Art Nouveau

The Art Nouveau movement dominated the late 19th Century and early 20th Century throughout Europe and the United States. Art Nouveau was a decorative arts movement which combined both artificial elements as well as nature's organic forms. One designer inspired by this art movement was French designer, Paul Poiret. Poiret's innovative designs incorporated a lot of rich and exotic detailing and fabrics similar to the main ideas of this movement. The first image is a painting by Gustav Klimt called "Nuda Veritas" in 1899 and the second image is of Daisy Irving in a two-tier "lampshade" dress by Poiret in 1910, free of of any bustling and corsets.

These images were adopted from: http://www.practicalpainting.com/Articles/ArtNouveau/Klimt001.htm and http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/256647717_be9d930ec7.jpg