'The Fashionable Lady in the 19th Century by Charles H. Gibbs-Smith'
The Fashionable Lady book has a complete guide of womens clothing through the 19th century. Its starts with the early 1800s and works it way through a variety of womens dress and the occasion it would be worn up until the 1900's. I think its very important to study the fashion in the era because it gives you the knowledge of the type of clothing that would be worn and what different classes of women would wear. I'm purely studying the fashion of the book between 1840-1900 of which was the reign of Queen Victoria.
1840
Another of fashion's abrupt and unheralded changed occurred in fashion in 1836, when the great
sleeves of the early thirties suddenly collapsed, and thus-a year before Queen Victorias accession - women's dress began to assume its typical 'early victorian' look: an appearance of prim sentimentality takes the place of the romantic exuberance, and the popular hairstyle of the ringlets is tyipical. By this year the skirts were still big and domed-shaped to the ground.; tight fitting bodice rises from a tight fitting waist. Emphasis on the shoulders were big and sleeves were narrower. The Ubiquitous bonnet is becoming smaller and rounder. The shawl in becoming popular.
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| Left- 1840 Ball Dresses. Top right- 1840 Corset. Bottom right- 1842, Hyde Park |
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| 1845, Evening Dresses, Corset. Bottom right- The Dansante |
1850
Now, in 1850, and for the next 5 years, crinoline implies the whole typical dome-shaped skirt, other stiffening fabrics, in the outermost of the multiple petticoats; petticoats could number up to six until 1856. The bodice is still tight-fitting, the sleeves are still narrow, and the shoulders still droop. For daytime wear, the shawl and the various kinds of mantle and cloaks are universal. For the evening dress, the 'bertha' and the heavily flounced skirt are particularly favoured. Later in the 50's the sleeves start to become fuller, bonnets even smaller and the general air of sentimentality of the previous decade is disappearing.
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1850, Full evening dress. Lady wearing corset and corset.
Bottom right- The Great Exhibition 1851 |
1860
Another vital and sudden innovation had taken place in the invention of the so called 'artificial crinoline' in 1856. When skirts had apparently reached there maximum size, they expanded even more. The artificial crinoline consists of concentric whale-bone, wire of watch-spring hoops suspended on strips of material and the contour of the outline of the skirt had changed and movement is transformed. by 1858-60 the fashionable lady had become so gigantic that become any bigger is literally impossible. The front of the skirts is becoming flatter and the back to arch further out, the sleeves still becoming fuller and the off-the-face bonnet is still much in vogue. At the end of the 60's the skirt become it's fullest and largest (still becoming flatter at the front) and the bodice is tending to shorten, with a higher waist.
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| 1860, Evening dresses. 1858, Corset and 1859 Scene at a fete. |
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| 1865, Evening dresses. Left corset 1865, right corset 1867. 1865 Women and a crinoline cage. |
1870
The crinoline style began going out of fashion about 1865, and it disappeared so fast that by this year the first full bustle phase has arrived. The back of the skirt has become more bunched up at the back, the sides of the skirts are narrowing and tend to follow more closely the curves of the hips. Hats tend to be worn tilted forwards on the front of the head. Changes keep happening and later in the 70's the chief feature is now the suppression of the bustle by means of the tightly fitting 'cuirasse bodice', which is often similar to the current corsets. This gives the waist tight but gracefully designed curves and at this time extends only a short way over the hips and slightly dipping at the front and back.
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| 1870, Full evening dresses. Left corset, 1870, right corset 1872. 1873 scene before a dance |
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| 1875 Full Evening dresses. Left corset and right is a bustle 1875. Scene at the seaside and travelling scene 1875. |
1880
The bustle, which was subdued by 1875 has completely disappeared but strangely reappears later. The cuirasse bodice now encases the whole torso and gives a well defined waist. When coats are worn over the day dresses, they tend to imitate the bodice, tailor-made costumes in cloth first appear between 1875 and 1880. Also appearing during the 70's is the loose tea-gown, worn without a corset. Later in the 80's the bustle makes an appearance again and changes the shape by encouraging the bust the be thrown forwards and the head held back. The bodice is still closely moulded around the waist and bust.
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| 1880, Dinner dress and evening dress. Left corset 1880, right corset 1878. 1880 scene at a milliners. |
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| 1885, ball dresses. Corset and bustle. Scene in Hyde Park. |
1890
The exaggerated bustle of the mid-80's has disappeared again and by this year a complete transformation had taken place. Although still keeping it's fullness the skirt has narrowed overall with no true bustle; its surmounted by new conception of the bodice. The hip-line is made to closely sharply over the waist, and then the bodice rises long and slender to the bust and shoulders. Later in the 90s and transformation of style has happened. The leg-of-mutton sleeves have already swelled into enormous puffed sleeves close to the 1830's. The waist is narrow and in evening dresses it tight and stiff. In contrast, skirts had become simple and are more in line with the shoulders and hats have grown in size to match the shoulders.
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| Top left, 1890 corset and top right, 1891 corset. 1890 scene at Hurlingham. |
1900
The great puffed sleeves of the mid-decade have vanished as rapidly as they appeared. Sleeves have become tight about the whole arm, expect at the shoulders, where a slight fullness is seen. This tightness of the sleeves, and the still extreme tightness of the waist , serves to accentuate the two equally dominating features of this style, the bust and hips. The bust, thrown forward by the construction of the corset, the effect is exaggerated by the forward-leaning stance, the tight lacing and the tightness of the skirt over the hips: the tightness extends down almost to the knees and then flares to the ground sometimes with a slight train. Evening dresses follow the same line as the day dresses.
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| 1900, ball dress. Top left 1900 corset and top right, 1901 corset. 1900 Prince of Wales at the Mansion House |
Modern Day Corset Wearing: Women In the 21st Century
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http://hub.contactmusic.com/news/miranda-
kerr-leads-victoria-s-secret-angels_3362229 |
Within the lingerie industry corsets are becoming more and more popular. In the 2014 Victoria Secret fashion show many beautiful corset are being modelled. In the photo to the right shows Miranda Kerr wearing a green velvet corset which holds her waist in, pushes her breasts up and sits beautifully over the hips and behind. Again on the right in the white is Candice Swanepoel wearing a body corset which falls over the sides of her hips and shit under her breasts. Corset even to this day are very popular lingerie as it holds you in and gives you the desired tiny waist that the Victorians had. Corsets are though as very sexy and tends to be worn more as a lingerie set rather than day to day clothing.
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http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2013/11/14/asi
-desfilaron-los-angeles-de-victorias-secret-fotos
swarovski-sparkles-in-the-2013-victorias-secret
-fashion-show-7/ |
Another fashion that came in and became very popular in 2014 was waist training or otherwise known as body shaping. Many well-known celebrities started off using corsets and training their waist to become smaller and suck the stomach in. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian-West, Khloe Kardashian, Amber Rose and Holly Hagan all are know to wear waist training corsets to create that desired figure of a small waist. Such like the Victorians the ideal figure was to have a tiny pulled in waist, a large behind and pushed up breast as it is now and the only way to take a few inches of the waist is to train it with a tight corset holding you in.
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| Kim Kardashians Instagram of her showing off her black corset before a photo shoot. Posted Jan 2015 |
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| Another waist training photo uploaded by Kim K on her Instagram in Nov 2014 |
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| This modern photo of Kim K wearing a very modern interpretation of what I think Victorian wear was like. She has a white body corset which holds her waist in and covers her breasts and dips in the middle. The long silk coat cover her arms, clinging to her waist and dropping to the ground is very like the fashion between 1875-1880. The trousers fitted round the hips and loosely falling to the ground like the Victorian skirt would have; creates a modern day version of the era as women would not of worn trousers. Photo taken from Kim Kardashians Instagram in August 2014. |
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