American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs

Priscilla Harris Dalrymple

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780486265339
• eBook ISBN: 9780486319704
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

Over 280 rare photographs document the clothing of ordinary men, women, and children from the 1840s through the 1890s, in what appears to be their Sunday best. Bustles, hoops, pantalets, shirtwaists, top hats, waistcoats, bowlers, other Victorian-era attire, as well as hairdressing and tonsorial styles. Introduction to fashions of each decade.

The 1860s

Hoopskirt mania continued unabated in the early sixties, war or no war. For evening wear skirts could measure as much as five or more .yards around at the hem, but by the middle of the decade, the front of the gown was flattening out somewhat, with the greatest fullness moving toward the back. A lady wearing a cape or cloak and a little “spoon” bonnet on the back of her head, its brim pointing heavenward, presented a peculiarly triangular appearance. Flounces disappeared, leaving skirts plain or decorated with applied trim in a geometric pattern. The sewing machine, invented in the forties but just beginning to have an impact, made this kind of work much easier for those who could afford it. Wide sleeves were still worn, but began to give way to more moderate styles such as the bishop sleeve, full but tight at the cuff. Pointed bodices were being supplanted by shorter, rounder ones, worn with belts.

Separates provided a means of being resourceful as well as fashionable. A beautiful and economical style, according to Peterson’s Magazine in 1862, was the full-sleeved Garibaldi shirt (inspired by the immense popularity of this champion of Italian freedom) which “will answer to wear with two or three old dress skirts, after the bodies are no longer fit for use/’¹ The various short jackets currently in vogue, such as the Zouave, could serve the same purpose, “enabling a lady to give greater variety to her costume, without being extravagant.’²

A refreshing addition to the scene, as the decade progressed, was the ankle-length dress—albeit still worn with hoops. This outfit was intended for such activities as walking, archery, croquet and ice-skating, the last-named so universally enjoyed that one newspaper referred to it as “our national winter exercise.”³ An 1860 Winslow Homer engraving shows ladies having to hold up their long skirts by hand while ice-skating; in a similar Homer scene, executed six years later, not only are they skating vigorously in shorter skirts that need no lifting, but in the background a game of crack-the-whip is in progress, with the lady on the end about to be spun off on a wild trip across the ice.

In the second half of the sixties dresses began to be more elaborately decorated. Ruffles, pleats, scallops, fringe and buttons were popular. Skirts, except for sport, remained floor-length and sometimes had trains. The hoopskirt grew smaller, and peplums or overskirts became an essential part of the costume, showing an increasing tendency to be pulled up and gathered toward the back, an effect that was often heightened by a sash with a large bow. By the end of the decade, this emphasis on the rear of the gown had developed into a true bustle, with its own artifical support, and the enormous hoopskirt was only a memory.

The bonnet no longer reigned supreme. Small hats were now perched on the top of the head, and little pillbox hats were worn at a rakish angle on the forehead, leaving r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• Contents
• The 1840s
• The 1850s
• The 1860s
• The 1870s
• The 1880s
• The 1890s
• Notes