Magpie Tidings: Favourite Era (with some extant examples)

I've recently joined a blogging challenge for August: Costume Blog Writing Month, to blog every day. I don't think I'll manage every single day in August (obviously, as I've already missed the first three days). But I will try to do several of the prompts.

The challenges for each day this month!

Yesterday's challenge was extant garment. I thought it would be fun to combine that with today's challenge: Fave Friday: Favourite Era. I've done several posts featuring my clothing collection, and several of my posts deal with my favourite era, it this will be a fun opportunity to unabashedly focus on it.

Though I have a great love for many eras, my favourite is the 1910s. I don't know if this stems from my preoccupation with the First World War, or The Great War, as it is known in the UK (a fascination which has haunted me for over fifteen years) or if the fashion merits alone would have caught my eye.

The 1910s is often credited with drastic change from the beginning of the decade to the end. Certainly the early teens is softer, more feminine, with a hint of that Edwardian gentility still evident in the styles:

From The Modern Priscilla, January 1911

By the mid-1910s, the style had definitely loosened. It began to move away from the ornate, and a mannish military look was in evidence, which is no surprise, as War always influences fashion.

Blouses and skirts. More simple and practical. From a 1915 Gimbel's Catalogue reprinted by Dover books.

So, what is it about the 1910s that I love so much? I think it is that balance between femininity and practicality. It isn't over-the-top like late Victorian fashion, nor yet as utilitarian as the 1940s (also influenced by war). Plus, they knew how to use buttons in both a useful and decorative way.