#ReGlam • ladame.vintagefashion A trip through Paris, France during The Belle Époque (footage from 1896-1900). The films were taken by the Lumière company. The 1890s were a period of change. As the century drew to a close, the world began to move away from the stiff, moralistic, Victorian Era. Urban centers were growing, and new technologies, such as the introduction of electricity into clothing manufacturing, produced a boom in the ready-to-wear market. Women were enjoying new levels of independence; during the decade the number of women employed outside the home almost doubled. The “New Woman” of the era was an intellectual young female who worked, cycled, and played sports.Dress historian James Laver wrote: „The old, rigid society-mould [sic] was visibly breaking up… For the young, there was a new breath of freedom in the air, symbolized both by their sports costumes and by the extravagance of their ordinary dress. It was perfectly plain that the Victorian Age was drawing to i...