European Street Style | Candids of the early 1900s

Seriously, very few things excite, much less surprise, fashion lovers in general. Once in a blue moon there will be a discovery or a new creation that is so spectacular that it does both. Case in point, a batch of candid street photographs rediscovered in the Kensington and Chelsea Libraries archives in London. These newly unearthed, candid street shots were taken by amateur photographer Edward Linley Sambourne, who happened to be better known as the chief cartoonist for Punch magazine.

European Street Style Womens Fashion Pedestrian Candid Photography Early-1900s Paris London

Two women, likely in mourning, dressed in black lace

Two women holding books in Kensington on July 4th 1906

Two well-dressed women stand in the streets of the French capital on June 3rd 1906

Two friends walking together on July 4th 1906

Parisian chic par excellence – shot taken in the French capital in 1906 showing women, men and young children out and about

These particular shots, most taken in 1906 in London and during a trip to Paris, deliver an unusual glimpse into how people actually dressed, walked and moved in buttoned-up Edwardian/Belle Époque fashion. We are much more accustomed to seeing official portraiture depicting the latest fashions, but always staged with formal composure telling a bit of a different story.

Parisian chic par excellence – shot taken in the French capital in 1906 showing women, men and young children out and about

A couple walks along the Boulevard des Italiens on June 5th 1906

A woman dressed in a dark outfit takes a walk on February 20th 1906

Hélène du Bois is pictured playing handball in a formal dress on June 4th 1906

A woman looks in the direction of the camera as she strolls along the street, dressed in an ankle length plaid skirt, matching jacket and a sophisticated hat in Cornwall Gardens on February 20th 1906

A group of women walk up the steps of the Rue de Rivoli on June 3rd 1906

Parisian chic par excellence – shot taken in the French capital in 1906 showing women, men and young children out and about

Fashion around 1900-1910 was considered much sportier than it had been in preceding decades. Yes, with the new modernity (i.e. cars, electricity, bicycling on weekends) new routines and fashions followed, though somewhat more superficially. Women may have started assimilating men’s sartorial details into their wardrobe, but what many may not know is that the corset shape favored between 1895 to 1905 is now considered to be one of the worst fashion trends ever, especially when it comes to health concerns.

Woman photographed in Cromwell Road, London on July 12th 1905 in a stylish white shirt with a belt and an ankle-length skirt

Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, John Singer Sargent, 1897

Corset by Maison Léoty, 1891

A female cyclist fiddles with her hat in Kensington on September 8th 1906

Front view of corset, 1905

A group of women holding parasols and wearing fashionable hats walk along the Champs-Élysées

What these photographs bring to light is a glimpse at how fashion and the perennial every woman lived and moved. Paintings and official photographs are always stiff and staged, but who could imagine looking at a woman in 1906 caught reading a book while going from Point A to Point B, playing handball in a formal dress, even carrying a purse (coincidently then not an accessory used by all women)?

Woman, who Sambourne describes as a 'shopgirl', walks along Kensington Church Street, on September 8th 1906

Hélène du Bois is pictured playing handball in a formal dress on June 4th 1906

A woman wearing a white dress and a black handbag strolls while engrossed in a book on June 30th 1908

A pair of women leads a young girl down a staircase in Rue des Rivoli

A formally dressed woman in a white dress and a black handbag walks along the street on June 15th 1908

A stylish woman walks up a concrete staircase in Paris on June 5th 1906

European street style, evident in the candids of the early 1900s, points out that while many cry out for a more formal dress code, there is certainly something to be said for today’s easy, more casual style of dressing. What do you think?