The Role Of Clothing In The Victorian Era

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

In this essay I want to examine how the corset evolved from a staple of the British feminine wardrobe of the Nineteenth Century into a symbol of an outmoded tradition – only to later return as a statement of female liberation. I am going to look at different aspects of this development including technological advances, economic facts, external events, particularly the First World War and changes in social, political and aesthetic attitudes. I will also look briefly at the role of Chanel on the silhouette and how this impacted on the corset: focusing on the trend to towards ‘opulent androgyny’ in the 1920’s. Finally I will examine the resurgence of the corset

Queen Elizabeth was one of the biggest impacts on fashion in that time. She was mostly the one who set the trends. She also determined the laws about fashion. Many times people would just copy what she would wear. She impacted both women and men's clothing. "Naturally, what the Queen wore greatly influenced those close to her, her ladies in waiting wore her old dresses; other women strove to imitate the style of the Queen and her ladies" (Leed). In the Elizabeth Era the designs and trends came from Queen Elizabeth. Many people looked up to her as a role model for fashion and considered her the image of

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.

Ever wonder where the strange fashion choices of society’s favorite Disney movies originated? It might be a bit of an understatement to say that the apparel of men during the Elizabethan Era was odd, but each piece of their outfit had a crucial role to play in their daily life. Clothing worn during the Elizabethan Era was greatly dictated by the Sumptuary Laws, the wealth of the individual, and fashion trend of neighboring countries.

The Victorian era refers to the time period in which Queen Victoria reigned in England. It is often known for having strict rules stating what is proper and what is off color. “The term Victorian morality is often used to describe the values of the period, which includes sexual proprietary, hard work, honesty, thrift, sense of duty and responsibility towards the less well off” (“Victorian Era Morality”). This standard worked well for the

“The clothes make the man”(Twain Alexander Atkins).The clothes showed how rich they were and who they were. Victorian clothing from rich to poor displayed how clothing was important to society.

At the beginning of the 1800’s the standard for men’s wear still was influenced if the 18th century. With knee-length breeches worn over stocking, 2tail coats cut high over the top of the breeches, their collars turned up and ruffled cravats worn at the neck. As for what they wore on there head they wore usually a top hat also most men carried a walking stick with them. Also cloaks were still in fashion but by the 1820’s this gave way to the more practical and easier manageable overcoat. 3As far as woman from the beginning of the 1800’s Europe still had a very large influence on people everywhere and this included America.

In the Elizabethan period, the law on what clothing people wore was so strict that people could have penalties such as fines, the loss of property, and even life (www.elizabethan-era.org.uk)! Clothing was very important to people in the Elizabethan period, and regardless of what social class people where in, what they wore mattered a lot to them and defined them. This applies to younger girls and younger boys, who spent a lot of time dressing nice. Young girls spent their morning putting on their many layers of clothing.

Regardless of class, there were several basic fashions that were popular among women during the Elizabethan era. Perhaps the most widely worn piece of clothing among Elizabethan women was the kirtle. Women at all levels of society wore the kirtle, a long fitted dress of simple design. However, while lower class women often wore kirtles alone, higher class women usually only wore them underneath more elaborate garments. Women of all classes also typically favored the combination of a bodice and numerous skirts called petticoats.

The Elizabethan age was the beginning of consumer culture; clothing was the most obvious way of showing the new wealth. The Elizabethan fashion was different from our fashions of today. The class levels also differed in clothes. The higher classes having the better clothes of course, lower class had the less appealing attire. Elizabethan costume became lavish, looking better than any other period before it.

The neckline of the corsets ranged from high neck to very low.” It goes to show the extent of craftsmanship that took place in creating the ‘perfect’ body for women. This fashion trend was seen all throughout Western Europe during the 17th, 18th and 19th century, today through paintings one can see that even some of the most aristocratic women of the time such as Queen Mary II, advocated for a

The Renaissance period was an exciting time, which had some beautiful clothing for men and women. As we know the Renaissance period is known as “rebirth” because it was a period full of innovations and creations; it was a turning point for fashion. It was tending towards wealthy designs, and quite simple shapes and the use of silks and hides were very common.

1634) and Queen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson, (1633) show us a brief imagery of how the aristocratic dress was defined during the sixteenth century. At that time, men and women both claimed their right in practicing beauty and decorations, thus, created many similarities of characteristic between their dresses. For example, Guise’s painting shows him wearing a profusion of lace, bright coloured fabrics, and a brimmed hat that seemed to be the same worn by Queen Maria and Sir Jeffrey in the other painting. At the end of the eighteenth century, there occurred an event where men started to abandon his right to be beautiful and completely leave more elaborate and more varied forms of ornamentations to the use of women. This event is as what Flugel called in his article, The Psychology of Clothes, (2000) as the Great Masculine Renunciation where men wears only to be useful and correctly attired while women still have the freedom in wearing any kind of dresses they desire, thus created the term simplicity and uniformity in the history of male fashion. Any interest with dress, henceforth, became a feminine trait and considered