"Whatever has been said about the shirt and blouse going out of fashion, it seems to have been a very long-previous announcement; for none of the best tailors or dressmakers will allow that it is true. The summer blouses are models of beauty in muslin and silk."
"My Clothes Month to Month" in The Girl's Own Paper, April 28th 1900
The new century began where the old one left off: with the blouse as popular as ever, but with fashion pundits predicting its demise. Need I say that it remained extremely popular well past the end of the decade?
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| McCall's Magazine, September 1900 |
Ladies' French Shirt Waist, No. 6153—This stylish novelty is especially intended for combinations of lace and ribbon, striped or tucked materials. Our model is of light blue satin ribbon and yellow lace insertion. The pattern is cut with seamless shoulders, the back and front being in one piece, seamed under the arms, thus making the stripes bias in front and almost straight in the back. The closing is formed under a narrow box-pleat of lace insertion. The front fulness is pleated into the waist line. The sleeves are in dress style and are trimmed at the wrists by jaunty flaring cuffs of the material.
As in the previous decade, women's blouses followed the lines of fashionable bodices. In the 1900s, women's shapes were largely defined by the modish 'S bend' corsets worn under their outer clothing: so-called because it thrust the wearer's bosom forwards while projecting their rears backwards. (A fashionable woman in profile sometimes looked as if her top and bottom halves had been pushed out of alignment.) Blouses were usually made with the fabric most full at the front in the form of tucks, gathers and pleats exaggerating the pouter pigeon effect.
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| McCall's Magazine, March 1901 |
Ladies' Shirt Waist No. 6466. Lace insertioned white lawn was used for this remarkably pretty and smart summer shirt waist. The front has its slight fulness gathered into the neck on either side of the narrow box-plait through which the closing is formed... Lawn, chambray, gingham, all-over lace or insertion, tucked materials, swiss, piqué, linen, silk or flannel are all appropriate fabrics for the development of this design.
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| Delineator, May 1903 |
6786—Ladies' Shirt-Waist or Shirt-Blouse. Stole effects are undoubtedly the most popular of the season's fancies. A smart example of the present modes is depicted... constructed in white piqué and contrasted with pipings of blue linen...
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| Delineator, May 1903 |
6838—Ladies' Tucked Shirt-Waist or Shirt-Blouse. Dainty new designs in shirt-blouses are constantly appearing, and the one pictured... will prove especially becoming to slender figures. White organdy was the material selected in this instance, and appliqué was used as the trimming... A body lining in four pieces may be used or not, and a crush ribbon belt is worn.
While the general silhouette didn't change much in the 1900s, the details of garments did. Fashion went to the sleeves, which evolved each season. The decade started with them worn long and tight to the wrist. By 1902 the fashion had changed to bishop sleeves: full on the lower arms, but still gathered in at the wrist. In 1905 styles in sleeves changed yet again, with the fullness shifting to the top of the arm, rather like the leg o'mutton sleeves of the previous decade. It was in the second half of the 1900s that we first saw half and three-quarter length sleeves become fashionable for daytime wear. By 1909 fashion had almost turned full-circle with sleeves being close-fitting once more—although shorter sleeves were still worn in the warmer months.
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| Delineator, September 1905 |
Cross-stitch embroidery and a polka-dotted silk girdle are pleasing details of this shirt-waist, no. 8634, of blood-red chiffon taffeta.
A touch of lace in the form of a chemisette-tucker adds to the attractiveness of this waist, no. 8687, of gray louisine shot with green.
This pretty waist, no. 8602, of ivory lansdowne, is simply decorated with a design of hand embroidery and bands and a belt of green velvet.
As a rule, blouses in the first decade of the twentieth century were very feminine, and very, very elaborate. Even the plainest seemed to be decorated by tucks or a stitch or two of embroidery.
"Starting in the late nineteenth century as a severe shirt blouse... the blouse became a fantasy of lace and embroidery, varying from a costly hand-made creation from a top dressmaker to a home-made effort produced with infinite patient labour. Lady Diana Cooper recalls a German governess of her childhood who spent all her spare time sewing: 'She worked only at a shell pink blouse for herself with lace insertions, all the two years she was with us, and at making pink flannel nightdresses.'"
Elizabeth Ewing, History of 20th Century Fashion
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| Delineator, August 1906 |
9452—Ladies' Shirt-waist, with the Fronts Gathered to a Pointed Yoke and Shirt and Shirt Sleeves or Shorter Bishop Sleeves, with or without the Box-Plait or Body Lining.
Odd shapes in the yokes or originality of trimming is the ruling motive in the newest lingerie shirt-waists; and a yoke in fancy outline in the one here shown in a development of foulard with the yoke of Val and Cluny lace, and also in linen with a tailor finish.
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| McCall's Magazine, June 1907 |
No. 1500—This pretty shirt waist is made with a fancy tucked front fastening up the center through a box-pleat of material... Our model is of pale-blue linen with trimmings of allover embroidery and an edging of narrow lace on the cuffs...
No. 1506—White linen made this smart shirt waist, but almost any other wash material, silk or flannel can be used instead if desired. The front is tucked in a broad box-pleat effect down the center and tucked again in box-pleat style on each side of this...
No. 1511—Allover eyelet embroidery made this pretty waist, but the pattern is also suited to taffeta, foulard, tussah silk, pongee, linen, chambray, madras, etc...
No. 1526—This is a very pretty style for a dressy waist of silk, lace, net, voile or other light woolen fabrics. It is made with two deep tucks on each side, the outer one trimmed with a Marie Antoinette frill of lace...
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| McCall's Magazine, April 1908 |
1608—Ladies' Waist. This charming spring and summer waist is made of messaline in a pretty shade of lavender.
1551—Ladies' Shirt Waist. A very novel and pretty waist, tucked in surplice effect, is here shown.
1585—Ladies' Blouse Waist
1784—Ladies' Shirt Waist
1555—Ladies' Over-Blouse with Guimpe. This waist consists of an over-blouse of silk or light woolen, worn over a guimpe of lingerie material.
1593—Ladies' Blouse Waist. Silk was used for making this waist, but the pattern is just as appropriate for lingerie materials.
1176—Ladies' Waist. This stylish waist has a guimpe of of pale-blue China silk and an attractive jumper portion of allover lace...
1773—Ladies' Waist.
If you lacked the skill to sew these elaborately decorated blouses, or the money to employ a dressmaker to do it for you, then help was at hand. Ready-to-wear versions were available, at surprisingly low cost.
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| Bellas Hess catalog, Spring-Summer 1909 |
No. 2x110—Dainty Lingerie Waist, made with three-quarter length sleeves, elaborately designed with pointed insertions and front panel of Baby Irish lace... the pointed yoke has 44 pin tucks.
No. 2x111—Fine Soft Lingerie Waist, made of an extra sheer quality of lingerie, daintily designed, as illustration shows, with insertions of fine Valenciennes lace.
No. 2x112—Our Special Allover Embroidered Waist, with three-quarter length sleeves.
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| Delineator, June 1909 |
3055—Developed in white poplin. Now that the slender woman is having her day, the woman who has a tendency toward stoutness should be doubly careful in the selection of her clothes. A shirt-waist designed especially for stout women is shown in No. 3085, and may be made as a separate waist or attached to a skirt in semi-princess style.
3102—Realized in a thin batiste. A very simple blouse-waist is shown in No. 3102, which is especially well adapted to development in the fancy materials, as cotton crépe and net, as well as in the plainer fabrics, as lawn and batiste. The net waist might be very attractively trimmed with soutache braid, while in the other materials it would be very pretty trimmed with swiss insertion or plain bands embroidered in a color to harmonize with the skirt.
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| Philipsborn catalog, Fall-Winter 1909-10 |
1225—Charming Waist of Good Quality White or Ecru Brussels Net over self-colored China silk lining.
1226—Beautifully Tailored Nun's Veiling Waist in White, Navy Blue, Nile Green or Black.Tucking and strapping combined with satin piping...
1227—Shantung "Three in One" Waist of Good Quality Black, Navy, Blue, Light Blue, Nile Green or White Nun's Veiling. The idea of this waist is it can be worn in three different fashions.
1228—Fine Quality Taffeta Silk Waist in Black Only.
1229—This Very Fashionable Tailored Waist is Made of Best Quality White, Black, Navy Blue or Nile Green Nun's Veiling.
1230—Very handsome White French Batiste Waist, richly embellished with coronation embroidery done by hand and stylish crochet buttons.
However, the production of cheap ready-to-wear blouses came at a cost—mostly to the women and girls who made them:
...."'[M]any blouses of handsome material and of excellent workmanship are made... by girls who are paid considerably less than 10s. a week. A silk blouse was shown to one of us for the making of which 10d. had been paid. Back and front were composed entirely of small tucks and insertions of lace. The worker, a skilled young woman, could not make two such blouses in a day.'"
Quoted in: Elizabeth Ewing, History of 20th Century Fashion
And so we leave the 1900s blouse. Next stop the 1910s, when war and social change turned the world of fashion upside-down.
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