Women took to wearing more tailored jackets, worn with long skirts [ and a slight raise of the hem ] and high heel ankle boots.
The silhouette moved gradually along a decreasing s-curve from 1901 to the Empire line by 1910 . Common colors for Edwardian women’s day-wear were combination two tone affairs of pale tops and dark skirts. The fabrics employed were linen [ if you were poor ] cotton [ if you were middle class ] and silks and high grade cottons [ if you were upper class].
With detail, as in all styles in the Belle Epoch, laced trims and attentive detail was a signal of a girls social status. Plenty of shoulder and waist trimmings, with applique on skirts and dress.
Despite the restrictions of corsets, women, especially in the new middle class, began to have more social freedoms. It became common for women friends to travel together abroad on cycling trips – to the Alps for instance, or to Italy, as was beautifully portrayed in the Merchant ivory film ‘ A Room with a View‘ , an E.M Forster story published in 1908.
The popular Day Outfit combination was the matching of a high necked white or pale cotton blouse with a dark tight fitting A-line gored skirt, reaching from the ankle to just below the bust. Some skirts were also stitched in corselet fashion from the waist to below the breasts. This simple sporty blouse and skirt style first appeared in the late 1890’s.