#victorian fashion plates

[resplendentoutfit]

Festooned in Flowers: A Victorian Fashion Trend of the 1870s and 1880s

Artificial flowers are much used both for hair ornaments and as trimming on the gown – the largest size roses possible made of silk or velvet in black, white, or different colors with the dewdrop effect of rhinestones or diamonds. – Vogue, 1901

Some dresses, such as the gown below, were trimmed with elaborate garlands of flowers.

Right: Gustave Boulanger (French, Portrait de Madame Lambinet, née Nathalie Sinclair • 1887 • Musée Lambinet, Versailles

Left: Rogelio de Egusquiza y Barrena (Spanish, 1845-1915) • The End of the Ball • 1879

Flower garlands appeared draped over the entire gown, or just the skirt of a gown. Flower clusters were also popular on the shoulder, the middle of the neckline, and on a strategic placement where the fabric was gathered. Sometimes it seems they were used everywhere at once.

The Art of Dressing Well. A Complete Guide to Economy, Style and Propriety, published in 1870 advises: 

“Yet, even in the full dress requisite for evening parties, the rule should be to dress well, becomingly, and appropriately, but not obtrusive, and above all, not gaudily, or too much. It is a crime against good taste to be too much in excess of the company, yet care must be bestowed upon the costume, the hostess expects it, and the guests observe its neglect. It is the test of good taste to be in the foremost rank of guests for appropriate dress, but never in advance of others." 

Hmmm...it seems to me through today's lens that the antique gown in the photo above is "too much".

Short, or what we now call cap sleeves, were essential for formal evening wear in any season, as were sleeveless dresses. Off-the-shoulder and low-necklines were also very popular.

Glittering jewelry was often worn – necklaces in double-strands, dangle earrings, bracelets, and pearls. Some fashion plates and gowns in museums show women wearing a thin velvet ribbon around the neck.

Long gloves were a must. Hats were not considered appropriate in formal wear but fancy comb and pins were. As stated above, fabric flowers were also often used to decorate hairstyles that were mostly up-dos. Feathers were sometimes also tucked into the hair. Some hairstyles were very elaborate. And then there is the ubiquitous fan; either held closed or open to show off a special design.

[fashion-from-the-past]

1895

[pastlivesfinery]

La Mode, 1840 🩷

[antiquebee]

Revue de la Mode, Gazette de la Famille, November 1883

[vintagefashionplates]

Charlotte Harding: A "quick change" -- for the rest of the afternoon.

Published in: "Our Foolish Virgins" by Eliot Gregory (Nov. 1901).

(x)

[cringeborg]

Kaja - a late 1860s Promenade Dress

A perfectly plain and simple dress for your mid-to-late Victorian ladies. Nothing to see here. Just a boring old dress in normal colors. Includes a normal floor-length version, a shorter version for young ladies, and a CF conversion for even younger ladies.

BGC

Custom thumbnail

62 swatches à la mode

Tagged as feminine

Found in the Long Dresses category (V2 and the conversion can also be found in Short Dresses)

Casual, Party, Hot Weather, Cold Weather

Polycount (V1): 7304

Polycount (V2): 6897

Polycount (CF conversion): 6502

All LODs

Normal + specular map

Color tagged

Display index by decade

Disabled for random

Download (SFS)

Alt Download (Mediafire)

[cinematic-phosphenes]

THE GILDED AGE (2022-) + ART [9/∞]

🌸 Kelley Curran as Enid Turner Winterton in S2E5: Close Enough to Touch 🌸 Women's fashion plate (1882) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries

[isabelle-primrose]

♡ Pictures ♡ decorated with fabrics

[designedandplated]

Women's Colourful and Black Gowns, November 1868.

[clove-pinks]

Fashion plate detail: Winter 1840.

The man on the extreme left wears a frock coat and top hat suitable for daywear while his companion is dressed in formal evening wear: tailcoat, white cravat, and Brandenberg coat worn over the shoulders like a cape. He carries a chapeau bras.

Historic Textile and Costume Collection, the University of Rhode Island.

[disappointed-time-traveller]

Extremely similar fashion plates from 1861 and 1862

I just wanted to share easily the coolest two fashion plates in my collection. They’re both part of the small collection that I inherited from my grandmother and I have no idea where they came from, other than that like most of the fashion history recourses I got from her they’re probably from when she studied sewing in the 1960s.

They’re two fashion plates with descriptions from one November 1861 and the other from April 1862, from the Englishwoman’s domestic magazine.

The first thing about them is that they are incredibly similar looking, similar clothing, similar colours, the same amount of figures including a child. It was probably a deliberate choice to have two very similar plates to better showcase the similarities and differences between the two years and spring and autumn fashion.

The other cool thing is that they are both mounted on paperboard and have descriptions of each one mounted on the back seemingly clipped from the original magazines (though the could be the place my grandmother got it from). I’ve transcribed the descriptions under the cut.

November 1861

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLOURED PLATE.

1st figure on the left side: The bonnet is composed of white satin, trimmed with black velvet and black and white blonde, and a bunch of flowers on each side. The mantle, which is made in a shawl shape, is composed of velvet, and trimmed with black guipure. The top of the mantle is finished off by a guipure pelerine, which is fastened behind and on the shoulders on by a handsome gimp rosettes with tassels. The large sleeve which comes to a point at the bottom, is pleated at the top of the arm under the gimp rosette and tassel. The dress consists of one of the fashionable broché silks.

2nd figure: The turned up hat is ornamented with a kind of fur trimming and long drooping feather. The paletôt fits tightly to the figure, and may be made of velvet or a thick cloth. It is trimmed with fur, and is made open in the front with revers, the sleeves being large and also trimmed with fur. Two little pockets ornament the front of the paletôt, which are also finished off by a band of fur. There are three fancy gimp buttons on each side of the body, and the waist behind is also ornamented in the same manner with two gimp buttons. The dress may be made in silk or poplin. Little girls dress: The little Tudor hat is trimmed with blue velvet and a blue feather tipped with white. The pardessus is made to fit the figure; it is trimmed with fur, and is made with a fur pelerine or cape. The dress, which is striped, is bound at the bottom with a piece of black velvet.

3rd figure: The bonnet is composed of velvet, and ornamented with a bunch of flowers on the top, feathers on either side. The cloak is made of a shoulder piece, into which the fullness is pleated; the sleeves are large, and the garment is trimmed with fur, whilst the pelerine is composed of this material. This cloak may also be made in velvet, and trimmed with chinchilla, or corded silk, trimmed with velvet, and with velvet pelerine. These cloaks are usually made so that they may be worn with or without the fur cape, according to the weather; and in this style are excessively convenient for the changeable English climate.

4th figure: The velvet bonnet is ornamented with bands of satin cut on the cross-way, and roses and lace. The long jacket is made tightly fitting to the figure, in thick corded silk and is trimmed with gimp. The back of the skirt is cut to form three large pleats behind, each of which is ornamented with handsome gimp rosette and tassels. Bright blue poplin dress, made with quite a plain skirt.

April 1862

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLOURED PLATE

1st figure on the left: The bonnet is made with drawn front violet silk, and the soft crown of embroidered white tulle. The curtain is of violet sills, edged with a puffing of tulle; the strings are of broad white ribbon, and the bandeau consists of one large rose, ornamented on each side with bunches of wheatears. The pardessus is made of unlined corded silk, with a deep cape , and is trimmed with narrow Maltese lace and two two rows of narrow black velvet. The garment is cut in slightly to the figure behind, but is straight in front. The sleeves are of deep bell shape, trimmed round the bottom with a pleating of silk. The dress is violet silk, brocaded with black, the colour of the dress exactly matching that of the bonnet.

2nd figure:

The bonnet is of white crêpe, ornamented quite at the top with a large bunch of white ostrich feathers, and the Bandeau Impératrice is composed of one rose with leaves on each side. This mantle, which is quite circular, is made of plain glacé silk, trimmed with a broad gimp, whilst the neck is ornamented with a row of gimp, finished off with a tassel fringe. The dress is of drab silk, made with one flounce at the bottom, headed by two bands of silk of the same colour.

3rd figure: -Summer Costume.- This elegant costume, which is a charming toilet for a picnic, is composed of white muslin. The dress is made with a series of narrow flounces, all edged with narrow green ribbon. The burnous, also of white muslin, is trimmed with green silk ruching, and three handsome green tassels. The hat is composed of green silk, trimmed with a full plume of white feathers. This costume may be made more useful and durable by substituting white barège for the muslin, but in all cases (to look nicely) the cloak should be composed of the same material as the dress. White grenadine or lama might be used with advantage in this toilet, and the colour of the trimmings and hat might be altered to pink or light blue, suiting the colour to the complexion of the wearer.

4th figure: -seaside costume- The Leghorn hat is bound on the upper part of the brim with black velvet, and is trimmed with a white ostrich feather. The dress and jacket illustrated in this figure are both made of the same material, either nankeen, buff piqué, or Victoria cord, the latter material being rather thinner than pique. The coat is ornamented with a braiding design in black, the pocket, revers, and cuffs being trimmed to correspond. A costume of white piqué, braided in balance, would be equally stylish.

5th figure: -little girls costume- The straw hat is bound with violet velvet, and is trimmed with two white feathers, one lying on each side of the hat. The cloak is composed of silk, and is made with three single pleats behind, attached to a neck-piece, the front being perfectly plain. No trimming whatever is required for this stylish little garment with the exception of two rows of piping round the neck-piece. Black silk is, of course, the most appropriate material for a child's mantle; our illustration is coloured violet, to add to the effect of the picture, which would have been somewhat sombre were all the figures shown with black mantles.

Full-sized paper patterns, cut out in tissue paper, tacked together and trimmed, of all the mantles illustrated in this plate, may be had of Madame Adolphe Goubaud, 248, Strand, London, W.C., at the following prices:.

[resplendentoutfit]

A Night at the Opera, Part II

What to wear?

From The Art of Dressing Well: “The hair should be dressed as for a large evening party, and artificial flowers, jewels, feathers, ribbons, or any style of head-dress peculiar to the fashion may be worn.” “Jewelry must be worn according to the dress, but more is allowable than on most occasions, and the glittering gems are very effective in the brilliant light of a superb opera house.”

James Tissot (French, 1836-1902) • La Mondain (The Lady of Fashion) • 1883-85 • Private collection

There are myths about Victorian women's dress requirements that must be debunked. Firstly, only the ultra-rich could afford to have enough outfits to accommodate the many activities of a busy day. The reality was that women added and shed certain accessories for different activities, without changing their dress five times a day. If she was wearing an afternoon dress but going for a walk, she wouldn't necessarily run to change into a specific walking dress but instead find a hat and parasol and perhaps take off her shawl and replace it with a cape.

Likewise if she were to be invited to the opera. The dress she would choose wouldn't be one that could only be worn to the opera. Instead, the Victorian women would choose her most formal dress, add her best jewelry, and if she had them, wear an opera cape and bonnet. If she did not possess the latter, she could borrow them or make do with her best coat. That woman may not have been among the fashionistas in the audience, as described below, but maybe she enjoyed the opera and didn't care. I get a bit of pleasure imaging that at least a few women didn't give a toss about what others thought! This in spite of my interest in fashion history!

One source stated that it was typical for women (and perhaps men?) to dress according to where they sat but it was not elaborated upon. I assume the more expensive the seating, the fancier the dress.

“Well-dressed as well as handsome ladies are looked for in the audience of an opera, and it is out of harmony with the scene and surroundings to see sombre draperies, heavy bonnets, and dull faces. Ladies are supposed to be seen, as well as to see, and are often the most beautiful part of the display. They should not spoil the beauty of the auditorium by wrapping themselves in cloaks or shawls.” -The Art of Dressing Well

* Sorry, not all sources are cited, as I lost track by not keeping notes.

Part I is here.

[fashion-from-the-past]

La Mode 1891

[pastlivesfinery]

Le Moniteur de La Mode, 1886 🩷

[antiquebee]

The World of Fashion, February 1851

[vintagefashionplates]

1893 Article: "Dressing Without the Corset: The Artistic Side of Dress Reform Illustrated."