This post is a bit after-the-fact but sometimes life gets in the way. 🙂 This past Saturday we attended the annual party for the Great War Historical Society, a living history organization dedicated to the preservation of the history and heritage of the First World War era. The period from 1900 through 1920 has always fascinating for both of us although while most of our endeavors are focused on the period from 1870 through 1900.

The first two decades of the 20th Century were a time of great change and the world in 1920 was a vastly changed place from that of 1900. While much of these changes occurred in the ares of international relations and military science, change was just as profound socially and culturally. In 1900 the world was seemingly a relatively stable place, ruled by a European-centered international political order and the ordered certainties of Western Civilization. However, the First World War was to sweep all of this away, replacing it with political and economic uncertainty, redrawn borders, and civil disorder (and in some cases civil war). In short, much of the old order of things had been swept away and it was uncertain what exactly was going to replace it.

As with other aspects of society and culture, the world of fashion was was deeply affected and fashions dramatically shifted in response to social and cultural change. For us, it’s fascinating to see the trends that developed from 1914 on and while it could be argued that some of these trends were merely a continuation of what has happening before the war, much of it was new.

For our purposes (and to have have something to wear to the party 🙂 ), we’ve attempted to capture a slice of a life in transition  so here are a few photos of that attempt…

Here’s the both of us in black and white. Unfortunately, we arrived at the party a tad late due to traffic so we were unable to get good daylight pictures. Here’s the color version:

For Karin, her dress is more pre-war in style, fitting roughly into the 1908 – 1909 time frame. Please excuse the lighting, we didn’t have much to work with. 🙂

In describing her dress, it’s best summed up by Karin this way: “It’s not often that I wear this gown. It’s constructed from original textiles from hat to hem, gown is patterned form an original 11-piece princess gown in my collection.” For a better look at the chapeau:

As for me, my outfit is a somewhat more convention- a reproduction US Army officer’s uniform appropriate for the 1917 – 1918 time frame. It’s one of my standbys. 🙂

This is probably not one of my better pictures… 🙂

We had a good time and I am confident that we will be making some more fashion forays into the early 20th Century and in my case, I will be exploring the civilian side a bit more. 🙂