Clothing In The Victorian Era

In the beginning of the 20th Century, women wore skirts and gowns with boned corsets to enhance the female figure and changed outfits almost four times a day. During the day, women would wear skirts with a long train in the back, high necks, and the chest was concealed with wide cape-like collars that draped over the shoulders. Sleeves were usually measured from shoulder to elbow and fullness would extend to the wrist. In the evening, gowns were more bold and worn off the shoulder. Fabrics were soft, skirts were round and the confined below the knee, small balloon sleeves and nipped-in waists were last seen in the early 1900s.

The Victorian Era is a remarkable time in history with the blooming industries, growing population, and a major turnaround in the fashion world. This era was named after Queen Victoria who ruled United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 1837 until she passed away 64 years later in January 1901.When Victoria received the crown, popular respect was strikingly low. The lack of respect for the position she had just come into did not diminish her confidence. Instead she won the hearts of Britain with her modesty, grace, straightforwardness, and her want to be informed on the political matters at hand even though she had no input. She changed Britain into a flourishing country. She also impacted how women interacted

The corset was of course associated with high society and was an important signifier of social class. For example in the grand balls that often featured in Victorian novels, a restrictive corset was part of the essential uniform – Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair for example. It also became associated with the ‘dandy’ aesthetic of the late Nineteenth Century (Oscar Wilde being an example) when it was worn by men.

Imagine a woman rising from bed wearing heavy bedclothes of wool or cotton. Underneath she would be wearing a corset for sleep, made of cotton, wool or a mix of heavy linen. After brushing out long hair, which was rarely washed, she would be wrapped in a light cotton garb that would protect her skin from actually touching her formal corset. Often corsets would stretch from the mid-hip region to the breasts. Corsets were constructed of whalebone and metal stays, which shaped the ribs and stomach to form a fashionable waist of approximately eighteen inches. After the corset was tightly laced (which required assistance of at least one other person), then heavy wool or cotton stocking would be pulled on. Stockings were held up ties, girdle-like bloomers or special buttons in the petticoats. At this time, a woman would put on six to eight petticoats . She would put on a special top to keep the corset from touching her dress. At this point, a woman may have worn a large hoop skirt. The large metal device would allow the woman to keep proper social distance from her guests and potential suitors. Often the woman would have to be lowered into the hoop skirt. If the hoop was too heavy, a woman would be placed in the parlor room and she would remain there until after a dinner party or until such a time she could remove the hoop because it could render her immobile. In some rare cases, small rolling wheels were attached at the bottom of hoop skirts to aid women in moving

One important date in the history of the corset was the year 1840. This was the year in which the system called ‘lazy lacing’ was invented, in which a set of elastic laces allowed women to easily put on, and remove their corsets. Women had now predominantly taken over from the specialized work of crafting corsets, and were made ahead of time, creating the beginning of ‘ready to wear’ During this era, corsets became more specialized, corsets ranged from ‘nuptial corsets, corsets made of white satin for the ball, lightly boned morning corsets, stayless corsets for night wear, nursing corsets with drawbridge gussets, travelling corsets with tabs that could be let out at night for sleeping, riding corsets with elastic at the hips; corsets for singing, for dancing, for bathing at the seaside’ and the list of possible variations went on. As

The Victorian Era depicted a traditional woman. Women were expected to be beautiful but conservative. A notable fashion piece to mention is the notorious corset. Krystal D’Souza states that corsets were meant to, “… accentuate a woman's breasts and hips, while cinching the body at the waist, and dramatically curving the back” (D'Souza). The corset was created to slim the waist and make the hips and bottom larger. This was meant to create the ideal, “Hour glass shape,” women were expected to have. In the Victorian Era, dresses were worn all the time and the skirt length had to be passed the ankles. Pagoda sleeves were essential to dresses to cover shoulders and high necklines were made to cover the women’s neck and décolletage. If the skirts were not touching the floor, skirts were closely worn over the hip and flared out just above the knee. (Joshi). The Victorian Age signifies a time period where women had to follow stringent dress codes. The thought of showing any feminine flesh was un-lady like and unrespectable. (Alchin “Women

Women's fashion had undergone many characteristic modifications prior to 1750 and more so into the eighteenth century. Fashion trends were being set in the Old World, from France to England, and Colonial women were all too painfully aware of the need to adapt towards a sophisticated and up-to-date appearance.

The women of a higher class would have extremely extravagant gowns and outfits. On a regular day they would wear a smock or shift, stockings, a corset, farthingale (a hooped skirt), a rowle, a stomacher, a petticoat, a kirtle, forepant, and a partlet. Over those clothes the women would wear a gown, separate sleeves, a ruff, a cloak, shoes and a hat. These were the clothing items that the women would wear on a daily basis.     

1850-1875 was all about fashion for women as they were viewed as an object to dress up and tend to household duties while the men worked. Women wore clothes to make their boobs look bigger and their booties thicker. The hard bustle style was invented in the 1883 which was designed to make the butt of women big and more presentable. Women during this time often degraded themselves and did this to help themselves feel more valued and desired by men. Their dresses were also designed to make them look slim in the waist to make women have the “high class” confidence so many desired. If you didn’t have this appearance, then you were considered lower class compared the women that dressed with such confidence. There were many styles

As times grew more modern, women started wearing less and less clothing underneath their dresses as bare skin was popularized; less corsets, less camiknickers, etc. were worn. The rigid shape of the corset was abandoned for dresses with lines of “soft curves from the shoulder to the waist. ” There were “bobbed hair and skirts above knees. Women redefined the feminine with the sophisticated schoolgirl look of the 1920s.”

During the years of the 1910s, the silhouette became much more graceful and soft than in the 1900s. One of the radical styles from this period was the hobble skirt. While people were used to seeing women’s bodies enwrapped in fabric, these skirts reminded people that women had ankles and legs. Asymmetrical designs were featured and the preferred fabrics were silk, satin, chiffon and cottons. World War I had an impact on style in the 1910s and fashion was now a necessity. More and more women were forced to work and were in demand for clothes that would suit their activities. These clothes included shirtwaists and tailored

Some might ask, why was clothing in the Elizabethan Era so monumental? The ruler of The Elizabethan Era, Elizabeth I, who possessed two thousand exquisite gowns upon her death was a woman, with her being a woman, fashion was nothing to be toyed with; it was serious business(Lad). Fashion in the Elizabethan Era defined citizens as persons; colors, fabrics, and even hair lines could indicate whether you belong to the lavish upper class or the lower class clothed in wool. Clothing of the Elizabethan Era was indeed serious business, so serious that Elizabeth I introduced the Statues of Apparel In Greenwich on June 15, 1574. (Alchin)

Fashion has changed though, and this is shown because of all of the uncomfortable layers worn by women that are not worn by women now. Women in the Elizabethan era altered their shape by wearing certain clothing articles, unlike today where if people want to change their body’s shape they get plastic surgery. Also because of how the clothing laws directly correlated with the wearer's social class. Today no laws exist that limit what we can wear, only that we have to wear something. Men’s clothing has also evolved from an outfit that involved many elaborate layers that were defined by the laws of the time, to the more casual looks that men wear now.

Dress hemlines raised to above the knee which was the most scandalous length of all time so far in women’s fashion. These dresses usually were very simple in construction with a “V” neck or a simple scoop neckline. Although they were simple in construction, they had a lot of detail and ornamentation. Many dresses had embroidery, braided fabrics, beading, and threadwork that usually created an Art Deco style. During this period, many different fabrics were now used to make women’s clothing.

The revolutionary clothing of women’s fashion in the 1920s not only shows itself in our modern era, but is a historical adjustment which changed the way that we view females today. In the 1920s, breathtaking changes in women’s fashion made its role into history. The clothing designers created a unique and elegant style that gave ladies a greater freedom of expression. With the new and colourful fabrics echoing, fashion designers’ vintage clothing became more and more popular and paved the way for what fashion has become today.