Continuing some of the beautiful French images from La Miroir Des Modes, here are two pretty fashion prints from May, 1908.
Enjoy!
In this black and white image you can see the back view of the dresses (or dress and jumper) pictured above.
Hello!
Today I have a few lovely images from 1908 from a great bound French fashion magazine I came across last year called Mirror Des Modes. Although I am far from fluent in French so cannot translate for you, I think these photos themselves are inspiration for the “How-To” of the Gibson Girl look! And fear not! Looks like these ladies used switches of hair and hairpieces to achieve the look, just like we would do today (though they were real human hair, most likely, or another natural substitute- not the plastic like we have today. Note to self: research false hair.)
If you have a go at any of these styles, please share your photos!
For more images from this magazine, click here to see previous posts.
xo- Lauren
Happy Saturday!
Today I have a great article from the Ladies Home Journal from 1904 that tells how to make a hat for $3.00 (which equates to about $75.50 today, via the Inflation Calculator). Although that might seem like a high price, we need to remember that ladies would usually only have one hat to last them through, in this case, spring and summer for a year. They may even wear the same hat for several years and simply change the trimmings. Most women didn’t have the luxury of having several hats or a collection of them, the way we can do today with our costuming or even our regular wardrobe. So a little bit of an investment in a do-it-at-home hat could give a lady a hat that would be chic!
In the article it tells how to make the hat pictured. If you try to take a go at it, please do let me know and share pictures!
Click the image above to be taken to a larger image you can read.
Have a great weekend!
Sharing another lovely image from 1904. Here are more shirtwaist designs from 109 years ago. The illustrations are just lovely. And the hats! *swoon*.
What I think is particularly interesting is the sleeve design. The placement of the tucks and the way they controlled where the fullness is released, as well as trim or decoration accenting the cuff… simply brilliant!
Click on the image for a larger version you can read.
I just got a few lovely old Ladies Home Journal magazines. This one, from April, 1904, shows us the fashion in shirtwaist decorations from 109 years ago. Maybe you could take these designs and incorporate them into my Edwardian Blouse Pattern.
What is novel about the designs below is that they are adapted from e pretty flourishes and borders that are often seen in magazines of this period. These, of course, come from the Ladies Home Journal. In fact, the blouse just below the title has the same motif as the title decoration. Novel, isn’t it? If you enlarge the article you can read their suggestion for enlarging the designs for use in garments.
Click on the image for a larger version you can read.
Hope you’re having a lovely weekend!
Here’s some pretty things from a magazine in my collection that’s over 100 years old- McCall’s Magazine from December 1908. There’s lots of lovely hats- I’m a sucker for Edwardian millinery… or really anything to do with the fashion, actually.
Click on any of the images to be taken to a larger file on my Flickr.
I’ve added a few of these images to my CafePress shop, too.
Hope they’ve inspired you for your winter millinery creations!
Sharing some more images from the Mirror des Modes, October 1907 issue. Here are some lovely blouses. These give excellent ideas for trimming. It wouldn’t be too hard to modify my Edwardian Blouse Pattern to suit these styles!
And, as before, here’s images of the fashion images alone for you to use. Enjoy!
I recently acquired a lovely bound book containing issues of Le Mirror Des Modes form 1907-1908. I’m super excited to share images with you of these gorgeous illustrations of early 20th century fashions.
Many of you read a prior post about my allergies, one of which is an allergy to the mold that grows on old paper. However, I wasn’t about to give up all of my favorite things, so I have also now acquired a Darth Vader-esque face mask. I may look like a female version of something out of Star Wars (complete with two large pink air filters on either side of my face), but I can carefully handle some of these old papers and keep scanning in articles from my fashion history resources to share. So hurrah for implements to make things better (even if it does take some getting used to). It looks totally awesome when I add my vintage day-to-day 1950s cat eye frames with rhinestones. Just sayin’ 
But I digress… here is the first post of what I hope will be a regular blog feature of some fabulous Edwardian (or Belle Epoque, rather) fashions from Le Mirror des Modes.
For starters, I wanted to share a “before” and “after” example of what I do to the images I post here after I’ve scanned in the original source material. It takes a while to do, but it truly is a labour of love, and I’m really glad to have finally found others who appreciate these old fashion history treasures.
If you are fluent in French you’ve got an extra special treat, as I’m including scans of the entire article. For the rest of us, however, we must be content to look at pretty pictures. If you do understand what’s written, I’d love it if you would be willing to share any interesting tidbits written here. My French is somewhat questionable, at best
I also have a few of the images themselves here to share for your fashion history research/craft projects
I don’t know what it is about this Autumn, but all of my inspiration is coming from Victorian and Edwardian sources. Here’s some lovely images from a 100 year old catalog in my reference library. These are from Bedell Catalog, Autumn 1912. The inspiration for trimmings on otherwise pretty basic pieces are inspiring. The cut of the back of the Cheviot suit jacket, below, is a delight. Enjoy!
I’ve been working on and off on a new pattern that I started last year. No, it’s not a corset, but I will say that the late 1890s and early 1900s are inspiring me a lot lately in view of this project.
Here’s some very pretty corset ads from the November 1905 issue of The Delineator to share with you.
This ad is beautifully drawn, but also kind of humourous. If only this lady knew her corset was visible to the outside world by her shadow! I’ll gladly take her jacket and hat, too.
I absolutely adore the line art drawings of this period. The ones on this WB Corsets ads are so beautiful and romantic, especially with the cute little cherubs and garlands of flowers, and the beautiful gathers and bows on the lingerie.
If you’re interested in making underwear of this period, Truly Victorian has recently come out with an S Curve corset pattern and an Edwardian Lingerie pattern. Heather’s patterns are amazing- I’m a big fan and customer, so I can’t recommend them enough. I have purchased both patterns and they’re in my stash just waiting to be made. Images like these make me wish I had time to start them!