#not putting a readmore 1870s be upon ye

[clove-pinks]

Can you run through the basics of 1870s men's fashion (circa 1875)? I know nothing about men's fashion and I need my character to be Plausible™

A great resource for a quick overview of 19th century fashion is the State University of New York Fashion Institute of Technology and their decade-by-decade fashion timelines: here's 1870-1879. It's legitimate and scholarly with sources cited so you can follow up on any claims and learn more about anything of interest!

I love Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century by pioneering dress historians Phillis Cunnington and C. Willett Cunnington, which is also on Internet Archive (free account needed to access it). The FIT timeline notes that 1870s menswear is "marked by sobriety and understated style," and the Cunningtons add some additional context that the collapse of the French Empire after the Franco-Prussian War "produced a revulsion in France of anything savouring of 'Empire' style" which contributed to overall more subdued men's fashion.

Some other men's 1870s details from Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century: trousers are all fly front and without a waistband, evening dress is generally black, and the "general absence of thin materials and light-weight cashmeres was characteristic of this warmly-clad buttoned-up decade." Dressing gowns with "fancy patterns and girdles of Berlin wool-work [a type of embroidery]". Men's jewellery less conspicuous and consisting only of "the heavy gold watch-chain across the waistcoat, the tie pin, and the signet-ring on the finger."

The difference between A, 1878 morning coat with Prussian collar, and B, an 1870 morning coat, shows the closer fit over the course of the decade. B looks very 1860s.

I think it's important to keep in mind that even the more somber, subdued menswear of the 1870s (especially compared to the 1820s-1840s) is still not as dark and boring as modern menswear.

Here's a fashion plate dated 1876 in the Met Collection. The gentleman at left is in riding dress with spurred topboots that wouldn't look out of place in 1830. Which brings me to another important point: throughout the 19th century, (middle class and upper class) men have Special Outfits for different occasions and activities. A man circa 1875 would want to have different outfits for participating in various sports, hunting, evening parties, daytime business wear, etc.

Two outdoorsy looks of 1876: yachting costume (A), and Norfolk jacket (B) "suitable for any kind of outdoor exercise."

A is a "business suit for all occasions" from 1873, and B is a frock coat of 1874.

Facial hair facial hair facial hair in all these looks, and men are still wearing plaids/checks! (Plaid: perhaps the most characteristic trait of all 19th century men's clothing). The Cunningtons quote the West End Gazette of Fashion from 1876 that "Our fast young men will find something to be noisy in, in the shape of loud plaids, the patterns more striking than tasteful."