Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
The Edwardian era spans the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910, and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 ended the Victorian era, and Edward, already leader of a fashionable elite influenced by continental Europe, encouraged a more leisured style of life in which upper-class sports demanded more mobile and flexible clothing. Women still wore a very tight corset and long skirts — the Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life — but the period also created the tea gown, made lace a wardrobe essential, favoured tailored suits, and ended with hats growing larger and heavier with feathers and plumes.
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910, and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victorian era. Her son and successor, Edward VII, was already the leader of a fashionable elite that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of continental Europe.
The upper-classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid developments in fashion, as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed. During the Edwardian era, women wore a very tight corset, or bodice, and dressed in long skirts. The Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life. According to Arthur Marwick, the most striking change of all the developments that occurred during the Great War was the modification in women's dress, "for, however far politicians were to put the clocks back in other steeples in the years after the war, no one ever put the lost inches back on the hems of women's skirts".
The 'Tea Gown' was one of the Fashion creations during the Edwardian era and when women starting to stop wearing corsets. More Afternoon and Tea parties were being held and for longer amongst the upper classes, thus the trend of the 'Tea Gown' was created. The Tea Gown was worn to receive guests. The fabric choices are usually sweet pea shades in chiffon, mousse line de sore, tulle with feather boas and lace. Lace was a 'must-have' in the Edwardian wardrobe. It represents femininity and wealth. ‘High and boned collars for the day; plugging off shoulder décolleté for the evening'. The Tea Gown's cut is relatively loose compared to the evening gown. The flow is quite feminine, usually decorated with lace. In which, Irish crochet was the more affordable alternative. Women often wore the tea gown un-corseted in order to create an atmosphere of daring intrigue in the afternoon.
Fashion Accessories During Edwardian Era
Long kid gloves, a flat pancake hat and held laced parasols on hand were always the choice of women's Fashion accessories.
Over time, decorative ornaments became heavier, i.e. the hats, sleeves and hem. By the end of the Edwardian era, the hat is bigger in size, with more decorations like feathers and one or more plumes on top.
Clothing Design During Edwardian Fashion Era
The Edwardians developed new styles in clothing design. While the Victorian Era is associated with large, ankle-length, heavy, dark velvet gowns and bustles for the classes that could afford them, the Edwardian era favored more tightly fitting skirts and dresses made of lightweight fabrics designed for a more active lifestyle.
A few of the Edwardian fashion trends of the era:
Samuel Hynes described the Edwardian era as a "leisurely time when women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not ashamed to live conspicuously, and the sun really never set on the British flag."
You may want to learn more about Victorian fashion and Elizabethan fashion.
Edwardian fashion holds two opposite titles at once. It was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life — women of the period wore a very tight corset or bodice with long skirts — and it was the period that began corsetry's end, through the leisure of the Edwardian elite. Edward VII was already the leader of a fashionable elite that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of continental Europe, and the upper classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid developments in fashion as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed. A corseted silhouette and a sporting life cannot coexist for long, and the tension between them drives the decade's changes: skirts tight at the hips flaring to a trumpet or lily hem, tailored suits growing in popularity after 1900, and by 1913 — just past the reign — necklines dropping to a scandalous V. Historian Arthur Marwick judged that the most striking change of the Great War years was the modification in women's dress, since no one ever put the lost inches back on the hems of women's skirts. The Edwardian era is where those inches began to be negotiable.
The tea gown is the era's most characteristic invention: a dress for receiving guests at the afternoon tea parties that the upper classes held more often and for longer. Its cut was relatively loose compared to an evening gown, its flow feminine, its fabrics sweet pea shades in chiffon, mousseline de soie and tulle worn with feather boas and lace. Lace was a must-have in the Edwardian wardrobe, representing femininity and wealth, with Irish crochet as the more affordable alternative. The social daring was in the dressing rule: women often wore the tea gown un-corseted, creating an atmosphere of daring intrigue in the afternoon. A garment worn without the era's compulsory understructure, in one's own drawing room, before guests — the tea gown was informality as theatre, a loosening performed inside the strictest dress code in modern history. The rule for the rest of the day stayed rigid by contrast: high and boned collars for the day, plunging off-shoulder decollete for the evening.
Edwardian accessories completed the silhouette. Long kid gloves, a flat pancake hat and a laced parasol carried in the hand were the standing choices. The parasol is the telling item: Edwardian parasols were not waterproof, being made of fabric — unlike umbrellas, they were not designed for functionality but as a fashion ornament, protecting a fashionable complexion and signalling leisure. Over the decade the ornaments grew heavier rather than lighter: hats, sleeves and hems all gained decoration, and by the end of the era the hat was bigger, with feathers and one or more plumes on top. Against that decoration stood the era's practical line: the two-piece dress came into vogue, lingerie dresses of soft fabric with ruffles and lace were worn indoors, the hobble skirt appeared as a tight skirt restricting a woman's stride, and tailored jackets — introduced in 1880 and increasingly popular — made the tailored suit a standard by 1900. Samuel Hynes described the Edwardian age as a leisurely time when women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not ashamed to live conspicuously. The fashion record supports him garment by garment: this was display dressing for a leisured class, photographed at the exact moment before war and suffrage changed the life it was designed for.
The Edwardian era is the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910, sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. Its fashion follows from the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901.
The tea gown was a relatively loose dress, usually decorated with lace and worn in sweet pea shades of chiffon or tulle, worn to receive guests at afternoon tea parties. Women often wore it un-corseted, creating an atmosphere of daring informality.
Skirts hung tight at the hips and flared at the hem in a trumpet or lily shape, with decorated hems in 1901. By 1904 they became fuller and less clingy, in 1905 fell in soft folds that flared near the hem, and waistlines rose from 1905 to 1907.