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Windsor Castle in Modern Times by Landseer depicts the Queen and the Prince Consort "at home" in the 1840s.
Windsor Castle in Modern Times by Landseer depicts the Queen and the Prince Consort "at home" in the 1840s. Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA ( March 7, 1802 in London – October 1 1873) was an English painter,

The term "Victorian fashion" refers to fashion in clothing in the Victorian era, or the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). Fashion refers to styles of dress (but can also include cuisine literature art architecture and general comportment that are popular in a culture at any given time Fashion refers to styles of dress (but can also include cuisine literature art architecture and general comportment that are popular in a culture at any given time Clothing (also called clothes, accoutrements, accouterments, or habiliments) protects the Human body from extreme Weather Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities It is strictly used only with regard to the United Kingdom and its colonies, but is often used loosely to refer to Western fashions of the period. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located It may also refer to a supposedly unified style in clothing, home décor, manners, and morals, or a culture, said to be prevalent in the West during this period. Clothing (also called clothes, accoutrements, accouterments, or habiliments) protects the Human body from extreme Weather Interior decoration or decor is the Art of decorating a room so that it is attractive easy to use and functions well with the existing Architecture In Sociology, manners are the unenforced standards of conduct which show the actor to be Cultured Polite, and refined Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic

Contents

Usefulness of the term

An extreme class contrast in attire, 1871
An extreme class contrast in attire, 1871

Those who have studied the period in detail would protest vacuous generalizations. Clothing, décor, manners, and morals varied from year to year, country to country, and class to class. Whether or not there is a style or unified culture connecting a Scottish fisherwoman, for example, and an aristocratic London lady, might well be debated. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic

If we carefully restrict our language, however, and take Victorian fashion to refer to the dress, or in a wider sense, the culture of an upper-middle-class London family of fashion and conventional attitudes, and describe it as it varied from decade to decade, we may be able to usefully describe these phenomena. We can also usefully speak of contemporary stereotypes of the Victorian era. A stereotype (from Greek: stereo + týpos = "solid impression" is a generalized perception of first impressions behaviors presumed by a group These stereotypes, while not historically valid, help us understand current uses of the term "Victorian".

Historical overview

Several general style trends of the Victorian era transcend any one facet of fashion, but rather had broad influence across clothing styles, architecture, literature, and the decorative arts. The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation The decorative arts are traditionally defined as ornamental and functional works in Ceramic, Wood, Glass, Metal, or Textile. Many of these had their roots in the 18th century but flowered in the Victorian age. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system These include:

Overview of women's fashions, 1794-1887
Overview of women's fashions, 1794-1887

The Great Exhibition of 1851 had a marked impact on fashion, especially home décor, and even social reform movements influenced fashion, through dress reform and rational dress. Orientalism refers to the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers designers and artists and can also refer to a sympathetic stance The Scottish Highlands ( Scottish Gaelic: A' Ghàidhealtachd, Scots: Hielans) include the rugged and Mountainous The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement which began The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters Poets, and critics founded in 1848 by The Artistic Dress movement and its successor Aesthetic Dress, were Fashion trends in nineteenth century Clothing. This article is about aestheticism a term with a root meaning of sensuous Not to be confused with the religious practice of Asceticism: an abstinence from the sensual The Great Exhibition, also known as Crystal Palace, was an international exhibition that was held in Hyde Park, London, England, from 1 During the middle and late '''Victorian''' period, various reformers proposed designed and wore clothing supposedly more rational and comfortable than the fashions of the time

Clothing

See also fashion by decades: 1830s - 1840s - 1850s - 1860s - 1870s - 1880s- 1890s

Methods of clothing production and distribution varied enormously over the course of Victoria's long reign. 1830s fashion in European and European-influenced Clothing is characterized by an emphasis on breadth, initially at the shoulder and later in the hips in contrast 1840s fashion in European and European-influenced Clothing is characterized by a narrow natural shoulder line following the exaggerated puffed sleeves of the later 1820s 1850s fashion in European and European-influenced Clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's Skirts supported by Crinolines or 1860s fashion in European and European-influenced Clothing is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on Crinolines and hoops and 1870s fashion in European and European-influenced Clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s Fashion in the 1880s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the Bustle. Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines tall collars and the rise of Sportswear.

In 1837, cloth was manufactured (in the mill towns of northern England, Scotland, and Ireland) but clothing was generally custom-made by seamstresses, milliners, tailors, hatters, glovers, corsetiers, and many other specialized tradespeople, who served a local clientele in small shops. Families who could not afford to patronize specialists, made their own clothing, or bought and modified used clothing.

By 1907, clothing was increasingly factory-made and sold in large, fixed price department stores. Custom sewing and home sewing were still significant, but on the decline.

New machinery and materials changed clothing in many ways.

The introduction of the lock-stitch sewing machine in mid-century simplified both home and boutique dressmaking, and enabled a fashion for lavish application of trim that would have been prohibitively time-consuming if done by hand. A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch Fabric or other material together with Thread. Trim or trimming in Clothing and Home decorating is applied ornament such as gimp, passementerie, Ribbon, Ruffles Lace machinery made lace at a fraction of the cost of the old, laborious methods.

New materials from far-flung British colonies gave rise to new types of clothing (such as rubber making gumboots and mackintoshes possible). The Wellington boot, also known as a wellie, a topboot, a gumboot, or a rubber boot, is a type of Boot based upon Hessian The Mackintosh or Macintosh (abbreviated as mac or mack) is a form of waterproof Raincoat, first sold in 1824 made out of Rubberized Chemists developed new, cheap, bright dyes that displaced the old animal or vegetable dyes. A chemist is a Scientist trained in the Science of Chemistry. A dye can generally be described as a Colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied

Women's clothing

A satire on the evolution of 19th-century fashion
A satire on the evolution of 19th-century fashion

Women's fashionable clothing began with a straight, Regency silhouette, bloomed into exaggerated skirts and sleeves, moved to small shoulders and even wider skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, and narrowed by way of the bustle to hobble skirts. Fashion in the period 1795-1820 in European and European-influenced countries saw the final triumph of undress or informal styles over the brocades lace periwigs and powder Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a Weft of Horse-hair and a warp of Cotton or Linen thread. A hoop skirt or hoopskirt is a women's Undergarment worn in various periods to hold the Skirt extended into a fashionable shape A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress occurring predominantly between the mid- to late 1800s A hobble skirt (from to hobble = "to limp" is a Skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's stride thus earning its name

Charles Frederick Worth, the "father of haute couture" and the prototype of the fashion designer as the dictator of modes, was a London draper who relocated to Paris in the 1840s. Charles Frederick Worth ( October 13, 1825 &ndash March 10, 1895) widely considered the Father of Haute Couture, was an English Haute couture ( French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking" oːt kuˈtyʁ refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted fashions Fashion design is the Applied art dedicated to Clothing and lifestyle Accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time His success led to the fall of Paris fashion houses as arbiters of style and the preferred clothiers for upper-class women in both Britain and US. Haute couture ( French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking" oːt kuˈtyʁ refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted fashions

Reactions to the elaborate confections of French fashion led to various calls for reform on the grounds of both beauty (Artistic and Aesthetic dress) and health (dress reform). The Artistic Dress movement and its successor Aesthetic Dress, were Fashion trends in nineteenth century Clothing. During the middle and late '''Victorian''' period, various reformers proposed designed and wore clothing supposedly more rational and comfortable than the fashions of the time Arthur Lasenby Liberty challenged the dominance of French fashion when he showed English gowns in Paris at the end of the century. Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty ( August 13, 1843 &ndash May 11, 1917) was a London merchant

Men's clothing

Men's fashionable clothing was perhaps the least volatile, but there was still an enormous difference between the wasp waist and frock coats of the 1830s dandy and the sober sack suits and Norfolk jackets of 1901. A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by knee-length skirts all around the base popular during the Victorian and Edwardian period The man's suit of clothes is a set of garments which are crafted from the same cloth A Norfolk jacket is a loose belted Single-breasted jacket with box pleats on the back (and sometimes front now with a belt or half-belt During the 1840s, casual wear became popular. Casual clothing included neckties and scarves. Shirts were commonly made of linen and were black, grey and other neutral colors. Linen is a Textile made from the Fibers of the Flax plant Linum usitatissimum. Special occasion dress would often include tailored coats specific for the occasion.

Home décor

Main article: Victorian decorative arts

Home decor started spare, veered into the elaborately draped and decorated style we today regard as Victorian, then embraced the retro-chic of William Morris as well as pseudo-Japonaiserie. Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of Decorative arts during the Victorian era. William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896 was an English Architect, Furniture and Textile designer artist writer and socialist associated

Charles Eastlake's Hints on Household Tastes in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details (1868) attempted to educate the middle class on the proper artistic decoration of homes, which required "taste" rather than lavish expenditure. For the 19th century English painter see Sir Charles Lock Eastlake.

Contemporary stereotypes

Lytton Strachey writing to Virginia Woolf, November 8, 1912:

Is it prejudice, do you think, that makes us hate the Victorians, or is it the truth of the case? They bungling hypocrites; but perhaps really there is a baroque charm about them which will be discovered by our great-great-grandchildren as we have discovered the charm of Donne, who seemed intolerable to the 18th century. Giles Lytton Strachey (ˈdʒaɪlz ˈlɪtən ˈstreɪtʃɪ 1 March 1880 &ndash 21 January 1932 was a British writer and critic (Adeline Virginia Woolf (née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941 was an English Novelist and Essayist, regarded as one of the foremost Only I don't believe it. . . I should like to live for another 200 years (to be moderate).

(Cited in The Letters of Lytton Strachey, edited by Paul Levy, Penguin, 2005. ISBN 0-670-89112-6. )

Lytton Strachey's 1918 book of biographical essays, Eminent Victorians, is an amusing but acerbic attack on a constellation of attitudes that Strachey believed to be “Victorian”. He was expressing the attitude of his time, in which forward-thinking men and women despised the staid, prim, proper, and fusty era just past. To a great extent, contemporary stereotypes of "Victorian fashion" carry on the Strachey tradition of seeing the period as a whole.

Victorian prudery

"The proper length for little girls' skirts at various ages", from Harper's Bazaar, showing an 1868 idea of how the hemline should descend towards the ankle as a girl got older
"The proper length for little girls' skirts at various ages", from Harper's Bazaar, showing an 1868 idea of how the hemline should descend towards the ankle as a girl got older

For most, the Victorian period is still a by the word for sexual repression. Harper's Bazaar is a well-known American Fashion Magazine, first published in 1867 Men's clothing is seen as formal and stiff, women's as fussy and over-done. Clothing covered the entire body, we are told, and even the glimpse of an ankle was scandalous. Critics contend that corsets constricted women's bodies and women's lives. Homes are described as gloomy, dark, cluttered with massive and over-ornate furniture and proliferating bric-a-brac. The term bric-à-brac (origin French was first used in the Victorian era. Myth has it that even piano legs were scandalous, and covered with tiny pantalettes. Pantalettes are Undergarments covering the legs worn by women girls and very young boys (before they were Breeched) in the early- to mid- Nineteenth century

Of course, much of this is untrue, or a gross exaggeration. Men's formal clothing may have been less colorful than it was in the previous century, but brilliant waistcoats and cummerbunds provided a touch of color, and smoking jackets and dressing gowns were often of rich Oriental brocades. A waistcoat (sometimes called a wescot, Vest or a vestee in Canada and the US) is a sleeveless upper-body Garment A cummerbund is a broad waist Sash, usually Pleated which is often worn with single-breasted dinner jackets ( AmE: Tuxedos '. A smoking jacket is an item of Clothing, now relatively rare specifically designed for the purposes of smoking Tobacco, usually in the form of pipes A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. A robe is distinguished from a Cape or Cloak by the fact that it usually has Sleeves The English Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven Fabrics often made in colored Silks and with or without Gold and Silver threads Corsets stressed a woman's sexuality, exaggerating hips and bust by contrast with a tiny waist. A corset is a Garment worn to mold and shape the Torso into a desired shape for Aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it or Women's ball gowns bared the shoulders and the tops of the breasts. A ball gown is the most formal female attire for social occasions The tight-fitting jersey dresses of the 1880s may have covered the body, but they left little to the imagination.

Home furnishing was not necessarily ornate or overstuffed. However, those who could afford lavish draperies and expensive ornaments, and wanted to display their wealth, would often do so. Since the Victorian era was one of extreme social mobility, there were ever more nouveaux riches making a rich show. Nouveau riche ( French for "new rich" or new money, refers to a person who has acquired considerable Wealth within his or her

The items used in decoration may also have been darker and heavier than those used today, simply as a matter of practicality. London was noisy and its air was full of soot from countless coal fires. Soot (ˈsʊt is a general term that refers to the black impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon Hence those who could afford it draped their windows in heavy, sound-muffling curtains, and chose colors that didn't show soot quickly. When all washing was done by hand, curtains were not washed as frequently as they might be today.

There is no actual evidence that piano legs were considered scandalous. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers Pianos and tables were often draped with shawls or cloths -- but if the shawls hid anything, it was the cheapness of the furniture. A shawl ( Persian شال Shāl from Sanskrit: साडी śāṭī is a simple item of Clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders upper body and arms There are references to lower-middle-class families covering up their pine tables rather than show that they couldn't afford mahogany. This article is about the tree For other uses of the term "pine" see Pine (disambiguation. The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored wood originally the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West The piano leg story seems to have originated in Captain Frederick Marryat's 1839 book, Diary in America, as a satirical comment on American prissiness. Captain Frederick Marryat ( July 10, 1792 &ndash August 9, 1848) was an English Novelist a contemporary and acquaintance

Victorian manners, however, may have been as strict as imagined -- on the surface. One simply did not speak publicly about sex, childbirth, and such matters, at least in the respectable middle and upper classes. However, as is well known, discretion covered a multitude of sins. Prostitution flourished. Prostitution is the act of performing Sexual activity in exchange for Money. Upper-class men and women indulged in adulterous liaisons. Adultery is the voluntary Sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not his or her Spouse, though in many places it is Then of course there were the artists and bohemians, as well as the lower classes. The term bohemian, of French origin was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished Artists

Victorian chic

Also see: Neo-Victorian

Some people now look back on the Victorian era with wistful nostalgia. Neo-Victorian is an Aesthetic movement which amalgamates Victorian and Edwardian aesthetic sensibilities with modern principles and technologies Historians would say that this is as much a distortion of the real history as the stereotypes emphasizing Victorian repression and prudery.

Also notable is a contemporary counter-cultural trend called steampunk. Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and Speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s Youth who dress steampunk wear Victorian-style clothing that has been "tweaked" in edgy ways: tattered, distorted, melded with Goth, Punk, and Rivet styles. Punk fashion is the styles of Clothing, Hairstyles, Cosmetics, Jewelry, and Body modifications of the Punk subculture. Another example of Victorian fashion being incorporated into a contemporary style is the Gothic Lolita culture. Gothic Lolita or " GothLoli " (ゴスロリ —) gosurorii) sometimes " Loli-Goth " has two definitions

Gallery

A mid-Victorian interior: Hide and Seek by James Tissot c. James Jacques Joseph Tissot ( October 15, 1836 &ndash August 8, 1902) was a French painter. 1877.

Dress designed by Charles Frederick Worth for Elisabeth of Austria painted by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Charles Frederick Worth ( October 13, 1825 &ndash March 10, 1895) widely considered the Father of Haute Couture, was an English Elisabeth of Austria is the name of Elisabeth of Austria (d 1353 wife of Frederick IV Duke of Lorraine Elisabeth of Austria (d Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 &ndash 8 July 1873 was a German painter and lithographer, known for his portraits of royalty in the mid-nineteenth century

William Powell Frith's painting of 1883 contrasts women's Aesthetic dress(left and right) with fashionable attire(center). William Powell Frith ( January 19, 1819 &ndash November 9, 1909) was an English painter specialising in portraits and The Artistic Dress movement and its successor Aesthetic Dress, were Fashion trends in nineteenth century Clothing.

Day dress of c. 1875 James Tissot painting. James Jacques Joseph Tissot ( October 15, 1836 &ndash August 8, 1902) was a French painter.

Whistler's Portrait of Lady Meux 1882.

Evening gown of 1878

Portrait by Alexander Melville of Queen Victoria, 1845

An artistic interior: Dante Gabriel Rossetti reading to Theodore Watts Dunton in the drawing room at No. An evening gown is a long flowing lady's Dress usually worn to a formal affair Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901 was from 20 June 1837 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882 was an English poet Illustrator, painter and Translator. 16 Cheyne Walk, 1882

See also

Further reading

External links

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