Book Review Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty From the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age

Dolores'due south interest in manner history dates from her teenage years when vintage apparel was widely available in thrift stores.

Victorian fashion plate: left is an early 1880s daywear dress; center is an 1880s evening wearing apparel; right is a mid-1880s solar day apparel.

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Quick Facts Near Victorian Fashion

• An hourglass silhouette was accentuated past tight corsets.
• Extreme styles introduced hoop skirts and bustles to fashion.
• The creation of synthetic dyes led to brilliant, wild colors.
• Highly ornamental fashions included ruffles, lace, and draping.
• The Artful and Rational Dress movements questioned the dictate of style.

Victorian Wearable: Prim, Proper, and Outrageous

Despite the prim and proper feminine ideal of the fourth dimension, fashions of the Victorian period created an frequently exaggerated, ostentatious expect. Tight corsets, gigantic hoop-skirts, and outrageous bustles brand today'southward fashion trends look sedate past comparison.

Clothing styles were dictated by propriety, and stylish garments were a sign of respectability. The copious amounts of fabric used in the creation of Victorian skirts usually meant that almost women endemic few outfits. Detachable collars and cuffs enabled a woman to change the look of a garment for a bit of multifariousness. Of course, wealthier women endemic more garments that were fabricated of finer fabrics and used more material and embellishments.

Victorian riding addiction circa 1847—in those days, women rode side saddle.

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The Victorian Period in Mode: Historical Background

The Victorian period, generally the time between 1837 and the 1890s, is named afterward U.k.'due south Queen Victoria (1819–1901), a long-lived and highly influential monarch in an era when women had little power or opportunity.

In those days, women lived at the largess of men—first their fathers or guardians, so their husbands. A young lady was expected to be meek and balmy, to acquiesce to her male parent's or hubby'southward wishes. A woman's intelligence and wit were restricted to social events and agreeable conversation.

Jobs for Women

Employment opportunities were limited to teaching immature girls, being a governess, domestic servitude, and later factory or manufactory piece of work. Of class, rural women had enough of work if they lived on a farm. Some women earned coin from cottage industries, but the the Industrial Revolution put an end to enterprises such as spinning yarn and making lace at home.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution created new wealth for investors, industrialists, and merchants. It introduced a new middle class who, proud of their status, displayed their wealth with great ostentation. Women wore their status in fabric, and lots of it—from the mid-century hoop skirts to the bustle later on in the beautiful dresses and styles of the Victorian menses.

The Industrial Revolution created a new urbanization as towns and cities filled with workers for the new mills and factories where women worked long hours in grim, dingy, and often dangerous conditions.

Queen Victoria 1845 – Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

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Early Victorian Fashion

1836 ushered in a new modify from the Romantic style of apparel. Big Gignot sleeves all of a sudden slimmed and a seam line dropped the shoulder of dresses. A tight fitting bodice was boned and slanted to emphasize the waist. Cartridge pleats at the waist created volume in the skirt without calculation bulk to the waist. Women of a higher social course were expected to exist demure and indolent equally reflected by the restrictive dropped shoulder lines and corsets.

• Dresses in soft colors could be refreshed with detachable white collars and cuffs.
• In the 1840s, extra flounces were added to skirts and women wore a curt over-skirt in day dressing. Skirts widened as the hourglass silhouette became the popular look, and women took to wearing layers of petticoats. Bodices took on a V shape and the shoulder dropped more.
• Evening wear exposed the shoulders and neckline, and corsets lost their shoulder straps. Sleeves of ball gowns were unremarkably short.
• Although women wore what we call "dresses," many of these costumes were actually a split bodice and skirt.
• Three-quarter length sleeves lasted through well-nigh of the Victorian period and some sleeves began to sprout bong shaped ruffles.
• For near of the 19th century, bonnets were the headgear of choice. Styles varied from plain to heavily ornamented.

Victorian Pilus and Makeup

Women's hair was more often than not worn long, caught up in a chignon or bun. In the 1840s, ringlets of curls hung on either side of the head. In the 1870s, women drew upwardly the side hair but let it hang in long, loose curls in back. Crimping became popular in the early 1870s.

Throughout the Victorian period, women wore false pilus pieces and extensions as well every bit bogus flowers such as velvet pansies and roses, false leaves, and beaded collywobbles, frequently combined into intricate and beautiful headpieces.

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Makeup was by and large worn by theater people. The look for women in Victorian days was very pale skin, occasionally highlighted with a smidge of rouge on the cheeks.

Late Victorian corset.

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The Victorian Corset

A corset is an undergarment set with strips of whalebone (really whale baleen), later replaced by steel. Though criticized equally unhealthy, and certainly uncomfortable, corsets were a fashion staple throughout the 19th century, granting women social status, respectability, and the idealized figure of youth. Oftentimes called "stays," from the French "estayer," pregnant support. Corsets were thought to provide support to women, the weaker sex.

Critics, including some wellness professionals, believed that corsets caused cancer, anemia, birth defects, miscarriages, and damage to internal organs. The tight restriction of the trunk did deplete lung chapters and acquired fainting.

The popular concept of an obsession with a tiny waist is probably exaggerated. The competition of cinching to improbable dimensions was more of a fetish or a fad and non the norm every bit depicted in the 1939 film, Gone With the Wind, when Scarlett O'Hara cinches her corset to a 17" waist.

Mid-Victorian Crinolines and Hoop Skirts

In the 1850s, the dome shaped brim switched to tapered skirts that flared at the waist. The new hour drinking glass figure grew to exaggerated proportions. Layers of petticoats were suddenly non enough and the crinoline was introduced to add together book to skirts. Crinoline was a heavy, stiff textile made of woven horsehair that was expensive and impossible to clean.

Hoop Skirts (Cage Crinolines)

In the 1850s, a cage-like affair replaced the multi-layered petticoats. Chosen hoop skirts, cage crinolines, or cages, they were lightweight, economical and more comfortable than the heavy crinolines. Muzzle crinolines, which produced the huge, voluminous skirts so often associated with mid-century Victorian fashion, were made of flexible sprung steel rings suspended from fabric tape.

The look was so popular and economical that lower middle form women, maids, and factory girls sported the style. Cheaper hoop skirts included a dozen hoops while the high priced variety featured 20–xl hoops for a smoother line. The hoop industry grew large and two New York factories produced 3,000 to 4,000 hoop cages a twenty-four hours, employing thousands of workers.

Early on versions of hoop skirts reached the floor, but hemlines rose in the 1860s. Sleeves were often tight at the acme, opening at the bottom in a bell-like shape.

Woman dressed in the mode of the Aesthetics; "Symphony in White," 1862 painting past James Abbott Whistler

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The Sewing Car and Victorian Technology

The mass production of sewing machines in the 1850s, likewise as the appearance of synthetic dyes, introduced major changes in manner. Previously, clothing was handsewn using natural dyes. Other new developments included the sized paper pattern equally well every bit machines that could slice several design pieces at once. Article of clothing could now be produced quickly and cheaply.

In 1860, Charles Worth, a clothing designer in Paris, France, created costumes worn by the French Empress Eugenie, Empress Elizabeth of Republic of austria, and Queen Victoria. Worth became so influential that he is known equally the Father of Haute Couture (high fashion). In 1864, Worth introduced an over-brim that was lifted and held back by buttons and tabs. By 1868, the over-skirt was drawn back and looped, creating fullness and mantle at the rear.

Scaling Back the Decoration

Meanwhile, sure fashion mavens felt that the over ornament had gone too far. The New Princess Line was a simple form of dress, cut in one piece of joined panels, fitted from shoulder to hem. The Gabriel Princess dress produced a slim silhouette in manifestly or muted colors with a pocket-size white collar and a full, though greatly diminished skirt.

• The Bloomer Costume, named later on feminist Amelia Bloomer, featured a total, short brim worn over wide trousers for ease of move. The style did not go over well and was often ridiculed in the press.
• Followers of the Aesthetic move despised the Industrial Revolution, exaggerated fashions, and the use of the new synthetic dyes that produced sometimes lurid colors, and weird color combinations. These intellectuals, artists, and literary folk longed for a simpler life and the costumes that reflected the lifestyle. Garments were loose and unstructured, used soft colors created with natural dyes, and were embellished past paw embroidery featuring motifs drawn from nature.

Rear fullness due to bustle (1870s).

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Belatedly Victorian: The Bustle

A bustle is a pad that emphasized the rear of a brim. Used in the late 1700s when swagged up skirts emphasized the back of a costume, they somewhen became the prime focus of mode. By the late 1800s, rear pads were called bustles. Held on with a buckled waistband, the bustle was a rectangular or crescent shaped pad made of equus caballus hair or down filled woven wire mesh.

• 1868 saw a fullness announced at the back of the brim. The ideal female person form featured narrow, slope shoulders, wide hips, and a tiny waist.
• Past 1867, Worth's over-brim caught on and combined with a bustle created an entirely new look.
• In 1870, ball gowns featured trains. Past 1873, trains showed upward in day dresses. Trains were a short lived style, however, as they quickly became soiled dragging along city streets.
• 1875 saw skirts slimmed down with the skirt low and close to the body—often, but not e'er, with a bustle.

Growth and Decline of the Bustle

The hurry came dorsum in a big way in the 1880s, creating a huge, shelf-like protrusion at the rear. But the ludicrous fashion cruel out of favor and by 1887, was greatly reduced in size. The 1890s saw some fullness at the rear, simply the bustle was on its style out.

Women's fashions took on a more tailored look with the introduction of the cuirasse bodice in 1878. The stiff, corset-similar garment dipped down in both the front and dorsum, and eventually reached the upper thighs.

Tea Gowns

Popular between 1870 - 1910, the Tea Gown was common wear for women receiving guests at dwelling house for tea. The hostess hoped to depict an creative sensibility, influenced past fantasy, exotic styles, and before historical periods. The Tea Gown represented a lower level of formality worn without a corset and made of soft, flowing fabric, and trim.

Mourning Apparel

After the expiry of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria wore full mourning costume. All women wore mourning afterward the death of a loved ane. And in a fourth dimension of frequent expiry, mourning could concluding quite some time.

There were several stages of mourning wearing apparel for a widow lasting for 2 ane/two years. The first stage, lasting 1 year, required women to dress entirely in blackness. Subsequently, some ornamentation would be added to lusher fabrics. The last vi months of mourning reintroduced some color into a widow's wardrobe including white, gray, and shades of purple.

Footwear

In 1837, British inventor J. Sparks Hall gave Queen Victoria the outset pair of boots that featured elasticized side gussets. The easy to habiliment, sideslip on boots caught on and was popular throughout the 19th century for both men's and women'southward footwear.

Front end lacing boots called Balmorals resembled modern boxing boots with pearl buttons. Belatedly Victorians often wore Balmorals with contrasting fabric tops.

The Edwardian Era

As Queen Victoria aged, stylish heads turned toward her son Edward, the Prince of Wales. The combination of his lust for a hedonistic lifestyle and the women'south emancipation movement changed the look of fashion for women.

Queen Victoria died in 1901, but changes come gradually and the eras overlapped. The major alter in the new Edwardian mode was the terminate of the corset and the introduction of the new "wellness corset" with an Southward bend look.

How to Put on a Corset (Good Luck With That)

Further Reading

• Daily Life in Victorian England by Sally Mitchell; Greenwood Printing
• Costume and Styles: The Development of Manner From Early on Egypt to the Present by Henny Harald Hansen; E. P. Dutton & Co.
• Encyclopedia of Habiliment & Way, edited by Valerie Steele; Scribner Library
• Victorian Fashions : A Pictorial Annal by Ballad Belanger Grafton
• Victorian and Edwardian Manner A Photographic Survey past Alison Gersheim
• 19th Century Fashion in Detail by Lucy Johnston
• A Victorian Lady'due south Guide to Fashion and Beauty by Mimi Matthews

Questions & Answers

Question: Were mob caps worn by women in the belatedly 19th century?

Answer: While mob caps are ordinarily associated with an earlier fourth dimension, some women wore them in the late 19th century, usually maids or other servants. The size of the cap was smaller than information technology had been in the past. A mob cap is made of linen or cotton cut in a circle and gathered to create a ruffle around the edge. The reason it's chosen a "mob" cap is that women wore them during the French Revolution.

Question: Were hoops worn nether skirts in 1911?

Answer: Women's skirts of 1911 were narrow, creating a slim silhouette. Hoops and crinolines are worn to create an hourglass effigy. The style has come and gone over the centuries from the Wheel Farthingale to the New Await of the late 1940s to the early on 1950s. Edwardian dresses did not feature hoops.

Question: What are the Clothes styles of 1885 - 1920?

Answer: Women'due south fashions changed then much over the years that y'all mention. If you are searching for styles of those periods of fourth dimension, it would be best to separate your searches. Check out the types of wearable worn in the Late Victorian Era for examples of belatedly 19th century styles. The Edwardian Era covers 1901 - 1910 or the beginning of World War I.

There are many answers to your question. You may desire to check out fashions past decade to meet the differences in clothing styles.

Question: What are crinolines?

Respond: A crinoline is a big, wide type of petticoat worn to support voluminous skirts. They were fabricated of woven horsehair, a fibroid, strong textile strong enough to pouf out big skirts. When women wore hoops made of baleen and later, steel, they were called muzzle crinolines.

© 2011 Dolores Monet

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