Women’s fashion and architecture came together in home design during the early 20th century.
The women’s shirtwaist, a very popular style during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is widely known as the Gibson girl look.
Well this style was so popular that it was introduced to buildings of the time creating a new look for homes called shirtwaist architecture.
Let’s first examine what this fashion was all about.
I would like to thank Debbie Sessions owner of the site Vintage Dancer who helped me with the information below.
Women’s fashion and architecture.
What is a Shirtwaist?
The terms for women’s clothes can be a bit confusing. The upper part of a women’s dress in the 1800’s was called a bodice. Then around the turn of the century fashion changed from the style of a one piece dress to a top and a skirt. The top was called a “wasit”. A “waist” was later called “shirtwaist” and then eventually a blouse. This shirtwaist is like a man’s shirt. It was light, loose, un-structured with buttons at the back (later in the front) and was worn as a separate with un-matching skirt. The two pieces together contributed to the Gibson Girl look.
Ladies Shirtwaists from Sears Roebuck 1897
The shirtwaist blouse was regarded as the model shirt for the independent working woman. At the turn of the 20th century, production of the shirtwaist was a competitive industry. In Manhattan alone, there were over 450 textile factories, employing approximately 40,000 garment workers, many of them immigrants.
The shirtwaist, however, came to represent more than a momentary fashion trend; the blouse was a symbol of newfound female independence in a time of progressive ideas. With their own jobs and wages, women were no longer dependent on men and sought new privileges at home and at work. The figure of the working woman, wearing the shirtwaist blouse and freed from domestic duties, was an iconic image for the women’s rights movement. (Credit: PBS)
Shirtwaist – Sears catalog 1908
The 1910’s saw a shift away from the popular title of “shirtwaist” to the even more feminine sounding “shirt blouse.”
By the end of the 1910s the specific elements that distinguish between “blouse,” “shirtwaist,” and “waist” became almost non-existent.
Beltline of Shirtwaist is Raised Higher
From the separation of top and skirt being at the waist another style became available with the separation raised higher. This was not as high as an Empire waist but somewhere in between. (photo’s courtesy of Vintage Dancer)
1908 dress with belt-line at center waist.
1914 Hobble skirt showing raised belt-line similar to Shirtwaist architecture.
This dress is from 1800. The Empire waist belt-line is highest.
So the term Shirtwaist was for a women’s top. Although a shirtwaist can be many styles, the architectural shirtwaist resembled the raised belt-line of women’s fashion.
For more information on Edwardian skirt history visit Vintage Dancer.
What is a Belt Course on a House?
A belt course, also known as band molding or banding, is an architectural term for a horizontal piece of exterior trim.
The trim is about 5 inches wide that runs horizontally around a two story house where the first floor meets the second floor.
The purpose of the belt course or band is to transition between different sections of the wall of the house or different siding materials. Where, for example, upper-story shingles meet clapboards there has to be a way to end one material and start another in a weather-resistant joint.
Think of how wearing a belt can act as a punctuation at the waist separating the shirt from the skirt as shown in the women’s fashion images above.
On a brick structure, the band or belt can be limestone or a contrasting colored brick.
It can also be used to interrupt a monotonous wall or put more or less visual emphasis on the building’s massing.
Many times a house will have a belt course but it has been lost due to insensitive remodeling.
Shirtwaist Architecture
Shirtwaist architecture takes this belt-course located at the base of the second floor and pushes it up about 4-5 feet higher. It actually makes the 2nd floor look squashed and more like attic space instead of a full floor. This style was popular on Prairie style and Foursquare houses in the nineteen teens into the 1930’s. The belt-course located at the center of the house when pushed up higher becomes a sill-course since it is even with the window sill on the 2nd floor.
Although the shirtwaist in women’s fashion encompassed a belt-line both at the center waist and higher, the shirtwaist term in architecture refers to the higher waist.
See the difference here.
Belt course divides floors in center. (Sears kit – Modern Home #111)
Belt course is raised above center to Sill course. This results in Shirtwaist style. (Sears kit – Castleton #227)
Now you know how to recognize Shirtwaist architecture.
I have a question about re-siding a shirtwaist house, particularly the front porch. Both the top story and the porch of our 1914 house have a “skirt”–a wedge under the siding that makes it flair kind of like a skirt at the bottom couple rows of siding. We are having our porch replaced and (forgive me) sided with vinyl siding that looks like shingles. We are trying to duplicate the original architecture as much as possible but still have low maintenance. The carpenter has put the wedges on the bottom of the framing so that the shingles can flare at the bottom. However, there doesn’t seem to be any modern material that can cover the corners like the original metal corners that covered the old siding.
Do you have any advice of how the look of the old porch can be accomplished on a tight budget?
Sorry I don’t. Vinyl has a big effect on a house.
Vinyl, really. That poor old house is going to feel bad having that vinyl put on it. Its old for a reason. Its lasted this long with wood siding. Vinyl will never last 100 years let alone ten. The things they say about it are wrong. I’m a house painter and I’ve seen my share of lets save money and put vinyl on. What happens when you want to paint it? It gets to hot and it wilts in the heat. They screw up the rest of the house with all the flanges and plastic that covers windows and sills and all the trim that makes your house unique. And it will never look right and frankly every one will know.
And hopefully you don’t live in a historical neighborhood because that won’t fly. Hopefully you checked first to find out.
Your house was built in 1914 and lasted this long. Treat it with respect and please don’t put vinyl on it. I love my 1910 shirtwaist house in Kansas City, Mo.
I just bought a 1915 shirtwaist in KC!
I had never heard of “shirtwaist houses” before, but it makes sense! If you look at a Gibson Girl (or any shirtwaist era woman) in a standing pose, you can see the Golden Mean demonstrated. Her skirt/blouse ratio will be about 5:3 – very similar to the raised band on those grand old houses.
Excellent point!
Ken, thanks so much for all the information about the Gibson Girl and such. I’m a novice at identifying architecture styles and I had wondered if there was an actual, practical reason for the “shirt-waist”…
Not that I know of.
We just bought an 1896 shirt waist house in KC, MO. We got this 3 BR, 2 BA house for $6,000 through Jackson County’s annual delinquent tax sale. It was empty & squatted in for 10 years or so, but with $20K invested in it, we’re living in it, though its kitchen remodeling isn’t done, nor is the 2nd bathroom. I noticed a small amount of termite damage in the wood floor of the living room. I’m wondering if the brick or stone first floor might have developed to deter termites.
Jon
I really don’t know.
My understanding (from decidedly amateur sources) is that the stone would have been excavated to create the basement, in situ. It’s a good intuitive answer. (I live in one, built 1909.) In fact, I’m researching this for a neighborhood/house history.
I’ve never heard the term shirtwaist house before and would be interested to see a period reference to the term for context. If the comparison between the shirtwaist itself and the belt course of the house is meant to be quite so literal, the elevated “waist” of the house would be comparable to 1910s women’s silhouettes. Starting around 1910, the fashionable waist raised somewhat ABOVE the natural waist, increasing visual emphasis on a smooth transition between the waist and hips. It is often referred to as the “Second Empire” period in costume. The 1908 catalog image you feature comes before that raised waist, but if you look a few years later, you should what I mean! 🙂
What were some if the interior features like staircase shape, fireplaces. Etc?
Try google.
This is from a 1931 Kansas City Star article. It is a bit after the period but is referring back *to* the period as now somewhat old-fashioned, the houses the same as the fashion. Kansas City, Missouri, by the way, all but has the “Shirtwaist” or 4-room Shirtwaist style locked up.
“Houses Likened to Costumes
The ‘shirtwaist’ designation was a good description. Usually the lower story was brick or stone, the upper frame. That suggested the feminine shirtwaist and skirt, then fashionable. They were always rectangular, with a front porch usually projecting across the full width.”
The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri) 13 Dec 1931, page 53. (It’s a story about a bright new young architect. Make of that what you will.) The image of the newspaper page is on Newspapers (dot) com. I’m sure by then this may have been addressed in professional journals or earlier. But at least by 1931 Shirtwaist Houses are a known commodity.
I live in one and love it.
This is great – I found the article and will add it to my post. Thanks so much!