A Century of Hairstyles

These imaginary women, created in line drawings by the American Charles Dana Gibson, dominated the illustrated papers and magazines of the time.

The image also shows us clearly how the recognised ‘beauties’ of the time can seem to a modern eye mature and even matronly.

Camille Clifford, Gibson Girl

circa 1905

This Edwardian ‘Pompadour’ style, shown off here by stage star and pin-up girl Camille Clifford, gives an idea of the high-maintenance fashions of the era. The ministrations of a maid were essential in order to ‘dress’ this hair, just as they were needed to help fashionable women into the many complex layers of clothing that constituted their ‘toilette’. Endless pins – not to mention carefully concealed pads – were used in the construction of this high-piled hairdo. This style was, in fact, a clear display of class and status.

The image also shows us clearly how the recognised ‘beauties’ of the time can seem to a modern eye mature and even matronly. Camille Clifford was in her twenties when she posed for this photograph and had won a competition to find a living version of the ‘Gibson Girls’ seen in contemporary illustrations. These imaginary women, created in line drawings by the American Charles Dana Gibson, dominated the illustrated papers and magazines of the time. But if Edwardian fashions were often a display of wealth and sophisticated elegance, the events of the next decade would see this put aside in favour of a focus on youth.