Viva Victoria

The Victorian era (1839-1902) was a time when the world was a quiet, peaceful and prosperous place to be. Britain had an abundance of wealth and resources, and the industrial revolution created a booming industry for fashion.



(Source: poisonana.buzznet.com)

Above: Queen Victoria. It is evident how much you could get if you were of a high status and were wealthy - just look at the detail in the lace veil! It must've been handmade; there is so much detail in it, and obvious craftsmanship too

Queen Victoria was a style icon - the clothes she wore were filtered through the higherarchy, culminating in cheaper garments towards the bottom of the social classes. The silhouettes were extremely emphasised in the Victorian era; right at the beginning, the silhouette was large - puffed sleeves and huge skirts with layers of petticoats and crinolines underneath were dominant in Women's fashion, in pale colours with accents of embellishment.



Above: A lithograph of a typical Victorian gown during the 1840's (source: V&A) - Mademoiselle Fleury (a famous dancer at the time) is pictured wearing this - it is a prime example of how pale colours were paired with accents of realistic fabric flowers and I love the lace detailing at the top of the bodice; it's elegant but yet not over the top.



(Source: avictorian.com)

Menswear was, in contrast to the large puffy shapes women were wearing, very tight and fitted. Usually the men wore long coats, perhaps a symbol of wealth (more material = more cost to the garment).



(Source: ageofsteam.wordpress.com) A timeline of silhouettes - this shows the many ways the silhouette changed during this era - it's fascinating how it loops back round to a very slim silhouette, but is so dramatically changed with how constricting the last one is!

As time went on, the fashions changed and the women's silhouettes got slimmer - petticoats were dropped, flattening the front of the skirt, a high, stiff collar elongated the neck and corsetry was beginning to come to the forefront of fashion.


(Source: huffingtonpost) A woman showing off her corseted waist - you can see just how unnatural this shape was

Corsets are constrictive garments which manipulate the shape of the body into an hourglass silhouette, but some women took this too far and ended up with cracked ribs/crushed organs due to the sheer amount of pressure they put on their internals by warping their body shape the wrong way!

Soon bustles (boning (also could be steel wire frames or horsehair padding) emphasising the rear by lifting the skirt high at the back) paired with the corsetry created an almost entirely impossible and impractical look; bodies were thrust forwards and the women tottered along, sometimes even unable to sit down! Although humour was made about this, such as in cartoons, something had to be done and women had to be freed from this 's bend' shape.