, which is best described as the equivalent of jeans and a T-shirt today.

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.

Wool or tweed suit (clothing) called tailor-mades or (in French) tailleurs featured ankle-length skirts with matching jackets; ladies of fashion wore them with fox furs and huge hats.

Two new styles of headgear which became popular at the turn of the century were the motoring veil for driving and sailor hats worn for tennis matches, bicycling and croquet.

[7] This decade marked the full flowering of Parisian haute couture as the arbiter of styles and silhouettes for women of all classes.

[10] The styles were variously called Merveilleuse, Directoire, and Empire after the fashions of the turn of the nineteenth century, which they resembled in their narrow skirts and raised waistlines.

The new styles featured form-fitting gowns with high or undefined waists, or ankle-length skirts and long tunic-like jackets, and required a different "straight line" corset.

"[11] Huge, broad-brimmed hats were worn in mid-decade, trimmed with masses of feathers and occasionally complete stuffed birds (hummingbirds for those who could afford them), or decorated with ribbons and artificial flowers.

Masses of wavy hair were fashionable, swept up to the top of the head (if necessary, over horsehair pads called "rats") and gathered into a knot.

By the end of the decade, hats had smaller drooping brims that shaded the face and deep crowns, and the overall top-heavy effect remained.

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

The less formal dinner jacket or tuxedo, which featured a shawl collar with silk or satin facings, now generally had a single button.

Fashionable Londoners in front of Harrods , 1909. The trailing skirts which were very tight showing skin and broad-brimmed hats of mid-decade narrower dresses and hats with deep crowns. Men wear top hats with formal morning dress or bowlers with lounge suits.
Young women adopted the tall, stiff collars and narrow neckties worn by men
(advertisement for Arrow shirt collars )
John Singer Sargent's portrait of Miss Eden shows a fashionable full breast, low neckline, and mass of hair, 1905.
Paul Poiret 's new silhouette of 1908 was a radical departure.
Evelyn Nesbit , in this photograph taken in 1901, has some of her wavy hair swept up to the top of her head, with the rest of her hair flowing past her shoulders in curling tendrils.
Broad-brimmed hat with stuffed blue bird, ca 1908.
Cartoon in Punch (1911) compares changes in fashion between 1901 and 1911. "The dowdy voluminous clothes of the earlier date, making the grandmother an old lady and the mother seem plain, had been replaced by much simpler looser wear producing a sense of release for all three females." [ 14 ]
Hugo Reisinger wears a dark suit with a white waistcoat and dotted necktie. He carries the fashionable Homburg hat , 1907, painting by Anders Zorn , 1907