The beginning of the 20th century brought a tremendous influx of immigrants, new businesses and technologies, and substantial economic growth throughout America. One result of these changes was a profound influence on women’s fashion.
Paris and London set the fashion trends American women followed, if they could afford to do so, and these trends were tied to the tastes of the upper classes in France and Britain. In America, the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Roosevelts, copied the looks of European aristocracy. In turn, rich American women were copied by middle class women. In this way, Paris and London influenced the dominant look of American women, even though European designers did not directly design for the masses.
For a brief time in women’s fashion history, women wore expensive, elaborate, ultra-feminine dresses that produced the fashionable S-shaped silhouette. A good description of this look was given in a women’s fashion magazine of 1910:
“Based on the figure of the mature and well-built woman, the S-shaped silhouette is comprised of a bell-shaped skirt draped over taffeta petticoats; a small bustle gathering a train; and a lacy cotton or linen corset with whalebone stays that produced a clinched, wasp-like waist and flat stomach while exaggerating the size of the bust and hips.”
The bust was further emphasized by a blouse decorated with frills, braids, and laces. The S shape created an unnatural bend in the back that tilted the woman’s upper body forward. In addition, a high, stiff collar drew the head slightly upward. A wide-brimmed hat was worn forward on the head to balance the S shape. Leather boots fastened with buttons, or pointed suede shoes with low heels, completed the fashionable woman’s look.
The S silhouette required much time and effort. First, the woman put on a chemise or vest of fine linen, silk, or muslin. Then, with help, she put on the corset, which laced at the back. (Women’s fashion history has had its cruel side. Many women experienced painful health issues which resulted from pulling these corsets too tightly).
Then came the petticoats. These rivaled the dress in detail and decorations and were hemmed with ruffles that rustled as a woman moved. After this daily ritual the woman was finally ready for her dress.
As the decade wore on, skirts narrowed and rose slightly (to the ankle), changing the undergarments. To produce a narrower hipline, corsets no longer reached above the waist but moved down over the hips. This change required a more flexible structure, using lighter and smaller stays. Ruffled petticoats were replaced by closer fitting slips.
No fashionable woman left her house without a hat in the early 1900s. During this period, women’s small hats were lavishly trimmed with feathers, flowers, preserved birds, lace, ribbons, and buckles. As the decade progressed, women’s hats increased in size, became still more lavishly trimmed, and were worn tilted forward or to one side with a face veil.
Most women—the rich were the exception—made their own clothes, following standardized patterns. Professional dressmakers used the same patterns, or else they made dresses to order by copying European originals. The foundations for what would become America’s ready-to-wear clothing industry were set in this decade. Eastern European tailors applied their skills and made New York the center of the clothing industry in America.
The American contribution to women’s fashion history was ready-to-wear clothing. This innovation produced the shirtwaist, a blouse designed to be worn with a skirt. Paris looked down on the shirtwaist, which first appeared in the late nineteenth century. But American working women took to the garment with more intense demand than any other garment in women’s fashion history.
Sears, Roebuck catalogue offered 150 variations of it, priced from 39¢ to $6.95. In 1907 a peek-a-boo shirtwaist shocked many conservatives with its eyelet embroidery, which allowed the flesh of the arm to show. By 1910 the national production of shirtwaists was a big business. New York City alone turned out $60 million worth.
The main advantage of the shirtwaist was its suitability to the active lives most women were leading. Designers used the shirtwaist to offer women a more comfortable range of skirts. American women might want to follow European high-fashion trends in the evening, but for the rigors of everyday life they wanted a look that was stylish as well as functional.
The shirtwaist rapidly became the symbol of a new generation of working women. These young women (called “pink-collar” workers) managed the growing paperwork generated by American businesses. There had been increasing demand for office work since the invention of the typewriter in 1870.
In addition, a woman could earn ten dollars or more a week in an office – twice what she could make in a clothing sweatshop. And finally, these young women enjoyed a heterosexual social setting outside the supervision of the family. Single secretaries and typists became the age’s newest glamour girls, the heroines of serial stories in romance novels.