Rational Dress

Dress reform movements emerged in reaction to the elaborate, fitted dresses and tight lacing of the mid- and late-nineteenth century. In the 1850s, Amelia Jencks Blooer of New York advocated functional clothing and wore “Turkish” pants- a version of these became known as bloomers – with a knee-length dress, as a hygienic and sensible alternative to corseted fashions and long skirts. In England dress reform followed two veins: aesthetic and medical. A medieval model was proposed by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-53), a group of artists whose ideals of natural feminine beauty and dress were synthesized in their in their paintings of Jane Morris: she wore draped, loose-fitting dresses that permitted freedom of movement, and no lacing or corset was visible.

The debate over dress reform peaked in the 1880s. The Rational Dress Society, founded in 1881, drew social and medical attention to restrictive dress. In 1884, London hosted an International Health Exhibition that included displays of hygienic dress. One exhibitor was Dr. Gustav Jaeger, a German professor of Zoology and Physiology, who had developed theories about healthful dress that involved wearing only natural fibers, such as wool, next to the body. Commercial dissemination of reform and aesthetic dress ideals was realized through the dress department of Liberty of London, established in 1884. Liberty’s produced loose-fitting and flowing designs that could be worn with or without a corset. Typical features of early reform and aesthetic dress included a loose-cut design, muted colours, smocking (identified with peasant dress), and embroidery.

In the twentieth century, reform and aesthetic dress styles continued to seek solutions to dress that would liberate fashion from Paris couture dominated designs and obsolete seasonal models. Belgian designer and architect Henry Van de Velde (1863-1957), who advocated unity in the fine and applied arts in everyday life, first designed dresses for his wife Maria that were inspired by the ideas put forth in Liberty’s catalogues and the children’s illustrations of British artist Kate Greenway (1846-1901). His designs were realized in heavy, plain fabrics, such as velvet, trimmed with lace and appliquéd forms typical of the Art Nouveau style.

The Secessionists movement in Vienna brought about the founding of the Wienner Werkstatte in 1903 by painter Koloman Moser (1868-1918) and architect Josef Hoffman (1870-1956). This avant-garde design group opened a textile workshop and fashion department that aimed to harmonise dress and interior design as well as to free design from the foliate forms associated with Art Nouveau. Design influences came from the Glasgow Arts and Crafts practitioners in Scotland, especially Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1863-1928), and from Dutch Art Nouveau designers, particularly Jan Theodoor Toorop (1858-1928). Their designs drew upon Asian graphic and textile design, folk art, and contemporary abstract art. Dress design followed a vertical, high-waisted directoire line that was later made popular by Paul Poiret. In Italy the ideas of aesthetic dress were pursued by Mario Fortuny and Maria Monaci Gallenga (1880-1944), artists who became designers and followed classical and medieval models missed with ethnographic inspiration.

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