Edwardian

Bridesmaid Dresses…

/ Adam Lid / 2 Comments

Bridesmaid dresses have been a staple of weddings for over 100 years and even today are a fixture for most weddings. For the typical wedding involving two or more bridesmaids, it is standard for the bridesmaids to be wearing dresses of a uniform style and color, thereby providing a canvas for the the bride to show brightly (after all, it is HER day… 🙂 ). However, the bridesmaid dress is often of a style that pleases nobody and in recent years there’s been a lot of resistance to the idea to the point where they’re being dispensed with for some.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, wedding customs evevolved and by the early 1900s, the typical wedding that we know today had taken form to include the distinct bridesmaid dress. Here are some examples:

Wedding Party c. 1900

Judging from the dress and hat styles, this was probably taken sometime around 1910 or so and what’s striking about it is that the bridesmaid dresses s are fairly uniform. While they appear to be of one style and made from the same material, there are variations in the trim on each woman’s skirt.

And here’s a few more from roughly the same time:

Victorian wedding group by lovedaylemon, via Flickr

In this picture, the bride is almost indistinguishable from the bridesmaids except for the hat.

It’s an interesting to see that uniform bridesmaid dresses were a thing a hundred years ago. In future posts, we’ll look a little further back so stay tuned! 🙂

Selections From The FIDM Museum

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W

hile the the 26th Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition at the FIDM Museum was a bit of a disappointment, there were some items in the Museum’s permanent collection that made up for it immensely. One such item was an evening gown designed by Gustave Beer circa 1912 – 1913:

Evening Gown Gustave Beer c. 1912-1913

Gustave Beer, Evening Gown, c. 1912 -1913; FIDM Museum

The gown is constructed from a gold silk charmeuse combined with a jeweled applique floral pattern. The silhouette is the loose Classic Grecian inspired nouveau directoire style with empire waist. In contrast to the tightly sculpted structural styles of the 1890s and early 1900s styles, this dress was draped, relying only on the garment itself to create its lines. While corsets are still utilized for foundation wear in 1912-13, it was now submerged, masked by the flowing lines of the dress. Here are some more views:

Evening Gown Gustave Beer c. 1912-1913

Three-Quarter Front Profile

Evening Gown Gustave Beer c. 1912-1913

Close-Up Three-Quarter Front Profile

Here we get a better look at the decoration and trim. Jeweled netting sweeps over the dress from the waist down, serving to emphasize the decorative pattern on the dress front.

Evening Gown Gustave Beer c. 1912-1913

Side Profile

This somewhat blurred picture (unfortunately, other visitors kept getting in the way) give a side view of the dress, emphasizing the slender, cylindrical silhouette of the dress while at the same time showing off the train.

Evening Gown Gustave Beer c. 1912-1913

The Train

The train itself is magnificent and it’s a piece of art in itself, serving as a canvas for an elaborate jeweled/embroidered floral pattern. The outside border is especially striking and very reminiscent of classical design motifs. This dress was a definite bright spot in our day! 🙂

 

Trending For 1909…

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Early films can sometimes tell us a lot about earlier fashions. Below is some newsreel footage taken in 1909- although it’s labeled “Paris Fashion Week 1909,” I suspect that it was simply filmed in the Spring. In this footage, you see a mix of older and newer fashions to include the Nouveau Directoire and “Delphos”/Classical Grecian styles that were coming into vogue then; designs pioneered by couturiers such as Paul Poiret and Jeanne Paquin. Enjoy!

Maison Rouff- September 1901

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Maison Rouff

When it comes to couture houses of the late 19th/early 20th Centuries, Maison Rouff was one of the more obscure and in many ways is an enigma. Today, except for the occasional reference (at least in English), Maison Rouff has pretty much been lost to history except for the fact that Jeanne Paquin got her start there before venturing out on her own in 1891. Complicating matters is that it’s often confused with the designer Maggy Rouff who was originally born Marguerite de Wagner in 1896 and ultimately bought Maison Rouff in 1929 and subsequently adopted the pseudonym of “Maggy Rouff.”

Maison Rouff Card 1910.

From what little information we do have, Maison Rouff was founded in 1884 by a one L. Rouff. Originally located in Vienna, the house at some point moved to Paris (Interestingly enough, Maison Rouff is noted as having participated in the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago). Unfortunately, it’s going to take some real digging into non-internet sources to find out the total story but in the meantime, below are a few images of some styles for Fall 1901 that were featured in the September 1901 issue of Les Modes:

First we start with a visiting dress:

Les Modes Sept 1901 Maison Rouff

Afternoon dress:

Les Modes Sept 1901 Maison Rouff

And here’s two images of a dinner dress (it appears to be the same dress from two different angles):

Pages from Les_Modes___Sept 1901_Plate3

Les Modes Sept 1901 Maison Rouff

In all the above styles, the s-bend corset definitely creates the foundation and in all instances, the skirts have a train. Naturally, the train on in the dinner dress depicted above is the most elaborate of all and it’s quite impressive, enhanced by two very large ribbons extending down from a bow. Otherwise, the styles are fairly typical of the early 1900s. The history of Maison Rouff certainly bears more study and we hope that in future posts that we’ll have more to reveal.