“Elegant simplicity”
A new era has begun: sharp, complex, dramatic. But in fashion almost nothing has changed. Magazines, as before, recommended that dandies wear precious fabrics in delicate shades, adorn their heads with elegant hats with lush feathers and rustle in ballrooms in suits by Brisac and Doucet, famous tailors. At that time, it seemed to many that the war would surely end by Christmas and that life would return to a peaceful course: there would again be gorgeous dinners, luxurious balls and fireworks. But Christmas came, 1915 began, and the war did not end. And now secular magazines offered women other styles and shades, more suitable for front-line circumstances.
“Despite some eccentricities,” noted “Fashionable Light,” “the general tone of fashion remains very serious and modest, as befits the spirit of the times, calling for a serious and thoughtful attitude to the events around us, but without excessive despondency and gloom.”1 Therefore, the ladies were in no hurry to put on dark, gloomy outfits. For dresses, restrained natural colors were chosen: beige, dull saffron, soft apple and blue-gray. For outerwear, shades reminiscent of military ones were preferred: olive green, dark brown, sand, mouse gray, but the most fashionable was, of course, “khaki” – the color of the field uniform worn by all the armies participating in the conflict. dressed.
Couple dressed in wartime uniforms. The lady is wearing a cloth coat, and the gentleman is wearing a front-line sheepskin coat and riding breeches. 1917 Photo: Olga Khoroshilova Archive
The shapes and decoration of the outfits also became extremely simple: no frills or pretensions, nothing superfluous, not a single unnecessary detail. In 1916, for example, the raglan blouse became fashionable: “It is of a very simple and modest style, with a high, straight and raised collar that does not meet at the neck.”
Blouses, skirts, prom dresses, coats and capes – everything was simple and discreet, but not at all because the magazines recommended it. This was the personal choice of the ladies. While their husbands, fathers and brothers were fighting at the front, they wore deliberately modest clothes, considering it wrong and even immoral to dress luxuriously and overdress. “Elegant simplicity”, as this style was then called, became an expression of patriotic feelings.
In national colors
Almost immediately after the outbreak of the war, patriotic ribbons in white, blue and red came into fashion. Ladies wore them on their sleeves as bandages, pinned them to their clothes and adorned elegant hats. Some made small bows out of ribbons and used them to decorate the lapels of jackets, the collars of coats and the bodices of dresses.
One such bow is kept in the author’s collection. In the autumn of 1914, it was made by Maria Kruglova, daughter of the prominent Russian diplomat Alexei Kruglov. In 1918, this accessory, together with Maria and her family, ended up in Yekaterinodar, then in Novorossiysk. In 1920, the Kruglovs moved to Egypt. Maria settled in Cairo and opened a fashion studio. And at every meeting of white emigrants, she wore this white, blue and red bow, tied to it with a narrow green stripe, as if in gratitude to the hospitable Muslim state that accepted her and her family.
Patriotic costumes on the theme of war. Photo postcard. 1915 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova
As early as August 1914, the combination of white, blue and red became the main colour in interior design and finishing of fashionable clothes. Women’s magazines reported: “The patriotic enthusiasm that now inspires all of us is reflected even in such a peaceful activity as sewing. Now items embroidered in national colours or decorated with national flags are in great fashion.”
A bow made of white, blue and red ribbon that belonged to Maria Kruglova. 1910s Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova.
Everywhere one could see dandies dressed in simple, elegant dresses “like a Russian peasant” with simple folk embroidery or in white blouses and blouses with blue and scarlet striped prints. Inspired by patriotic feelings, charitable associations and societies held exhibitions and competitions of fashionable costumes in the national style. These were organized, for example, by the “Union of Russian Women”. Both professional and amateur couturiers and artists took part in them. They presented completely different, sometimes very theatrical variations on the theme of folk costumes – from homespun skirt-and-shirt ensembles with hand-made embroidery to rich sundresses and kokoshniks in the style of Vrubel and Roerich. The jury of the competition carefully studied their creations and selected the winners. In 1916, prizes were awarded to a women’s jacket similar to a Russian caftan, decorated with national embroidery, as well as to a coat cut in the bekeshi style and trimmed with lamb fur.
Russian fashion in Paris
Women did not forget about Russian kokoshniks. The Union of Russian Women repeatedly presented these national headdresses at exhibitions. They were also used at patriotic masquerades. Other craftswomen, shaping the kokoshniks into a crown-like cap, displayed them on the streets of Petrograd and Moscow. Secular chroniclers claimed that they had already seen similar headdresses in Paris.
Maria Kruglova in a patriotic national costume. 1916-1917 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova.
At the height of the war, Russian notes began to sound again in the European style. In the winter of 1916, Nadezhda de Torby, daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich, married Prince George of Battenberg. During the ceremony, she was dressed in a luxurious dress made of triple silver brocade – the traditional material of the coronation gowns of Russian empresses. The bridesmaids (maids of honor) were not inferior to her in elegance and luxury: “All their dresses are made in the Russian style. Lush, pleated skirts made of pale blue tulle in a darker shade than satin are covered with aquamarine satin, edged with a border. Sable and Russian embroidery with an admixture of red shades. Cossack-style headdresses made of blue velvet, edged with sable with a blue tulle veil flowing down the back in the color of the dress. On the sides there are wedge-shaped stripes, edged with sable and embroidery.”4.
Nadezhda Mikhailovna of Torby. Photo postcard. 1910s Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova.
However, during those war years, European tailors adopted not only the fabulous epic style of the Russians. They carefully copied the fur trim of the outer clothing and offered comfortable and warm “manteaux russe” with a wrap on the “Russian” i.e. on the left side and with sable trim on the collar, cuffs and side.
Elegant and top-of-the-line “military” crinolines
“Military notes,” fashion magazines report, “are gradually making their way into our wardrobes and can be seen everywhere: hats, dresses, suits, blouses – everything has fallen under this influence, which reveals itself not only in the cut lines and small details, but also in fashionable colours”5. And the front-line colours were in fashion back then: earth grey, burgundy brown, olive green and, of course, the mud colour, i.e. khaki. Shades of naval uniforms were also popular: “Grey and dark (navy) blue colours are also “military” shades, and for dark blue they almost always use red piping the colour of sealing wax (sic), which gives the dress even more of a special military look.”6 .
Drawing of a lady in a “military” crinoline. 1917 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova
Women’s dress styles also came close to the uniform. Tailors could not think of anything that would match the times and the fashionistas’ desire to become spectacular Amazons. Ladies wore olive-green flannel blouses with a high collar and large patch pockets, like those worn by officers. They decorated their dresses with sashes that looked like machine-gun belts or military belts.
Ladies in simple demi-season coats with a relative-officer who came from the front on leave. 1916 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova
“I recently saw a blouse,” one fashion observer shared with her readers, “made of khaki flannel with a high, straight closure, a small turn-down collar, and straps on which a button was sewn at the collar; another blouse was military style; pockets with flaps, like on military jackets.”7
A St. Petersburg lady in a silk blouse with a fashionable high collar “à la Bonaparte” and a hat with a military sultan. 1916-1917 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova.
Epaulettes and epaulettes appeared on the shoulders of the ladies, a wide sash with tassels covered the waist and a cord wound over the chest, intertwined in knots, as on the dolmans of hussars.
Lovers of top-class elegance ordered dark grey draped coats from tailors, the hems of which were turned back and fastened, as the soldiers of the French army did. By the way, the French military was in great demand in Russia at that time. Coats with a cape and a high collar “à la Bonaparte” became fashionable. This collar made women think about the convenience of wearing long hair, which was very bothersome and also required careful care, oiling, combing and curling with heat. But women did not have the time and, most importantly, desire. However, the ladies did not dare to shorten their hair. And then hairdressers came up with a clever way of styling their hair with a Greek ribbon. These hairstyles imitated a short haircut and did not interfere with wearing blouses and coats “à la Bonaparte” with a high collar.
Military fashion also affected the art of hat making. In 1916-1917, milliners offered spectacular black cocked hats and coloured “bonnet de polis” hats, reminiscent of the caps worn by Napoleonic soldiers. “There are also sultan-shaped military caps, like those worn by the carabinieri, and the other day I saw an elegant blonde wearing a black velvet tricorn hat in the style of admiral hats,”8 noted one fashion observer.
“War and Ladies”. Caricature of military fashions. 1915 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova
However, not everyone liked this military masquerade. There were many critics who condemned the women for being too enthusiastic about front-line style and uniforms. Journalists were quick to warn the dandies that “the passion for military and masculine tailoring has already been condemned, and when a husband returns home from war, it will be more pleasant to meet his wife in all the splendor of femininity and grace, which half-masculine dress deprives her of.”9.
An elegant metropolitan couple in daytime outfits from the time of the First World War. The lady is wearing a jacket reminiscent of a man’s tuxedo. Petrograd. 1915 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova
But even the critics of the first-class elegance were silent in admiration when a fashionista in a “military” crinoline paraded down the street. There was nothing truly military about it. And the name itself was invented later, already in peacetime. This crinoline, which appeared in 1916, was a short tulle skirt with a pair of steel hoops sewn into the bottom. Over it was put a wide bell-shaped skirt, which slightly exposed the lady’s slender legs and made the men in the street turn after her.
Lady in a “Russian” coat. Petrograd. 1915 Photo: Collection of Olga Khoroshilova
The new, as we know, is the old and forgotten. Almost 30 years after the end of the First World War, the young and shy fashion genius Christian Dior revived the “military crinoline”. At that time, no one remembered those tulle skirts with sewn-in hoops, or the entire difficult period of 1914-1918. Few people cared. That is why, on February 12, 1947, when Dior presented the first collection of revived military crinolines, everyone was delighted with the freshness and novelty of his outfits. And the famous fashion editor Carmel Snow called them “new look”, that is, “new image”. This show marked the beginning of an era of new femininity and elegance, which was based on the forgotten era of the First World War.
The author’s great-aunt, Zinaida Punina-Balakhovich, in a simple summer dress. 1915 Photo: Olga Khoroshilova Archive
1. Fashion Chronicle // Fashion Light, 1916, N 1. P. 2.2. Right there. S. 1.3. Fashion Light. 1914. N 17. P. 10.4. Russian-English “Union” // Fashion Bulletin. 1917. N 6. P. 82.5. Parisian Fashion // Fashion Light. 1915. N 1. P. 5.6. Ibid.7. Ibid.8. Ibid.9. Fashion Chronicle // Fashion Light. 1916. N 1. P. 1.]
