Fashion Drawing & Illustration: 1910s The 1910s were a period of
dramatic change in fashion. Though many trends had their roots
in fashions of the previous decade, the First World War cemented
the move towards more practical, less restrictive clothing. As
women were called into factories and offices, fashionable dress
simplified and shortened. Florrie Westwood was a London designer
active in the early part of the 20th century. Nothing much is
known about her apart from her drawings, from which we can see
that she produced elegant high-end, if conservative, fashions.
Many hundreds of now-anonymous dressmakers and designers like
her existed in towns and cities across the country until the
middle of the 20th-century mass-market ready-to-wear clothing
came to dominate fashion. 1) These three 'Original Designs' in
the image to the right are very typical of the late 1910s. They
feature high waists and feminine materials and colours. They
also anticipate the androgynous look of the 1920s with their
linear, straight