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The Evolution of Fashion by Janet Reed
Estate garden parties and elaborate balls hosted in luxurious hotels were ostentatious displays of the extreme wealth of America's nouveau riche and the aristocracy in Europe. As "The Gilded Age" reached a high point, the couture houses in Paris were bustling.
But across the country, in towns of all sizes, seamstresses with a small shop or business at home were also earning a good living. Harper's Bazar promoted adaptions of the Parisian originals in its magazine which were targeted to less affluent women in America and sold paper patterns with sewing instructions that a dressmaker with high skills could interpret.
The Delineator, a fashion magazine printed by Butterick Publishing Co., was successful in selling its paper patterns to the homemaker who sewed her own dresses as well as all of her family's clothing.

PART I: POLITICAL ACTIVITIES & EVENTS
Natl. American Woman Suffrage Association
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Investigative journalists exposed corporations
Sherman Anti-Trust Act dissolved monopolies
PART II: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
J.P. Morgan - principal organizer of trusts
City jobs enticed more to leave rural life
Middle class, working class, and the wealthy
PART III: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Electric power - AC - Tesla
Electric streetcars, electric lampposts
Invention of automobile, motorcycle, airplane
Musical recordings and motion pictures began
PART IV: ART MOVEMENTS
Beaux-Arts architecture
Art Nouveau - decorative arts and jewelry
PART V: THE SOCIAL TIMES
The Gibson Girl was female ideal in America
Bicycling was a craze
Amusement parks, vaudeville, nickelodeons
Music halls, rooftop entertainment venues
Ragtime music
Emergence of blues and jazz in New Orleans
PART VI: FASHION TRENDS
Leg-o-mutton sleeve distinguished the 1890's
Bell skirt / S-shape corset defined the 1900's
Women's shirt waist was a popular separate

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The 1890's - 1900's: "The Gilded Age"
The beginning of American music (ragtime) was one reason this period is also referred to as "The Gay Nineties". Its upbeat tempo made it irresistable to dance to and with the beginning of Tin Pan Alley in New York, ragtime songs were published as sheet music which brought them into homes. Meanwhile, the emerging sounds of blues and jazz in New Orleans were more obscure to the public.
Entertainment was plentiful with concert halls and theatres, spectator events like Wimbledon, world's fairs, circuses, the opening of Coney Island amusement park, penny arcades, nickelodeons, and vaudeville houses which evolved the bawdy concert-saloon to a family- friendly venue with a variety of stage acts. Edison's moving picture flickers evolved to ten-minute films and became the closing act at vaudeville houses.
Upper and middle class women notably had leisure time. They filled the hours with shopping, writing letters, reading books and magazines, and recreational sport activities. Charles Dana Gibson created a pen-and- ink illustration of a young female who reflected the emerging modern woman in America. She was proper at all her social functions. She actively participated in tennis, bowling, swimming, and bicycling and she frequently traveled independently.
Art Nouveau also contributed to this period. It brought beauty and elegance to an environment quickly be- coming modernized by technology. The masterful Louis Tiffany's artworks are forever to be revered - his jewelry, glass mosaics, and renowned stained-glass windows. Equally outstanding are the jewelry and glassworks by René Lalique and the enchanting illustrations of Mucha.