Victorian Fashion
Victorian Fashion
Victorian Fashion
Introduction
Queen Victoria, is the woman to thank for the Victorian era's fashion.
From her reign of 1837-1901, the world had finally figured out how to mass produce,
leading to the era of which fashion was born.
Fashion trends of the Victorian Age were not always in style, like what Heidi Klum says
on the show Project Runway " One day your in, the next, you're out."
Fashion and Costume for Women
Fashion then, were more than just zippers, buttons, and clasps. Women of the Victorian era had gigot sleeves,corsets and hoop skirts. These parts of they're dresses made everything they wore more elegant. Instead of having a nice dress and having it just be plain and flat they added things to make the dress more interesting. for example by adding the gigot sleeves that was wide at the top of the arm and tapered down to the wrist, the corset made their waist smaller and the hoop skirt widened and accented the dress at the bottem. The women in the victorian era always dressed to impress and were always looking for more ways to accent their dresses.
Skirts and Dresses
There is more to a skirt than what meets the eye, and there is actually a history to the skirt. It wasn't until 1835 where a womans skirt would touch the floor. The bottom of a skirt was decorated and was expected to be very elegant looking. As the years went by and the skirt's length got longer, less attention was put into the bottom edges of the skirt. As the skirts got longer, the wider they were required to be, which then resulted in the hoop skirt. The hoop skirt was an undergarment which was used to extend the skirt to a "fashionable state". Besides skirts, women then also wore lovely dresses. The bottom of a women's dress was just like the bottom of their dress. The dresses then also put alot of emphasis on the upper part of the outfit.
It may seem silly that it even matters that we are dedicating our work to talkig about sleeves, but women took pride in their sleeves, and the sleeves were a major part of the dress. Dresses would usually have extravegant sleeves that stood out.
There were many types of sleeves in the Victorian Era but there are only a couple that we ere able to get information on. Among the various types of sleeves there were two that were among the most popular; they were the Giotsleeve or otherwise known as the Mutton Leg sleeve, and there was the Beret sleeve. The Gigot sleeve (Mutton Leg) had quite an odd looking shape to it. The sleeve was made up of many layers of fabric. At the arm hole of the sleeve the fabric was puffed out to give a puffy affect. As the sleeve continued down the arm it got narrower and narrower eventually being tight at the wrist. Finally in the middle of the Victorian Era women had sleeve that pretty much look like gigantic marshmellows. Thie sleeve was called the Beret Sleeve. The Beret consisted of many more layers of fabric than the Gigot, and had much more emphasis than the Gigot. This marshmellow like sleeve starts with a band around the shoulder that holds all of the fabric together. The sleeve was puffed out the whole way down the arm but was tight around the wrist.
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The bustle dress in 1872. The bustle dress in 1889.
In the victorian times of 1870-1875, women wore bustle dresses.
The Grecian bend is another name for the victorian bustle.
The bustle consisted of many layers of fabric and a steel frame
that attatched at the waist. A dress is worn over the bustle to create
a hump. This was yet another accent added to the victorian dresses.
Bustle Dresses- link to further information on bustle dresses.
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This picture is a timeline of how the Victorian Era's fashion for women developed
from 1794-1887. If you want futher information about this picture, please click on
the link. Link
A Womens Undergarments
Though it may seem strange, they wore more than just underware under their clothing. In order for a dress to look proper and beautiful on a woman, there are many obstacles they had to take to get there. A woman had to wear a corset around her abdominal area. The corset was used to reduce the size of her waist. The purpose of the corset was to attract men. Women thought back then that only the small waisted will get married. After lacing up the back of the corset, which was apparently painful, women were expected to have a waist of about 20 inches around. According to sources, their are records stating that some woman even had 12-14 inched waists. Because of the corset was so tight, it could cause women health problems. Regarding the health risks an amusing fact about the corset was that it wasn't always worn by women. After a while, some men then had the desire of the small waist too. It is quite a funny thing to think about. Also, women wore Metal Crinoline Cages, or also referred to as hoop skirts. More information on the Crinoline Cage is provided below.
This picture shows the different kinds of corsets worn during the Victorian era.
Corsets were worn by women and eventually men to achieve a smaller waist size.
The women believed if you had a very small waist you will have an even greater chance of getting married.
The Metal Cage Crinoline
This is the Metal Cage Crinoline, or otherwise called the hoop skirt. In the beginning of the era, women had gotten to the point
where they were wearing six layers of petticoats all year around. Having that many layers became unbearable because
of it's weight and how overheated the woman wearing them had gotten. In result of all the problems with the
various layers of petticoats, the hoopskirt, or Crinoline was invented. It wasn't invented just to make the bottom
of a dress or skirt seem wider, but to make the affect that the woman was wearing many layers underneath. The cage was made out of steel
and because it was rapidly becoming popular not only in England, hundreds of hoops were produced in one week.
For further information follow this link:
Men's Clothing
A men's daily outfit was more formal than ours are today. If you were not a farmer or labor worker, you were expected to wear a vest, coat, and a hat. According to sources, if a man was to walk around in a just a shirt, it would be equivalent to today's walking around in underwear. When a man was in full dress he would usually wear a black dress coat with a full collar rolling low, a white vest or a vest the same material of the coat and black doeskin pantaloons. In the winter many young men would wear a blue coat with a white vest, with lavender pantaloons and gloves. Many men would wear this outfit to fashionable entertainments but the outfit was way more popular during the winter. Another suit that the men wore was a walking suit, which was a short double-breasted frock coat that was made of diagonally ribbed coating and sometimes a plain dark colored cloth. With it they wore a vest of the same material as the coat and they had a broad collar that was rolled to match the shape of the coat that they wore. The pants that they wore with the suit were tight on the leg but became wider at the ankle so that the pant leg could fit over their boots.
This picture shows how many men would dress
on a daily basis or when they went out for the day.
Just as the women the men dressed to impress. The
womens designs were very much more intricate but
a man always looked very sharp everyday.
Mens Shirt's, Vests, and Coats
The vest was considered the focal point of his outfit. Most men owned one or two, but the more conservative owned many different vests to go along with the same suit. Vests were made of in various different colors, cuts, and cloths. In the earlier part of the Victorian era, silk vests where all the rage, but as the years went by, more and more men started to buy more conservative wool vests of lighter colors.
Today, we are blessed to be able to have washing machines, but back then they were not as lucky and rarely got around to washing their clothes, becuase of this, men wore shirts that were able to be re-altered at a pin drop. For special occassions, men would wear the same shirt they wore that whole week, instead they would add button on cuffs and cufflings. Also, their shirts had a removable bib, so if one side had a noticeable stain on it, all they had to do was flip the bib over and button it back on. If only getting dressed now was as easy as getting dressed was then.
Men's Accessories
Sources tell us that no respectable gentlemen went out without having some sort of pocket watch on them. Men also carried around walking canes showing his wealth and class. These days, we only tend to wear gloves when it is cold out or snowing, but men back then wore gloves all year around. It was apparently unseemly to help a women out of a carriage with a bare hand, so in that case men wore gloves all year around. Men also wore hats; not baseball hats like what men today wear, but they were called High hats. High hats were more elgant looking hats that were either covered in silk or in beaver skin. They were tall in height and had a "turned-up" brim.
This picture shows the many different hats that the men wore.
When we think of the Victorian era we just think of the tall black-rimmed
hat but that is only one of the many hats the men wore. The men wore
different hats for different occassions. Although the most commonly worn
hat was the tall black-rimmed hat.
Children's Fashion
Girls
The girls had elaborate trimmings on their dresses just as women did. The dresses for the women and young girls were almost identical. When the adult bustle became fashionable the girls also began wearing long waisted dresses over a false pleated skirt. The dresses also had gigot sleeves and also had many ruffles. The dresses were topped off with ornate hats and bonnets. All girls wore floor length gowns, but the length of their skirt was a sign of a girls age. When a girl was becoming of age (17 or 18) they were considered a young women and their skirts were floor length. When a girl became sixteen years of age they would wear a gown that went down to their ankles. When a girl became fourteen years old their skirts would go down to their calves, and when they were twelve years old their skirts went down to their knees.
Boys
Most mothers in the late 19th century dressed their boys in Little Lord Fauntleroy suit. These were fancy velvet suits with laced collars. When the boys wore this suit they didn't wear hats but often had curly or long hair to balance out the suit. Boys until well into the twentieth century dresses. At first these dresses where the same styles that their sisters wore, but by the late 19th century dresses where especially styled for boys appeared. They had front buttons and horizontal stripes at the skirt hem. Boys also wore skirts until the age of three or four. Boys wore rompers, short pants, and older boys wore knickers. Mothers sometimes dressed their children in smocks to protect their clothes.
This picture illustrates how the children in Victorian times dressed.
As you can see a girls dress' design was very similar to a womens dress'
design. The boys wore more relaxed and comfortable clothes instead of wearing
a suit like the men did.
Works Consulted
Nunn, Joan "What Victorian Children Wore."
The Victorian Web. 11 June 2001. University Scholars Programme Project
28 Febuary 2008
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/costume/nunn14.html
Palmer, Heather "The Natural Waist and Large Sleeves."
Women's Fashions 1825-1840. No specified Date. Victoriana. com Internet
28 Febuary 2008.
<http://www.victoriana.com/lady/palmer.html>
Weston, Pauline "Early Victorian Costume History 1837-1860"
Early Victorian fashion history 1837-1858 and dating of the Victorian silhouette. Victorian era fashion innovations. No specified Date. Fashion-Era.com.
28 Febuary 2008
<http://www.fashion-era.com/early_victorian_fashion.htm>
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