Gibson girl

noun

1. the idealized American girl of the 1890s as represented in the illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson.

adjective

1. of, indicating, or resembling the characteristic clothing of the Gibson girl, typically a high-necked, fitted blouse or bodice with full puff sleeves and a long skirt with a flared bottom and a tightly fitted waistline.

Gibson girl

noun

1. the ideal fashionable American girl of the late 1890s and early 1900s, as portrayed in the drawings of Charles Dana Gibson, 1867–1944, US illustrator

Word History and Origins

Origin of Gibson girl¹

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95

Example Sentences

In times of strife, I sometimes return to my “Betsy-Tacy” books, escaping American political catastrophe for a world of ice-skating parties and Gibson girls.

From The New Yorker

It outlasted Gibson girls, flappers, hippies, disco queens, waifs and grunge rockers.

From Washington Post

Among the first American personalities to excite filmgoer identification and projection, Lawrence was a Gibson girl on celluloid, the physical embodiment of an illustrator’s pen-and-ink ideal.

From New York Times

In a steam-punk riff, some women were dressed as Gibson girls, wearing wide-brimmed hats and feathered gowns, and carrying camouflage bags and automatic weaponry.

From New York Times

They were hung with prints which ranged in subject from golf to Gibson girls.

From Project Gutenberg